I have learned that it is important to build relationships and participate with the class. This makes everything a lot more personable and just a better experience overall for the students. The more you are able to connect with the students, the more likely they are to ask for help or support.
-Jack Helmich
I am very passionate about sports and have played them my whole life, so being able to help others with this has been very fun and enjoyable for me! I have learned that building relationships and doing the little things such as learning kids names has been very beneficial for me and has allowed me to meet many new people and allow them to trust me.
-Ellie Wildermuth
Being an academic mentor for PE is a much different experience than a lot of your fellow mentors will have, but it is really rewarding to see people get over fears and succeed in games or activities that they didn't think they were good at. Also, being an active participant, even if you don't know the activity very well, is a very important and helpful thing because the students see you and become more confident and interested in participating.
-Nick
It's very helpful to connect with each kid within your class; learning names holds a lot of weight and can often break the barrier of asking you for help. Be positive and let kids come to you for help on their own, they often will when the teacher is busy and are very happy when you can help them.
-Andreas Testerman
The one main thing that I have learned about mentoring for PE classes is that it is important to connect with the kids in your class. Once you make a personal connection, you can than encourage the students to try their hardest and see the results that they want to see. It is really rewarding to see a student succeed using skills that you helped them work on.
It was awesome to be able to experience being a mentor for a PE class. Some students lack the motivation to participate in activities they aren't comfortable with, but I found that including them in activities improved their PE experience. Overall, it was very rewarding to help build the class community and to help make sure everyone enjoyed the activities.
- Quinton A