Unfortunately, I was unaware that the Tuesday visit to the animal shelter conflicted with my Tuesday bus ride home for Thanksgiving break. Due to this conflict, I ended up hopping in the car with the other group and going a week later.

One of the cats who’s been in the shelter since I started volunteering is named Queenie. On her door are a set of rules to follow to ensure that she doesn’t get angry with you. In fact, when I started in September, she was a staff only cat, but recently became open to the public. Vic, perhaps because the strict rules make this cat more enticing, always seems to want to play with her. I think he’s insane. This cat is crazy I can see it in her eyes.

One of the rules is that picking Queenie up is strictly off-limits. Despite this, Queenie remains very much a lap cat; if you so much as kneel in her presence, there’s a good chance she’ll hop onto your knees and lay down, trapping you in your awkward position for as long as she wants.

At BJM elementary school’s after school program, the students are given the options to do different activities. One of them is a dance class, but usually only do the older children partake in this activity.  The art room is next to where the dance class takes place, so there would be times where the younger children will be intrigued by the dance class. It was a great sight to see this children show off their dance moves and feel comfortable enough to join the older children. Some were a bit more timid, but after much encouragement from the teachers and me these children felt okay with joining. Sometimes a little push is necessary to help children see their potential.

Someone left Queenie’s door open and she got out into the hall and…started slamming her body into her door to get back in. I’ve never seen someone so violently want to go back into their room, but that’s Queenie. The issue presented itself when I realized it was only me and Queenie in that small, small hallway. For three weeks I had honed my cat scratch dodging skills, formed, somewhat, telepathic connections with most cats, and had my dignity shattered by Queenie. Thus, I knew what I had to do. I opened her door and she scrambled in. Now, I believe that stepping in the vicinity of a screaming cat is brave enough, but I also turned my back and opened the door. At this point forward, I fear nothing

I am definitely getting more and more used to dealing with cats considering that I have always been a dog person. They have much different temperaments, but I enjoy spending time with them. That being said, there was this one cat that I thought I was getting along with well until he meowed and clawed me. It is hard to tell if they are being playful or if they are angry. The trick they told us about looking at their ears helps, but I still feel like I never know.

As the kids navigated their way from their first choice room to their second choice room I stayed back to help some of the kids clean up. As we were cleaning up and the new group of kids entered the room, a group of students were not willing to share their toys with other students. One of the students who has a physical disability was unable to get up and run around and physically demand the toys she wanted like many of the other kids and she resigned herself to a corner of the room. She sat there by herself and looked upset when the other students started bringing over the toys to her and they all played in the space around her. 

This was really touching to see as we often assume that working with kids is a difficult task and sometimes it is difficult to get through to them; however, many of our innate values are the same, and it doesn’t take a grown adult to realize that. It was moving to see that without any external directions the kids themselves acted in a way that prioritized inclusion and despite the differences that may exist between children, and people in general, oftentimes if we act upon our instincts in the right way the things that may seem like differences are actually agents of inclusion that bring us together. 

It is amazing what a wide variety of cat personalities exist. They are a lot like humans in that way. Some cats are very high energy- climbing things, scratching the posts, and playing with whatever they can find. Others prefer to take a nap in their bed while you pet them. Determining the needs of each cat gets easier with every visit. You can get some base information from their charts, but even walking into the room tells you a lot. How they greet you (if they do) and what they do when you open the door is a good indicator of their personality. I often wonder if these cats would act the same way anywhere, or if the shelter environment is different.

In a house, these cats would be pretty much left alone all day if they wanted to be. They wouldn’t be interacting with strangers all day, both human and feline, and would have the freedom to choose the perfect napping spot within a whole house or apartment. I feel like the environment must be somewhat overstimulating for many cats, but unfortunately there isn’t much to do about that. Luckily, the SPCA provides a lot of enrichment and interaction for the cats who need it, and lots of blankets and cushions for the cats who are just looking to nap.

This week I got paired with Paloma and read with/to her.

She led me over to the bookshelves about animals, picked up a fairly challenging factual looking book about cats, and sat down in her favorite spot. She was telling me how she always reads books about cats, how they are her favorite animal, and all about her pet cat. She opened the book, and I expected her to read with ease and help her with a couple hard words here and there; however, she took a look at the first line and tried reading. She promptly closed the book after reading a couple of words and got up to find an easier book. Haha. It was quite comedic in the moment.

After much contemplation, she picked out a book called “Kylie Jean: Cupcake Queen” and asked me to read to her. I spent the next hour reading the book to her while stopping to gauge her reaction and converse every now and then about what is going on. She asked me a couple times what a paragraph or sentence meant or what was going on in the book. When I was in 5th grade, I worked with Kindergartners and I used to read to them, so it was nice to do that after such a long time.

Reading with Paloma made me realize that the reading comprehension that we have now came from when we were at that age and just how important elementary school is, even though we might not think it is right now. As someone who teaches reading comprehension to middle schoolers and high schoolers, I never realized that exposure to reading comprehension when you are younger impacted your understanding so much until now. It also made me realize how I never read for pleasure anymore. Up till high school, I was always reading books. I did not watch much tv, so I spent all of my time at the library reading books and at home reading books I borrowed from the library. My favorite genre was fiction and I always tried to read a higher level book than the one that they assigned me to. I don’t read any books for pleasure with the excuse that I have no time, but maybe now I will try to make some time.

I was feeling a bit stressed from my prelims before I got to the shelter, but as soon as I entered, I felt more at ease. Being surrounded by cute little cats made me feel like less anxious about my upcoming exam. When I entered one cat’s room, he immediately jumped off his shelf to greet me. As soon as I had sat down and laid down a blanket to make him more comfortable, he started kneading my legs and settled down. He was one of the older cats who had been placed in the shelter after owner abandonment, but he was still so affectionate to humans. It made me really hope that someone would see that he is a very sweet and loving cat and give him a home. Hearing his purrs and being nudged by his insistent headbutts made me feel a warm and fuzzy.

At another room, a more aloof black cat greeted me with a steady stare. After I let her smell my fingers, we sat in companionable silence and I felt very peaceful.

On my fourth visit to BJM, I was reminded of the fact that not every visit has to be something grand and unique or mean anything specific at all— sometimes a simple afternoon is meaningful all on its own. I enjoyed sitting in the Craft Room, one of my favorite places, alongside Mrs. Sarah, the sweetest companion, watching over all the young students as they colored and played.

Mrs. Sarah and I chatted as always, laughing softly as we always did at silliest of things. We talked about thanksgiving and all the yummy food it involved. She told me about all the dishes that she prepares for her children and grandchildren and how long and hard she works to get it all done. I smiled as I always do as I listen to her, feeling as if I was listening to the stories of my own grandmother.

A sniffle was heard from the sweet little girl coloring next to me. I asked if she needed a tissue to take care of those sniffles, but she shook her head and handed me a marker. “Color with me!”

Stickers were given from one little hand to other little hands. I told the kids to be kind and share but not to use up all of the stickers, and they responded with a little hesitance but great positivity. “Want a sticker?”

It was a restful, mellow afternoon—one that kept my spirits uplifted for the rest of the week.

On November 6, I volunteered at BJM Elementary School and helped out in the science room. More specifically, I was helping out children that were using arts and craft materials (i.e. hot glue, cardboard, beads, popsicle sticks, etc.) to create anything. For the past couple of weeks that I have volunteered, I have noticed a pattern that there is at least one kid who makes a house. This week was no different. With the materials given, one boy was making his house out of a cardboard box while another girl was using popsicle sticks. Even though they were both making houses, their house were distinctly unique. For example, I really liked how the girl made a sofa by stacking and hot gluing rectangular stage plates. Not only was this innovative, but also made the house feel and look modern. The boy was just as innovative by using a jar lid and popsicle sticks to create a dining table. The kids creative minds and hands on attitude is inspiring me to try more activities that are hands on.

This week at BJM, I volunteered in the Arts and Sciences room. The child who I spent the hour with was incredibly engaged and interested in playing board games with me. We played several games over the hour, many of them several times. For example, we began with Chutes and Ladders and she won quite speedily. Then, we played Connect 4 and I beat her a few times (it was her first time playing the game). However, she refused to move on to the next game until she won. I was amazed by this competitiveness and was even more shocked when she actually outsmarted me and won, especially considering that she had just learned how to play a few minutes before. The third game was much more academic and involved shaking dice with letters on them and then finding as many words as possible within 3 minutes. We both really enjoyed this because even though I only could find like 6 words, she found nearly 30 her first try. Although I lost to her by a lot by the end of the hour, I was amazed by her intelligence and quick wit. She beat me at a lot of these games and also noticed many words that I would not have noticed had she not pointed them out. She was so happy at beating a “14^th-grader” that she took the paper that highlighted her winnings home to her parents.

On my last trip to the shelter, I visited a room with three cats with whom I have previously interacted. These cats are very shy and easily startled so on my first time in the room, two of the three cats ran up to the high shelf located on the wall and the third cat scampered toward the window. I had tried to introduce myself to the cats by letting them sniff my hand but none of them seemed to want to take me up on the offer for pets or play. As a result, I sat in the room for a while and just observed the cats for that visit, thinking that they would eventually get used to my presence. On my next visit two weeks later, a similar sequence of events occurred. I ended up sitting on the chair in the room for most of the time, only intermittently getting up to see if the cats had changed their mind. They never did. On this last visit, I was hoping that the cats would be more receptive, but alas, not much progress was made. I understand that some cats do not enjoy too much interaction and can be easily overwhelmed, but I would really like the three cats to feel more comfortable around me. Having only visited the shelter 5 times thus far, I feel like I haven’t completely developed a proficient skillset for handling all types of cats. If anyone has any tips about how to get shy cats to feel more comfortable with you, I would really appreciate it!

As I walked into the BJM A+ art room, I was greeted by happy children and Ms. Sarah. What caught me by surprise was the large sheet of paper laid out over one of the drawing tables. As I further entered the room I noticed that it was a Get Well Soon card for one of the teachers at BJM. The paper was filled with drawing and signatures from children and employees alike. I didn’t know the teacher that the card was for, but Ms. Sarah pulled myself and Ariana to the table and asked us to sign the get well card. It didn’t matter that we didn’t know her, all Ms. Sarah cared about was the smile that she hoped to bring to her friend and coworker. Ms.Sarah calmly explain to children who asked that she wanted to make her friend happy while she was home getting ready. The children may not have understood the severity of the situation or what the card was really for but they were happy participants none the less. Even one of the children who has some behavioral issues drew a picture. All of the teachers in the room were impressed that he took the time to acknowledge what Ms. Sarah was asking him to do. They took the time to tell his mom who was incredibly proud as well

It was a light day at BJM today during second choice. Only one student and another volunteer were left in the library and there was no Mandarin lesson scheduled for today. I offered to play Uno with him, which proved to be quite the experience.
In our group game, it was tough to be serious during the game-play and watch the student’s facial expressions when he kept drawing cards. Additionally, he kept making piles of cards, but the other volunteer and I could not figure out what the piles signified until he began to file on “skip turn” and “reverse” cards. For a second-grader, he was quite competitive and tried to trick us with rules he knew of. Uno has different rules and game-plays based on who you talk to, but some rules are more well-known than others. In the end, the student played his piles of cards very well and strategically and showed both the other volunteer and myself the numerous ways the game could be played.

I double-checked a student’s math homework, and I hoped my explanations helped her better understand the material. There was a question that asked if the person would arrive at the movie theater on time, and the question required information from the previous question for the answer. When I understood what the question asked and computed the answer, I explained to the student what she needed to do using the information from the previous question. I told her that the person would not arrive at the movie theater on time because the person would be 2 minutes late. The student did not mindlessly listen to my explanation because she nodded her head and made eye contact to show that she was listening attentively. She asked me questions to understand the problem. Although I told her what to write on her paper, I think she understood it but she needed more practice on those related time problems to figure out why the person would be late. While double-checking the student’s math homework, I was reminded of how the easier problems were at the beginning and harder problems were at the end. I remembered how I wished all the math problems were at the same difficulty level in elementary school, but now as a college student I understood that the shift in difficulty level was to challenge the students’ understanding of what they learned and force them to apply the math principles in a critical way.

This past week I tutored a fourth grader named Charlotte. She needed help with her spelling homework, but she was often becoming distracted while I helped her. At first it was frustrating because I wanted to see her finish the homework so that she could spend more time having fun at home. At the beginning of the session she said she enjoys being at home and I wanted to help her finish the homework.

While helping her, I understood something very important. At first I was forcing her to do work, in punishment type way. I soon realized that was the wrong way to go and then started giving her positive reinforcement instead. Every-time she did a problem, right or wrong, I would tell her she was doing a great job. It was evident that this helped as it eventually led her to finish her homework a lot faster.

From this short homework help, I learned something that not only applied to young children, but to everyone. It’s easy to punish or get on someone for not being too successful or productive. However, if we instead compliment each other for our work completed or our past successes, I am sure that we would all be able to live more efficient, happier lives. It boils down to just focusing in on the positives, rather than the negatives, which can help everyone. I am definitely going to begin to apply this to my own life. Rather than hone in on my mistakes, I am going to start to hone in on my positives and my successes. That way I can stay in a positive state of mind and be better prepped to conquer any issues that come my way.

Response to week 4 volunteering session – 11/12/19

Nihal Sidhu

Yesterday I volunteered at the elementary school (BJM). Yesterday’s experience was somewhat different from previous ones since the students didn’t have as much homework as they typically do. I normally help the same two boys with their math work. One of them is fairly motivated to get his homework done while the other needs some extra inspiration at times. This week, the student who usually gets his work done quickly had already finished his math before I had even arrived at the school, and was reading a book about farming. The other student was more patient this time with his work than usual, and he was able to finish his math faster than normal as well. I think he had a good understanding of the concept he was working with and he was less distracted by other students nearby. After he completed his math, I moved on to play Uno with a group of girls. I lost terribly, but we had fun making up new rules to the game and playing with multiple decks at once. The two boys whom I was tutoring before joined us later. Overall, this visit to BJM was a productive and fun one, and I enjoyed helping the students with their work and playing games with them as well.