Prompt 7

This experience has been so much more than I could have ever imagined. It has taught me so much,I am learning what kind of teacher I want to be. My VIPS experience has begun to shape me into a teacher, and I am looking more and more forward to my experiences I will have when I become a teacher. There have been so many things that have happened that have taught me so much. When I first started in the classroom I was very nervous, I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to be doing and I had never been in a classroom setting as an authority figure before. The kids were comfortable in their classroom already and I was coming in so late and I was so new. I really hoped that my nervous energy did not come through to them, I needed them to like and respect me. At first the few students I was working with were more reserved and quiet, but as I continued to come two days every week, they got more comfortable with. Before long they were telling me stories about their pasts and their families. They were asking for help, and responding better to the help I was giving them. As they felt more comfortable so did I and I think I was doing a better job in helping them with their reading and writing. Before I knew it my 15 hours were up and it was time for me to say goodbye to the class I had grown so found of. I feel like they helped me so much more that I helped them, by sharing their learning experiences with me it taught me how to be a teacher.
There was one specific student that I had, a young girl. When I first met her she had a toughness about her, she was defensive and hard. The teacher told me that she often gets into physical fights with the other students and acts out in class alot. Yet, there was something about her that intrigued me. She was assigned to read with me in a small group, she was very behind in her reading level and needed extra help. As I was helping her, she seemed distant. She was paying attention but I had the feeling that everything I was teaching her she would soon lose. When my hour and 15 minutes were up and I was getting ready to leave, she pulled me aside and told me that I would need to help her next time too. I wasn't to surprised that's she asked this of me, i had already been figuring that I would need to be helping her the entire time I was at the school. But then she said something else, she told me that she has a hard time learning things because she is dyslexic and that she would need to relearn things every time we were together. I smiled and told her that would be perfectly fine, but inside I was in shock. When I got to my car that afternoon I felt a sadness I had never felt before. I was sad for this poor girl, she has given up on herself and it seemed like everyone else in her life had done the same. At that moment I became excited about becoming a teacher. If I could help kids that were suffering like this poor girl was, who wanted to learn more than anything but simply did not have the tools to do so, I felt my life would have meaning. I actually felt like I could make a difference.