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Blog 8: Final Reflection

Our essential question was: How can one foster a positive learning environment for language education? Our initial project design objectives were strong and stayed present throughout our experience. Our objectives were that we wanted to learn how to assemble lessons for younger students, how to support mentees, and refresh my foundations in the French language. They were fairly achievable and I am happy to say that I feel we did achieve most of them. Our mentorship with Mr. Nyborg was solid, and I could reach out to him in the future if I wanted to reconnect with him for career purposes. Though, I feel there might have been some times in which I was doing something beyond my abilities as a teaching assistant such as writing the course description for final comments. It was really interesting to be able to get a glimpse behind the scenes and see how grading works at the school, but I had only been there for about two weeks and did not have a gauge on what they had been learning all year...
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Blog 7

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The organization that I worked with was Hawken School itself, but both the middle school and the lower school could benefit from teacher's assistants in the future. Throughout my time at the middle school, I conversed with a lot of different teachers, both recently hired and those with long tenure. Almost all of these teachers mentioned something about how they would love teacher's assistants like us to help them, especially during significant grading periods. I got to help M Nyborg with his final grades and feedback by writing the course summary and entering all of the feedback into Hawknet as if I was an actual teacher, which was interesting to experience. I had always wondered how it was done. Honestly, I think the Upper School and Lower School do not have many connections, but after working with the younger students for a few weeks, I would encourage more students who are interested in education or working with kids to pursue their projects at the Lyndhurst campus. In terms...
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Blog 6

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If I could restart my project, I would have found more teacher and professor resources for beginning-level classes. As I said earlier, I had a hard time figuring out each class's difficulty level and gauging their previous knowledge, especially towards the end of the school year when everyone is sort of already checked out. I feel like if I had more variety of activities and base of learning materials prior to the start of the project, I would have been more prepared to help plan these middle school classes. I would tell next year's Hawken Project students to start brainstorming ideas for your project earlier than you think, as waiting for responses from mentors can take months and delay your process of securing a project. While I enjoyed this opportunity to step into a classroom from a teacher's perspective, it was not my first choice, and I wish I had reached out sooner so that I could be doing something that is more in line with my passions and career goals. Also, it is ...
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Blog 5

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  Over the course of the past two weeks, I have learned how to work with younger peers and how to interact with them as an older student. I am not their superior in any way, but we are not quite equal in all learning aspects. I got to witness the way younger students engage with the material and throughout my time here, I have adapted the way I talk with them and create activities for them. For example, the 8th graders are much more advanced in French than I thought they would be, so Rithika and I quickly had to adjust our activity plans for them to something equivalent to our freshman or sophomore year experiences. The 6th and 7th graders also knew way less than we expected them to and had to adjust the difficulty level of their classes accordingly. I also took from this the realization that everyone learns at different paces, and it's important to be able to cater to each and every student's learning style in the classroom. I have grown a lot throughout the course of the proj...
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Blog 4

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During the very first week of our project, classes were canceled and the middle school and 5th grade had Field Day. So, Rithika and I stepped into another shadowing role and assisted with Field Day. We oversaw the 5th grade and escorted them to each activity. We also cheered them on and helped if they received any injuries or had disputes with each other, which definitely occurred from time to time over the lengthy itinerary. It was a very unexpected experience as I did not anticipate participating in Field Day preparations when configuring this project, but it was very entertaining and provided me with more insight into the responsibilities of a middle school teacher. One experience that helped me learn more about myself was when M Nyborg was out for a day coaching tennis at the district tournament. Rithika and I were left with a 6th-grade class of 16 and an 8th-grade Advanced class of 9. We did have a substitute teacher who had to technically supervise, but he wanted to let us take r...
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Blog 3

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  On the first day of the project, I was really nervous about if the students were going to be apprehensive about seniors sitting in on their classes and planning some of their classes. The students were very welcoming and seemed excited to meet us. I was also worried about whether M Nyborg would be communicating with us in French or in English, and if I would have to be prepared to effectively speak in French with a native speaker. However, upon arrival, the three of us worked out a plan to always communicate in a balanced mix of French and English, which allows Rithika and I to practice our comprehension and speaking skills while still allowing either of us to elaborate on something in English if we need to. I initially expected to be sitting in the back of the classroom and letting M Nyborg teach the class while we observe, however he places us near the front of the room to fully immerse ourselves in his classes. Our seating arrangement allows for Rithika and me to achieve a who...
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Blog 2

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I am currently working with Rithika, a longtime friend of mine and fellow French scholar. I have known her to be very hardworking, and over the first few days of our project, I have discovered she is very good at working with younger students and collaborating in our preparation of activities for each class. Our mentor, Fredrik Nyborg, is a very intelligent and busy individual. He has to juggle a lot of different tasks as a substitute teacher both in and outside the classroom. He also has to remember a little over 50 names and has to make time to ensure that each student is understanding language concepts to the best of their ability. I have met a lot of the other current teachers in every department, but I have mostly been in communication with Rithika and M Nyborg during the school day. Our project works in conjunction with the Hawken Middle School. The Lyndhurst institution attempts to solidify fundamental skills in the developmental stage of adolescence throughout its curriculum. U...
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