I just got back from volunteering at the local high school, where I've been volunteering for one or two days a week for a year. For my first "Practical Experience" blog, I'd just like to reflect how much more comfortable I feel in my skin there after a year and what problems being comfortable causes. I'm familiar now with the routines and expectations for everyone involved, and I genuinely like a lot of the students in Chemistry B (whom I've known since the beginning of this academic year when they started Chemistry A) and wish I could coach them in something.
My goals in volunteering are to help out the students who really need one-on-one, individualized assistance and (even if I fail to teach them something) show all students that there is another person invested in their education. I don't come in first thing in the morning for my health, especially when they're doing difficult material and it'd be hard for anyone to stay focused, but I know that some students may have different situations, in terms of who is rooting for them at home.
I feel like I have a greater sense of how students can be differentiated by home life situation, innate talent, academic skills (including lack of embarrassment/willingness to try), and motivation for chemistry. Having a sense of the differences in students' SES backgrounds is sadly one thing I noticed right off the bat, last year, but getting a sense of how to get to know students as people is something that has taken a year.
I think it has taken me time to gain enough skill and comfort level in volunteering here to free up enough of the information processing load in my brain so that I can relax around the students. Helping out the students in lab is when it usually clicks for me in terms of relating to students--I don't have any idea how they feel about the weird lady who comes in sometimes to help, but at least I can start to differentiate my approach to problems, depending on strategies that have worked for them before in solving problems.
On the one hand, it's fine to get further experience (especially if my personal situation allows me to be in the schools), but I also feel like I've gotten lazier a year in. Right now, I tutor small groups of students before school starts and either help out with lab and/or do group work with students who may have more questions during period 1.
Sadly, the first semester I was there, I was creative in doing demos for the kids during spring break and preparing and a lot of the planning and execution of an esterification lab for the advanced students (they are still complaining about the smell of the acetic acid, but at least smell is the most strongly related to memory...). I was sitting in on the forensics class, which was AWESOME (I was kind of just like a kid in the candy store--I wasn't really able to help out with anything that wasn't directly related to chemistry).
This year, my sole occupation has been figuring out where to go for spring break, let alone how to be creative with the extra time on my hands. I still am going to leave Iowa for spring break, but I will be experimenting on my best friend's little ELL children again--we do the POE method for experiments that she and I can come up with, using stuff from around the house, and now they are getting to they point where they might be able to write and draw their write-ups, rather than just draw. Being around actual, energetic children should spark some ideas. Also, I have a meeting tomorrow to branch out Chemists in the Library, I have my second session of Chemists in the Library this upcoming Saturday, so I will be on an endorphin, giddy chemistry high for a good week.
I will have to reflect on possible strategies for volunteering or activities that I can suggest to do with the kids that will be engaging for them and not leave me feeling burnt out. I think a goal of mine should be to re-invigorate my volunteerism.
To Be Continued...
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