What:
The very first day I was a little nervous of what to expect on entering the classroom full of students I haven't met before. I was used to working with elementary students and now these students are all high schoolers. A little bit of a different setting. Sarah and I walked into the door and all the girls were quiet but the boys had a little comments to say because we were "college girls." We weren't staying in that classroom for that period so we went up another floor to work with the Biology class. The teacher was very nice and told us who needed the most help and who she recommended us to work with. They had a lab to do that day and had to walk around and look at pictures and distinguish what was going on in it. Sarah and I walked around and asked how they were doing but not many students would open up to us. It was very hard to communicate with them because they didn't care about talking to us. It was a struggle. I was also a little nervous because I hadn't taken a biology class in years so if they were to ask me a question I might not be able to give a direct answer. After the lab, Sarah and I just sat in the back as they went over answers. This class wasn't exactly what I expected because there wasn't much interaction with the students but it was interesting to learn some new things with Biology.
The next class period was Math back downstairs in the first classroom we entered. There were some new students than who was previously in there the class period before so we got some new boys who kept staring at us and making more comments. It was a little awkward but we made it just fine. The teacher assigned a couple girls to come with us to the Library to work on Math problems. It was an awkward walk down there because we didn't know exactly what to say. Basically, we just introduced ourselves and mentioned what year in school we were. In the Library, when we worked on Math it was somewhat of a refresher of material Sarah and I learned before. We worked one-on-one with the girls doing problems with the distributive property. There wasn't much outside conversation just questions about the homework. Sarah and I had to rely on each other to be able to give them the most feedback if they needed help on a problem. The next day was very similar to the first day. We worked in the Biology room and helped those who needed it with a test. In math, we worked with a couple other girls on solving equations. No one really had opened up to us yet. We just did the work that needed to be done and they went back to class. It seemed as if they were really shy because they didn't know us yet. I knew then that it would take time but hopefully we would get to that point of more conversation. The only assumption that I made that was wrong was that these students had their own classes aside from everyone else their age taking the same classes. It was their own classroom just for ELL students.
So-What:
Through the little events so far at Rock Island High School, a few concepts that was covered in our class had been covered during this service-learning project. One concept, I believe was encountered, is perception. Those students perceived us as being different from them. They had a hard time communicating with us because we weren't like them. They saw who we were but the only use they thought we were there for was to help them in their studies. We wanted to get to know them better aside from all the school work. Another concept was language. We tried communicating and teaching them what we know about the subject but they somehow couldn't understand what we were trying to get across. In the Biology class for the test on the second day, sometimes I had to reword what a question was asking because they just didn't understand what it was being asked. Our structure of sentences are different from those who know different languages. The translation may not be clear especially if they are just now learning English.
Now What:
For future interactions, I hope what I've learned so far can help the students. I can see that I do not look like them but possible telling them that I'm not just here to tutor them and teach them but to have a friendly connection as well. Possibly, I can ask questions about their life outside and what they like to do or what some of their favorite things are. Holding an outside conversation from school work could possibly help them to be feel more comfortable around us. Even with the language aspect, telling them that on tests I have a hard time understanding too what is being asked may make them think we are just like them too. Even as living in America my whole life, some of the communication that goes on I don't understand either. I will be there for any help they need.
No comments:
Post a Comment