I woke up this morning knowing I had a lot tasks to execute. I knew I had to teach the second graders for an hour, then some good hours finishing painting the principal’s office at Scott’s Hall. The LearnServe students and my comrades at KBC Learning arrived at Scott’s Hall promptly at 8:30 when the children were having their devotion outside in front of the school building. All of them were in their respective lines from the first grade to the 6th. After devotion I went into the grade 2 classroom with my group which consists of Jessica and Alexis. Jessica was about to start the lesson when one of the counselors, Ms. Nolan, called Jessica and Alexis to start their assignments, which was to paint the dividers. I had to hold the fort on my own while they carried out their task. I began to teach to teach the kids about acrostic poems as Jessica was planning. The kids were having difficulty understanding acrostic poems; it is basically giving a description of a name, person or thing. I told them to give a description for each letter in their name, for example: T-errible, E-nergetic, R-iveting, R-aging, E-legant, N-ice, C-reative, E-ccentric. The students had problems with only using adjectives so I improvised and allowed them to use other parts of speech such as nouns and verbs. One thing I have learnt on this trip is that everything doesn’t exactly go as planned and you have to take the initiative to make up and move along.
After the hour was up I changed into my work clothes and picked up where I left off from the day before with painting the principal’s office. I was really satisfied with the work my teammates and I put in that office. We worked really quickly and efficiently. I assume it’s because of the team work and good vibe we had while we were working. That’s another thing I have learnt on this trip; when there’s a good vibe, a goal in mind, and helping hands the work seems a lot easier. We basically were finished with painting today just a few touch ups and to re-arrange the office. We finished working at 4 o’clock and I was exhausted. I was glad when Ms. Briggs announced there would be no reflection. I respect it and understand why we do it, but I was too tired. I went straight to the shower when the bus dropped us off back at Tapioca Village. It was Independence Day in the U.S so we had a little Independence Day party with glow sticks and good vibes. After a long day and night I went to bed awaiting tomorrow.
Terrence Swire, KBC