Voluntariado en la Escuela Paul Harris

If you know me, then you probably know I’m not a big fan of children. In fact, at times you’ve probably heard me say “I can’t stand kids, they’re so annoying, I hate all of them” (a little harsh, but it’s true). However, volunteering at the Paul Harris School made me renew my perspective on kids. Maybe my liking of kids changed because I couldn’t understand half the things they were saying to me most of the time, but I absolutely loved working with them. Prior to no experience working in an elementary classroom, I thoroughly enjoyed my experience every Thursday with them.

My classroom

Volunteering at Paul Harris, I was a student teacher’s assistant in a 5th grade classroom of about 20-30 kids. Nataly Fuentealba, the teacher I helped, teaches both classes in Spanish and English. I would attend her English class every Thursday from 2-4pm where I would assist her in reading off directions, speaking English with the students, or writing assignments on the board.

My awesome drawing skills of diagramming how to plant a seed.

Sometimes, if a student had not finished a quiz or test, I would sit in the back of the room helping them understand the directions and reading off dialogues for the listening part of their test. Now let me tell you, these 5th graders got pretty rowdy at times and had a really hard time sitting still and actually paying attention to the lesson. So I also helped encouraged the kids to be quiet, respectful, and learn to the lesson being given. Most of the time they didn’t listen to me or Nataly, but hey, it was kind of entertaining to watch.

Working with the students every Thursday, they got to know me, and I got to know them. Some of the kids got so excited when I walked into the classroom and welcomed me with a big hug which brightened up my day. I wish that my class times at UVM correlated better with Nataly’s class times because I totally would have volunteered more hours with my 5th grade classroom because it was such a fun experience. I miss those little goobers and maybe one day I’ll return.