My appreciation for teachers grew even larger after teaching. My parents are both middle school teachers, so all my life I have witnessed behind the scenes how much effort they put into their classes, but I never truly felt what it was like to be responsible for all these children until I was standing at the front of those classrooms.
As part of the World Language program here at Coventry High School students in level 3 honors, or higher, language classes have the opportunity to be a part of the World Language Honors Society. Similar to the National Honors Society, community service hours are required. Students have an opportunity to volunteer at the elementary schools to teach lessons in order to fulfill these hours. I was given my first opportunity to volunteer this year, so I signed up to teach six lessons, five at Washington Oak and one at Western. I definitely took a lot away from these lessons, and I think many students would highly benefit from teaching one.
The majority of classes I taught were fourth and fifth grade, but the first one was with first graders. This was by far the hardest class we taught. It’s very difficult to teach students at that age, especially to teach them a new language when they are just getting a handle on english. The fourth and fifth graders were much easier to work with. We could connect with them easily, and we were surprised at how quickly they were able to pick up on the Spanish we were teaching them. Topics we covered included numbers, animals, months, and weather. Our lessons consisted of quick notes, word searches, crossword puzzles, drawing, and of course Kahoots.
Hopefully, the kids learned from our lessons, but I perhaps learned even more than them. My appreciation for teachers grew even larger after teaching. My parents are both middle school teachers, so all my life I have witnessed behind the scenes how much effort they put into their classes, but I never truly felt what it was like to be responsible for all these children until I was standing at the front of those classrooms. I also learned a lot about time management. We were one hundred percent responsible for creating our lesson, so we made all of the presentations, worksheets, and games. Especially towards the end, our lessons were very close together, so we had to plan it out so we were able to complete them in time to send to the teachers. Teaching these classes was a great way for me to get experience and earn community service hours while contributing to our community in Coventry.
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