- To start off, one of the major things I took away from the village project experience was how as an educator, you have the opportunity to have a positive impact on the youth, regardless of what ages you decide to work with. Sometimes you may not realize the impact you’re having, but it is certainly there and the students appreciate you, even when you might think this not to be the case. With my village project experience, I realized this when I started to tell the kids that I would see everyday that my last day was near and soon I wouldn’t be seeing them every Monday and Wednesday afternoon, and I could see the looks on their faces of disappointment that they wouldn’t be seeing me anymore. Gladness sensed that it happened but sadness that it had to end in what felt like such a quick period. This will help me as an educator when I start to feel like maybe I’m not making a difference in the lives of the students or that they don’t appreciate me, just because it’s not visible and apparent in everyday life. It will be important to know that the impact is there, you just might not know it at the time.
- Similar to past in-school volunteering experiences I had, whenever I left my village project site, I felt a sense of humility and accomplishment. It was almost like I was saying to myself, “Wow, I did something good today. I made a difference.” It doesn’t matter how my day has been going up to that point. Maybe I had been having a very busy day, and I felt at first that going to the village project was just another thing I “had” to do with my already busy schedule. Maybe I was just flat-out having a bad day because something went wrong with a class or I received a bad grade on a test. Or, perhaps I was having just a normal, good day. Needless to say, regardless of how I was feeling on each particular day, I walked away feeling better about myself and having that sense of humility and accomplishment. I think that this is something that I will resort back to once I am a full-time teacher. Regardless of what else is going on in my life outside of teaching, this is something that I will find rewarding and will boost me up if I am feeling down about other parts of my life.
- To kind of go along with #2 on the list, and the idea of it no matter how I feel when I go into a school, I always feel better afterward. My village project experience has also taught me that regardless of how I feel or what my mood is at that given time, these kids are relying on me and they need me. There were times during my village project experience when I maybe wasn’t in the best mood to be working with the kids because of other stressors going on in my life. But, there were the kids who were excited to see me because they wanted to tell me about their weekend or push them on the swing because they knew I would be intentional about listening to them, caring about them, and making them feel loved and cared for. I had to work on putting aside my feelings from other parts of my life outside the village project and focus on the present moment of the students and making sure I was giving them the attention they both needed and deserved. Because at the end of the day, if there are lots of other things happening outside of my life and it starts to impact my work with kids, this isn’t the kids’ fault. When it’s all said and done, they are counting on me, and I need to show up and deliver especially when they need me the most. This is another crucial concept that I took away from the village project experience.
- Shifting my focus in a slightly different direction, I interpreted some different behaviors during my village project experience. Some kids were sad and almost seemed depressed, and others were borderline wild and filled with energy. And also, oftentimes kids behaved differently depending on the day. Perhaps this had to do with what was going on at home, or with a teacher or student throughout the school day. Needless to say, it was noticeable from my perspective. Sometimes, I feel like when I see a kid that is quieter or seems down, I want to say to myself, “Maybe they just need some time alone.” Or, if a kid has a lot of energy, and perhaps too much, I’m half afraid to say something to them in fear of what they might say or how they might react. Another thing I’ve learned from the village project is that regardless of whether or not it is either one of these scenarios or something else- talk to the student. If they seem down, try to cheer them up, and if that doesn’t work, point them in the right direction that will make them feel better. If they are maybe a little wild and need to calm down a little bit, even if it may not seem too obvious- tell them to calm down appropriately. I think the moral of the story is- when in doubt, say something. Whether it is to the student or a staff member, say something, it will never hurt.
- Going along with this idea of behavior in the students, something significant that I realized during my village project experience was that if these kids misbehave or do something wrong- it isn’t their fault, or at least not completely. Not that it has to be anyone’s “fault” so to speak, but don’t blame it on the kids when they misbehave. They are at a stage of their life where growth and development are constant in different ways and they will hopefully learn from their mistakes. As a teacher, I cannot control what their level of behavior is when they come into my classroom, including how other teachers impact it or how their parents impact it at home. I can only control how I influence it, and of course, the goal would be to impact it positively by teaching them the proper mannerisms, through my actions and other specific examples. The goal will never be for them to have perfect behavior- that is impossible to happen from anyone regardless of how old they are. You can only influence it as much as possible and the best you can. I think the moral of the story is this- you can’t judge or blame kids for the behaviors they have, all you can do is control your energy on how you can impact their behavior for the better.
- I would say one aspect that was nice about my village project experience was that I had the opportunity to work with kids and have an impact on them, but I didn’t necessarily have the pressure of being completely responsible for them, as the staff members were always there if need be. I feel as though this allowed me, at least in the beginning, to get a visual representation of how to handle certain situations without having to handle them myself. All around, I feel as though the YMCA staff members handled situations fairly with students, using a proper amount of sternness when necessary and taking a more tender, softer approach when necessary as well. This is a key aspect that I learned and will apply to the time when I become a teacher, is that sometimes being a little bit more harsh and strict is the right way to get the point across and to get the students to learn something if they need to, otherwise, there are also circumstances when being a little bit less harsh and taking it more softly is more appropriate. In short, the matter of this lesson is that I learned that different situations will call for different ways to interact with the students, and it will be my job as a teacher to be able to properly identify what kinds of tones and actions are needed in these situations and apply them.
- One thing that I picked up on during my village project experience was that the kids, regardless of how old they are, pick up on the little things that they say and do, even when you wouldn’t expect them to. This is a very important thing to keep in mind, both for the better and for the worse. What I mean by this is that if you have good habits, such as proper manners, appropriate behavior, and appropriate language, they will notice that and likely start to act more that way themselves. Just the opposite, if you don’t do these things properly, they will notice that and won’t be afraid to call you out on it. I experienced examples both ways, where the students I was with would replicate the good behaviors I modeled to them, but if maybe I wasn’t doing something as good as I should have been, they would call me out on it and say something like, “How come you’re doing this?” (Or not doing it). The moral of the story with this lesson is that the students pick up on a lot of their little actions and decisions, whether they are positive or negative. They are watching many of your moves, and will likely model part of or all of their behaviors after yours.
- When you zone in on one region, say northeastern Wisconsin for example. There can be a lot of variance in the population of kids that you are working with in a lot of ways, from demographics to behaviors, to academic abilities, and so on. In high school, I volunteered at various elementary schools in the Kimberly Area School District, which is only about 30 miles or so south of Howe Elementary in the Green Bay Area School District, where I did my work with the village project. The populations of the kids I worked with at each of the two schools were quite different. Howe was culturally and ethnically diverse, whereas Kimberly was predominantly caucasian. I could tell that the kids at Howe maybe struggled a little bit more with behaviors and academics, whereas those issues weren’t as prevalent in Kimberly. They happened, but not as much or in as significant of a sense. I feel like I knew during high school that deep down, what happens at schools like Howe is the true reality of what happens at schools in America, but I just didn’t see it in high school as much because Kimberly was such a high-achieving district. I think another major thing I took away from this experience was that just because students in one place act a certain way, or have a certain level of intelligence at that time, doesn’t mean it can’t be a world of difference just a little ways down the road. Because in the grand scheme of things, Kimberly and Green Bay are pretty close to one another, and I saw two different situations during my time volunteering. In short, I think this will help me when I become a teacher in the sense that I will know that the kids I am working with aren’t like kids everywhere, regardless of who they are or what their skills and abilities are. It can vary a lot even between close areas, and all I can do is to try and help the kids I have the best I can to make them better people than they were when I first started with them.
- Another major takeaway from my experience in the village project is that inside of every kid, they are very smart, and know a lot of things academically. Inside them, they also know how to behave properly, treat others right, and demonstrate traits such as respect, kindness, honesty, and responsibility. It’s just that with some kids, it’s a lot deeper down in them than others, and you have to try harder to get it out of them or they have to work harder to get it out of themselves. With the students it is a little harder to get the proper behaviors and skills out of them, it doesn’t make them bad or worse than anyone else. When it comes to my future work as a teacher, I think this is when the idea of meeting the students where they are at comes into effect. This is where the kid is at in terms of learning and behaviors, so I must meet him or her at that point to get them to where we eventually want them to be. Not every student is at the same level developmentally, so I must meet them at whatever level they are to help them get to where they need to be.
- Last but not least, another thing that maybe goes without saying, but is certainly a very important thing I learned about myself throughout the village project is that even though this was a completely different group of kids that I was working with as opposed to previous experiences as I stated in my takeaway #8, I still realized that education is what I want to do with my life and even though I was opened up to a whole different side of reality with how children are, and some of the challenges they may face. It didn’t scare me away or make me want to take a different route with my choice of profession, I think if anything it did me a favor in the sense that it taught me some of the realities of what happens in public schools across the country. Of course, being that I could get into the classroom right away during Freshman year allows me to help ask myself the question of whether or not education is truly what I want to do with my life, and I can confidently say that this experience assured my prior thoughts that this is indeed something that I believe is suited for me.
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