My First Blog

My goal for this project is to create a system for Kindergarten teachers to have access to high school students that volunteer their time to tudor the students in math and reading during school hours. The volunteer tudors will create fun and interesting ways for Kindergartners to be engaged in new ways of learning. 

I happened to be talking to one of my previous teachers from middle school when she had mentioned a need for some of her students to obtain help with some subjects they were struggling with. Those subjects happened to be two of the most commonly challenging or unenjoyable subjects, so it strikes an idea that maybe I could come up with a way for teachers to get help while the kids learn and stay engaged with some fun.

To achieve my goal I plan to meet with a teacher and find out her exact needs, and gain awareness of the main struggles of her students in math and reading. I will then create ways to engage the students in learning games based on the areas of challenge and maintain a safe, light-hearted environment. This type of environment will give them a desire to learn more and open their minds up to receive and retain the new information. I want to make a volunteering program for the high school students to offer their time to tudor Kindergarteners in classrooms as needed.

My first chosen benchmark will be April 15. By this date I should have already met with the teacher I will be working with to create a game plan of exactly how and when everything will happen. By April 22, I will have spent a couple hours in the classroom working to tudor young students in math and reading and assess their needs. My last benchmark will be May 6, when I will have implemented my student-teacher volunteer directory and have success with the "Learn to Love Learning" techniques. 

My mentor will be a previous teacher of mine who teaches a Kindergarten class at Bethel Christian School named Ms. Payne. I have worked with her before, so I know she will be an amazing mentor, and she was all for my project.

The possible obstacles I might face when executing my project would be things like not coming up with enough diverse techniques to use to help the kids learn or not getting a sufficient amount of high school students to donate their time. Ways I could overcome these hurdles are thinking of different ways to teach the kids ahead of time, and promoting this volunteering experience to many teens so that they will want to help out.