Volunteer Work:

Bench Elementary

I volunteered at bench elementary for two years in a grade two classroom. This was my first experience being in an elementary classroom and not being one of the students. This experience was very eye-opening for me as I got to see what the classroom environment is like from the point of view of a teacher. I was very fortunate to be able to watch and learn from the teacher in that class as she has been teaching for many years. She was my grade two teacher so it was very interesting to watch her teach now knowing I was once one of those students. I think it was very valuable for me to be in her classroom for these two years, she showed me a lot of qualities I want to possess as a teacher and helped me develop some teaching strategies before the program.

Tutoring

I tutored my cousin who was in grade 8 for a year. He has high functioning autism but struggles in school a lot. He has had many tutors through the years but he would often not want to go to tutoring because he never got along with them. It was helpful that I was able to tutor him because he knew who I was, this improved his will to go to tutoring sessions. This experience has taught me a lot because I had little experience with autism and honestly did not know a lot about how to adjust to his needs as a learner. I had a reflective moment one time in EDMA when Amanda was teaching us about misconceptions in math when students are trying to add or subtract and need to borrow. I realized that my cousin had this exact misconception but I did not have the skills to realize that is why he had a hard time understanding this concept. For me, this lesson in math on the importance of understanding a student’s misconceptions in order to fix them really connected to my real life and made me understand why we as teachers need to take the time to focus on our students’ misconceptions.

Softball

Since I was about five-years-old till I graduated from high school I played softball. My mom had taken over the small town league and was the president for a few years while I was still playing and for a few years after. I would often go and help her out with her team for two seasons because she was short on coaches and had to coach a team as well as be the president. Her team was younger kids, probably from 7-9. At that age, they really can not play a real game but it is sure fun to try. This experience was fun for me because it involved a sport I really loved and teaching. Reflecting back on this experience I think I would really enjoy coaching a school sports team.