Did you hear that? It’s the sound of bittersweet goodbyes as the EDUC 102 students finish their Village Project experience. To celebrate another successful semester, here are 10 more takeaways from this valuable experience!
- Work with your students’ personalities.
I would not have described my student as an optimist. I spent many tutoring sessions trying to encourage him to see the glass half full. Once I started reassuring him and simply adding positive statements rather than changing his mindset, he was much more receptive to positive thinking.
- Students will rise to meet realistic challenges.
As a literacy program, our curriculum emphasized reading fluently. My student was making great gains at reading words, only he sounded a bit robotic. I introduced him to the concept of noticing how punctuation changes inflection, despite it not being in our curriculum just yet. He grasped it surprisingly well and dramatically improved his reading fluency!
- Everything can be a game.
One of the simpler tricks I’ve learned this semester is that you can get away with just about any learning activity if you refer to it as a game! My tutee was thrilled to “play tutor” by correcting my pretend spelling errors.
- Learning takes energy.
I saw my student for 30 minutes after his already long school day. On days when he wasn’t feeling it, I had to remind myself of just how much I was asking of him. This helped build empathy and improved our teamwork. After all, we were a team!
- There is always another way.
Our tutoring program supplied us a curriculum complete with a full list of activities on any given day. This was a great resource, but my student didn’t always connect with certain activities. I learned that there are endless ways to manipulate an activity so that it still targets the learning outcome in a way that appeals more to the student(s). For example, this includes playing games and movement.
- Teacher and student both need to know your goals.
This semester, our program focused on verbalizing goals to our students. By the end of the semester, not only was my tutee able to repeat his goals to me by memory, but he was internalizing them. We were able to point out the ways that he met them each session, helping him with feeling accomplished and growing resiliency.
- Don’t underestimate students’ awareness.
I was surprised to hear my student take ownership of his weaknesses, as he would self-identify growth areas. As teachers, we need to harness this awareness and connect it to students’ goals. They will be more motivated if they identify with their goals.
- Routine is your friend.
I caught myself planning these elaborate lessons that constantly incorporated new games. I understood that school can get boring, so I tried to keep it fresh. However, my student often asked me to play the same games over and over. He liked the routine, so who was I to deny him that?
- It takes a village.
My student often excitedly told me that he learned what we were practicing in class another day. He told me the memory tricks his teacher or interventionist used with him, such as “ā, apple, ӑ.” This was a great reminder that the more people who can pour into a student’s success, the better!
- It’s working.
Some days it’s hard to tell if your student is making progress. Maybe they weren’t engaged that day, or started repeating an old mistake. When I said goodbye to my student, I gave him a book with a picture of us and an encouraging note. I knew that he had greatly improved his reading skills, but his smile in that moment solidified for me that it all worked out.
