As a student at St. Norbert College in EDUC 101, the entry level course into the education program, we participate in a project called Village Project. This is designed to get the future educators of our society into a school setting as soon as possible and provide support for the community. Some of us volunteer through the YMCA After School Programs in different Green Bay Area Elementary Schools, some are paid staff for the YMCA After School Program, and some of us, including me, are Language Arts tutors for students in an area school. Through this first semester of being in the Village Project, I have a list of 10 takeaways that I will reflect on and use in the future.
1. Build relationships of trust with your students → this makes learning so much easier and fun!
2. Trust yourself → you CAN do this. It might not come easy at first, but it will eventually.
3. Adapt to what you know about your students → sometimes going a little off the path to make sure your students understand what they’re learning is okay, you will wander back onto the path eventually
4. Collaborate with colleagues → you can get ideas from other teachers and apply that to your teaching as well
5. Ask for help → you don’t have to know everything, and if you need to ask for help, do it. It is so much weight off your shoulders if you just ask
6. Understand differences → not all students experience the same things. Understanding these differences and being able to work together through those differences is so important to the student’s learning
7. Ask your students about their day → find out if they’ve had a good day or a bad day. Sometimes the bad days make learning a little difficult, but you can work around it to ensure what needs to be done gets done
8. Process praise → process praise is so beneficial for students, as it praises HOW they got to where they were successful, instead of just telling them they did a great job. By showing support for how they did something, they can take that and do it in the future to be more successful
9. Brain breaks are OKAY → sometimes you need to take a step back from your lesson and take a breather, and that is okay. Do a brain break with your students for 2 minutes. The refreshment of coming back after taking a breather allows for better focus.
10. Take from experiences and apply them to the future → if something goes really well, use it next time! If something goes completely wrong, you know not to use that again!
My VP experience was more geared towards classroom learning, so these takeaways are leaning more towards that, but the idea of taking what you know and applying it to the future is applicable in all situations. The Village Project here at SNC is such a great opportunity and I am so thankful for the experience that I have gained and will continue to gain throughout the rest of my freshmen year..
