JLN
Engaged Learning
Harold Blythe
Embedded Files
Mr. Angelov(left), Mr. Ellis(right), and me
Purpose
My engaged learning experience was volunteering to help with a middle school summer enrichment camp at Lynhurst 7th and 8th Grade Center. As a volunteer summer school assistant, my primary role was to assist Mr. Angelov, the teacher I was working with. I helped kids individually with their assignments, made sure they were on task and focused, and gave them feedback on their work. The main assignment for the class was creating a resume after we showed them what it is. The camp was only 3 weeks long with short days, so the classes were about 35 minutes each. I chose this experience because it would give me direct experience in helping kids in school, and it allowed me to complete my experience during convenient summer hours.
Prior Experience
My experience had a lot of meaningful experiences, ranging from interacting with students to seeing how you must adapt your lesson plans to adjust for lost time. I had a connection from my experience and JLN because I was helping to teach the students how to write resumes, which is something we covered in JLN. I think my experience helped prepare me for teaching by giving me an example of what it’s like to try to keep kids focused. I also saw examples of how some students need different accommodations, like the Spanish-speaking students needing help with translations. Although I did not end up being in a math-focused classroom, I still got good practice for teaching in general. I also related this experience to my current experiences volunteering at high school math classes, and I noticed that the middle school students were generally more talkative and excitable than high school students. This is why I think it's important to explain how the math I will be teaching is used in the real world in order to keep the class interesting.
Example of a daily agenda for the students
This is the classroom I worked in.
Community Connections
While there was definitely a diverse group of students I worked with, I don’t think it was very different from my own school experiences. However, being able to interact with students who struggled with their work gave me a better insight into how to help them. I improved my ability to find out what they are struggling with and explain it in a different way. I strengthened my belief that every student is capable of high achievement with enough effort and guidance. Overall, I think the environment of many students of differing abilities, rather than a group of all advanced students, allowed me to adapt and grow. This experience has been my only time so far in a classroom where I got to see every group of students each day and not just a select few periods. I think this exposure to multiple classes allowed me to practice teaching skills more and not get comfortable with just one or two classes each week.
This schedule shows how many classes I worked with and when
New Skills
I think my overall experience at the school showed me that knowing how to adjust lesson plans is an important skill. The teacher I was learning from, Mr. Angelov, had the whole 3-week program loosely planned, but we often did not get as far as intended, or different classes went further than others. To adjust for less time, we condensed or removed certain parts of the lesson plans to ensure that students were still having a beneficial learning experience. For example, towards the end of the section where students learned how to make resumes, they were initially going to peer review their resumes before making the final draft. However, to make up for having less time, Mr. Angelov and I individually helped each student by giving them advice on what should be changed and letting them know what they did well on. Along with learning how to adapt in lessons, I also learned more about how to better ask and answer questions so that students still have the best learning oppurtunities. Since math is my content area, it's important for me to let students learn how to think deductively and problem solve on their own. Therefore, the way that you answer questions is important and this was a good way for me to practice.
Impact
This engaged learning experience reassured me that teaching is what I want to do. I enjoyed interacting with students and learning more about how to better ask and answer questions to best facilitate learning. I think I helped leave an impact on the students with the help of Mr. Angelov by getting students to start thinking about what career they want to pursue. I also think I helped some students be more confident in their accomplishments when helping them write their resumes. Since this was my first time having an experience in a teaching setting in the classroom, I think this changed my view of teaching. Rather than only knowing teachers from the perspective of being a students, I got to experience doing the same lesson 5 times a day with different groups. This meant adapting to the schedule and occasionally not finishing everything. I hope that I inspired students to pursue a career in what they enjoy doing.
Career Connections
Since having this experience, I have already continued getting more experience in different schools. I volunteered briefly last semester at Crispus Attucks High School in a math classroom. Currently, I am volunteering in Arsenal Technical High School in a Geometry classroom. Based off of my teaching program with IUPUI, I will plan to volunteer in a middle school again to learn more about teaching get a better idea of what each level of content is like. I think this will help me know more about which level of math I want to teach. Getting experience in classrooms and building up to do doing student teaching later on is the most important think for me to advance my career. This engaged learning experience was my first time doing so and it was a great way for me to get started. I also think meeting staff members from various schools and seeing what the schools are like is good for me to get an idea of which schools I enjoy working at the most. I have met many great teachers and staff members so far and am excited to keep pursuing more oppurtunities in this field.
Summary
My experience at Lynhurst 7th and 8th Grade Center volunteering with Mr. Angelov was very fun and educational. I was able to see firsthand how lesson plans adapt to meet the demands of the schedule. I also saw what it was like to teach the same lesson multiple times per day and improve it when needed throughout the day. Most importantly, this was my first experience working directly with students and learning how to help them. Overall, I think this was a very beneficial experience for learning about the general practice of teaching, and it allowed me to have a good background before going into math-specific teaching experiences.
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