Blog Post 4- Helping Schools Action Project

1.) Where are you with your action?

In our efforts of helping schools and tutoring students in our neighborhood, Valeriya and I have volunteered for approximately six hours total. During that time we more activities with the learners, answering their questions and helping teachers feel less stressed and overwhelmed in their classrooms; overall, helping the classroom’s environment. In these past few weeks we helped in various aspects, like Christmas themed creations and regular classroom tasks. For example, we assisted in the creation of holiday cards for the elderly, checking their spelling, and letters to Santa where we helped brainstorming what they wanted. Also, we guided their number assessments, testing and helping them correct and review what they couldn’t remember, and reading stories that included word match ups. Ultimately, this helped strengthening many foundations of both creativity and schooling.

2.) What are some successes that you have had?

Something that I’ve noticed in my classroom is that the children have started to more respect towards me, unlike a few weeks ago where when I asked them to complete something and they answered with a no or ignored me. This is something I am quite pleased with, because after writing my last blog post I read a few papers about how to make kids more comfortable with a new person and how to communicate with them effectively, which provided much insight. One of the websites I used was the UNICEF, which gave me tips like using active listening, to speak clearly, and be intentional with actions by using expression and eye contact (1). After implementing these tactics some students have now started to come up to me asking for help and the previous students who didn’t listen or replied to my requests with ‘no’ have currently started to follow my instructions.

3.) What are some challenges that you have faced? Have you been able to overcome them? 

Some challenges I’ve faced was overcoming a student’s break down, and one child who often engaged in attention seeking behaviors. Firstly, one learner was creating his self-portrait and strongly felt disappointed about what he drew and started crying. In that moment I was very lost on how to continue, I tried to put myself in his shoes. So, I attempted to calm him down, leading him through breathing exercises, giving positive feedback and reassurance about his drawing and providing a break to not feel like all eyes were staring. Ultimately, he calmed down once he was left alone. Secondly, one student continuous dropped his pencil case waiting for my reaction. I knew about his behaviors beforehand because the teacher confided in me and told me to avoid reinforcing his acts. Majority of the time I left him be, and later that week I saw that the teacher taped his pencil case to his desk to reduce his behavior, a creative solution I’ve never seen.

4.) What are you doing next and why?

Next, in our project Valeriya and I plan to continue volunteering at Ranch Park Elementary and create a Christmas candy-gram. We would love to create two different grams, one peppermint themed and the other chocolate themed. We would hope to sell them and donate the proceeds to an education program, because after reading and learning about the goals of PA-MOJA we realize that school is an extremely important opportunity that everyone doesn’t get to experience. In doing this we believe our project can become even more meaningful and impactful.

Thank you for reading!

Resources:

1. UNICEF. “How to Communicate Effectively with Your Young Child.” Unicef, 2022, www.unicef.org/parenting/child-care/9-tips-for-better-communication.