LuQin Wang
After I returned from Zhujiang Elementary School last night I went straight to the Huren Building to do a phone interview, I didn’t have time to write down my impressions from the activity.
Actually, this activity was more touching than any other activity before. The children weren’t as rowdy as the third grade students were before, many of them quickly sat quietly to do their homework. In previous visits I always worried that there might be conflicts with the students, but it was not all smooth sailing. There were three boys that wanted to sit together, they made a big deal out of it and we had to chase them up and down the stairs.
I was most impressed by two students. One of them is the most rambunctious boy in the class, he is never willing to do his homework. He also makes me doubt many things. He is in 5th grade, I would guess about 11 or 12 years old. Whenever we interacted with him he always said things are annoying and bothersome. At first we thought it was because we were only there to tutor them with homework and it was very monotonous. However, later on he told me that he would stay after the activity but he was only staying for the tutoring; if we were just going to play games then he would go home. Students that are only around 10 years old shouldn’t feel so annoyed. During our evaluation meeting after the activity another volunteer said, ”Yeah, even though I say that things are annoying every day I’m actually not really annoyed at all, life is great.” Later on I heard that this student’s parents signed him up at a care center. He goes there to do his English homework because the teachers translate it for him so that he can finish his homework in just a few minutes. I’m not sure what attitude the teachers at the care center had towards teaching the students but some students said, “The teachers just give the students the answers.” The second student I was most impressed by is a student that was very quietly and diligently doing their homework. Actually, I had met him before but last year he was completely the opposite, never doing homework, fighting with other students and running around. This time he took out his book and started doing homework as soon as he saw us. Even though his classmates all ran out when there was excitement downstairs, he quietly sat there. The school teachers say that in 5th grade there is much more pressure to do well in school, a lot of growing up and a lot of things to understand. However, the thing I don’t understand is why in such a short period of time there was such a big change in his personality, or whether this is good or bad.
Wei Jin
This was my first time attending a volunteer activity and also my first time tutoring students I hadn’t met before. I was really nervous before we left but once I was actually sitting next to the students I had an indescribable feeling of satisfaction. ZhaoJun Wang, a chubby little student said that when they would have partner dances none of the boys would hold her hand. I can feel her loss and feelings of inferiority when I reflect on when I was in elementary school. It seemed like chubby girls were always being bullied and pushed aside by the boys like this, my heart can’t help but feel a little frustration.
ZhaoJun is actually a very smart child. She answers math questions very quickly and only occasionally makes a careless mistake, but her English is lacking. I think she doesn’t even need my tutoring. You could say that she isn’t in the tutoring group because of bad grades; it’s probably because she needs someone who is willing to listen to her. I remember she randomly asked me, “Do you know what an upside down rainbow is?” I shook my head so she traced a shape on the desk with her finger and said, “it’s a smiley face with clouds on each end.” I suddenly felt that even though she is excluded because she is chubby and doesn’t have good grades, she is still a very happy child. She told me a lot of stories, although I didn’t understand some of what she said, I could still see that she was very satisfied as she told me each story.
Right before we left she asked me if I could come back every week. She bowed her head in hopelessness when I said that I can only come once every two weeks . When I saw this I felt the value of what I had done that day.
I’m not very strict towards children so I playfully begged her to do her homework. (She could tell I was coaxing her) My ability to communicate with children are out of practice so I look forward to continuing to have exchanges with them in the coming weeks.
XinYun Ling
This was my first time participating in a volunteer activity serving children. I was nervous before the activity and afraid that the children wouldn’t like me or that I would be unable to answer their questions, so I prepared what I could. I realized later on that these so-called problem students are actually very cute and kind; they are just lacking communication and interaction. The student I tutored really wanted to raise their grades but was going about it the wrong way. I wanted to help him overcome his challenges by communicating with him and working together. Even though our volunteer activity was good overall there were still a few problems such as not having enough people to have an ideal one-on-one situation with the students. The children were really influenced by each other. Some students couldn’t find anything to talk to the volunteers about. This was only the first activity but it make me look forward to continuing on in the future, I think our volunteer activity will get better and better.
YanChun Wang
This activity could have gone better. We weren’t matched up very well with the children. Hopefully it will be better next time so that they can learn something and help them be more mature.
YunQi Song
I went with other student volunteers to ZhuJiang Elementary School in the afternoon on November 7th to participate in this project’s first activity this semester. We tutored 5th grade students, many of whom we had met last year during the activities; we were all very excited to meet again after a few months of being apart. The children are a year older, a lot taller, and act a little more mature. However, as their schoolwork gets harder and they are under more stress it becomes harder for them to learn the course content. During the hour long activity our volunteers tried their best to deal with the difficulties and problems that they ran into. He Song is a boy that I worked with last year and I am tutoring him again. We used our hour of time together the best that we could. I checked his homework, explained the calculation and unit conversion problems in his math homework, and gave some problem solving methods for his language class reading homework. Lastly, I explained the reading portion of his English homework, emphasized the importance of reciting words, urged him to remember how important it is to remember words, and told him some of the essentials of memorizing words.
We ran into a few difficulties during this volunteer activity. Since the students are still just in elementary school they aren’t very good at controlling themselves, they lack a sense of discipline, boys are naturally rowdy, and there are frequently disagreements between the students. Our experience is lacking, we aren’t very good at controlling the boys, and are lacking in many areas. After this activity ended our volunteers talked amongst themselves about their experiences and what they got out of it, we hope that the next activity is even more successful. We hope that through our care and love, along with our tutoring skills, we can give the students warmth and help.
Juan Wang
Those kids don’t listen to what I say or fear me like my little brother does. They are a little naughty, first I had to establish some authority and get their trust. As a result, these activities will help them more to increase their abilities. Little brother, big sister is trying her hardest, next time lets work together and move forward!
Fei Wang
This was my first time serving at a volunteer activity for elementary school students; I was a little bit nervous. I kept encouraging myself before the activity, racking my brain to think of how I could help the students like and trust me so that I could provide the most help to them.
After I arrived at Zhujiang Elementary school with the other volunteers, I realized I didn’t have anything to worry about. I let out a sigh of relief when I realized that the children were very lively, simple, honest, and willing to get close to others. The first step for them was to accept us. With this as a foundation, the rest of our work was much easier. Our main responsibility was to tutor them with their homework. Since we reviewed the 5th grade textbooks before the activity it was not a problem.
From the children’s bright smiles it’s not hard to see that they love when we come. Most of the children are able to diligently do their school work, if they don’t understand something then they ask us and when they are done we help them check it. Some students are more active so the whole classroom is noisy; this also makes our job a little harder. For the rest of the activity we gave them a little more pressure, before they finished their assignment we played some games with them to build a relationship.
The student I was with and I traded contact information and I told him that he could contact me if he had any difficulties in school. Other volunteers also got along with their students very well. After this first activity was over I was very happy because I already felt unified with the children. I won’t forget how touched I was when they called me teacher. With this as my motivation, I will work hard to make every activity successful.
