Today, I went to the Polk elementary school as a volunteer worker. This school is located nearby the college, just 5 minutes by walking. The numbers of enrollment are about 200 to 300. It is rather small.

I attended the after school program. I helped 2nd grade students. They are about 7 years old. They were so cheerful and energetic.
At first, we had cookies and milk. I was asked many questions about everything curious to them. One of the students knows other languages such as French or Spanish, then, asked me something in these languages. It was really surprising. I was also asked about Japanese language. 窶廩ow do you say girlfriend in Japanese?窶� As soon as I answered the question, they memorized it, and then, tried to speak using new words. It was really amazing.

After that, we went out to the playground. We played for a while. Even though today was a kind of windy day, children played so energetically. Running around the ground, playing kick ball, basketball things like that. Not only was I exhausted, but also they looked tired. But their energy was endless. One of the children always held my hands and tried to take me somewhere. He held my hands almost all the time. He was so cute. His name was Cody.

After getting back to the class room, then, students read books by themselves. I listened to his reading. Somehow, I focused on his pronunciation, way of reading and vocabulary. Needless to say, their pronunciation was perfect. Also, he sometimes skipped the words or replacing the phrases. But he seemed to understand the contexts. His reading speed was faster (probably than I do.) Some words seemed to be new for him, he asked me sometimes. He read two books. One is about the dog, the other was the relationship between brother and sister.

One of the students窶� mothers came to class and gave a presentation. She brought many vegetables and talked using a book. The story was about the vegetables and a girl. A girl was very picky about food. She won窶冲 eat any vegetables. At last, she found it is not good for health, she become to try to eat vegetables. (In fact, I didn窶冲 understand the story exactly.) I thought the mother was a good speaker. She often asked children many easy questions, so that keep their attention to her. That was good strategy. After reading the book, we had some vegetables which some students might not like such as cucumber, green pepper, celery, carrot, broccoli, and radish. It was taste good. My neighbor, Cody, looked picky. He likes celery or carrot, but he didn窶冲 eat green pepper and cucumber. I suggested him to eat, but he didn窶冲. So, I ate his broccoli and green pepper.

After that, the time to go back their home came. Cody asked me 窶忱ou should come here everyday.窶� That made me really happy. I promised him to come to school every Friday.

Actually, it was the first time for me to experience volunteer work. It was just playing or talking with children. But this experience made me think. This school is located urban area, so many of them have some kind of difficulty or problem economically. (Especially, the district around the college is most impoverished area in Cedar Rapids.) Most children don窶冲 have any 窶徨ole model窶� for the future. I thought the existence of me would contribute to their thinking way. I strongly hope they will be able to have a dream for future and realize it.

Students were ethnically diversity; Some looked black, some looked half, some looked white. But regardless of the color of the skin, they play together well, they fight each other. They all seemed to be good friends.
There was an impressive poster on the wall. 5 children hold hands each other and smiled; their color of the skin and hair are different from each other. An ideal world was there. That窶冱 what I was looking for. We can make friends with each other regardless of the origin. Children here will be raised non-prejudicially. Yeah, I was so impressed.

All of them were really good students. They are not so much 窶從aughty.窶� I had lots of fun playing with them. I am looking forward to seeing them again.