Reflexíon

Junior Achievement fue sin duda una experiencia positiva de aprendizaje. Es evidente que el programa tiene una sólida reputación dentro de muchas de las escuelas. Los niños no han entendido que eran de Rollins, o estaban trabajando a través de JA, pero aprecia claramente el tiempo que pasamos con ellos. Creo que fue bueno para ellos ver a los estudiantes cerca de su edad. Obviamente, eran mucho mayores, pero todavía en la escuela. Creo que para algunos que realmente fue un estímulo para el trabajo duro e ir a la universidad, que a nuestro nivel de logro.

La parte del programa bilingüe fue muy difícil. No necesariamente para nosotros, pero más para los niños. Algunos no entendían español, en todo caso. Creo que se debió en parte a la escuela que se colocaron in Teníamos que encontrar una escuela que pudiera acomodar nuestro horario. Muy a menudo hemos tenido que volver atrás en el otro, o uno-a-1 con los estudiantes a fin de que todos entiendan. Yo sé lo que esto significa en la actualidad, cuando los maestros dicen que tienen que seguir adelante. Es difícil, pero a fin de mantenerse a la par con los planes de lección que debe tener la capacidad de seguir adelante.

Con todo, me ofrecería voluntaria de nuevo. Siento que he hecho algún tipo de diferencia. Más que nada espero que me inspiró a algunos de esos niños a permanecer en la escuela, y trabajar duro para alcanzar sus objetivos. Esa es la lección más importante que podía dar.

Newspaper Entrepreneurs

My favorite lesson was our final and most recent visit. Our lesson was focused on newspapers. George and I brought in a copy of the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. We defined what a headline was, and the purpose of a newspaper article. Our game here was the 5W's. We explained the importance of the elements who, what, where, why, and when to gathering information necessary for a news story. This became difficult because most of boys in the class just started coloring on the newspapers by drawing mustaches, darkening eyes, or what was a real hit was putting boobs on every man in the newspaper. It showed that these kids could be in different moods at any time. This was by far the most wound up we saw the kids. They had a lot of trouble paying attention, especially because our class is so large we had 4 different tables of students working on their own story. For obvious reasons the teacher used this time to correct students work and being just two people George and I had to shuffle back and forth between all the 4 tables of students.

A few girl in the class however were very intelligent. About 5 of them grouped together and picked an article about ballerinas, and were able to depict the information about it. They even pretended they were ballarinas and began to twirl around. Whereas some other students have very poor reading abilities, and need to be guided through the process. One student in particular, Alijandro, I feel really benefited from our volunteer work. Numerous lessons I would work 1-on-1 with Alijandro to help him understand what was going on. At one point he sat down in front of the chalk board to copy notes exactly. He really wanted to learn, at times he would nearly break down in tears asking for help. It was evident that he was so upset he did not know what was going on, and by giving him a little extra help made me feel better about the JA program.

City Planning

Continuing with our theme of City Planning, George and I emphasized our lessons off the importance of city zones. We tried to explain to the class that there are residential zones, multipurpose zones, commercial, and agricultural/farming zones. We described what entails buildings such as City Hall, a factory, school. grocery store, farm, and restaurants,  Each of them have their own purpose to a city and society. We realized that most of the lessons planned by JA were a little complex for our 2nd graders. However it must be noted that our lesson plan was intended for 3rd grade. Even so, we adjusted well and stuck with activities that took up a majority of the time.

To keep the entire class from losing control at times, we focused playing games. In general our main focus was to encourage creativity. We split the class in 4 groups and tried to get them to think of any building and what explain what the importance of it was. This was a very different experience than I had in elementary school. It is honestly my first exposure to any sort of public school system. This was also my first time volunteering with this sort of program. Because the kids were so excited to see us each visit, it felt very good to give back. 

First Observation Class!

Sorry for the slight delay in blogging. Today was a break through day for Junior Achievement. George Grahm and I went to Pinar Elementary School to observe Mrs. Hansen's 2nd Grade class. My first placement was in another school and class, however it did not fit with my time schedule. It is a huge weight off the shoulders to be able to go to my first meeting, it was quite an eye opener. There are in total about 18 kids in the class at a time. Very diverse. One student from South Korea, many with Hispanic backgrounds, and all ranging in different strengths/weaknesses. Math and reading appear to be the hardest concepts for most, but all were so excited to see us Junior Achievers. According to the teacher, they have been asking about us for weeks.

During the observation class, we first spoke with Mrs. Hansen about what we should expect and how we can participate to the best of our capabilities. Our JA theme is City Planning. She said that is a great topic because a lot of the students struggle to really understand where they come from. They don't know their phone numbers, addresses, or really what downtown Orlando is like. We will focus on the major buildings and jobs in a major city, and the impact it has on them. It will be tough because as eager as these kids are to learn, there are a few mental blocks. One student has Autism, and actually wears headphones all day. So she stated it can be sometimes difficult to lead a full discussion. Candy will be a great way to get them excited and hard to believe but focused. Has anyone found this to be a success??

Over the past few weeks, the class has been studying money; identifying and counting monetary bills and coins. At one point I helped this little girl, Angelina, solve a problem, and she proceeded to teach her classmates what I taught her. They are a very tight knit group. During a flash-card game, these youngins would share markers, eraserboards, flash cards, and actually helped eachother learn. It was truly an amazing site. The majority of the class is 7-8 years old. It was apparent that they were interested in having older students to play and work with them.

Apparently there is a serious lack of funding among the public schools in the area. Old computers with math and English games are used as a primary source of learning. I can relate because I remember at that age, the role computer games played in my learning experience. Overall I am super psyched to get started. We had a great time just getting to know the kids. I need to work on the names a bit more. There are 2 Angels, 2 Micheals, and so forth. I think we will start next weeks session with a name game.

George and I plan to get together and find the best way to implement our JA packets into this class. The teacher seemed very excited for us to help, but gave us little guidance on what she would like to see from us. So we have a very open court essentially, and can do a lot of this using our own methods- which I find to be a huge advantage. At first I was upset it took so long to have my first observation class, but now I am glad it took so long because we are very pleased with our class and the potential we can have as Junior Achievers.

Until my next blog: Hasta LUEGO.
Ian B.

Junior Achievement

HOLA,
I am so excited to start working as a Junior Achievement Ambassador. I was assigned to work with the 3rd grade at Hillcrest Elementary. I am well aware that it will be the most challenging class in comparison to what some of my other classmates are doing (ie. Kindergarten-2nd grade). My lesson plan deals with City Planning and some very crucial information about engineering and what necessary planning goes into certain city projects.
 








The main purpose of Junior Achievement is really to inspire younger kids to succeed in a global environment. By having volunteers as Junior Achievers- it teaches them the importance of community and helping others within it. I still have not heard from my teacher or the Junior Achievement contact. I will try sending another email and phone call Monday morning.

Last week, we got a course packet of information. It detailed what we would be teaching the children. I am working with John Schafer. Hopefully he and I can come up with some creative ideas that will keep the kids engaged to what we have to say. I think by incorporating a lot of pictures and easy to follow material, it will work out great.

In the next few weeks, I will be finding when I can go and meet with the class. I hope to follow up my next blog with some pictures and a detailed report of what I anticpate out of the class. Also, I plan on writing a lot more in Spanish. I just wanted to first give a detailed outlook. There is a lot more blogs and information to come about my Spanish adventure so please check back often!

Unitl then. HASTA LUEGO.

Ian B