Completing community service for 10 hours was pretty awesome. I completed it in two different places. My first choice was “Best Buddies”. The way I found out about best buddies was when Mrs. Riceberg had two special guests come to the classroom one Tuesday night. They explained it was going to be a potluck. They also mentioned it would be fun to be able to bond with special education students. They explained how having a buddy to those kids would mean anything to them. My classmate “Sha” and I thought it would be the perfect place to complete our hours for community service. I baked a cake for the event.
I used blue frosting and put “Best Buddies” right in the center of the cake. Once Sha and I got there we sat down in a chair inside a room. There were many others already sat, and patiently waiting for one of the main directors to speak. Once a good majority of people were there. The same women that came to speak to us in class was speaking to us at the potluck. She showed us the same video of “best buddies” we had seen in class. The video was used as an introduction to the event. She then continued to speak about how “Best Buddies” has made such a difference to these kids’ lives.
After her introduction speech was done, she then had all of us stand up and introduce our selves individually to three people in that room, which didn’t take long at all. I met a 50 year old lady that loves to knit and was actually her very first year in best buddies. Not to mention she was quite the jokester. After that we went around introducing ourselves to everyone. Slowly one by one would stand up and mention the reason why we were attending the potluck. When it was our turn, Sha and I said we were invited and figured it was the perfect event to show up on to complete our assignment.
After everyone in the room spoke, we were directed outside to eat the delicious food that everyone brought. Not to mention socialize with each other. I had a plate full of different kinds of food. Food such as pasta, cookies, mashed potato, and much more. As we were all shoving food in our face, we all also took the time to socialize with everyone. I met a guy who told me that best buddies was the best thing that has ever happened to him. He mentioned how he use to get bullied at school because he was different. I mentioned that sometimes students would be mean to me too.
He then high fived me and told me I was very short. I laughed and said “You are just too tall” it was a good connection. The other five hours I completed with my old observation teacher. I was obligated to complete 10 hours last semester with a teacher named Mrs. Woolman in my “Introduction to Elementary Education”. I actually asked her if I could volunteer the rest of my hours in her class. She happily accepted and it was a great experience. I went in a Friday morning to complete my hours. I entered the room and instantly all the kids stared and questioned who I was. I introduced myself using my last name.
I was like “Good morning class, my name is Ms. Cuevas and I am going to help Mrs. Woolman out today”. The class was very well behaved. Usually there is always one bad student in each class, but in this case all her students were excellent students. They knew exactly what to do and when to do it. I go to quiz them in their vocabulary. I noticed the difference between the intelligence of each student. Some students were really high with their vocabulary while others were very poorly with it. It doesn’t matter because all the kids had the attitude to learn and that’s what matters.
