My New "Job"

Yesterday I started my new "job," volunteering at Wherry Elementary School as a reading tutor for "Albuquerque Reads." The program is only in three schools, all Title I schools, and we work with kindergarteners (since when did they learn reading before first grade?). Anyhow it was pretty interesting. I was assigned as a "floater" to cover for a tutor who was absent. There are about 100 kids at Wherry who are tutored. It's a 100% Title I school, which I find amazing. Their population is drawn from the area around Kirtland AFB known as the "war zone," although the teachers call it the "International Zone," which is a little more PC.

My first student was a very smart and active little boy. He definitely had a mind of his own, didn't want to take his coat off or follow the activities in the program. He had his own ideas of what he wanted to do! When it came to reading, he zipped through the book, not reading the words, but making up his own story from the pictures. Finally (with the help of the coordinator) I got him to settle down and read each word on the page. He did remind me of Daniel! Or maybe Lorenzo.

My second student was a little girl, very quiet, who couldn't read at all. But if I would say the words, she would say them right after me. The only problem was she wanted to look at me instead of the page. When it came to the drawing activity, she was great! Quite a perfectionist, though, as she kept erasing her work and starting again. She finally finished a self-portrait. What I loved about her picture was that she drew herself with a great big smile on her face! The coordinator had told us that these kids don't have a lot of the experiences that middle class kids do, like going to the zoo, or visiting a farm. It was certainly true in her case, as she didn't know what an elephant was, and thought a lion was a tiger. She is going to be a lot of fun, though. I hope I get her again next week.

I think I'm going to love my new job!