Unfortunately, Nerf was adopted, but, in his steed, two kittens, Gastly and Haunter, have been introduced into the SPCA community. Currently, they show more interest in my shoelaces then they do me, however, I continue to talk to them to hopefully get them used to a human voice. While it’s always difficult to start relations with new cats, it’s a fun journey that I continuously take.
Category Archives: Service Scholars: Week 4
Mental age?
This week, I was in the art room and I got to work with Tafari and Margot.
I first sat down and I started talking with Tafari. Everyone at the table was making collages out of magazine cut outs and construction paper. Tafari had glued down pictures of whales and the ocean onto his paper and was now drawing a fish with a black marker on the front. Ms. Sarah asked if he wanted to use colors for his drawing, but he shook his head no. All the other students were furiously coloring in their drawings, but Tafari was satisfied with the simplicity of his drawing and, overall, collage. I asked him what he was interested in, and he replied with “maps.” I was a little surprised at this because I had never really interacted with a young student who was more interested in “realistic” things. This was emphasized with my conversation with Margot. She had asked me to draw her a unicorn and was coloring rainbows and clouds on her paper. They were both the same age, but their interests couldn’t have been more different.
A Series of Uncertain Events
The too often quoted phrase that repeatedly comes to my mind when thinking about Cornell these days is “You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.”
I’ve always been extremely thankful of my experiences and time at Cornell, be they good, bad, mediocre, or out of this world, and yet, when my time there was brutally cut short and I was disturbingly uprooted, I could not stop think about the moments I had not cherished and the time I hadn’t taken advantage of. I’ve gone through many a range of emotions throughout these past few weeks. Most of them centered on the world around me, focused on those who are suffering so much more than I am, be it physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritual. I’ve exhausted myself thinking about family, friends, peers, strangers… fellow humankind. And still, it is not enough. People are still suffering, but I’m trying to do my part. I’m staying home, limiting exposure to others who I could potentially put in danger (including myself), I’m praying, I’m paying attention, we’re trying to do little things to physically help our neighbors without endangering anyone. It’s hard to remain at peace with something you can only do so much about, but one must try. It was hard at first, as blessed as I am to have a good home and a good family, being violently torn from my routine, from my plans, from my friends, from the world. Things have felt so alienating. And, yes, there have been many little blessings and many little joys, including time for much necessary rest, so I do feel quite blessed, I am quite thankful– I’m hopeful, I am.
But, there’s still no doubt about it. There’s a deep sadness in experiencing such change and seeing such hurt and suffering. There’s a deep sadness in not being able to do the things one had set their heart on– things that were so dear and near and were not quite cherished enough in the moment, as is proven by the distance. The uncertainty of it all, I think, is what makes it even harder. When will things be generally okay again? Sure things can’t go back to normal but when will they be a little less crazy and scary? When will I be able to go out and about again? When will I see my friends again? When will I be able to sit in a coffee shop or step into a library again? When will I be able to hug the kids I usually babysit? When will I be able to go back to Cornell again? When will I be in beautiful Ithaca with my dear friends, going to class, going on adventures again? When will I be back for Rose Taco Tuesdays or BJM Thursdays? Things are uncertain and they are difficult… but in these coming days, I will continue to have hope.
Outdoor Fun
Unfortunately, this was my last trip to BJM for this semester due to COVID-19. However, I could not have asked for a better finish to the year. I finally got to go outside for the first time with the students and played tag, catch, and basketball. It was a great time because we were all able to get fresh air and burn some energy. After this, many of the students wanted to play UNO with the “Guy who Likes Uno” (me). This too proved to be one of the more interesting rounds we had all played.
From this experience, I really got time to reflect on how much I enjoyed visiting BJM. Surely I will see some if not all of the students next year but I will still miss these several weeks that were cancelled. I appreciate and am glad for the time that I got to spend with them.
Miss Stacy
Miss Stacy is one of the teacher-facilitators at the A+ program. For the past two school years, I have always quickly chatted with her in the homework area, and she has always made myself and other volunteers feel welcome each week. I caught her as I was signing in, and she expressed her concern about the closing of schools due to COVID-19 and how Cornell was approaching the situation.At this time, Cornell had not canceled school, and neither had BJM. Although the current situation was uneasy, Miss Stacy definitely helped to lighten the mood that was evident from the uneasiness of the staff and students.
Draw a Picture
I had the fortunate opportunity to help out with the kids’ and their math homework. More specifically, the kids were learning multiplication and division. Some kids were having trouble understanding multiplication, so I gave them the suggestion to draw a picture. For example, for the multiplication problem two times three, I described a scenario that represented the multiplication problem. I said if one kid gave two of his friends three pieces of candy each, how many candies did the kid hand out? With this scenario in their mind, the kids were able to easily draw out a picture and figure out the answer. I did something similar for the division problems as well: if one kid gave had six pieces of candy to hand out to his two friends, how many pieces of candy does each friend get? The kids were able to solve this problem right away as well. After creating a few more similar scenarios, the kids were able to successfully solve the rest of the problems themselves! Once I finished helping them with the homework assignment, one of the kids came up to me and thanked me. He said he found the draw a picture advice really helpful! I advised him that any time he was stuck on a math problem, he should draw a picture to help him solve the problem. Giving him this advice reminded me of the times when I was struggling through a math problem and had used a picture to help me solve the problem. I thought about the advice some more and realized that, even today, I continue to draw things whenever I have a problem (such as drawing out a schedule for all my assignments for the week, whenever I am trying to figure out what is wrong with my code for my computer science class, etc.). I find myself often giving advice to kids that are still applicable in my daily life.
Last time hanging out
In week 4 at BJM, I was helping a few students read books and then played games with them. I was helping them with certain vocabulary words that they did not understand in the books, and then I played games with them. The students I was working with had finished their homework, but they simply needed supervision so that they weren’t too rowdy. I got the opportunity to teach some students some basic words and help them understand what they read. Helping these children read is extremely satisfying as reading is one of the basic blocks of learning. The more you can read, the more you can learn.
After this I had the opportunity to talk, relax and play games with them. It is always exciting to see the relaxed side of children. However, now thinking about it, it is sad to know that my experience with them is the final time I will see them. I will not be able to see them again next year as they move onto new grades and new programs. I am glad to have spent time with them and learned so much from them, but it is sad that I will no longer be able to maintain the relationships and friendships I made.