Blog Post #3; Volunteering, Learning, and Growing.

Hey, guys! I’m incredibly glad to be back and writing posts, like this one! As of late, we had received a bit of time to work on our projects, the other week, we had the amazing opportunity of speaking with a member of PA-MOJA, Sarnaver Mwende, she has answered our questions and provided some great insight to her experiences and she even shared some advice. During this time we had also had the time to begin and continue working on our projects, I am incredibly happy to say that my partner and I, have been able to begin working towards our project. So, to further elaborate, Vicky and I had begun by contacting a few elementary schools within a walking distance, we had heard back from Principal Zimmer, of Ranch Park Elementary, a local school about ten minutes away from us. A few teachers had spoken up and agreed to allow us to help in their classrooms, and we’re so grateful to have the opportunity to follow through with our plan and experience a classroom environment first hand. So far, we have gone to this school a few times, and we have been assigned to help with two second to third grade classrooms, and a kindergarten classroom, already we have seen many new things about running a classroom and having the position of a teacher. That being said, that position is nothing short of challenging and difficult, after observing a few lessons, it’s clear to see that a passion and true dedication must be possessed in order to organize, control, educate, and connect with students on a daily basis. I feel that often this aspect of teaching can be overlooked, it’s something new teachers often say they couldn’t master overnight, often leaving the experience of the new school year overwhelming (1). But, seeing the teachers work confidently and effortlessly, proves the lessons of flexibility, organization, and possibly even doubt they had to overcome (2).

Throughout our time volunteering thus far, I have experienced many different situations, in and out of the classroom. To highlight just the successes we’ve had so far, first, we had been able to actually connect with a school and hear back from some teachers. This was obviously a huge step for us, as without the school, we can’t volunteer without the help of teachers and schools allowing us to. Furthermore, we have found that we feel that we’ve been able to really connect with students, during classroom time I’ve been able to walk around, help with work and just discuss with the kids! It has been great seeing and hearing about their interests and struggles, and vice versa, they have been able to learn a bit about me. This kind of connection, I believe, allows us to all communicate better, trust students and teachers and create a better environment. Oftentimes, some kids I worked closely with that day will begin to become more extroverted, asking me questions and even recognizing me at lunch time.

Just like anything else, we’ve had successes, but challenges nonetheless. To begin, a difficulty I ran into with Vicky, was not entirely classroom related, but affected us anyway, this was weather. Oftentimes, Coquitlam and the Vancouver region gets a lot of rain, and as we walk to the elementary school each Tuesday, Thursday, we have caught ourselves in a few rainstorms. At first, this proved to be a challenged as we walked, our jeans were wet, socks soaked, but now after our less than pleasant experience, we’ve learnt to layer up, and wear proper gear for rain and such, so we will continue to keep this in mind as we move forward. Moreover, a struggle I have faced in the classroom specifically, has been taking a leadership role and guiding students. During the classroom hours, I am walking around, helping with work and trying to keep a few kids on track, while doing so, Vicky and I realized that it’s more difficult than expected to step up to leadership. As well as being able to communicate with younger kids, I’ve found that often asking them to do something obligatory will result in their refusal, for example: “Can you write the letter z?” with a question, kids often say no because they’d rather not do the work, so in the future I plan on trying to use other kind and respectful ways to make a clear statement, so that everyone will understand what they must do. I also hope to find a mindset as I enter the classroom to help myself step up to my role in my full potential, almost to allow myself to gain confidence and soon have these things come naturally. As I experience volunteering and leadership, I’ve found for myself that it come for me with practice, so I hope to improve my skills.

Fortunately, our project is not quite done yet, and there’s more to go! So, as we continue with our volunteering, we plan to next continue showing up, practice our skills in leadership, communicating and collaboration. I hope to continue creating connections with the lovely staff, and the students as we show up eager to learn and help. Possibly to progress even more, we may reach out to the teachers of our classes and present an idea to help create a lesson, or try to take lead on an assignment explanation.

And finally, I know this was quite the lengthy post, so thank you for reading! Any comments, suggestions or pieces of advice are appreciated!

References:

1: Bourdo, C. (2019, February 11). The Biggest Lesson of My First Year Teaching. Edutopia; Cindy Bouro. https://www.edutopia.org/article/biggest-lesson-my-first-year-teaching/

2: Stephanie. (2012, July 30). A Story of My First Year. Teaching in Room 6; Stephanie. https://www.teachinginroom6.com/2012/07/a-story-of-my-first-year.html