W.J. MOUAT SECONDARY SCHOOL
My volunteering experiences were fantastic. I got to volunteer at W.J Mouat Secondary school shadowing Mr. Mike Perry who is a physical education and geography teacher which are my dream courses to also teach. Through my experiences of shadowing Mike Perry, I learned a lot about the behaviours that exist and the mannerisms of the graduates. It was quite shocking to witness the behaviours of these young adults, but it just goes to show how age matures people.
By volunteering, I also realized the importance of building trusting relationships and the importance of allowing for mistakes to happen in the classroom as I found that the students immediately learned the concepts after they openly made a mistake in front of the rest of the class. I really enjoyed how Mr. Perry made his lectures very engaging and interactive in which you were able to tell that his class was focused. By having his class answer the questions, it drew a lot of students’ attention to the new information being taught. This is a teaching tool that I will take into my classroom because who really pays attention to the teacher who just stands at the front of the class and lectures. BORING!!!
When it came to teaching PE, on the other hand, it really brought me happiness. My Perry let me teach and instruct a grade 11 co-ed PE class for two weeks. Not only did I just teach PE, but I also got involved too. I went on the runs with the students in the areas that I instructed them to warm up with. I also played badminton in the unit plan that we had instructed for the class. I made sure that when I instructed a new unit, I would call on a volunteer to demonstrate to the class proper form and technique, ex. how to grab the end of the birdy and make the connection in front of your body so that the birdy goes over the net. Nonetheless, through this experience, I fell in love with the idea of being a PE teacher.
ROBERTA BONDAR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Volunteering at Roberta Bondar Elementary School was quite a drastic change from volunteering in a high school. Walking down the smaller hallways into the room, I did not know what to expect. Mrs. Dorsey welcomed me with open arms and was very comforting from the start. She also put sticky notes on the students’ desks so that I was aware of what students needed extra support. Mrs. Dorsey the teacher of a grade 2/3 split class then went outside and gathered her students who were standing in their homeroom lines outside the school. When they entered the classroom one by one the students seemed curious as to why there is a blonde-haired lady standing in their classroom (aka me). After being introduced to the class once the students finished hanging up their bags on their designated hooks, and then taking their seats, Mrs. Dorsey introduced me as Ms. Kerr and explained to the class that I will be volunteering every Tuesday and Thursday.
The students respected Mrs. Cori Dorsey. I was able to tell just by the way the students waited patiently with their hands up if they had a question to ask her. It was clear that Mrs. Dorsey did her diligence to set up the classroom rules and policies at the beginning of the year as the students had a clear expectation of what Mrs. Dorsey wanted from them. This was also a tool that I was able to take away from volunteering here. Most of my volunteering hours were spent helping the students with their workbooks that Mrs. Dorsey had made for each student at the beginning of the year. For about an hour or two every day, the students would work on their spelling book, their reading comprehension book, and their math book. For the days that the students missed, they would spend that time working on the worksheet from the day before. But for the rest of the class, they would work on their worksheet for that day. Mrs. Dorsey recorded their progress by calling on the students one-by-one and graded them on their answers and checked to see how far they have gotten through their books since the last time she graded/assessed the students. This way Mrs. Dorsey was able to see what students were falling behind or may need some extra support. When this was happening, I spent my time walking around the classroom and helping those students who were waiting patiently with their hands up so that I could give them the support they need.
BC SUMMER GAMES
I also got the privilege to volunteer at the BC Summer Games. I got given a shirt and a name tag and it was my duty to not let pedestrians into the fairgrounds, as well as to scan the player’s and coaches’ badges. I volunteered at Exhibition Park which was by the baseball fields. I got to scan all the player’s and coaches’ badges when they were coming into the parks.
Not going to lie, this was not a very exciting volunteering experience for me as it was super repetitive and often boring at times. But I needed to get more volunteering hours in, so I figured why not. During the slow times, I got the opportunity to watch some parts of the games and the talent that was shown by the players was astonishing.
I got around 30 hours of volunteering experience in total.