While blogging about any of my extracurricular activities could prove to be interesting, I wanted to provide a resource for other educators interested in encouraging and inspiring young minds to learn about engineering. Most of the activities I use for the club are from websites such as http://teachengineering.org, but I wanted to supplement the information with how the students reacted and ways that I plan on improving the activity for the next semester. Furthermore, I wanted to record my [many] thoughts and feelings as I planned and implemented each session.
A little background on my teaching experience -- I started tutoring in middle school when my [favorite] math teacher asked if I would donate my lunch hour to assisting a small group of my peers. I happily agreed and after a year, was recognized with a local service award. Honestly, I cannot say I remember the details of the tutoring sessions [it has been almost a decade!], but I do remember the great sense of gratitude I felt toward my teacher for introducing me to the other side of education. I continued to tutor in high school [Chemistry and Spanish] then proceeded to drop out after my Sophomore year to attend Bard College at Simon's Rock in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. My teaching experience expanded as a Teaching Assistant (TA) for an Introductory Biology course and as a subject tutor for numerous mathematics courses [Calculus I - IV, Linear Algebra].
After two years, I transferred into the Biomedical Engineering program at the University of Michigan. Following two semesters of adjusting to the new environment (liberal arts to engineering, ~400 students to ~40,000 students, etc.), I decided to jump back into tutoring. Sometime toward the end of my second semester, I saw an email from Dr. Deborah Ball [Dean, School of Education] about recruitment for the Elementary Mathematics Laboratory (EML) clinic. EML is a two-week program that acts as a forum for educators and mathematicians to convene and discuss how to best teach and prepare fifth-graders struggling in conventional classroom mathematics. The clinic is an hour-long, one-on-one tutoring session between a college student and fifth grader. In the summer of 2009, I volunteered as a tutor for a bright, young girl and was touched by the experience. She looked up to me and trusted that I would help her mind fully comprehend the concepts that Dr. Ball discussed earlier in the day. Her dramatic improvement and intelligence truly inspired me to continue with the program. The following summer, I returned to assist Dr. Meghan Shaughnessy with the clinic.
One morning of the 2010 EML program, I received an email about open College of Engineering Outreach and Engagement Teaching Fellows positions. While I applied and interviewed for one of the teaching fellows positions, my schedule as a Master's student didn't match with what the position requirements and I was directed to consider the Engineering Club appointment. The club seemed to match my interests so I pursued the opportunity. I was soon offered the position and happily began brainstorming for each of the eight sessions.
There are a total of eight sessions over the course of the semester and I will be running the same activities for a new group next semester. Originally, I wanted to start blogging at the onset of planning, but couldn't find the time. Either way, four sessions have already occurred and the fifth & sixth sessions will be tomorrow and Tuesday.
Look forward to more updates soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment