Friday, November 11, 2011

Promising Practices

The conference was a great experience from which I walked out with inspiration to change and help overcome the big animosity that is discrimination, whether it is from roles of gender or race this is a problem that hugs our society tightly and does not allow for change to occur. The conference was divided into five stages, the introduction, the workshop meeting, the expo, the youth conference, and the youth panel.
During registration I had the chance to pick form 13 workshops I would like to attend. I decided to choose a conference that would teach me something new, something out of the ordinary. I decided to attend a conference called service learning as a tool for experiential learning, with Professor Mustafa Ozcan. This workshop was mainly learning through experience, and how to make educational programs for students. Dr. Mustafa was a funny man; he was able to deliver a message of learning while having hands on experience. He allowed us to conduct group learning plans for students in elementary through high school. Putting together an experience for the students and an overall learning environment, giving a doubled sided message where the students can take in what they give out. In my group we chose Veterans of war. Our main purpose was to teach a class of high school students about the War of Vietnam and the issues that occurred after the War. We came up with a plan to allow our students to learn in the first person from Vietnam soldiers. By doing this we also taught our students the importance of giving moral support to the veterans in need. This workshop was mainly for students who are pursuing a degree in teaching and for teachers. This technique expresses difference in teaching, the traditional method of giving handouts and explaining what will be discussed was said to be forgotten after months of unused materials. But through hands on interactive with actual people and places students will keep the knowledge of the material they learned over the course of time, simply they make a connection from what they learned to a need in society.
When we were done with the workshop, we returned to Donavan dinning center for the promising partnerships expo.  The expo offered volunteer opportunities for teachers, and students aspiring to become educators. The expo was a great opportunity to learn about the resources and the organizations that exist in Rhode Island. One of the organizations that were present in the expo was city year. City year is a great program that caught my attention. In this program students from different backgrounds serve as tutors, and mentors to students from the elementary level through high school. The dedicated members of city year serve in schools full time for 10 months; they help students to improve their performance in English and math, attendance, and behavior. This organization made such an impact in many of us because their dedication and their hunger to help those in need.
After the expo we had to go to gaige hall where three young adults hosted the “teen empowerment conference with Heang Ly. There message was a simple but powerful one. Letting the voice of the youth from low income communities speak instead of always being spoken to. There expression of how the message of a teacher is translated into a negative view, making these students engage in acting out instead of a positive reaction to their miss-understandings in their work. Further into ways of interactive games that would show how lack of proper communication can deter a students learning environment. The T.E. students gave an inside look on how the students who act out can be reached if different ways to address their issues. To wrap up this part of the conference the T.E. students allowed for some audience interaction, letting any Students or teachers ask questions on this matter. From my point of view the conference was an encouraging word to teachers and those students who are preparing themselves to become teachers not to feel discouraged if they are presented with the challenge of working in a low income community. This message should be taken as a guiding point on how to reach these students, and each and every one of us can make a change in someone’s life.
Going back to the dinning center there was lunch provided and a student panel.  The 3 groups that presented themselves were T.E., M.P.H.T.A., and A.L.L.I.E.D. Each student gave their story of where they came from, where they are now and how they can help those students who were in their positions. All their stories were touching and reminded me of that special teacher that made a difference in my life and it brought a sense of genuine inspiration to want to reach out to another life and have this effect on them.  Finally the panel ended with questions from the audience.

In conclusion I felt that I made the right choice of choosing my workshop because the whole conference had a nice flow. Everything that I learned in each stage of the conference related to each other. Giving me the message that it is not enough to say what I can do to make a difference or an impact, but taking the steps to make this happen. 


1 comment:

  1. I'm glad you had a good experience at Promising Practices. City year sounds like a great program. The message you got out of the event sounds like a great one. :)

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