Tutoring Reflection #4

           I was also able to relate my experiences tutoring at the Easley Center to our reading of Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. While tutoring at the Easley Center, I was able to see the pure excitement that would overcome many of the children as they saw their tutors. It was an incredibly humbling experience in the sense that I was able to see the immediate effects of the work I was contributing. By just making the children excited to complete their homework with me, I hope to have sparked their interest to keep going with their homework. I know that it can be rather difficult sometimes to work so hard on an assignment or in a class that you just do not care about. However, I tried to help the children understand that every class they take is just as important as the others. I am happy and grateful that I was able to make even the smallest difference in these children’s lives. Even it that means simply giving these children a familiar and smiling face to see every week.

            Some of the similarities I saw between my tutoring experiences and Greg Mortenson’s experiences in the Middle East dealt with the children’s excitement. Every time Mortenson entered a small village in Pakistan or Afghanistan, the children and older villagers alike that knew him would run up and greet him.  He could see how excited the children were because they understood that Mortenson was there to help build a school. The excitement and determination that these children showed for learning was astounding for me to read.  It seems that many children today take their education for granted because they do not realize how lucky they are.  Mortenson has showed that there are children around the world who are more than willing to brave the extreme elements faced in the mountains of the Middle East just to have the chance to receive an education.

            Another similarity that I saw between Mortenson’s and my experiences was the ability to see the benefits of our work. While my work tutoring was on a much smaller scale, I was still able to see how I positively affected the children I worked with every week. Because Mortenson took on such a large and important project, his progress was sometimes slow but incredibly necessary. I believe that Mortenson’s experiences building schools were very humbling and exciting for him and the children of the villages. Mortenson was able to see the both the physical and emotional changes that stemmed from his work. 

Tutoring Reflection #3

           One of the experiences I had while tutoring at the Easley Center reminded me of reading Amazing Grace, by Jonathan Kozol. A common theme I saw in several of the children I helped at the Easley Center was their apparent lack of self-belief. Some of these children did not seem to have any confidence in themselves or in the work they were completing. I noticed that some children were prone to second-guessing themselves, even when they had the right answer all along. One child in particular would write down a word and go back and erase it time after time because he did not seem to think it was acceptable.  These children seemed to genuinely value having someone sitting next to them to tell them they are doing their work correctly. I found that a great deal of my time helping certain children was spent simply encouraging them. I made it my goal to help them to understand that they could trust their judgment seeing as they were completing their work correctly.           

            However, I did learn that most of these children had a strong desire to learn as much as they possibly could, both from their teachers and their peers. They would constantly go out of their way to ask us questions about things they did not understand.  It was refreshing to see a group of children so excited about learning.

            My experiences with the children at the Easley Center reminded me of Kozol’s experiences with the children in the South Bronx. Many of the children in these impoverished areas of New York did not have an ounce of self-confidence, due to the fact that they had been put down all of their lives. These children had constantly been told by their peers that they would never have the chance to leave nor become what they defined as “successful.”  Similar to my own experiences with tutoring, Kozol was able to find those children who had a strong desire to learn and improve not only their own lives, but also the lives of their families. Kozol fed off of their excitement and used that to motivate himself to write about the true importance of educating every child. 

Tutoring Reflection #2

            A second experience that stuck in my mind after a session of tutoring at the Easley Center dealt with the resources that were available to the children. I was working with Jessica again as we attempted to finish her English homework. This particular homework consisted of a section that required finding the word that did not belong out of a group of four words. Whenever Whitney did not know what a specific word meant she would make a trip across the room to the bookshelf. The Easley Center provided a good amount of resources that the children could use to be proactive in their search for information.

            After we had finished working on Whitney’s homework, we began looking up random words and made it into little a game. Whitney would turn to a random page in the dictionary and quiz me on the meaning of a word. Honestly, quite a few times even I did not know exactly what the word meant. She would giggle when I did not know the answer and read the definition aloud to us both. Then we would talk about how that word was used in the real world. After she had asked me a question, I would take my turn asking her what each word meant. It turns out that both Whitney and myself learned a lot just from playing that silly dictionary game.

            I found it interesting that a younger girl, like Whitney, could enjoy learning the meanings of different words by simply making a game with only a dictionary. Her excitement for learning was refreshing because it seems as though many children today dread going to school and doing their homework. Most children will simply to the bare minimum that is required to get by. I could tell that Whitney was already much more mature than many of her classmates because she was constantly striving to do her best. 

Tutoring Reflection #1

            While tutoring at the Easley Center, I was introduced to and given the opportunity to work with many wonderful children. One of the girls I regularly helped at the beginning we will call Jessica.

            While working with Jessica, I could not help but be reminded of similar events that took place when I was in elementary school. Jessica was telling me about the book fair that had happened that day at school and showing me all the interesting trinkets she bought, including an invisible ink pen. The last thing that she was the most excited about was a novel that had caught her eye. She proceeded to sit me down after we finished her homework and read some of it to me. I could see how excited Jessica was to know that this was her book and that she could sit down to read it whenever she wanted.

            I had an experience similar to Jessica’s when I was in the third grade. In elementary school, our teachers would set aside around 30 minutes to an hour every few days in order for us to read. We could sit anywhere in the room, whether it be on the floor or in a bean bag chair, and spend the allotted time reading a book of our choice. This was one of my favorite parts of the school day when I was younger and I wish it were still a part of my school days today. I believe that encouraging children to find books that they are genuinely interested in reading is key when it comes to improving literacy. If children are not interested and engaged in what they are reading or learning, they are not going to put forth their best effort to remember what they have been taught. Of course the time will come where they have to take a class they do not always enjoy, but by keeping them engaged I believe they will at least walk away with a better understanding and appreciation for that subject.