Village Project Reflection

My experience with the Village Project is one that has offered me so many great insights and takeaways. Getting to work with s student and develop lesson plans that work for them has been such a helpful experience. Getting to bond with my student and help them to not only succeed academically but socially has been such a treasure!

My Top 10 Takeaways:

1. Some days will be really hard: There were times that I would leave tutoring and feel absolutely defeated. Maybe my student was not listening, maybe they were not engaging with me and the work, maybe they are just feeling a little off. The students we teach are humans just like me and you. 
2. Patience is key: Again, it can be frustrating when your student is not answering the questions you ask them to answer or doing the work you ask them to do, but without patience you will get nowhere with your student. There were so many times I could have just given up or gotten a little more strict, but taking a deep breath and working through the issue with my student made them feel seen and heard. 
3. Getting to know your students is just as important and beginning the learning: I worked with a very quiet and often unengaged student. This made getting to know my student and what engages him so much more important. It was not until I began to make those connections between what he likes and his learning that we were able to be successful. Building trust with your student(s) is the first step to being able to teach them the skills they need. 
4. Sometimes plans fall through: Just like it sounds, sometimes the things you plan to do that day don’t happen. Maybe it is that the student is having trouble engaging or maybe they are just having an off day. Sometimes the plans you worked so hard to create, the plans you were certain would be helpful for your student, just arent.
5. You need to be quick on your feet: along the same lines as the statement above, you need to be quick on your feet and able to make new plans quickly. Again, something that you might think will work for your student, may become clear that it is not the right plan during your lesson. 
6. Teaching is fluid: Walking into tutoring every Tuesday and Thursday I never quite knew what to expect. My student may have had a great day at school and be ready to learn, or they may be struggling at home and not ready to do more school work. No matter the circumstance, I had to be ready to change my plans and expectations based on how my student was doing. Every day will look different, and that is ok!
7. Your students’ success is your success – treat it as such: for every success your student makes, make sure they know just how proud of them you are. Teaching my student brought me right back to when I was learning and working on the same tasks. I remember so deeply how being encouraged made me feel and how important it was to help me keep going.  
8. You are making an impact, even if you don’t think you are: For the beginning of my work with my student I was positive they did not enjoy the work we were doing. They were not engaged, blowing off many of my questions and the help I was trying to provide. It wasn’t; until meeting with my students’ parents that I became aware how much they enjoyed it and even looked forward to meeting with me Tuesday and Thursday. I thought they absolutely hated meeting with me based on their actions and language, but they really enjoyed it. I was making a difference for them and didn’t even know it. 
9. Just because a student is behind on a certain topic, doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy said topic: The student I was serving was one that was below their grade level for reading. Going into this situation, it was easy to assume that they must not like reading and that is why they were struggling to meet their grade level literacy expectations. It quickly became apparent, though, that my student really enjoyed reading, they just needed someone to take a little extra time with them to work on that love. 
10. Teaching is so worth it: there were more days than not when I walked out of the school and felt totally and completely defeated. Maybe the student was not listening, or maybe they were not engaged and doing what was asked of them. But getting to see how much my students progressed from the beginning and how much they opened up to me was such a gift!