Differences settings for lunch

It was nice to meet Ms. Jackie on Tuesday. She is our latest and greatest volunteer. She came to lunch with Brother John. It will be especially nice to have her since Brother John has to take two trips over the next 2 weeks. We will miss him!

Ms. G. made sure to let us know that, though it may be hard for us to tell, we volunteers are making a difference at lunch. Personally, I'm having a good time meeting and learning from the students. And I have noticed that many of them are learning to have more polite conversations (with fewer interruptions and a less loud tone of voice).

I asked about the sixth graders and how their trip to the University had gone last week. Ms. G. told me that they were on another trip. Later I found out that they were doing service in honor of Martin Luther King Day. They had helped prepare meals for the homeless. I am very impressed!

I finally got to hear about this and the University trip on Wednesday. The girls disagreed some about College Lunch. Some thought it was awful and some thought it was O.K. (One of the boys thought it was "Great!".)They had observed a class that was learning about basketball. They also did a pencil and paper activity that seemed to involve deciphering words and their postions on the paper. I thought it sounded like a rebus puzzle of some sort. No one seem to understand the point of the activity but they seemed intrigued by their peek into college life.

Ms. G. had a book for me to read to the second grade boys. When I sat down and showed them the book, 2 students immediately cheered! The book was about generosity and sharing. We talked about some of the things in the book as we read it. Two students asked for a book about "good violence" or "non-violence". I told them I would find one for them. They also checked their map placemat and were very interested to find Haiti.

Two of the 5th grade students unraveled completely toward the end of lunch and let their angry feelings fly. Two more almost did. Most of the students stayed in their seats and more or less continued what they were doing. Well, I thought, no one learns their manners in a straight upward curve.