It all started as I walked down the familiar halls of my old school. Each step brought to mind a fresh new memory that I must have forgotten had even existed. There was a group of us girls volunteering, and I was lucky to be one of them.
To be honest, I didn't really know what to expect since I never had seen the teacher I was to volunteer for. All the other people who were apart of this service project were eager to see their former teacher and were gushing with excitement. I guess it's the fact that they "grew up" and they wanted to hear what their teachers would say. The teachers would probably be telling them " Oh, how tall you've grown!" or better yet, "I didn't even recognize you!". The latter would be true for me because my assigned teacher didn't even know I existed until I stepped into her classroom!
As my friends departed our separate halls, I realized I was the only person assigned to help out a class in first grade. I walked into the classroom awkwardly when the teacher- let's call her Mrs. Teacher- greeted me with kindness. After introducing me to the class, the confused looks on the girls and boys faces seemed to disappear. Mrs. Teacher told me to practice spelling flashcards with a student (Ana). At first Ana was apprehensive about approaching me because, after all, I was just a stranger to her. I managed to tell her, however, that my mom was a volunteer at the school, and immediately her face lit up. (Good thing she knew my mom or she probably wouldn't have been as thrilled to work with me!!!).
As we went through her spelling words, I laid the correct cards in one pile and the ones that she had to improve on in another. The words she missed included "when", "what", and "where". I was trying to explain how to sound out words like where but the more I thought about it, how was I supposed to?!? I told her after that the "h" is silent. Also, for the ending sound of "where" I would point to my actual ear!
It's funny how the things in life so simple can be the hardest to explain. With the word "what" I had no explanation for the h being silent again because she stated with such confidence in her voice, "Wat!"
( Instead of saying it like wut).
Before she went to her teacher saying "The girl said to say wat because the H is silent! " I decided I'd have her just spell out the letters! Hopefully she would memorize the words by the letters!
To make it even more fun ( I mean how fun can spelling words get right?) I decided to play a game. I took the what, when, and where cards and flashed them back and forth repetitiously until she said them all correctly. She giggled when it was predictable what word would come next.
Later, I mixed up the cards in my hand and held them out. I told Ana to choose the word that spelled when and point to it. I kept shuffling all three flashcards until she mastered pointing to all the words I stated. She kept pleading me to have one more game of flashcards. I guess that was a sign it somewhat didn't bore her to death!
Mrs. Teacher thanked me for volunteering once it was time to leave. She told me it was not the easiest thing to teach kids those words. Especially when you know them so well. If I would have it my way, my reply to teaching them those words would be "Because that's the way it is!". But of course it's much more difficult than that! She said I did the right thing by "spelling out the words". (Phew, I'm happy I took that approach!"). I have a lot more respect for first grade teachers!
That day I learned that you can make a difference in someones life by just a simple deed. And yes- even if it is simply teaching the words what, when, and where!
-WRITTEN 12/7/2011
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