The blog will serve as a medium for students from Temple University’s Education in the Global City to connect their classroom activities with their Philadelphia volunteer site experiences. The course is geared to develop your understanding of the history, society, culture and political systems of the U.S. In addition to teaching them how to interpret historical & cultural materials and articulate their point of view about the role globalization and education has played in American history.
Although Tree House wasn't exactly as I imagined it would be, my expectations have remained to encourage the kids to develop a personal interest in their academic work and reading. In the final month at my placement site, I am looking forward to meeting with the volunteers to share about our experiences. I think reflecting upon our tutoring time will help us all to be better educators in the future. I had an idea that when a tutor leaves, we should post their name tag on a bulletin board. The board will represent everyone who has ever come in and touched the lives of the students, reminding them that people care greatly about them. This will hopefully encourage the kids to keep trying their best.
My expectations have stayed the same. I knew coming into this program would be a rough start being that this year is it's first in the school district. I will just continue to come twice a week and go out with a bang. We started late and are ending early, so the best thing that I can do is come twice a week.
Continue to be consistent and a role model to the students. Reflection is a great idea and vital to increasing performance in programs. The board idea is a great idea, this will encourage students because they know that they have and will continue to have support.
Through my experience I realized how hard it is to teach young kids and to not expect behavioral changes in them. All the kids seem to look a lot older than they actually are, and at times they act older by being gossipy and know a lot about each other’s family situations. I think Tree House needs to let the volunteers know what grade each student is in and how old they are. Also tree House should separate students from the same grades and have an older student mentor a younger student. Each week students are getting away with acting disrespectful and the only way to get them to behave is by threatening them with a demerit or telling them that they can no longer come to Tree House. I’m expectation for this last month is to continue helping out the students to the best of my ability and hoping to see some progress in their work and reading levels.
I think separating the kids by age can be problematic because a lot of them have the same homework and copy off of eachother. Also, I've found that tutoring two kids of different ages at one time is better because they are not in direct competition academically. Also, the younger one looks up to the older one, and the older one feels good about being able to help the younger one with their homework. I think it fosters pride in their learning experience.
My expectations haven’t changed all that much over the semester. The only thing that has really changed is that I know what to expect. I know now going into tree house to expect a bit of a challenge from the students. This isn’t really a challenge of getting their homework and reading done it’s a challenge of getting there trust. The kids generally want to get their work done but it’s more who they want to do it with, who they trust and believe wants to work with them. In the final month of work at the site I simply expect to help the children as best I can with their homework and reading. There is nothing more I can do myself but show them that I care and want to help.
To be perfectly honest, my initial perception of what this tutoring experience would be is very different that the reality of the atmosphere. I was very stressed out about the idea of maintaining 7 students on my own. Throughout the semester though I have learned that the experience is not as stressful as I had once thought. It is true that the learning process is a dynamic experience. It is something that the tutor and students need to work together in order to accomplish a goal. This was hard at times when the students seemed unmotivated and uninterested.
Much of what I learned about the dynamics of teaching and mentoring students came from observing Ms. Hicks - my placement site's teacher. She is a great example of a teacher that is very involved with her students. She demands respect, and receives it, but is also able to maintain a fun and casual atmosphere with her students.
Initially I expected myself to learn through personal do-ings. By tutoring the students and being placed in the teachers position. Unfortunately though, I have not had as much experience doing so as I would have liked. Therefore I am learning a lot from observing Ms. Hicks and her interactions with the students and how they interact with her. Therefore my expectations have evolved from what I thought would be a purely introverted examination to a descriptive examination of Ms. Hicks and the students which is then cross analyzed with an introspective examination of myself and how I personally interact with the students.
Within the final month at my placement site I would like to feel that the students are truly excited about high school and actually to have college in mind. This applies more so to the 8th graders in my AVID placement site. Many of them are excited about high school. I want to make sure that they have the necessary forethoughts in their mind about how grades, academics, and extracurricular activities will effect their acceptance into college. Hopefully I will feel satisfied that I have presented myself as an appropriate role model that the students will learn from my existence in the classroom and aspire to be a college student themselves one day.
I think that I am going to start going to my placement site twice a week as well because I have learned that once a week does not seem like a sufficient amount of time to develop a strong connection and/or tutor-student relationship. Especially since the classes are only 45 minutes long.
I am surprised though that your expectations have not changed at all? Have you been surprised, overwhelmed, and/or underwhelmed by anything in your AVID site? There must be something that surprised you this semester! I know me and you had talked in class Monday night about how we were surprised at the lack of structure that was taking place in our AVID sites and then concluded that it was because it was a new program being implemented in its first year.
When I first began at my placement site, I worried about not being able to make a difference because we only saw our kids once. OVer the semester, we saw some of the same students and they retained some of the information from our Jeopardy game. When I first had my concerns, I had a conversation with Kellian and she told me that our goal is to plant a seed into the freshman and sophomores' heads about college. I am no longer worried about not making a difference because I feel as though we do what we can in our time limit. We always have kids that care to participate and those that are "too cool" to talk but I feel like everyone takes something with them when they leave our workshop. I believe that we have planted a seed in some, not all of the kids but a little bit goes a long way. We have completed our sessions at Benjamin Franklin High School but I have seen and learned a lot from each and every student.
@ Elizabeth at Tree House I believe that you are doing a good job by being consistent and showing up every week. A lot of kids like to see dedication to fully trust someone. However that seems to be working against you because the more familiar they get with tutors, the more disrespectful they are. Be firm and remember your goal because in the end, all you can do is try. Not everyone will cooperate but at the end of the day, you know you did your best.
Over the course of the semester my expectations for my placement at Benjamin Franklin have changed. In the beginning I expected the coordinators to help us out with everything until we were comfortable with the students. Now we just walk in and take over our program for the day. My expectation for the students has remained the same through out the semester. When dealing with high school student you have to understand that some very bright students won't let their intelligence show and that was proved during our jeopardy game. Sadly we only have one visit left for the marking period, but I hope to make it the best visit there yet.
@ Ari I'm really impressed by your thinking. Seeing your students twice a week must help a lot! I wish that we could see more of the same students at Benjamin Franklin, but unfortunately we get new students every week.
When I first started AVID, I expected to have the same responsibilities as the tutor in the tutorial video that was shown in training. The students would be respectful of each other and help each other find answers to their questions. At my site, the students were difficult to organize and motivate. They never all had questions and often any questions they did have were consistently level 1. Their questions also never improved. I assumed that we would progress from level 1 questions at the beginning of the semester to level 3 questions by the end session. My expectations for the students soon became small-scale. I was pleased when all the students participated in relevant discussions, and at least attempted the problem presented. I hope to engage all the students in our last session together and organize a college-related activity that will interest them.
@Jill I think that some students don't want to provide intellegent answers around their peers. In the beginning of the semester, some of the students at my site liked to fool around and immaturely answered my questions. As the semester progresses they seem more comfortable giving appropriate answers. They still don't always do the work or participate affectively, but I think some progress is being made. It may be a disadvantage to interact with different students each week.
My expectation have not changed and I still want to leave AVID knowing that I had some type positive influence on the kids.
I expect for the students to know that I was not just another person there to get college credit but I actually cared about making difference in their lives.
My expectation has not changed I believed that seeds were palnted based on the conversation i had with some of the students. I believe that has long as a seed has been planted something will flourish. How long it will take is up to the students who will have to continue to strive in order to succeed. I hope that i have left some positive influence on the students.
Although Tree House wasn't exactly as I imagined it would be, my expectations have remained to encourage the kids to develop a personal interest in their academic work and reading. In the final month at my placement site, I am looking forward to meeting with the volunteers to share about our experiences. I think reflecting upon our tutoring time will help us all to be better educators in the future. I had an idea that when a tutor leaves, we should post their name tag on a bulletin board. The board will represent everyone who has ever come in and touched the lives of the students, reminding them that people care greatly about them. This will hopefully encourage the kids to keep trying their best.
ReplyDeleteRebecca Tokar
My expectations have stayed the same. I knew coming into this program would be a rough start being that this year is it's first in the school district. I will just continue to come twice a week and go out with a bang. We started late and are ending early, so the best thing that I can do is come twice a week.
ReplyDelete@Rebecca
ReplyDeleteContinue to be consistent and a role model to the students. Reflection is a great idea and vital to increasing performance in programs. The board idea is a great idea, this will encourage students because they know that they have and will continue to have support.
Through my experience I realized how hard it is to teach young kids and to not expect behavioral changes in them. All the kids seem to look a lot older than they actually are, and at times they act older by being gossipy and know a lot about each other’s family situations. I think Tree House needs to let the volunteers know what grade each student is in and how old they are. Also tree House should separate students from the same grades and have an older student mentor a younger student. Each week students are getting away with acting disrespectful and the only way to get them to behave is by threatening them with a demerit or telling them that they can no longer come to Tree House. I’m expectation for this last month is to continue helping out the students to the best of my ability and hoping to see some progress in their work and reading levels.
ReplyDelete@Elizabeth
ReplyDeleteI think separating the kids by age can be problematic because a lot of them have the same homework and copy off of eachother. Also, I've found that tutoring two kids of different ages at one time is better because they are not in direct competition academically. Also, the younger one looks up to the older one, and the older one feels good about being able to help the younger one with their homework. I think it fosters pride in their learning experience.
Rebecca Tokar
My expectations haven’t changed all that much over the semester. The only thing that has really changed is that I know what to expect. I know now going into tree house to expect a bit of a challenge from the students. This isn’t really a challenge of getting their homework and reading done it’s a challenge of getting there trust. The kids generally want to get their work done but it’s more who they want to do it with, who they trust and believe wants to work with them. In the final month of work at the site I simply expect to help the children as best I can with their homework and reading. There is nothing more I can do myself but show them that I care and want to help.
ReplyDeleteTo be perfectly honest, my initial perception of what this tutoring experience would be is very different that the reality of the atmosphere. I was very stressed out about the idea of maintaining 7 students on my own. Throughout the semester though I have learned that the experience is not as stressful as I had once thought. It is true that the learning process is a dynamic experience. It is something that the tutor and students need to work together in order to accomplish a goal. This was hard at times when the students seemed unmotivated and uninterested.
ReplyDeleteMuch of what I learned about the dynamics of teaching and mentoring students came from observing Ms. Hicks - my placement site's teacher. She is a great example of a teacher that is very involved with her students. She demands respect, and receives it, but is also able to maintain a fun and casual atmosphere with her students.
Initially I expected myself to learn through personal do-ings. By tutoring the students and being placed in the teachers position. Unfortunately though, I have not had as much experience doing so as I would have liked. Therefore I am learning a lot from observing Ms. Hicks and her interactions with the students and how they interact with her. Therefore my expectations have evolved from what I thought would be a purely introverted examination to a descriptive examination of Ms. Hicks and the students which is then cross analyzed with an introspective examination of myself and how I personally interact with the students.
Within the final month at my placement site I would like to feel that the students are truly excited about high school and actually to have college in mind. This applies more so to the 8th graders in my AVID placement site. Many of them are excited about high school. I want to make sure that they have the necessary forethoughts in their mind about how grades, academics, and extracurricular activities will effect their acceptance into college. Hopefully I will feel satisfied that I have presented myself as an appropriate role model that the students will learn from my existence in the classroom and aspire to be a college student themselves one day.
@Ari Jones
ReplyDeleteI think that I am going to start going to my placement site twice a week as well because I have learned that once a week does not seem like a sufficient amount of time to develop a strong connection and/or tutor-student relationship. Especially since the classes are only 45 minutes long.
I am surprised though that your expectations have not changed at all? Have you been surprised, overwhelmed, and/or underwhelmed by anything in your AVID site? There must be something that surprised you this semester! I know me and you had talked in class Monday night about how we were surprised at the lack of structure that was taking place in our AVID sites and then concluded that it was because it was a new program being implemented in its first year.
When I first began at my placement site, I worried about not being able to make a difference because we only saw our kids once. OVer the semester, we saw some of the same students and they retained some of the information from our Jeopardy game. When I first had my concerns, I had a conversation with Kellian and she told me that our goal is to plant a seed into the freshman and sophomores' heads about college. I am no longer worried about not making a difference because I feel as though we do what we can in our time limit. We always have kids that care to participate and those that are "too cool" to talk but I feel like everyone takes something with them when they leave our workshop. I believe that we have planted a seed in some, not all of the kids but a little bit goes a long way.
ReplyDeleteWe have completed our sessions at Benjamin Franklin High School but I have seen and learned a lot from each and every student.
@ Elizabeth at Tree House
ReplyDeleteI believe that you are doing a good job by being consistent and showing up every week. A lot of kids like to see dedication to fully trust someone. However that seems to be working against you because the more familiar they get with tutors, the more disrespectful they are. Be firm and remember your goal because in the end, all you can do is try. Not everyone will cooperate but at the end of the day, you know you did your best.
Over the course of the semester my expectations for my placement at Benjamin Franklin have changed. In the beginning I expected the coordinators to help us out with everything until we were comfortable with the students. Now we just walk in and take over our program for the day. My expectation for the students has remained the same through out the semester. When dealing with high school student you have to understand that some very bright students won't let their intelligence show and that was proved during our jeopardy game.
ReplyDeleteSadly we only have one visit left for the marking period, but I hope to make it the best visit there yet.
@ Ari
ReplyDeleteI'm really impressed by your thinking. Seeing your students twice a week must help a lot! I wish that we could see more of the same students at Benjamin Franklin, but unfortunately we get new students every week.
When I first started AVID, I expected to have the same responsibilities as the tutor in the tutorial video that was shown in training. The students would be respectful of each other and help each other find answers to their questions. At my site, the students were difficult to organize and motivate. They never all had questions and often any questions they did have were consistently level 1. Their questions also never improved. I assumed that we would progress from level 1 questions at the beginning of the semester to level 3 questions by the end session. My expectations for the students soon became small-scale. I was pleased when all the students participated in relevant discussions, and at least attempted the problem presented. I hope to engage all the students in our last session together and organize a college-related activity that will interest them.
ReplyDelete@Jill
ReplyDeleteI think that some students don't want to provide intellegent answers around their peers. In the beginning of the semester, some of the students at my site liked to fool around and immaturely answered my questions. As the semester progresses they seem more comfortable giving appropriate answers. They still don't always do the work or participate affectively, but I think some progress is being made. It may be a disadvantage to interact with different students each week.
My expectation have not changed and I still want to leave AVID knowing that I had some type positive influence on the kids.
ReplyDeleteI expect for the students to know that I was not just another person there to get college credit but I actually cared about making difference in their lives.
My expectation has not changed I believed that seeds were palnted based on the conversation i had with some of the students. I believe that has long as a seed has been planted something will flourish. How long it will take is up to the students who will have to continue to strive in order to succeed. I hope that i have left some positive influence on the students.
ReplyDelete