Training and Orientation

I felt like much of last week was spent in training or orientation. Wednesday afternoon I spent 2 1/2 hours going through the volunteer orientation at the hospital. This covered such exciting things as how volunteer hours are tracked, the dress code (a red polo shirt provided, black pants, shoes and socks...), where to park and how to be reimbursed (the hospital is close enough I can walk), who to contact if you see someone doing something unethical, hospital safety, the meaning of the different "color codes" like "Alert Yellow", "Code Blue", or "Alert Orange" and how each effects volunteers, and how to help prevent the spread of infections (wash your hands!!!). There are still a few more things that need to be accomplished but I should be able to begin volunteering sometime in the next 2 weeks.

I spent 6 hours on Friday getting some training for the tutoring job. A friend of mine thought that sounded like a lot of training. It didn't seem overdone at the time as it was all important information but I was exhausted by the time we finished. The program I'll be working with is brand new so the full-time staff have been putting in some very long hours trying to get everything set up. It was to start this week, but it may not get going until the end of the week or next week. Because of that I do not yet know where I will be placed or the age of my three students. I do know they rank in the bottom 50% of their grade and at least one of them will be an ELL student (i.e. they are learning English at school.)  That will make it an adventure to communicate with their parents. It also makes the extra tutoring that much more important. Students learn better when they get help and encouragement at home. While ELL students may get encouragement at home (their parents did sign them up for this program) they don't get much help because Mom and Dad probably don't speak English very well themselves and even if they do, they may not read it. I have known several families like that and am looking forward to helping some in that situation.