Now that everyone is starting to really get into your placement sites, I want you to consider the following series of questions. You may post this week or during the Spring Break if you will be attending your placement sites over the break.
What is your role with your partner organization?
How does your participation at their site advance their institutional mission?
Do you know what the mission is?
Are there multiple organizations you're serving?
What are your goals for this experience?
How do you keep track of your own goals for personal growth within this context?
My role at Tree House is to tutor the children. This includes helping with homework and then helping them with there 15 min of mandatory reading everyday. on Tuesday when I was there I helped a Little boy with his math homework and worked on doing it with out using our fingers to count.
ReplyDeletethe mission of tree house is to instill in the children a desire to read and to continue reading after they leave. we want the kids to get the most out of there education and in the class room it is had for their teachers to give them the time and attention they need to their problems. so that is what we are there to do.
my goals for this experience is to learn how to help the kids in anyway i can. i enjoy learning new ways to teach the kids. and working with different children and seeing how each of them learn. my main goal i guess is i really just want to help the kids and show them that there are people who care about their education and are willing to help.
the way i keep track of my goals is not by writing anything down but just by being able to help different kids each time and not having any problems. also the more the kid feel comfortable the more they see that i care and i want to help.
My role with Benjamin Franklin is a helper for the student success center. The student success center is an extra place for the students at Benjamin Franklin High School to get information about college to lessen the stress on the guidance counselors.
ReplyDeleteWhile being a helper at Benjamin Franklin, I play a jeopardy game with freshman and sophomores that is college based. Basically we are using a fun way to start them thinking about what they need to do before college. We will also hopefully increase the percentage of students from the high school that go to college after graduation.
I believe the mission of the student success center is to increase the rates of students that attend college. They also give a lot of information to students about FAFSA and other forms needed for college.
My goal for this experience is to see the percentage of students that go to college after graduation increase for this school. Knowing that I helped encourage students to go to college would mean a lot to me.
With my own goals, I have a feeling that I am succeeding by the way the students interact with the game and ask questions after the time is up.
What is your role with your partner organization?
ReplyDeleteMy role with Julia Deburgos is an AVID Tutor.
We play a very important role in the tutorial process and help strengthen student awareness of local colleges and universities.
AVID's mission is to close the achievement gap by preparing all students for college readiness and success in a global society. I am only serving AVID. My goal is to help AVID students at a lower academic level. I allow my personal goals to not be my motivation rather the greater cause and purpose.
@Jill
ReplyDeleteI love the mission of the SSC. I love the idea, message and approach around it.FAFSA is very important in the college process. Also getting the graduation rate to increase is also very important.
My role at Treehouse is to help the kids with their homework and make sure that they read a book of their reading level for at least fifteen minutes a day. Sometimes we have time for extra writing activities which is the theme for Tuesdays when I volunteer.
ReplyDeleteMy participation helps advance their organization because it would not exist without tutors. They stress our importance in the kids lives by not only helping them academically, but by being positive role models and guiding them to behave properly.
My goal is to help the kids discover their potential and leave with a desire to keep learning. I want them to realize that they can achieve their dreams and break the social and economic "glass ceiling."
@Ellyn
ReplyDeleteI also like that we get to work with different kids everytime because it helps us adapt to different learning styles and stay quick on our feet. While it is hard to manage distractions among the kids, I think that they are even helpful to eachother because they are all dedicating themselves to bettering their education. This commonality in their friendship makes for a positive Treehouse Community that encourages their academic prowess.
-Rebecca Tokar
I work as an AVID tutor at Fairhill Elementary. This involves leading my students to the path of academic success. I truly enjoy helping my kids and I go out of my way to make sure they understand the materials for the day. I believe in the AVID way and I think that without AVID a lot of these kids would not stand a chance in the real world. My experience with AVID was so inspirational that I decided to work with the GEAR-UP program as well. I am currently working at Germantown High School five days a week tutoring 9th graders in math. My goal is just to help as many kids as possible stay on the right path and hopefully make it to college.
ReplyDelete@Rebecca I think that your goal is wonderful. I know the kids where you work are younger and it is very important to let them know as early as possible that they can achieve their dreams!
ReplyDelete@ Jamala
ReplyDeleteI think that is very admirable that you are volunteering for GEARUP and Germantown High School. I know how high school kids can be tough. Also, I think you're playing a very important role in these kids lives because you said that they could not stand a chance in the real world. It's inspiring for kids to see someone VOLUNTEER to help them instead of getting paid. I think that means a lot to children to know that someone is actually taking time to help them.
Tree House’s mission is to grow and sustain a community of readers, writers, and thinkers in North Central Philadelphia. At Tree House I act as a mentor/tutor. My purpose is to start and help the students with their homework, and encourage them to read. My volunteering helps this organization by giving the student the attention they need. By working with them one-on-one lets the students know that people care about what they are doing and appreciate the students’ efforts and hard work. My personal goal is to encourage the students to learn and give them appraisals for their effort. I’ll keep track of my goals with this blog by writing down my experiences and reflecting on the work I’ve in the past week.
ReplyDelete@ Jill
ReplyDeleteI think its really cool that your encouraging Ben Franklin students to continue their education and getting them interested in a better future.
I am a tutor with AVID. My role is to motivate and guide the students through their AVID sessions. During each session the students bring in questions from their homework assignments. Together the students help solve the question. As a tutor, my responsibility is to keep the students on task, to motivate them, instigate questioning, and also to serve as a positive role model in their life.
ReplyDeleteI am specifically serving the AVID organization. However, I feel that I am also serving the Furgison Elementary School organization and the Philadelphia School system as well as the community by helping out.
The goals I have for this experience are to have a greater understanding and level of respect for teachers as well as develop an understanding of how 7th and 8th graders think/act. At first I thought my main goals would be to simply "help students succeed," but now I feel that I will be happier if I come out of this experience with more of an understanding of what makes these kids WANT to learn and what grabs their attention.
My participation helps advance their system just as any volunteer advances a volunteering program. I am there to lend an extra hand of help. I feel that a strong point of AVID is to persuade students to develop a passion to go to college. Therefore, being a successful college student, I am a key player in what will persuade these kids to develop the mind set that college is a long term goal, definitely worth pursuing. Although a teacher is more than capable of teacher students their class materials, I think that it helps the students have college in the back of their mind more, when they work with first hand examples [the tutors] on a weekly basis.
I am keeping track of these goals and my personal growth actually through my interaction with the kids. Each week I feel myself becoming more comfortable and myself with the students and the teacher. As I become more comfortable, I know that I am successfully engaging with them. On the flip side, each week I take time to gauge how the students are responding to me and how they interact with me. If I feel that they have opened up more so than the previous week, then I know that I am on track.
@Ellyn
ReplyDeleteI think that is a good point you have made regarding "Letting kids know that someone cares about them enough to help." I have been fortunate enough to go to good schools where the teachers are enthusiastic and empathetic towards their students. I have also grown up with a substantial support system. Sometimes I forget that a lot of these students in the Philadelphia area do not have the accessibility to motivation [from role models] as I did. It is more of an independent process for the students of Philadelphia to succeed in a way than I had experienced. Therefore I agree with you that it is excellent that we are helping tutor the kids to let them know they are not totally alone as they mature.
I am an AVID tutor at Bache Martin Elementary school. I am there to help guide the students to higher level thinking. One of the problems I encounter is that the students do not help each other to find the answers and as a result I do more talking than I should. As part of AVID I am helping the students find answers by thinking deeper and using their peers as a resource. I hope to help these students understand some of the problems they find more difficult in their classes. One of my personal goals is to become more comfortable prompting the students to find the answers themselves. It is sometimes stressful to create questions on the spot that will help them think without giving them the answers. I write reflections each week to keep track of my comfort level and the students’ progress.
ReplyDelete@Elizabeth S
ReplyDeleteI also feel that we help the the district reach their goals. One week after the students in my group were not focused, the teacher in my classroom said she called the parents to tell them there about AVID and that the kids have free tutors ever week. Onece the parents had more information, the kids began working harder. If the parents are involved, the students have more support outside of school. Then once students improve, the school's ranking also advances.
At the Student Success Center at Benjamin Franklin, my role is to inform younger students (freshman and sophomore) about the importance of college and the impact it will make with future decisions in life. The SSC itself builds a foundation upon college activities and college preparatory activities. Some examples FAFSA, applications, and signing up for ACT/SAT. The SSC helps throughout the process with older students as we introduce the idea with the younger ones. The mission is to spark interests early so that the kids could think about what they're doing in school which will impact their final transcript. We are not serving multiple organizations but multiple organizations serve the SSC such as Philadelphia Student Union and Kappa League.
ReplyDeleteMy goals for this experience is to make sure that I make a difference in a student's life. During spring break, I went in on my own time and I helped a student with his senior project. I helped him turn his paper into a presentation and I knew he appreciated it. I even exchanged e-mails and set up another appointment with him. After helping him, I joined in on the meeting that was being help by the Student Union. Students there invited me to their school-wide "Soul Train" and it really welcomed me into the school. I thought that this was the beginning of my reaching my goal.
i would like to think of my role as a gardener. I help plant a seed about the importance of college and water it, by providing basic knowledge about college and the impact it will have on their future.I am a college student and that already lend to their mission of getting the students thinking about college.I depart the knowledge i have with the students.My participation helps in promoting college education. The mission is to introduce college to students earlier, to motivate them and allow them to start thinking about college. I think that we are serving multiple organizations ( the school and the success center). My goal for this experience is to encourage,support and motivate the students. I hope to learn from the students and have them learn from me as well. I keep track of own goal mentally.
ReplyDelete@ Rebecca
ReplyDeleteI like that you not only saw yourself helping the
student academically but that you also serve as a role model to the students. Reading is essential to everyone and sometimes it hard to get kids interested. I also like your comment about breaking the cycle of economic and social "glass ceiling". What is the glass ceiling in your opinion?
My role at Bache-Martin Elementary school is to help the students to have a higher understanding of what ever questions they have to ask, and to encourage them to explore for themselves of what they think as interesting. The mission of AVID is to preparing all students for college and success in a global society. My participation at the site provide additional support to the students by helping them through what they don't understand in class, encourage their motivation to ask question, and therefore support the role of AVID's mission. My goal for this experience is to enrich the students with some motivations to ask question and to explore on their own the technique to do the problems, questions they have. To keep track of my own goal, i think i have to enrich myself with the same kind of motivation that i wanted to gives to the students, then i can find myself a little closer to the student and see where i'm at .
ReplyDelete