Day Number Ten: 12th Grade Service Project

Looking back at my entire service experience, I can say that, without a doubt, it was very enjoyable for me. The main reason for this was, of course, the children. I met third graders far brighter than one would expect considering the fact that Saint Therese School seems to be in a financial rut. In fact, even the kids who require special education are intelligent and bubbling over with good will. Today I went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (formerly: Natural History, I must have been in Texas when they changed the name) with the class. We looked through the new exhibit for about fifteen minutes before attending a class about the moon. I'm not sure that I learned anything I didn't already know, but it was still somewhat entertaining. After that, we ate lunch and then attended a show in the planetarium. I would definitely say that the new planetarium is far superior to the old one. After that we left the museum and went back to the school, partly on foot, and partly on RTD bus, the same way we originally got to the museum. After we returned, the class had a going-away party for me, and that was pretty much the end of the day. I will probably write a letter to the class toward the end of the year just to tell them good luck in the future, and about my future endeavors, as I will probably never return, I think I've gotten my semi-nostalgic cravings for memories out of my system.

Day Number Nine: 12th Grade Service Project

T-minus one more day and counting. Today was average for me when compared to all the other days. I helped out a lot in some gym classes, which was enjoyable. I also gave another spelling test and graded more papers. I think that Jesus would be able to easily become a third grade teacher, but I do not know whether or not Jesus would find teaching worthy of his time when compared to all of the other service work commonly considered meaningful, such as work with the poor and destitute. I also think that if Jesus did teach the third grade, he would do it for free. I sensed a lot of anticipation among the class for the field trip to the museum and planetarium tomorrow. I find this same anticipation in myself. Hopefully everything will go really smoothly. Also today, one of the students opened up to me at lunch and told me about how he had witnessed his eighteen year old brother's suicide two years ago. He answered all my questions in a monotone voice, and said that his brother had been depressed. I was impressed by his maturity, but at the same time, I felt that he has to keep the pain from that experience locked away at most times in order to keep some level of normalcy in his life.

Day Number Eight: 12th Grade Service Project

I now feel fairly confident that I would be a pretty competent third grade teacher. Thankfully, I am also now aware that I would not want to be a teacher. There are many reasons for this that I have just now begun to pick up upon. One is the fact that I do not have enough patience to deal with the slowness among students in learning things that I already know. This also goes along with my distaste for boredom. I know that an excellent teacher would be able to overcome the everpresent boredom by teaching in a manner exciting enough to educate and stimulate the students minds and at the same time learn new things for himself. All of these reasons are strong enough for me.

Day Number Seven: 12th Grade Service Project

It was another action packed day at Saint Therese School! It started casually enough, I got to school with time to spare, but things went without any escalation of excitement. I helped with the literary circle activity today, which was good because it allowed me an even better judgement of the literacy level among the third graders of Saint Therese School. I also helped the third grade class prepare for the mass that they are in charge of tomorrow. They practiced at the Saint Therese Church, which definitely brought back some memories of masses I attended at that church. Hopefully, the mass tomorrow will go extremely well in its entirety.

Day Number Six: 12th Grade Service Project

I was thankful that I had a decent weekend in order to rest up for what is sure to be an exhausting week. Today I took part of the third grade to another classroom to watch a video of School House Rock: America. It featured many of the cartoons I remember from my Saturday Afternoon and Morning exploits as a child on ABC TV. Fascinatingly enough, I don't believe I actually learned anything from those cartoons that I did not already know. I feel at home now at Saint Therese School. But I would rather actually be at home than here. That is probably not unusual, so I will just keep on truckin' till the sun sets in the west and the cows come home to pasture.

Day Number Five: 12th Grade Service Project

I am definitely looking forward to a long and relaxing weekend after this stressful first week at Saint Therese. Today was a half day, with school being dismissed at twelve noon. I gave a spelling test today and I also attended gym with the third graders. Like most students of any type of school, the third graders sensed freedom was in the wind. They reminded me of my own experiences in elementary school. There was a scary moment today in the extended care program. We were playing football when a kid named John Michael was pushed and tripped while out of bounds with the football and hit his head on the asphalt. Then he began to have a seizure. We called for the extended care supervisor to help. Then the paramedics came to take him to the hospital. Thankfully, he will most likely be okay, but I will remember from now on that if I am ever in any need of medical assistance I will call Paramedic Unit #106.

Day Number Four: 12th Grade Service Project

Today was another nostalgic cornucopia of memories for me. I went with the third graders to their art class, taught by Sister Marguerite. When I attended sixth grade at Saint Therese, she also taught my class. The only difference now is that she teaches in what used to be one of the sixth grade rooms. I stood in the spot where my desk used to be and a lot of things came flooding back, some of them just started as emotions that I felt at certain times, but then more and more details surfaced. Needless to say, I cannot wait for tomorrow, as there is more P.E., which has turned out to be my favorite class so far. I also now definitely remember many of the students names immediately. This is a big help when interacting with them.

Day Number Three: 12th Grade Service Project

I had my first taste of what gym is like for third graders at Saint Therese today, and I can say without a doubt that it is the absolute best way for them to blow off some academic steam. We played Indian Ball inside the gymnasium. It is a game with rules similar to baseball, except they had me, the pitcher, sit cross-legged and then pitch. I was extremely impressed by the level of physical fitness and athletic aptitude displayed by all of the third graders. Every single one of them could hit the ball, and since the game uses a small recess ball, some of them could really blast it. The school also went to mass today, first thing in the morning, and it really seemed to fly by much faster than any Regis Mass. The service was organized by the sixth graders. I found out that Saint Therese now has weekly mass, and each class of the school organizes four or five masses in a year. This consists of the class being responsible for the readings and presentation of the gifts. Although it seems to me that attendance at Saint Therese might be in decline, overall there is a happy attitude among the faculty and students. I believe that this decline in students might be connected with the aging of the Saint Therese Parish. Simply put, it feels like the church and school are past their prime, hopefully this is not truly the case.

Day Number Two: 12th Grade Service Project

There is no doubt in my mind that all of the third grade is familiar and comfortable with me by now. I also have begun to get a general idea of how much help the third grade teacher wants to get from me in terms of teacher's assistant duties like grading and passing out papers. I feel that so far my experience at this service project has given me the idea that being an elementary school teacher is significantly less tiring than being a full daycare teacher. I think this is because of the more disciplined environment of the school and the greater autononimity of the students. The same homeroom teacher teaches math, English, theology, and social studies, which is a definite difference from Regis. I have found that the students enjoy competitive activities, such as multiplication table races. This of course led to me remembering my sixth grade teacher getting the class to try to come up with non-zero-sum games as part of a theology lesson trying to instill the value of nobody being a loser. Of course, no one was able to, which I now find amusing. It seems like things at Saint Therese only can keep getting better.

Day Number One: 12th Grade Service Project

Today was my first day at my service site, Saint Therese School in Aurora. I have been assigned to Mrs. Sue McPeek's third grade class. I was a little bit nervous before the class began as to whether or not my entire service project experience would be a positive one. Last year I worked at a daycare center called United Cerebral Palsy: Creative Options. I worked primarily with a classroom of five-year-olds. It took a while for those five-year-olds to form a level of emotional comfort with me so that they and I could get the most out of my service project. This sense of comfort came almost immediately today, I believe the reason for this is the fact that the students were older and are in more of an actual classroom environment. It was very easy to help the third graders and interact with them in a variety of ways today. I actually think that I learned many of their names already, an important step. I attended Saint Therese in sixth grade, before my family moved to Texas in seventh grade, and being there again brought back many memories that had shifted out of my consciousness. Hopefully tomorrow will be just as productive of a day, as after I was with the third graders from eight to three, I helped in the afterschool program from three to six.