乐播传媒

Third Place Winner

First Post:

My first volunteer sessions were great! I got to meet Ashley, the teacher I am volunteering for, and her newcomer students that she is helping with their language production! These students are bilingual and are in Ashley's sessions to better their English language proficiency. I am there to provide a friendly face and help with anything Ashley needs throughout the Wednesday session. So far, I have met two students, and they usually work on the calendar, new vocabulary words, and Duolingo. These two students are very sweet and welcoming to me, even though I do not speak fluent Spanish. I can tell they enjoy my presence and like the extra hand I provide in their session. I can tell these students want to be friendly have me in their classroom, since we enjoy playing the learning games together. The students I work with definitely show an interest in the vocabulary and activates we do. Specifically, they love showing me how good they are at Duolingo or passing the talking squishy my way after their turn to hear me pronounce the words we are working on. I have also gotten the opportunity to work with full classes as well, since these students were working on the test scores to show to their parents on curriculum night. I got to be hands-on during this and help students who did not quite understand what they were supposed to do to prepare. This was great considering I got to be familiar with more students and not just the Newcomer students and it was interesting to be involved within a whole class. It is super rewarding to see the progress they make throughout even just one session, and I cannot wait to see more of their progress in future sessions. I really enjoy my position and I look forward to my future time with Ashley and the Newcomer students!

Second Post:

Throughout my volunteering, I have had some challenges that I have encountered while working with Ashley and the newcomer students. Specifically, the language barrier. Going into this volunteer program, I knew there would be challenges involved with the language barrier. The first few weeks I definitely needed to adjust and get used to the barrier and communication aspect. To overcome this however, I have used many strategies. For example, the use of my body. I have used body language to demonstrate what we are supposed to be doing during work time and to show the students how to do certain activities. I have also used signals to communicate with the students, such as pointing, facial expressions, hand movements, and showing them examples of words or colors that are on the board that they can use to help aid them in their work. Overtime, I have seen them become more familiar and friendly towards me and it is definitely a rewarding thing to experience. Every week, I have the same two girls and each time they become warmer towards me and include me in on what work they are doing more. Such as, they have used my name multiple times, pointed to what they're doing to show me their work, and asked me simple questions that I am able to answer. Some strengths I have noticed in the sessions include, just being a friendly face to the students, someone closer to their age that they can more relate with, and another person to participate in their language games! I think I have an impact on these students, even if I don't fluently speak their language, I can tell they enjoy me, and I definitely enjoy them. I believe this is a very rewarding experience because I can hands-on build relationships with these students and see their language progress happening right in front of me!

Third Post:

聽Throughout this semester volunteering with teacher Ashley and working with newcomer students, I have learned lots. Going into the semester, I was curious with how practicing English with mainly Spanish speaking students would go, since I do not have much experience speaking Spanish outside of the necessary language credits one takes in High School. However, my original concern was quickly overridden when I met teacher Ashley and teacher Lisa. They were very welcoming to me and appreciative of my want to help out no matter the language barrier. Meeting the students and quickly connecting with them was very rewarding, as I became a friendly face and was able to quickly be involved with the work they were doing. I learned a lot of patience with the students during my volunteering. Specifically, having the patience and flexibility when something did not go to plan and being able to switch things up when needed was important to keeping the vibes of the room high and everyone engaged. Being around the students, having fun while also being productive, and learning, was a highlight of my time. I also loved how we incorporated fun learning games into the sessions because this kept the students engaged and challenged since they would be going against each other and had to think quickly. Something very rewarding about this experience was being able to see their English progress first-hand and being a part of such progressions. Throughout my volunteering, I have learned it is important to talk-out-loud everything we are doing in both English and Spanish, since this is very beneficial to the understanding and communication of the students overall. It was fascinating seeing the code-switching happen and how these students use English and Spanish subsequently. I definitely enjoyed my time volunteering with newcomer students at University Hill and I would love to be given the chance to volunteer again!