22 Days of Thanks Day 7 (Teaching Diaries)

On this seventh day of thanks, I am thankful for my volunteer days at Mayor Wright Housing.

I have been volunteering for a little over a year already with Hawaiʻi Literacy. This program works with people living in low-income housing to improve on their reading and writing skills. I specifically volunteer with the Family Literacy Libraries Program, and I have been spending my Wednesdays working with children at our Mayor Wright location.

I always look forward to seeing the children and working with them every single week! They are such sweethearts, and they are always so appreciative of everything we do in the library. Now don’t get me wrong, sometimes it can be quite hectic and crazy – they are kids, after all! However, being with them every Wednesday always puts a smile on my face. I always enjoy talking to them and asking them about their day (or week since I only see them once a week), and the smile on their faces constantly melts my heart.

Teaching Diaries

Yes, you read that correctly! Might as well bring back Teaching Diaries for this post since I’m already talking about my volunteering!

Today was quite an interesting day! I came into the library to hear that our faucet needed to be fixed, and there was also a precaution of bed bugs in our library (or building? No one actually fully explained it to me). So with that precaution in our heads and a man in our kitchen fixing our faucet, a good chunk of our day was spent outside our library today! We did our group reading together (which I discovered we’ll be reading Matilda the whole month and then watch the movie next month! I’m extremely excited because I love Matilda – both the book and the movie!), and then I was in charge of our movement activity – Zip, Zap, Zop. The kids love that game, so they were excited to play! We also ended up having snack outside as well today before heading back inside to work on bookmarks.

The rest of the time was spent upstairs in our libraries. I was mainly with the kids upstairs reading to the younger ones who are unable to read on their own, and we read through two books together that they chose to read – coincidentally both about food! As all the children finished reading, they went straight to tech time – laptop and tablet usage! They were on it for quite a while, and I was there monitoring them for more than an hour! I was questioning the long usage time until I went downstairs once we had sent the kids home (early). Ms. Ashley and one of our newer volunteers were downstairs that whole time preparing the classroom area for the fumigation.

There was some time left before I had to leave, so I helped to clean our classroom area for a bit and washed the cups with our beautiful, new faucet! Then Ms. Ashley and I talked for a bit about my teaching job before my grandma arrived at the library to pick me up. (I had talked to her about wanting to become a teacher when I first started volunteering, and she has been sharing her teaching stories, trials, and tribulations with me whenever we have the chance to talk) 

As of now, our Mayor Wright library is closed for the rest of the week and next week Tuesday (we’re not open on Mondays). We’re hoping to reopen next week Wednesday! I can already imagine how hectic and crazy things will be that day…but because I have a Hawaiian Studies district meeting next week Wednesday, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to make it to volunteering next week…sending extra prayers towards the teachers and volunteers for that day!

As I end this seventh day of thanks, I am hoping and praying for a descent day tomorrow! Pray for my soul…I have kindergarten tomorrow, and Thursdays are already my busy days…

Me ke aloha,
Mauri