Article
What I Learn by Teaching
ID # 3725
This semester, I volunteered in two middle school classrooms every Friday – one a 7th grade English class, the other an 8th grade Social Studies class. I have helped students construct timelines of their lives, write poems which describe their personalities, and draft skits about the colonization of America. A particularly memorable moment was when three kids in the Social Studies class were trying to create a rap about being Irish settlers in the New World, set to the tune of Im On A Boat (a rap song by a popular comedy group). I felt like the cool college kid who helped them infuse historical facts and perspectives into their creative, hip rap, making the subject matter a little more relatable.
One of the most interesting aspects of volunteering this semester has been working one-on-one with international students who have come to the States within the past five or so years. At one school, I was asked to pay special attention to a Korean student who doesnt have the best hold of the English language yet. I helped him draft a timeline of his life, getting to the point where he understood the task and contributed a few memories (including that he once touched a snake in Indonesia!).
Every student has his or her own way of learning: some work best alone, undisturbed; others need a classroom helper to sit down with them and go step-by-step through an assignment; some students get easily distracted by their friends, while others are inspired by working with peers. Oftentimes you can just tell from the mood of the class whether they are going to be more or less productive that day, and each class period is completely different. Both of the teachers I work with have confided in me about some of the challenges they face, many of which are issues weve discussed in my INTS 290 class – such as: how to adapt a lesson plan for children of all learning styles; how to specialize assignments based on the abilities of each student; how to decide what the main take-away of a lesson plan will be (i.e., learning skills rather than content); how to make sure that ELL students understand whats going on in class and dont get left behind; and how to create an inclusive environment which lets each child grow as an individual and as a student. So far, its been a great experience, especially since so much of what weve learning about in our Carolina Navigators class directly relates to the realities of education which Im witnessing firsthand!