Shibo 

                                      A short work experience

                                              -May 2018-

          The 10th grade is almost over and I want to find something to do on my summer vacation. My younger sister tells me to find a volunteer job to earn community service hours for graduation from high school. 

          I find Junjie and Xiao and ask "What do you guys want to do during the summer vacation?"

          Xiao said "I don't know, maybe stay at home."

          "Me too, how about you, Shibo?" said by Junjie.

          I said, "I want to do the volunteer work for summer school, how about you two? Come with me!"

          "Okay, our desire to be volunteers is like a bird trying to fly out of a cage, We can't wait." said by Junjie and Xiao.

          After school, we come to summer school and showed our intention. The teacher welcomes us and said, "Our school is like a big family, we welcome everyone." Then, we discussed our work time with the teacher. We all work on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 8am to 6pm and we have 1 hour for the lunch and break from 12pm to 1pm. The teacher also inform us that summer school starts on July 6.

                                            -July 6, 2018-

          Today is my first day to go to summer school. I woke up early in the morning, finished packing, and went to school after breakfast. My summer school is in P.S. 20; there are about four or five different summer schools, and my summer school is on the fourth floor, which is the top floor. There are two summer schools on the fourth floor. I met my friend, Bing, on the first day, and he was a volunteer for another summer school. On the way, my heart was very embarrassed and panicked, because I had never worked before, and I was afraid that I would mess up the tasks assigned by the teacher, and I couldn't handle the relationship with other TAs and kids. With anxiety, I came to the school, and the teacher asked me and other TAs to stay at the school gate. When the students arrive, either they will be brought to the classroom or they will be taken to breakfast. In this way, we worked from eight to nine. Then all the students entered their classroom to start the class, and the TAs went to the classroom where they should go. Still, I stayed with the teacher and wanted her to give me some unique tasks, but the teacher still asked me to go to the classroom to be a TA.

          I stood at the entrance of the classroom. It was a fifth-grade class. Inside the classroom was a teacher.

          "I'm the teacher's assistant of this class," I said nervously.

          "Welcome, please come in." The teacher said to me with a smile.

          I entered the classroom and stood at a corner of the classroom. The teacher went on to introduce herself and talk about some class discipline.

          However, a few minutes later, a TA came in and called me away. He said I was assigned to another class, a fifth-grade Chinese class. I went in and the teacher had already started the lecture. I stood by the door, thinking about what to do next, but I knew I couldn't sit down because the teacher was standing. After a while, I started walking around, pretending that I was performing my duties. In this way, I walked for three or four hours until the morning class ended. Immediately afterward, I helped the teacher take the students to the cafeteria for lunch. When I got there, I saw a lot of students in different uniforms lining up to take lunch. The teacher walked to the end of a line and led the students to wait in line for lunch. Looking away, it's like a group of colorful ants lining up to move things. Half an hour later, the students finished lunch and returned to the classroom, and the teacher asked me to leave for a break or lunch.

          I walked out of school and called Junjie and Xiao. After a while, the two of them came out, and then we went to a market for dinner. When we got there, we didn't know what to eat, because we were all too tired, so we simply ate something and went back to school. After returning to school, we started the afternoon class. I was in the second-grade class in the afternoon, there were about 30 plus students in that classroom. The teacher teaches math and English. On Wednesday, another teacher will teach them to dance for the show, and because of the students’ age and population, there are about 5 TAs in this class including me. 

          The afternoon class is the same as the morning class, which is boring, I help the teacher to keep the class quiet,  check works, and explain the questions to the students. The difference is this class is very chaotic and the students have numerous questions for me, which let me feel very troubled. 

          After the class was over, the teacher and I took the students to the auditorium to dismiss them when all students were take by their parent. I returned to the classroom to help to clean the classroom. After finishing that, I went to other rooms and find other TAs to chat with them. We shared lots of funny things and we also complained about many things. Then, we signed the sheet and left school. 

          On the way back, I bought a big watermelon and some beverages because I was so thirsty, because I spoke a lot and had nothing to drink. When I got home, I layed on my bed to eat half the watermelon and drink all the beverages for my dinner.

                                           -July 13,2018-

          Today is Friday. The school is taking students to the amusement park. I came to school early in the morning.

          "Do you want to stay at school or go on the trip?" The teacher asked

          "Go on the trip," I answered.

          "Then you want to follow the second or fifth grade?" She continued to ask.

          "Fifth grade, they won't get lost easily." I replied

          After the teacher asked me, I was assigned to the fifth grade class. Then I started taking students to breakfast or to their class. Until nine o'clock, the students were almost here, and I planned to return to the class.

          "Wait a minute, Shibo." The teacher stopped me suddenly

          "What's the matter?" I asked back

          "Don't go up first, you and TAs will bring the water to the school bus." She said, pointing at a pile of water.

          I glanced over and there were about ten cases of water there, and they placed like a hill. Then I took a look at the location of the school bus, and estimated that it was about tens of meters away, and I was desperate.

          "Let's get started." I lifted a crate of water and said to the others.

          After ten minutes, we finally moved the water to the school bus, and a few of us were as tired as moving a mountain. At this time, the teachers also brought the students down. I found my class and followed them to the school bus of our class. When I got to the school bus, it was very crowded. The teacher asked three students to sit in two seats. And I was sitting with another little boy because we were all fat. On the way, the little boy introduced me to himself and his old sister. But, there also some students feel uncomfortable because they are motion sickness, so I need to console these students; fortunately, they didn’t vomit on the bus.

          When I got there, I regretted it. Because second-year TAs can be played with some short students . After we got there, my class teacher asked the students to put down their things and go to play. I can only sit with the teacher and watch the students' things. That's it, I sat in the amusement park all day.

          When I came back, the teacher asked me to remove the water from the school bus and gave it to the students. I stood in front of the school bus and gave water to every student or teacher who got on the bus. When I saw a five-year-old girl coming over, I bent down and handed her the water.

          "Say thank you Uncle." The assistant teacher next to the little girl said to the little girl

          "Thank you Uncle." The little girl said to me

          I was so depressed because I was only five years older than her and I didn't look that old.

                                              -July 25, 2018-

          Today is still so boring. After lunch, I came to the second-grade class. Not surprisingly, this afternoon will be very difficult, because these students will learn to dance again. Every time they learn to dance, the girls go out to study in a wide place, while the boys stay in the class to learn. Whenever the girls go out, the boys will run around in the class because they don't want to learn to dance. Every time, our TA will catch every student and give it to the teacher. But every time there are special naughty students.

          "Why not dance?" I asked

          "I don't want to, ha ha ha." He replied

          I continued to say "But every student is there and they are waiting for you."

          "Then let them wait, I just don't go," he continued.

          The teacher did it and said, "Get up, go to the team, you have to learn to dance."

          "I don't go dancing," he said

          Then the teacher asked me to pull him up, and I went to pull him, but he kicked me.

          "Why kick me? It's very impolite." I asked

          "I don't want to go dancing." He said

          In the end, the teacher gave up on him. And other students started to learn. After a while, he suddenly laughed.

          I walked over and asked him, "Why do you laugh, you should be quiet, others are learning to dance."

          "I just want to laugh, and they jump too silly." He said

          "You shouldn't laugh, let alone say it, it's very impolite." I said

          "You don't care, I just want to laugh." He also said

          I was annoyed and said, "If you laugh again, the teacher will let you out."

          He calmed down, and the other students began to learn to dance again.

          "HaHaHaHaHa, you're jumping too stupidly" he suddenly laughed

          The teacher was also very angry and pointed at me and said, "Pull him out."

          I walked over to him and said, "Get up, the teacher will let you out."

          "I won't, I won't go out." He said

          I was very helpless and reached out to pull him, but he kicked me again.

          I was very angry and asked, "Why are you doing this for me? You are so rude."

          He kicked me a few more times, and I avoided and left angrily.

          I felt very angry, I grabbed his hand, but let it down again. The teacher noticed something different, she called I leave the little boy. The little boy seemed to feel my anger and calmed down. After school, I shared my experiences with other TAs, and they said they had similar experiences, and they also put up with it. I feeling that it's not easy to be a TA.