Chin Tutoring

A: The primary aim of this experience is to teach refugee children from Myanmar who are often lacking in their education due to being refugees. Subjects taught are math and reading, but our secondary aim is to interact with the children and have fun with them.

C: I had to clearly and effectively communicate with my student, giving her instructions and tips in a way that would logically make sense with her current level of knowledge. Critical thinking was utilized to detect her exact level, as well as slightly plan ahead for her education: since she was practicing the multiplication of a multiple digit number by a single digit number, I had her unconventionally write the results from right to left to help prepare her for carrying digits, instead of left to right, which was how she was computating beforehand.

T: Some kids are easily distracted, so after doing a little bit of work, their tutor takes a break with them and the team often plays around with arts and crafts. Sometimes, we'd make origami, drawings, or letters to people we appreciate on Valentines day. On this Chin Tutoring Saturday, my kid, Meen, was able to stay focused for longer than usual! After doing multiple pages of math, I taught her how to draw a 4-pointed star of which its sides curved inwards. She really couldn't get it, so I had to think critically of different ways how the shape of a 4-pointed inwards curving star might be formed.

I: There was not a lot of investigation to be done beforehand, since I've already participated in this activity many times before. However, before the kids come in to be tutored, we, the volunteers, must set up the tables where we sit at. Afterwards, we must also clean everything up back to how it originally was (a clean, empty room).

V: Throughout teaching Meen about how to draw a four-pointed inwards-curving star, I realized that such a simple task for me wasn't so much for hers. For all the times I drew a sample star, she would draw her own, except at least one of its sides would mysteriously curve outwards, as if the original was a circle. I spun the paper around, so that we'd be drawing the same side in the same way in the four strokes required to draw such a star. Yet, the side would continue to pop out. I drew lightly 4 similar circles and outlined darker the shape of the true star, and still, she couldn't trace it right. The value I gained from this experience was learning how simple a child's motor skills can be.

E: I was very engaged since I was determined to teach Meen how to draw a star. Before that, I was concentrated on checking her work and solutions to the math questions. 

LO4: I had to show commitment and perseverence as I had to repeatedly think of different ways one might be able to comprehend how to draw a star. It took us way too long to figure it out, but in the end, she got it!