My blog

Village Project Experience

One insight that I have from the Village Project Experience is seeing the impact I was making on the students. This was very important to me because the students wanted me to come back every day, even though I knew that could not happen with my schedule, but it was very cool to see them wanting me back and see right away the impact I was having on the students. Another thing I enjoyed from the Village Project was how the local schools wanted our help. I think it is something cool for the younger school-aged kids to see older kids helping in the community, it sets a precedent as being a role-model. Another thing that I enjoyed with the Village Project was practicing my communication skills with younger aged children. I think no matter how many classes you take in college surrounding communicating with elementary school kids, the real teaching is actually doing it with the kids. Another thing I enjoyed from the Village Project Experience was interacting with older student teachers that could give me tips and advice. It was cool that I could go to them with questions and they could answer them and give me more tips and tricks on how to deal with issues if I was having one with a child. Lastly, I enjoyed reflecting on the Village Project Experience during class because you got to hear from each other and the different experience we each were having at different schools.

Class

One experience from class that I liked was when class starts we meditate. I like this because I think with the stress of college and a lot of us do not get the time to just take 5 minutes and relax. Another thing I enjoy from the class is that it is project-based. I feel that I can show my knowledge better through projects rather than tests. Another thing I enjoy from the class is when we designed our own school. I enjoyed this because it got us to think about every part within a school and find ways to implement them within a school to meet the needs of the students. Another thing I enjoyed from the class was talking about AI and the impact it will definitely have on education. I found this meaningful because we got to research various topics and then double-check the resources with AI and we got to see the impact AI will have on teaching and the world of education. Lastly, I enjoyed talking about Bloom’s Taxonomy because it was cool to see the progress of when we all walked into the classroom we were at maybe understanding on the scale and by the end of the semester we were at creating a school. This is useful to me because I think part of being a educator is believing in ourselves that we can do and create things and instill that belief in our own students.

Part 1 

With being a volunteer at Doty Elementary School; I get the opportunity of working with many community partners within the Green Bay Area. I think it is important that as pre-teachers we get that experience with working with outside community members because it is very impactful. I think an example of this is at our school they did a trick or treating event where parents and families came and donated goods from their car and got candy in return. This was a very rewarding experience to watch when we were working that day. I think an academic experience that was very impactful for me personally was there was a girl at our school that was non-english speaking and she was trying to give a girl who was english speaking a spelling test and she struggled but she asked if I would help her pronounce the words and towards the end she was able to read most of the words fluently or without much help. I think another aspect of volunteering that has been rewarding for me is watching the kids be kids. Yes, we do academic time but we also do STEM activities and the kids get recess time and it is fun being on the outside and watching the kids be creative and see what they can all do outside the academic realm. I enjoy when my entire carpool group is done with volunteering and we all talk about what is going on in each other’s classrooms and reflect how our day goes. I think one of my strengths is communication. I always try to talk with the kids and see how their day went and what homework they have to do during academic time and building those relationships with individual kids. I think one of my weaknesses is understanding these kid’s backgrounds. I know that sounds weird but I think it is truly hard for me to process sometimes what these kids go through on a daily basis and comprehend how that actually happens to these kids at such a young age. 

Part 2 

With working at a very diverse school, a lot of times these kids are not motivated because again they are thinking about things that are happening at home and their personal life, but how as young adults can we motivate these kids to do their schoolwork for example and leave the negativity of their home life and focus on being at school when they enter the school building?

One way that teaching in a urban setting may be unique is that they have less resources than what a public school may have. I think even if you have less resources you can still build relationships with students. Even though, that is not “education” students in a urban setting need those relationships because at home they have very few relationships. You as the teacher may be the only reason that these kids want to come to school. I think even if you have less resources you can still build a curriculum with what you have.

Another way that teaching in a urban setting may be unique is that these students come from a variety of different backgrounds. I think this has it challenges but also as the teacher you can learn from your students and their backgrounds that they will bring into the classroom. I think you could also use this as part of the curriculum and you could include the students in teaching a short lesson or something about their background so that the other students can get different perspectives and learn from each student. The students will be more engaged learning from their classmates and it will change the pace of the classroom in a good way.

Lastly, urban schools may offer more of a connection between students and teachers. I think it is very important for kids who come from diverse backgrounds to have a teacher that supports them and listens to them. I think if these kids have more of a connection with their teacher they will open up more and then will be able to form a trusting relationship between the teacher and student.