Question 2: The Right Path

With a new semester comes a new service learning project. Last semester I volunteered nearly 70 hours at an afterschool program for kids ages 4-17. I worked with them all on so many different subjects. I'd be tutoring a kid in physics one minute, get pulled away to color the next, then sent to the kitchen to chop potatoes the next and after dinner I'd pull kids around the big room on little scooter things. It was a learning experience and I loved it. So much that I'm going to volunteer at least one day a week this coming semester.

But I don't want to neglect my new service learning project either. I assist two teachers as they run an 8th and 9th grade study hall twice a week. It's the last period of the day so the kids are crazy. Two kids were filling out a favorites worksheet and asked me to come over and ask them more questions, as their teacher had done in class. Sure, why not. I notice one student's favorite time is 4:20 and the other's favorite movie is Pineapple Express. Yes, thanks for making that blatantly obvious. I ask them where their favorite place to hang out is and before they can answer I'm like, "Wait, I think I know...X Park?" This park is technically part of my campus and is well known among certain circles for certain activities. Who knows why the cops don't just chill there 24/7. Yeesh. But they laughed and said, yes, that is probably what they would have answered.

It's a different group than I expected. The kids at the afterschool program...that was all centered on getting them away from that stuff. And if they did anything, it was kept secret. For students to be this open, this candid, within 30 minutes of me meeting them? And for them to still show me respect when I (rather rudely) said, "You know, you could be doing other things with your time, then you wouldn't have to be bored here for an hour and you'd get to go home early," was quite unexpected.

During this whole time, the teacher in charge was off working with a specific student. His responses to some of the favorites disturbed her. Disturbed is too strong a word to describe my reaction. To me it just seemed like the student didn't want to be there and he certainly wasn't challenged by the work, so he just did whatever to finish the assignment. But she got all up in arms and spent half the period talking to just him. It seemed like she wanted to get him thinking about going down a different path in life. It's not that I disagree with her, this kid certainly needed some guidance. His outlook was quite dismal. But she was doing it all wrong! She went straight to "Oh no, this kid is terrible," instead of, "Oh no, what did I do wrong?" As a teacher, you have to look at yourself first. What can you change to get the kind of responses you want? How can you get the student interested? How can you motivate them? Singling them out for a one-on-one chat in a study hall generally isn't the best approach.

So the challenge then becomes, how do I know what each student needs? I know how to deal with kids like me, but I don't know how to deal with kids who aren't like me. The teacher I am serving under asked me all kinds of questions about why I chose to do my service learning at this school. I made up some bs answer because I didn't really know. I just walked up to the table without any labels and asked if they had a need for English and math tutors for 8th grade and up. Lucky me that's what they had. But now I do know. My service learning is to help me learn how to deal with kids who aren't like me. It's not to help me figure out what level I want to teach, or what subject I want to teach, or what kind of school I want to teach at. I know all that. None of that will change by going into that classroom. I won't be challenged by that. Service learning isn't to keep you safe. It's to get you out there and learning and changing so you become a better teacher. And what I need to change is how I deal with people. I need to get out there and expose myself to as many different kinds of students as possible so I know how to help all kinds of students grow. It won't be easy. I'm not exactly the most awesome and helpful person when I see someone messing up. But that's my goal through this service learning. And I think it's where I should be going.

Oh Hi

It's 3:40. I just got back from a friend's house. And I realized I did something totally stupid. The person who dropped me off said something to the effect of, "It was nice hanging out with you tonight," and I didn't say anything in response. Now, granted, I'm very sleepy. Less than 20 minutes prior, I had been falling asleep in this person's lap, so I mean, it's understandable. But I really hate it when I do that. I don't think it's too often.

This has been a pretty interesting break, and I still have one day left. I also have one goal left. I think I can figure it out. I can't really update anything online until events pan out in real life which is bugging me so much, but you guys, it's really for the best.