Category: Volunteer

Working for a few hours in this classroom made jet lag disappear, at least temporarily. Bright light, mental focus, and social interaction all helped.

In today’s Certified Nursing Assistant class for English language learners, the subject was germs. To illustrate the concept of germ transmission, each learner received four slices of potato, untouched by human hands. They then performed three actions: rub one slice on the floor, breathe on another, and rub the third on their hand. Next week,… Continue reading Germ Transmission 101

It was a morning of acronyms preparing non-native English speakers for CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) certification, and assisting with ELL (English Language Learning).

After last night’s imagined English Language Learning classroom, I stepped into a real one today for the final day of summer school. School starts again early September when I’ll continue working with the same teacher. I enjoy working with her: she prepares thoroughly, she uses my time well, and the students love her.

Wet-wiped eraser dust and pencil marks from classroom tables, as I do every week before class. Meanwhile, Dwight cleaned the drains at the greenhouse.

While Dwight was at the greenhouse managing to involve a microscope, an entomologist and a literature search dealing with this sad specimen, I assisted with English language learners. In one class we brainstormed food truck ideas—ice cream, coffee/tea, and Somali sambusa—and started budgeting. In another class we focused on job-searching skills.

In an ELL (English Language Learning) class, covered language and strategies for budgeting. In a subsequent session, assisted learners with the job search process.

It was the last day of the semester, classrooms have gone silent for the next two weeks. After the break I’ll be back here for summer school. (The device on the table on the far left is assistive technology for a visually impaired learner. The tower rack in the back corner stores and charges laptops.)

Debriefed our respective days at our local bar. Dwight spent much of his day mitigating black mold at the greenhouse, oh, and spotting these native Minnesota cacti outside at the entry to the greenhouse. Seriously, they survive our winters! I shared about the vagaries of the English language, working three 90-minute classes with learners from… Continue reading Thriving

Thursday nights, dinner with Dwight at our local bar, swapping volunteer stories. Photos from his greenhouse shift popped up on my phone including this particularly puzzling one: “Where do my eyes go?” Turns out, he snapped it with his boss, figuring out which plants needed TLC. That scrawny one by the pipes needed better support.