Rose Park Tutoring and After-school Program

I have been assigned to tutor two Rose Park Elementary students every Tuesday for the rest of the semester. I signed up for this tutoring assignment as part of my Reading Methods class. I am also assigned to teach several language arts lessons at Rose Park with Bryan for my Literacy Methods class. For the most part I am impressed with Rose Park and feel like this school is dedicated to providing high quality learning experiences for their students. I have been assigned to tutor Vince, a fourth grader and Maria, a third grader. Both of them have been referred for additional reading support from their teachers and from Deana Anderson the school's literacy specialist. I am impressed at how organized Deana is and how she is working so closely with the teachers to identify kids who are struggling.

Vince was pretty nervous to meet with me to day but by the end of our session we had made great progress. He seems to be an interested student in many subjects and I am interested in seeing how what is struggling with as he reads. Maria is a chatting young girl and is easily distracted. She also seemed pretty excited about the opportunity to have a tutor and I think this will be a great experience for me to apply the reading principles from class.

One thing that I noticed was how the school district approaches after-school services. For as long as I worked for YouthCity Rose Park was continually mentioned as the bench mark school. I have to say that I am not impressed by their staff or their individual attention for the children. Yes, they do keep the kids alive and they are providing adult supervision but it is such a stark difference between what goes on at YouthCity. I was shocked by the difference and feel so incredibly grateful for my time at Liberty Park. It has, and will continue to shape my perspective of teaching and the school system. I miss being the kids and I recognize how lucky I have been to create such lasting relationships. I am proud of the work we did and feel like when any of the Liberty Park kids look back to their childhood they will remember us.

Today, I also went to a Praxis meeting specifically for math. When I think about taking the praxis I get a bit nervous. I am confident that I can set up a classroom, create a community, nurture kids, support parents and make learning fun. What I am nervous about it the actually teaching of information. I have the basics but its the details that I don't feel comfortable with. After the math prep class today I did feel a bit more confident in my ability to solve some basic questions but I have so much to learn. Never a bad thing to realize where you are...just a bit overwhelming at times.