Here’s a first for me… I am a volunteer for Junior Achievement!

I had been volunteering last year for James’ first grade class, I’d go in every other Thursday morning and do odd jobs for his teacher. It was alot of fun (even though I’d get in trouble more than the kids did).

This year, I have been very bad at going in and helping out, and I don’t like it at all. So, when I was approached to teach JA in James’ second grade class, I jumped at it.

I got the packet of information with the lesson plan, all the materials, etc. back in February and it dutifully sat at the edge of my desk for three months! Of course, we had a few things going on in between then like a couple of trips and so forth, but still we’re getting towards the end of the school year and I haven’t fulfilled my obligation yet!

So, last week when I went in to James’ class to bring in a bunch of Friendly’s Sundae Cups, I committed to making this week my JA week.

There are five 1/2 hour lessons included with this packet. I’m teaching the kids about our community, businesses and various jobs and how they interact with our community. The first day was great, I was very surprised at how much the kids LOVE to interact and learn. I could have probably gone around to every kid three times and got three different answers when I asked them “What’s your favorite subject?” – which, by the way, was overwhelmingly “Art”.

With my first session behind me, I’m really looking forward to working with the kids again. Tomorrow I go in again and our lesson is about the Sweet “O” Donuts our example business. We’re going to work on showing kids the differences between “unit production” and “assembly line production”. I only have a half hour and 23 kids… I hope I have enough time!!!

James was beaming from ear to ear because I was there – and the fact that he lost his front teeth makes it all the more fun to watch him smiling that big toothless smile 🙂 – it’s awesome!