Study Buddy

Today I started volunteering for the Edmonton Public School's 'Study Buddy' program.   Study Buddy matches undergraduate students with elementary and junior high students in Edmonton and St. Albert to help tutor them, one hour a week, in a variety of subjects.

Apparently the program looks really good on a teacher's resume so that was one motivation for volunteering, however, I was also drawn to the opportunity of working with the kids.   Another opportunity came up a while ago, to work with inner city kids and I was interested in it, too...only it had an age restriction of 18-30, for some reason.

Anyway, so I've been paired with Ms. Gervais, who teaches a junior high special needs Language Arts class.   There are about 17 students from grades 7-9, though there are only a couple of grade 9 kids.  They are 'cognitively delayed', and learning at about a grade 4-5 level.   Ms. Gervais doesn't have a teacher assistant in her room so basically that's the job I'll be taking on.   She told me that Friday afternoons can get a little crazy as the kids anticipate the weekend.

Today was just an introduction to the class as they had a buddy computer class, where the kids were matched with a grade one class and were to teach them how to use a computer.   I helped out by wandering around and making sure everyone was on task, and after about an hour of that they went back to the classroom to work on posters and my time there was spent praising efforts, as no one needed help.  Some of the kids' art was really well done.

Despite the apparent lack of work available for me, it was very satisfying to be there.  The kids are nice, even the one who I had to keep getting back on track, and I look forward to when I actually get to work with them, rather than just babysit them.

The school itself is in the midst of some major renovations, so it looked pretty rough, with ceilings torn out and  what not.   There are 600 students in the school, and it seemed like a lot more than that, for some reason... perhaps because I'm so used to the little elementary school here in Lamont.

Ms. Gervais seems like a sweet, friendly teacher but she has bite when she needs it and the kids obviously respect her and her authority.  That is something that I will need to earn, as they listened to her and were quick to dismiss me.   She's young, younger than me probably by 5 years so she can't have been teaching for an incredibly long time.

It's funny, I have this image in my mind of teachers being old and everywhere I turned today I found teachers that were a lot younger than I expected.   I wonder if it's my own teenage memories telling me that teachers are old (in comparison) or if the teaching base is really that young, now.

It wouldn't surprize me to be the latter, considering the huge graduation classes from the Education Faculty, year after year.

The other thing that struck me was the computer class.   I fully expected to walk to a computer lab, but apparently that is a thing of the past.   Instead, the kids went to an open atrium (cuz the grade one class didn't have wireless yet) and all were given laptops to use.   Huh.

Anyway, that's enough for now.    I keep thinking of blog entries I could make while I'm driving.  Maybe of these days I'll get those thoughts down, too.