The Last Day :( ~Lauren

We woke up decently early this morning and had french toast for breakfast. We headed to The Enterprise Charter school which has grades K through 6.
I was grouped with Terri and Jin in Ms. Shannon’s fifth grade class. I got to teach sessions one and three. We basically taught them all about economics and did activities.
This volunteer activity was definitely the most challenging. It caught me by surprise the most as well. I expected the kids to participate willingly and to be excited to be doing something outside of their normal curriculum. Unfortunately they slowly became less and less interested. We had to get them quiet very often. They made up their own rules for the activities and talked during our lessons. I definitely walked out of there with a greater appreciation for the teachers in the school. I don’t know how they do it every day.
Fortunately my group only had to present for about two and a half hours so it went by quickly. Those of us that were done by 1:30 went back to the lounge to clean up. I took an hour nap which was fantastic.
We all met at My Tomato Pie for lunch along with three more of Terri’s colleagues. Everyone went around and shared what this week meant to them. I mentioned getting to know Buffalo outside the campus, trying to throw myself into volunteering as a jumpstart for the future, and meeting new people from different cultures. All of those were very important parts of this break for me. After eating, Terri and Lindsey handed out awards to everyone. I was the mostly likely to be left behind – not forgotten – just left behind. Haha. I disappeared twice over the break randomly so the award fits. We also got a framed picture of everyone standing on the roof from the first day at Habitat. It is such a great picture of all of us so I was very excited to get it. Then we all filled out evaluations about the program. I answered yes to almost every question haha. It truly was a wonderful experience that I will never forget.
Thank you to everyone who participated for being so great and for forming such a wonderful team. Huge thanks to Terri and Lindsey for picking a great group of people and for allowing us to be a part of such a wonderful program. Thank you to all else who helped create the program! I had one of the best weeks of my life!