“I have been leading and helping with a book club at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic school for about 14 weeks now, we have been developing and engaging with their reading and comprehension skills.
I will always look back on the first day as we walked into the classroom, each of the children were sat in their seats talking and playing but as we walked in the noise became just above a whisper as their beaming eyes moved up from their friend’s smiling faces to the 5-year 12s that stood at the front of the room. We each respectfully introduced ourselves nervously, but what made each of us realize how important what we were doing was and what an incredible opportunity we had been given was, as the teacher asked the children who wanted to go to Emanuel for a secondary school at least half of the kids’ hands shot out of the air. This created a sense of achievement within each of us, a sense of pride for our school and a feeling of ambition to use what we had to help each of these kids achieve their ambitions and goals.
Over the course of the 14 weeks we have spent with these children we have grown to learn their strengths, likes, dislikes and skills, but most importantly have learnt how to be a better attribute to the community and how to effectively teach and interact with younger years. The more time we spend at the school and with our class the more we see their confidence in reading aloud and engaging with the class grow, as with each of our teaching skills we have all witnessed each other understand how to educate and help in an effective way.
I was first interested in teaching off site as I wanted to be able to produce my own resources with my group and work with them to efficiently help the kids with their skills and understand what activities work and what doesn’t. The skills that this has allowed me to adapt are useful for all areas of life, not just teaching. Each of my peers within my group that help to lead and produce classroom resources are learning communication, mentoring, flexibility and understanding as skills that will be beneficial to us each in relationships and careers in the future.
The thing I have enjoyed the most is watching many of the children, who were skeptical of being taken out of PE for a book club, grow to love and engage with our teaching and the book. Each of the students have come out of their comfort zone, whether that be with reading aloud or drawing, discovering new skills and developing confidence in who they are.”
Katherine (Year 12)