WESO Volunteering

During this activity, I helped teach kids about mathematics at a science olympiad fair. I interacted with others through learning what I had to teach, and then engaging families and competitors in conversation, while teaching and helping them become interested in Montessori style math. I was doing service and advanced objectives 1, 2, 4, 6, and7. I was incresing my awareness of areas for growth in teaching, undertaking a new challenge as I had never participated in this type of volunteering before, I worked collaboratively with my leader to reach as many people as possible, I engaged in issues of global importance by helping kids learn, and considered ethical implications by considering what I was learning and helping people learn. I had hoped to help spark an interest in math, and I was very successful, I got to watch kids' eyes light up as they understood a new conept. Some difficulties I ran into were that some kids were finding it hard to concentrate or care about math and just wanted to play, which I solved by turning the math into a game for them so they learned without realizing it. I learned that sometimes its good to be light on your feet and have a backup plan, especially when working with kids. The kids helped me think about my learning this time by helping me realize how to improve to engage them. This activity benefitted others by helping not only put on a successful event, but sparking an interest in math and school.  Next time to improve, I will try to be more flexible from the beginning so I can reach more people. I can apply the collaboration and thinking outside the box I learned to every situation in life, from college to a job to a regular day. The knowledege of how to be flexible can be applied to life in general, when things don't go as planned.

Total: 5 -Service