Caleb C.: December 9, 2011- Biztown fun

(8:35pm)

Doña, I love and appreciate you more now that we went to the Junior Achievement trip. We had to volunteer at Biztown and had to help teach kids from Windsor Hills Elementary, grades 3 through 5, about how businesses are ran in the real world. I got to run Best Buy (because I’m a GEEK ☺). My kids (4; 2 boys and 2 girls, one being a 3^rd grader) looked sweet at first, but were wild. First off, the two girls, Emoni and Tavion, were just sassy as could be. We (or they) had to wear best buy shirts and caps, so they LITERALLY argued with me about why they had to put the uniforms on. Here are some examples of things said:

· Why we gotta wear these, my outfit already look good

· I can’t mess up my hair, you know how long it took

· This thing is hot as heck!

· Is there a bigger size shirt, this one’s too loose

· I don’t want to wear this hat, I’m gonna sweat out my hair

I just told them to take the hats off, because I know black girls and their hair. The boys, Terrell and Chauncey (who tried to change his name to John), wouldn’t sit still. Well, let me stop and say that I liked Terrell’s suit. This boy came in with a business suit on ready to work. Chauncey was a head taller than me. I had to look up every time he asked me a question. His problem kind of dealt with laziness and lack of focus. Every chance he got, he would be on the Kinect that we were supposed to be selling play time for. His job was to create business websites for anyone who wanted a website or run errands for the business when needed, and balance his check book. No one really wanted a web page (only 3 out of 14 businesses wanted one), and our computer did crash mid way (wasn’t my fault, Carney), so he’s excused from that. But, he spent time on the kinect, over-drew on his account by $3 with purchases, and didn’t balance his check book. He did collect money from the kids who wanted play time though.

The kids each got breaks according to their sticker color. There were 3 stickers (green, Blue and Yellow), but, either because of me or them or both, I handed one of them the wrong sticker, so we only had blue and yellow. They, for the most part were productive during the time working up to their breaks, and during their breaks. There were supposed to be 6 jobs, but we only had 4 kids, so I gave the girls the two extra jobs since they said they had nothing else to do. They worked diligently, too. Terrell, my man, came in and bugged me to death about his job, which was balancing the company’s money account (paying bills, putting in payments received, printing pay checks, etc.), but once he got the hang of it, that boy was on fire. He occasionally yelled at everyone to be quiet so he could do his work. Chauncey………he just needed some work. He was a good kid, he was capable, he was smart, just didn’t apply himself.

We had to make prices for our products between $4 and $9, and let me tell ya, these kids know how to hustle some money out of ya. Wanna know our price list:

· Kinect time: $6 (supposed to have been $2 according to the packet I got)

· Rubik’s cube (tiny ones): $5

· Balloons (unblown, were supposed to be filled with sand and become stress balls): $4

· Animal pens: $9

· Post it notes: $6

· Geek squad support (didn’t do, but according to what the sheet suggested): $3

I was rollin’ when I saw that price list, and they were hustlin’ like they were some business people. The kids and the teachers were talking (and complaining) about the prices. It was almost like the same reactions adults have when they see gas prices, but they were still paying the prices. I attempted to change the prices once, but then Emoni yelled at me.

When it came for the volunteers to have lunch, I had a headache. I went into the back room and just hugged Doña and told her how much I appreciated her as a teacher. I really can’t be a teacher, y’all. I need more patience for that. I thought the 1^st graders were hard, but 5^th graders seem worse.

I did enjoy my time though. I forgot to grab batteries and Doña’s memory card, but it was still fun. We got invited back☻. The kids, though they gave me a head ache, were very respectful. I loved hearing them call me Mr. Caleb, but not all at once or tugging me. My favorite ones had to be Terrell and Emoni. I didn’t think that we would pay off our loan, but apparently we paid the whole thing off PLUS had extra money for our company. I wish I could hang with them again, but that’s unlikely. I should have gotten their full names so that we could pen-pal each other :(. Oh well‼☺ I kinda hope they never find out that I blogged about them.