Reflection

During my Capstone project, as a tutor, I had to use a lot of critical thinking. I never noticed how hard tutors have it but it was difficult for me because I had to think about how to explain something I know, to someone who has no idea about anything about it. On top of that, each child learns differently so I had to find different and creative ways to teach them a subject. For example, one child learned how to add and subtract by using tally marks, however, another child wasn't fully grasping the idea of tally marks so I had to use pictures of the object being counted in the problem. I had a lot of fun teaching a child how to do division, especially when I got to use candy!

Working at an after school program, I feel as though I have gained a lot of experience. At least more experience than what I was expected. I honestly expected to really just tell someone how to do their homework and just play with them but I've actually realized a lot of things. I feel as though I respect teachers more than I did before because it really is truly hard to teach someone something, especially if they don't care so much to learn it. It's difficult trying to explain to them how important that knowledge is for the future when they just won't believe you. I also loved having the opportunity to work with and be a kid again. In my life, I've had to mature faster than most children my age. But it was nice having the chance to play outside and communicate with them. It's amazing how smart these children are! Because of their young age you don't expect them to know so much, but it amazes me how much more they might even know than me!

I was really quiet and shy at first because I didn't really know exactly what to do or how to help them. A lot of the kids needed my help so it was hard to try to divide the time I spend helping a child. I did have feelings of frustration when a child couldn't understand what I was trying to explain. I'm not a patient person so having to learn how to keep calm and mannered was difficult for me. Like I said in my presentation, I can't just yell at them as I do with my own siblings! I overcame this feeling by just counting to 10 and try to figure out a different way to teach them. But there's only so much you can do with a child who doesn't really care to learn it. When it came to that, it did have to come down to threaten to take away privileges, such as being able to play outside or having to put their head down. Taking something like that away isn't as easy as I though.