Friday, January 28, 2011
What is Texas Campus Compact Students in Service?
Texas Campus Compact Students in Service (TXCC SIS) is a part-time Americorps program which encourages and supports college and university students to enroll as part-time Americorps members who provide a valuable service in their communities. TXCC SIS members make a difference in their communities, gain valuable civic and workforce skills, and upon completion of their term of service, earn an education award. By participating in the TXCC SIS program, a student becomes a part of the Americorps national service network, which improves lives and strengthens communities through out America.
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Hi blog, my name is Neal McDonald or Mr. M as some of the students that I tutor at Akins call me. I’m 20 years old and very excited about the students in the service learning program. Since the tutoring at Akins High School has begun, I have experienced many aspects of the school system and the teaching world that I have only learned about while in my education courses. The first of these is the language barrier that we as teachers have to overcome. I experienced this first hand with one of the students I tutored. I was helping the student with an algebraic form of a TAKS test question. As I explained how to plug the numbers into the calculator, the student continually asked me what button was the negative, and which was the multiplication sign. I pointed them out to the student and before I could even explain the rest of the process, the student had completed the question. The problem was not that the student didn’t know how to solve the math behind the questions, but that the student couldn’t transfer the language into a familiar form that would allow him to complete the math successfully. Which makes me wonder what a student that has this problem on the TAKS test would actually do. The second problem I faced was student motivation. I, along with the other tutors, spent a good month recruiting the students. As we went to each student’s room and explained that they were required to come to this mandatory tutoring, I encountered three different responses. The first was that the student was excited to get the help. These students (mostly seniors) were very interested in who we were, our names and when we would start. These students were fully self-motivated and willing to come to the sessions. The second response was one of, as I like to call it, “whatever” mood. These students, when approached, said nothing when told about the tutoring. Some just said, “Okay,” and took the paper; others asked only what class they would be pulled out of as if to evaluate whether or not they would attend.
ReplyDeletePART2
ReplyDeleteThe final response that we experienced was the “I’m not coming” response. I call it this because one of the students we attempted to deliver the tutoring message to actually yelled from his desk, “ I’m not coming!” and refused to meet with us. The two final groups are the ones that I want to help the most. These groups are mostly populated by sophomores and juniors that didn’t meet standards on the practice TAKS test. This month I approached motivating them through the room itself. My mentor and I went shopping at a teaching store in South Austin (it was huge). There I got a plethora of decorations for the tutoring room. I wasn’t sure that all the things that I purchased would have an effect on the students. Being 20, I can remember my main concern in high school being football and when I was going to get out of class, not what was on my teachers’ walls. But, to my surprise, the items were a success! So far the biggest motivator has been the different types of pencils that I provide the students with. In future months I plan to point out the posters, that I purchased and that are now on display, to the students to provide them with further motivation. Although some students were motivated by my supplies, others still showed a lack of interest, so I started to try other methods. For example, with one student I raced against him to find the answer, and I sadly report that I lost 3 of 5, but even after the student had lost, I explained what he did wrong and explained how to correct the error. One of the teachers has a game called trashketball in which if a student gets the question right they get to shoot a ball into a trashcan and score points for their respective team. I think this is another good way to motivate students and I might use it. Well, that‘s about all that I have experienced so far. See you next month, blog.
Astonishing
ReplyDeleteBy: Van “Tactic” Vo
Students in service, my new purpose.
Work goals, to achieving nervousness,
turning this, into productiveness.
I believe in bliss, twist, I see lost gifts.
Nerves disturb check lists missed.
Akins nerves in TAKS, I see quick.
Administrators, teachers, whisked.
Students feel energy, now they’re mixed.
“Hissed” up energies, on the defense.
Now the blame, is in past tense.
Spreads the collective sense, , , ,“not my fault”,
is said with no wince.
I have no evidence, look at inner relevance.
I’m not a delegate, just try to be an example.
For myself first, serving inner faith samples.
Tangible spirits rippling, I’ll say simply,
enjoying knowledge in accountability,
working with kids that, just astonish me.
The struggle in their eyes, resemble me.
Polishing some self worth, roots to the tree,
you see, two family trees, need perceived.
The students and mine and where we now reside.
Upon entering the Student in Service program, Akins High School became my home base for tutoring and mentoring. From the first day, I felt the energy of the school. There is a lot of positive energy in the school, but it only takes a few negative thoughts to create a “whisked” up collective. What I have noticed, is that the TAKS testing is a way to inflame an entire school’s collective nerves. As the teachers become pressured by the administration, which is pressure by he need of funding, the students become double pressured from to ladders above them. When tutoring, do students need their self worth polish and their stress handling skill addressed, or do we keep on our same path. Ultimately, we all need to understand ourselves and our abilities to resolve problematic negative thoughts, before they become contagious. These inner reflection thoughts should come before, “not my fault”.
Hey everyone, or at least those who took the time to read my first blog, my name is Katherine but my friends call me Kat. Just wanted to introduce myself and give some insight on what’s been happening at Akins High School.
ReplyDeleteSo, to start off I’m a Latina and proud of it, I’m also a student at Austin Community College; this is actually my last full semester, before I head off to Texas State. Let’s see, I’m also an orange juice and tea lover, I heart it always, and don’t do coffee, not sure why? Since it seems to be the one thing everyone obsesses over. Last thing about me, I’m always smiling and giggling or laughing, not at people just with themJ…I’m excited for this year and everything I’m about to encounter (side note, I can’t believe its March…yikes time flies.)
Ok, so I’m also part of AmeriCorps program, which are students serving the community. What that actually means in my case, is that I get a chance to work with students side by side and tutor or mentor them. Right now I’m at Akins High school, and over the past couple months that I’ve had a chance to work with them I’ve noticed that high school is always the same, years may go by, but it never changes, you continue to have the teachers who push their students for greatness, and students who seem to want class to end quicker and lunch to come faster, students who love sports, jocks, cheerleaders, and everyone in between; but something that I just noticed this week as I was doing some hours, is that Akins has a strong college prep area. Let me explain, It was Monday the 28th, I have that date vivid, since it was my birthday, yes I know happy birthday to me;) As I was shadowing the G-force room, which is their college prep area, I noticed that as school ended, students poured in with questions and bombarded the two main ladies of that room. Here comes the astonishing point, not that there was so many students, but that it was only two ladies dealing with I believe was 20 students at one point, a parent and a teacher translating for the parent, but the ladies who are in charge of that room knew exactly how to deal with everyone, and not just that, but the care and the involvement of wanting to be there at that moment in order to help as many students as they could. I remembered feeling overwhelmed for them, even though I wasn’t answering questions; the ladies remained calmed and devoted time for as many students as they could, no joke at one point I saw one of them (ladies) run out of the room to chase the director or someone important I’m sure, for that parent who clearly needed help, if that’s not commitment I’m not sure what is? The little time I was in that room, I figured out two things: 1. they need more people who are encouraging, knowledgeable, and sincere, as the ladies who work in the G-force room, 2. I was astonished to see so many students wanting to go to college, and needing help.
I wish my high school would have had a G-force program, or someone like those ladies who work in that room, who would have assured me that college can be possible whether students have the funds or not, I wish I would have had someone to walk me through my first college application, but in reality I didn’t have a room that was all about college prep, it was more like, if students were top ten then the counselors paid attention to you and gave you information on what to do with college; The afterthought of all this, is that I’m excited that although high school seems the same, it clearly has change for the better. Akins has an amazing program that all students should take advantage of, all in all, my day was an eye opener, so thank you. And, I’m so excited to go back!
What can I say, sometimes I feel like a small fish in a big pond. I can’t help but notice how far these kids are outside of my norm. I think for the first time in my life I felt completely disconnected from popular society, and modern fashions. And I was intimidated at first. I was concerned that the student might not take me seriously, or that my skill level is inadequate. Mostly, I was concerned that the students would just ignore me and go through the motions, much like I did in high school. Things couldn’t have been more different. I’ve spent most of my direct service time tutoring seniors at Crockett High with TAKS prep work. These student couldn’t have cared less if I was wearing loafers, or Jordan’s, or if I had crazy hair and big bushy beard, they just wanted to grasp the material long enough to pass the test. These students were the best to work with. They were definitely the most focused. They want to graduate with their friends. They want to spend the summer enjoying life, not taking summer school so they can attempt the same test, again. I progressively picked up on what was going on with the math examples. I was worried that a lot of the stuff was going to be over my head, but in reality it wasn’t that complex. I gave myself anxiety over their math homework, how silly. Also, while working with the students I would have them explain some of the questions to me for two reasons. First, to make sure they knew what they were doing, and why. Second, I didn’t know what was going on with the exercise. The students were more than happy to show me a solution path, and verify it for me. However, there was one student in particular who was having a hard time solving very basic algebraic equations. He didn’t understand to isolate the variable, and he didn’t know how to check his work. This student is a senior. So I sat down with him, and worked on these equations over, and over again. We’d first work the problem, then I’d discuss with him step by step what was going on. Next, we would go back and check the equation, and then discuss why checking problems works. By the end of the ten or so minutes the student was able to effectively solve simple algebraic equations, and he found shortcuts to check the answer. Right on, dude. Now if he defeats his TAKS math is another question.
ReplyDeleteI’ve noticed over the past few weeks working with students that my ability to communicate with the students has increased. Some students I can just sit down with and talk to. They want to do well, and therefore are easy to work with. I like these students. However, there is the rest of the world. Students who would rather stare at their phones, talk to their friends, and basically check out. I don’t think they could care less about their education. I know when I was 17 school was at the bottom of my “to do” list. I basically showed up every day to make my parents happy. I think a lot of students have the same feelings. How do you explain the importance of school to someone who doesn’t want to hear it. You gotta yell it. That’s one thing I noticed from watching my peers work with students. Sometimes you have to “force” them to do the work. For example, one of the other mentees at Crockett was working with a young man. She constantly had to tell him to “focus up”, and “look at your paper”. I think at one point she asked the student do you want to graduate high school, because at the pace your going you’ll be doing these same math problems until your thirty.” Now I don’t know if acting like that towards a student is acceptable in todays “Politically Correct” world, but it worked, kind of anyway. Good luck to him.
It will be interesting to see what lies ahead in the road.
PART I
ReplyDeleteWell to start this blog off right let me introduce myself. My name is Steven and I’m a 20 year old Austin Community College student volunteering in the TXCC SIS (Texas Campus Conduct Students in Service) program. I’ve been in this program since mid-November of 2010. I joined the program because I think that this opportunity will help me become the teacher I want to be someday. Originally, I entered school wanting to become a French teacher. Yes, I said it, a French teacher in Texas. Not until recently I decided to become a counselor at the high school level. I like working with and helping students and I consider my listening skills very beneficial.
The TXCC SIS program is assisting me with understanding what it takes to be involved in the high school universe. As a volunteer at Akins High School, I’m helping make an effort to see more students succeed in passing the Math and Science part on the TAKS test. Let me tell you this, it has been a crazy/fun/long process to go from where certain teachers and myself were at the beginning of the TAKS pullout, to get to where we are now. From the start of the program to mid January, other TXCC SIS members and I went through numerous days of typing names of students who were chosen to receive TAKS tutoring on the Excel computer program. I’ve never used Excel before, but by the time we decided which students we should target for TAKS tutoring, I was an expert at it. The other TXCC SIS members and I didn’t just spend numerous days on the computers, but we found ourselves in the Akins copier room a lot. We made an estimate of 30 copies of each objective for both math and science. It's very hard to make copies when two out of four copy machines were always temporarily down.
January 18th represents the day that I finally began to tutor the students that we pulled out for tutoring. It's been a couple of years since I last took a math and science course so I was a little afraid of not being able to get an answer or making myself look bad in front of a student. I soon began to ignore these worries because I spent more days tutoring the same students over and over again. It became more of an ease for me to tutor them. I admit there are times when I do have trouble solving a problem, but the good thing about this program is that a specific course teacher is in the room that can help not only me solve the problem, but the student also. A couple of weeks ago, I actually taught a group of six students in science, a subject I’m not best at. I did so like I was the teacher. We went over a packet and the students' answers. The best thing I got out of this small experience was that I wasn’t nervous. Maybe because I was given an advance notice that I was to take control of the period and teach them the packet or maybe because I planned out how I wanted to teach them before I actually taught the students.
PART II
ReplyDeleteSo far, I’m really enjoying this experience that few students actually get. I’m seeing some struggles with certain individuals, but I’m also beginning to see clarity on the subject in others also. The best part of it all is that I’m still learning as I go. I like the fact that I am helping the community. Students may not be able to understand the methods/work because of who knows what. The idea of me helping them in school is incredible. Soon after I entered the TXCC SIS program, I began to volunteer at the Boys and Girls Club in East Austin, alont with my volunteering duties for the high school department. At the Boys & Girls club, I spend one hour every Tuesday and Thursday helping elementary students with their math homework. I don’t think I would have volunteered if I wasn’t offered this position as a volunteer for TXCC SIS.
Recently, Friday February 25th, I observed a 5th grade class at Odom Elementary School as part as my experience of the TXCC SIS program. I absolutely fell in love with the class I was assigned. The class would converse with each other and really got along. They had opened conversations and I think it had something to do with their teacher. Their teacher gave me few tips that I would need to survive being a teacher and he also told me some of his teaching skills he’s used over the years. One thing I liked about the teacher was that he didn’t want his students to ask to use the restroom. He felt that no one should be able to make you have pain or not. If you have to go, go, just one at a time. The teacher also told me a little of his philosophy that he shared with the students at the beginning of the school year. “I told [the students] that everyday no matter what I will go home happy, but I can’t promise [them] that [they’ll] go home happy every day.” A teacher telling the students that at the beginning of school to me shows confidence as a teacher and tells me that he cares for the students, but isn’t afraid to lay down the law.
I know above I said that I want to be a counselor. I want to be a counselor because I want to help students who need and want my help. Turn the immature students mature. I think that if I were to teach as a 5th grade teacher I would have a better chance at changing the students mind on how they see things in life better than I would as a high school counselor. The students are young as a 5th grader; most don’t understand what life really is and how they’ll adapt to it. If I were to be a 5th grade teacher I think I can put more positive things in their minds and have them enter middle school and high school ready. I’m still unsure. Maybe next time I go to Odom Elementary School I can observe another 5th grade class and see how those sets of students cope with their teacher. I can then compare the two teachers’ ability to mingle with his or her students and see how the students feed off what that teacher teaches them.
Well blog I think I’m done writing for now. I can’t believe I’ve said all this so far. Most importantly is I can’t believe in a short period of time in the TXCC SIS program I’ve witnessed so much as part of the school system. The last thing I’m going to leave you with is a quote a teacher at Akins told me one day that I think is true. “[The students] don’t see that if they do the work now, they won’t have to do it later.” Take a minute to ponder on that. I’ll get back to you the next time I write my blog to explain my thoughts of the quote, until then goodnight blog.
Hey everyone,
ReplyDeleteAs I sit here and type this out, my heart tells me to open up and speak about how I feel, but my brain tells me to stop while I can. So, I’m following my heart… I want to start by saying that I have truly enjoyed this experience from the moment I met the guys who are in the program to having a student tell me, that they needed help with a math problem:) I want to speak about April’s month, but before I do that I want to share a little bit of truth. Let me retract myself and start from the beginning. It all started in November or December when I got asked to join the program, as enthusiastic as I was to help, the more I thought about all the hours I had to complete and how it would interfere with my work and school schedule, I started to doubt that this would be accomplished. Well my next thought was, “I will do my best to make it work,” so I shrugged my insecurities of not completing all my hours and I made the biggest attempt of joining the rest of the crew; yet, who knew that meeting new people, and enjoying something you truly have passion for, could become a problem? What I mean to say is that, the next milestone on actually being part of this experience was becoming involved, like actually tutoring and finishing hours. As it so happens, I didn’t feel all that welcomed, the guys had their friendship and it seemed that I was just an extra person, who was interfering with their plans. The guys had everything organized, and I had no clue what I was doing, so I isolated myself from them and made an effort to enjoy the experience and show up to school(Aikins) when I could. Next problem, was that I felt alone, my friends had no idea how I was feeling, and work shifted things around, so that they needed me a lot more; so naturally I became stressed with school work, and I fell behind on everything, so instead of spending spring break catching up, I did something really selfish, I got up and left. Where to? Well about 1600 miles away, to visit family, and when I got back, maybe, no surprise here, but I felt refreshed, and excited for all the craziness happening in my life, so I returned with a new philosophy-whether I complete my hours for this program or not, I’m sticking to it, and I’m just going to enjoy the ride and hope to gain a great experience from all of this, which so far it has:)
continued...
ReplyDeleteOnto April’s month and how it’s going, well short answer-Awesome! Long version- I’m no longer doing TAKS tutoring, but I have geared this experience to fit my personal goal, which is to work in the field I aspire to do soon, which is working with ELL students, and seeing if this is truly what I am meant to do. Although I’m bilingual this aspect is only a plus, because what I’m required to do has nothing to do with my ability to speak both languages(Spanish and English), but more so, to find a way to help students without speaking Spanish. Although, I have only been doing this for a couple weeks, I have enjoyed every minute. The teacher I’m working with had me make a PowerPoint to introduce myself with pictures and no words, so I got the chance for students to really view me in a different light, not Katherine or Ms. Aguirre, or miss, but someone who is in school and has likes or dislikes just like them. At first I was sort of nervous, not of speaking in front of all students, but of them asking me questions that maybe I couldn’t answer, such as: why did you leave school behind years ago? Or what has been the biggest obstacle in your life? But in doing my first presentation I felt more and more comfortable. So, my days are spent following the teacher’s daily plan and focusing on ways to help students study for upcoming test, or actually do problems with them and see if I can get the answer. As school seems to come to an end, I’m just beginning my new role in the teachers class, but every day I show up at Akins, I always having something new to do, and I’m looking forward to Tuesday, since I know I get to help those students again. I look forward to knowing more and more students; and as it so happens, just last week, I bumped into one of the ELL students in the G-force college prep room, and he actually recognized me and said “hi.”
Hey blog. Well, with month 4 over, I have experienced 3 different things while tutoring at Akins. First of all, I would like to applaud the stamina of all teachers everywhere. I am dog tired!! With the rapid passing of time as the students are getting closer to the March retake and the April TAKS (for the juniors, and sophomores), I could definitely feel the students' concentration also increase, towards the beginning of the month. When the retakes finally arrived, I felt confident that the students were definitely ready. This is where the second thing I learned came into play. With all the tutoring going on, and the quick passage of time, I couldn’t help but feel that there were some students who were still just not ready to tackle some of the TEKS. This is when I came to the realization that when it comes to standardized testing, it’s not always about knowing and understanding the concepts tested, but small tricks/strategies to help the students take the test. For example, one technique heavily emphasized was the use of the process of elimination. Before the students ever even read the questions some of them were already eliminating answers. Although it seems kind of not the purpose of the test, it is a good strategy, especially for the students who don’t have much time left. The third and final thing I experienced in my tutoring is the feeling of reward and the persistence of students after they have passed or failed the test. Two students, one that I worked hard with and one that was kind of quiet in the weeks before, failed the test. Both these students continued to work even harder. Next time I’m sure they will pass. On the other end, there were two students that did pass. One of the students yelled back with a huge smile, “YES!” when Steven, another tutor, and I asked him if he passed the test. The other came in and gave the teacher a high five and almost skipped out of the room. Later, the teacher informed me that her hand was in pain as a result of the excited high five. These two dynamic reactions were bittersweet and encouraging at the same time. Just to know that it is possible for students who have had difficulties to pass the test is encouragement enough to keep helping others. As for the stamina thing, I think I’ll start doing my workouts with algebra books instead of dumbbells (ha-ha).Well till next month: later blog.
ReplyDeleteHola blog, happy cinco de Mayo, as I sit here and type this out I think about all the great moments I have had at Akins High School. As the semester comes to an end, the students seem more rowdier than usual; the students seem to have that bitter sweet feeling of leaving friends, memories, and another school year down. As I think about my own future, I can only be grateful of having gone through this experience and actually sticking to it. I recall a moment of wanting to back out and quitting for all the wrong reasons, yet for some reason, Steven’s voice comes to mind. “I’m glad you’re sticking to it,” he told me one day at our monthly SIS meeting, and I thought how selfish I was of wanting to leave everything behind. I’m thankful that I’m still here, because this has only ensured how much I want to pursue teaching;)May has arrived which means I’m pulling my hair out because of finals. When I’m done with finals, I will return to Akins refreshed and ready to work. Right now, I’m stressed about everything, life, work, and of course school.
ReplyDeleteThe best and the worst moments at Akins: First I’ll start by apologizing if this seems to rude, but I want to be honest, the worst was walking into “our tutoring classroom” and seeing a tutor who questioned me the moment I walked in, her exact question was, “What’s your background?” as if I had to explain to her why I was there, why I clearly wanted to be part of something great. The best moment was having a student ask me for advice on her scholarship application, we started small chat and after a while of talking, she whipped her paper out and said “read it,” I couldn’t believe she trusted me that much to read her paper. The best part of all this is that her paper was amazing! Another great moment was working with students in the library. One Tuesday afternoon, the teacher had asked me to work with them on their end of the year projects. The cool part was that they actually were working. I didn’t have to get on them about looking at facebook, or checking their e-mails, maybe they hid it so well I didn’t catch them, but I gave them advice on how to research and how to get everything done in a timely manner. Summer is coming up and I’m not sure what I’ll be doing in Texas Campus Compact Students in Service program, but whatever it is, I’m excited for. Tutoring at Akins, has been a great experience, thank you, thank you, thank you Regina for allowing me to bombard your classroom every time I had a question, you are an amazing teacher and I honestly can’t believe how you juggle the administrative portion of teaching as well as giving it your all for your students (candy does help!) Dr. Phan,, I’m glad you became my mentor, I know that I have not been a great mentee, but I truly am thankful for you taking time to talk to me and see how I was doing through all of this. I know I haven’t completed as many hours as the guys, but at this point I’m not just doing it to finish hours, more so to have a great experience and give students my all. To the teacher who allowed me to work with her ELL students, thank you, for permitting me to stand in your classes and be of some help whenever I could. You once told me that teaching is only for the best and those words will always stick with me, thank you. I want to be an educator because I truly feel that I can be that teacher who makes a difference, maybe in just one student or hopefully in more. I know this is cliché, but I want to make a difference, not sure if I did at Akins, but I feel that I have gained so much more coming out of this. I look forward to the week after my finals.