Field Work Report
Hope Outreach Center
On January 15, 2015, I spent afternoon at the Hope Center, in Douglas, Ga. It’s always a great experience working with young kids. My SGA advisor Bekah Glosson asked if any students wanted to go the hope center. It was going to be the first trip of the semester. When we got there we met the lovely people who owned the Hope Center. We helped them prepare for the younger kids that ranged from 2nd to 5TH grade. By helping prepare we helped fix the tables. After we helped fix the snacks that was going to be prepared for them. I never been to the hope center before so I wasn’t sure what to expect when the children entered. As the children entered the Hope Center they already knew what to do first. They sat down and started on their homework. I sat down next to this little girl who asked me for help with her math homework. She was very behind on her homework. I made sure that we got it finished before she played games like the rest of the children who had finished their homework. After all the children was down with their homework and all got the helped they needed I helped served them nachos with nacho cheese dip. They also were given peanut butter cookies. When all was done eating we had to make sure that they through all their stuff away. Next, we all moved to another part of the center. This part was where they all got together and did there prayer. I sat with the crowd of children and we all started to play games with the children. I watched them compete to bounce back and forth on balls because they were racing. The winner of course got candy. These children were definitely filled with a lot of energy. After it was time for the children to go and it was time to prepare for the middle school and high school students.
Waiting for the next group we started to clean off the tables so that they would be clean for the older children. As the older children arrived it was a little different. From what we were told they do things a little different with the older children. Since they are a little bit older they tend to not really have too much homework. So like I did with the younger children I helped give out nachos and dip and cookies. Unlike the younger children the older children got sodas. After eating I followed them to another room which is where they do their bible study. We all sat in a circle and I listen to Josh who led the bible study and what they others had to say about the topic that was being taught. One thing about listening to some of the responses you can tell where some of the old children have started to go down the wrong paths already. Some had responses that to them they were doing the right thing when in fact it was something that could hurt them later down the line. After bible study, the older children got to play games. They games involved playing Xbox and Wii consoles. I also started playing basketball with some of the older children. I enjoyed being at the hope center. This center is a great place for children to stay on track. Although, the environment outside the hope center might continue to lead them down the wrong paths. With their help some can make the right choices and not let where they are from defeat who they are.
Coffee High School
On January 29, 2015, I spent the day at Coffee High School in Douglas, Ga. Before interning for the school. The week before I had talked to the vice principal just to see if it was alright for me to observe and participate in a class. She gave me the okay and she assigned me to a 12th grade honors class. I arrived around 11:30 around lunch time. Ms. Tuten whom class I was going to sit in wasn’t in her class yet. She was in planning. So I sat in a ROTC class where the instructor didn’t mind me in there. They were doing projects. I asked one student what was the topic of the project they were doing. She said that their projects were on War submarines and ships. I never did ROTC when I was in high school so I actually found this interesting. There bell wrong for them to switch class at about 1:45. I then went to my assigned destination. I introduced myself to her and she then introduced me to the class as “Ms. Richburg,” she said this is what my students are going to call me so let’s see how it sound. The whole class said “Hi Ms. Richburg.” It felt kind of weird and different because I never heard anyone call me that before.
The first thing I wanted to do was just observe and see where I could jump in at. She let me know beforehand that the class wasn’t doing anything too much but reading their parts from the Shakespeare play. We started out watching a short YouTube video called “Horrible Histories- Elizabeth’s Online Dating.” It’s a short comedy about Queen Elizabeth just to start the class with humor. I could already tell that she was a good and fun teacher. After she gave me including her students a handout “Shakespeare’s source: The True Chronicle History of King Leir.” She had the students taking turns on reading the handouts. In between Ms. Tuten would stop and break it down to make sure that the students understood what they were reading. She then asked the class as a class discussion what they think about it.
I and the rest of the students began on page 19 of the book. The parts they were reading are from acts out the book and each student had a part and person that read out loud. In between the Ms. Tuten stops and explains what’s going on. I was reading along in the book. I was also given two different handouts. I liked to point out that this honors class only had 13 students. That’s pretty small compared to the honor classes from my high school. They continued to read while I followed along. In between she would ask the students what they thought was going to happen. In one of the handouts that was given to I and the students they had to write about some of the characters and what their impressing are of them. I filled one out too. Then they had to put down why and write what was some of the evidence for their reason from the book. Also adding the text with documentation with the page number. After the teacher asked what one character they picked and why. One student was describing “Kent” called him courageous. Another said “Cordella” her opinion was that she was “brutally honest.” Before reading again we watched a short scene on YouTube from (King Lear Movie 2008). Watched about 10 minutes of it. We then continued to read Act 1 section 2 page 29. At 2:55PM the class was invited to the library for the science fair awards. We stopped reading on page 41 and left to attend the science fair. They were reading off who won and what their projects were. Also naming what place they came in. There were about 6 different groups that won an award. These awards also were in the South Georgia State College Gym the following week. I really enjoyed watching Ms.Tuten from what I saw the students really enjoyed her. I even asked some students on what they thought about her and said she was a really good teacher. She is an example of what I want to be like as a teacher. Fun and everyone enjoys my class at the same time.
Hope Outreach Center
On March 12, 2015 I attended the hope center. We had to set up the snacks for the children. These snacks included chips and ice cream. As the children got there the first thing they had to do was their homework. I helped this boy do some of him homework. He was more of the “class clown” so it took him awhile just to focus. After a couple times of telling he to stay focused he finally listened and we were able to get him to do his homework. I then also helped another girl with her homework. She was a little more quiet then some of the other children but she was happy to get the help so she could go play. After homework the younger children had bible study which is an everyday thing. It involved a short memory game. They had to remember important names from the bible and who did what. If they got it correct they would get candy. The children really enjoyed it and they fought to be the first ones called on. It was then time for younger children to leave and the older children to come which involved (middle school and high school students). As the Older children came they put their things up and they had their snacks and drinks. Like the first group we attended bible study which always took place in the next room. This bible study was about their future plans and where do they see themselves. All the older children participated and they all wanted to say where they saw themselves. Many had very high goals which is how it should be. When children have high goals that means they know what they want and most are going to do whatever they can to achieve that goal. After bible study all the older children played a member game and the circle and they had to say one thing that the other person wanted to be and had to keep the circle going. After the older children left. We stayed a little bit and helped clean up. We helped take home the leftover food so it wouldn’t go to waste and was told to share it with some of the South Georgia State Residential Students.
Hope Outreach Center
On April 9, 2015 I attend the hope center again. Just like the first time my advisor for SGA Bekah Glossin asked if we wanted to go to the hope center. Just like every other time we had to help set up for the younger children to get there. When it was time for the young children to arrive there wasn’t for many of them. I asked Mrs. Angie where the rest of the bunch was and she told me that the school was having after school test prep for the upcoming test that was coming up. So it wasn’t a big group. We helped the ones that need help with homework and then the children separated in two different groups. One group who were mostly the boys went outside to play soccer with Josh (who is one of the mentors). The other half which was mostly all the girls stayed inside and colored. Some of the girls and I started coloring and they started to write the names and put designs around them. After we got all the kids together and sat them down to have bible study. This bible study the children put on a little play. That children really enjoyed it and it was followed by them answering questions after it. If they got the question right they got a piece of candy. After it was time for the children to leave. It was now time for the older children to arrive. As the older children arrived they went straight into the next room where they just played games and played dancing games. I joined them to a dance of Just Dance and I must say them girls were really good at the games. Overall I enjoy seeing these children doing fun things and having fun.
Overall, this was a good experience for me. I have always volunteered and interned at places but these places to me where different. I never volunteered at a children’s outreach center so it was interesting to hear many of the different stories about the children that the mentors would tell us. Many at the outreach center was there for years. I enjoyed helping the younger children. I enjoyed helping with their homework and making sure that they got the good grade that they deserved because all the children that I helped with homework tried their best when it came to their homework. I also enjoyed interning at the high school. Watching the teacher keep her students entertained and taught them in fun ways were examples of what I want to do in my class. Overall, I’m glad that we get to do field work. It helps us prepare for when we get our own classroom or when get to help children grown their minds.
Hope Outreach Center
On September 24, 2015, I attended the Hope Outreach Center in Douglas, GA for the first time for fall 2015 semester. On our arrival we waited at 2:30 PM, for the 1st – 5th grade children to come. I enjoy waiting for the children to come because Angela Talkington (who is one of the owners) tells us stories about the things the children have done throughout the week. Most times it’s the funny things that the children do. As the 1st-5th grade children arrive we start by helping them with their homework. I like helping them with their homework even though they are very smart and they often don’t need too much help. When the children finished they all started to draw and trace pictures from books. I started talking to this one little girl named Jacqualine. She was the sweetest. She drew me a butterfly that she had traced. I thought it was so nice of her. After they all got finished with their homework we split them up by gender. The girls would stay in the main room and the boys would go in the activity room. When the boys go into the activity room they tend to play active games like running and playing games like basketball. I stayed on the side where the girls were. This day we danced and played games. The first thing we did was danced. We played songs that had dances like the “watch me whip” which they all knew the dance moves to. After, Ms. Angela had us who volunteered to also do the dance which led the children to giggle a lot because we all looked silly. After we played musical chairs. Of course it ended with a few of the children falling but they all enjoyed it. By the time we were finished it was time to go. The boys came from the other room and were sweaty and tired from running around. We gave those snacks on the way out and the children were given a little extra for them to snack on a little later.
As for the second group it consisted of 6th-12th grade. They do things a little differently for the older children. Many of them do not have homework or don’t feel like then need help with it. We do however start off with encouraging them to do their homework. I helped a group of girls out with their homework, they were also the trouble makes of the second group. After the homework session was over we then broke off in teams. There were 5 separate teams because there were 5 of us who volunteered that day so we all had out own group. So we started to play a game. The concept of this game were to build a fort that had to be tall using marshmallow’s and spaghetti straws. You won if your fort could hold an egg on it and it had to be the tallest out of everyone. This became a very sticky game mostly because of the marshmallows but it was a very good exercise for the children to learn how to work together. After this the older children had a snack of nachos and meat and cheese and it was very good. We left at 5:30PM.
Hope Outreach Center
On October 2, 2015, I attended The Hope Outreach center in Douglas, Ga. As we arrived at 2:30PM, we helped get stuff out for the 1st-5th graders so they could start off with a snack. This snack consisted of chips and candy. This was a crazy combination because they were definitely hyper. We then started to help out with their homework. This time I had a little difficult with one of the girl’s homework and nobody knew the answer too. After a while we realized it was more of a common sense answer and we giggled about it. While waiting for the others to get finished they were allowed to draw. Like the last time I attended the Hope Center the little girl Jacqualine drew me another picture. This time it was a picture of a superhero. I told her to sign it and I put it on my wall. We then huddled around both genders and grouped up in teams. We played a card game. This card game we had to build are cards up just like a picture that we were given. There were 3 rounds and each round we were to switch pictures. Every time a team won they were rewarded with candy. I was very proud of my team even though we only won once.
For the second group which consisted of 6th-12th graders they came in also having to start with homework. However, not many of them had homework that needed to be done. We had the older kids sit around in a circle. We went around and basically played an ice breaker. Everyone had to share a fear and other things that someone might not know about them. I really enjoyed the game because we got to learn more about the children and even we got to share some things about ourselves. We ended the game and the older children were given snacks. We left at 5:30PM.
Hope Outreach Center
On October 15, 2015, I attended The Hope Outreach Center in Douglas, GA. We arrived at 2:30 PM, As the group I went with an I went to the center we were advised that the groups were probably going to be a little late today. We then tried just decided that as the kids get off the bus that they can go straight to the jungle gym and play on the swings. We played many games outside with the children like tag and had the boy’s race. They played for a while and where climbing everywhere. You could tell that they really enjoyed it and was happy to run around. After we led them inside to start on their homework. Many of them had homework and by the time everyone had finished their homework it was time for them to get a snack and leave. It was a very fast and short day for them.
The next group came in which consisted of the 6th and 12th graders. We also had them start off with their homework and us assisting them. After they were done with their homework they were given snacks of ice cream and cookies. It was very yummy. When they sat in the main room so we could start a game. This game consisted of cups and ping pong balls. There were two people per team. One person would hold a cup and the other one had to shot the ping pong balls into the cup. Each time a ping pong ball went into the cup the person holding it would have to stick another cup on top of it. One of the volunteers Travis and I were on a team and the others volunteers were on teams. We had to race first to show the children what to do. Travis and I were the champions. The children enjoyed it however many of them found it hard. It was a good exercise for them. We left at 5:30 PM to head back to campus.
Hope Outreach Center
On October 31, 2015, I volunteered at a Children's Carnival which was hosted by The Owners of the Hope Outreach Center. We had to be their around 6:00pm. Others and I had our own booths that children would stop by and had to answer questions that consisted of school subjects or had to play a competition game. For the ones who won they would be given candy. I was given a competition booth. My booth consisted of 5 cups that were lined up vertically. The children would have to stand at a line that they couldn’t go past and would have to shoot ping pong balls into the cups. Each time they shot they would have to make it in each time, if they didn’t they would only get a certain amount of candy. This vent went on till 10:00 PM but I only stayed until 8:30 and it was nice being around so many children. They were excited to play games and the educational games were fun to them also. There were also tons of different activities for them like blow up slides and food. The #1 thing the children enjoyed was the cotton candy.
Hope Outreach Center
February 24, 2016 I spent my day at the Hope Outreach Center. Others and I went to the hope center at around 2:30 PM. We waited for the first group to come that consisted of 1st graders to 5th grade. As the first group came we went outside to play on the swings and on the jungle gym. I started to play with the children and we started to play tag. It went on for a while until I got tired. I then started to help push some of the children on the swings set. The hope center got brand new swings so they were happy to swing on them. After the second set of children for the first group came we then went inside and started with their homework. For the most part many didn’t need too much help so we moved on to the activities part. For the activities part we teamed up in 4 different teams. Each group were given flash cards and then we were given a set of pictures that we had to create with the cards. I played this activity with the children last semester so I was exciting to see if this group were going to do well or not like the semester before. As we played the activities we the children looked like they were having a lot of fun. Their team work skills were actually really good and my team overall came in 2nd place. After the activity they were given snacks that consisted of chips, a piece of candy, and soda.
After the 1st through 5th graders left we then had to clean the tables and prepare for the next group which were the middle and high schoolers. For this group we started out with them doing their homework. I helped a girl with her math homework which was a refreshment because the things we did I haven’t done since I was in high school. For the most part we went through the homework pretty fast. After the homework was done they were allowed to go to the game room and play games. I participated with playing Just Dance which is a wii game and I also played with some of the boys and allowed them to show me how to shoot the balls into the goals. They also had the same snacks as the younger groups. The older group left at 5:00pm the group I came with stayed so we can help clean the floors and tables and put away some of the food that was left behind. I then left the hope center at 6:00 PM
Hope Outreach Center
March 2, 2016 I spent my day at the Hope Outreach center which has become one of my most favorite places to volunteer at. We got to the outreach center at 2:30 which is when we prepare the first group to arrive. The first group consist of elementary students. As they came in they were told to put up their things and take out their homework. As I helped I ran into some problems because there were something that I couldn’t remember to do. Of course I asked for help and we were then shown how to do it with the help of one of the owners at the hope center. As the children wait for the others to get finished they start to color pictures. I think that’s a really good idea to keep them going instead of just having them sit there waiting on the rest to finish with nothing to do. After homework they were nachos with meat that was made from one of the owners. She always makes the best snacks and food for them that she also allows us to enjoy also. Following this we sat in a big circle and we started to play games, this involved ice breakers like passing along a ball and playing memory games. By the time we were finished it was time for the children to leave. We now prepared for the next group to come. Which involved us cleaning off the tables and straighten the chairs back to how they were supposed to be.
The next group that came in consisted of middle schoolers and high schoolers. This group is usually a little smaller than the elementary children. Like every time they come they have to start with their homework. For snack they were also given nachos and beef with the nacho cheese. For the activity we did with this group we were able to get into groups of two and fill out a paper that had different brainstorms and we had to come up with the correct answers for each one in a certain amount of time. The young man that I had did a really good job even with them being really hard. It’s one of those things when we know the answer but it doesn’t come off the top of our heads and then once the answer is given to us we feel crazy because it was something we knew it just wouldn’t on the top of our heads. I love doing brainstorming activities and I feel like it’s educational and keeps the children’s minds going. By the time we were done with the activity it was time for them to go. The group I came with we stayed and helped clean up. This consisted of helping put the chairs back to how they are supposed to be, cleaning the tables, and cleaning the kitchen where the food was. I also helped one of their student workers with the bathrooms. By the time we left it was around 5:45PM but it was a really fun day that I enjoyed.
Hope Outreach Center
March 23, 2016 I attended the hope center at 2:30. We had to set up the snacks for the children. These snacks included chips and ice cream. As the children got there the first thing they had to do was their homework. I helped this boy do some of him homework. He was the “class clown” of the group so it took him awhile just to focus. After a couple times of telling he to stay focused he finally listened and we were able to get him to do his homework. I then also helped another girl with her homework. She was a little more quiet then some of the other children but she was happy to get the help so she could go play. After homework the younger children had bible study which is an everyday thing. It involved a short memory game. They had to remember important names and events from the bible and who did what. If they got it correct they would get candy. The children really enjoyed it and they fought to be the first ones called on.
It was then time for younger children to leave and the older children to come which involved. As the Older children came they put their things up and they had their snacks and drinks. Like the first group we attended bible study which always took place in the next room. This bible study was about their future plans and where do they see themselves. All the older children participated and they all wanted to say where they saw themselves. Many had very high goals which is how it should be. When children have high goals that means they know what they want and most are going to do whatever they can to achieve that goal. After bible study all the older children played a member game and the circle and they had to say one thing that the other person wanted to be and had to keep the circle going. After the older children left. We stayed a little bit and helped clean up till around 6:00 pm which is our usual time. We helped take home the leftover food so it wouldn’t go to waste and was told to share it with some of the South Georgia State Residential Students.