My last week at Exodus. My, how time flies...
This summer we started out with twenty interns, and then there were none :(
Just kidding, there's still around four of us, I think. But it seems as though every day there are less and less people in the conference room during lunchtime. Sometimes I feel like the staff secretly whisper to each other: "Why is that one still here?..." I even got asked today when I was leaving, even though it was a friendly conversation starter. The office sure is lonely without all my intern friends!
This has been a really good summer for me. I have learned and grown and taken chances and met some incredible people, some of whom are my students who I will never forget.
This weekend I left Indiana to go to New York City to see my friends from study abroad in the Dominican Republic. When I first met my roommate and friend who I had lived with for four months, we hugged and cried and hugged and cried. I had really missed her, but hadn't had so much time this summer to think about it. And when we saw our other friends when we arrived at Washington Heights, it was such a beautiful moment, as though we had never left the DR. And the Heights is a great neighborhood, reminded me so much of Santiago that I felt like I was back there again, and with my same gals. We had been through so much together, so many tender moments, hard life obstacles, sketchy situations, you name it. We have a friendship and bond that only living in a new place that none of you are familiar with can create. And going to see them and be in New York was one of the best weekends of my life. I had been feeling pretty burned out, and every once in a while I need a pick-me-up (usually involving either travel or seeing long-lost friends). And now I feel ready and rejuvenated to start the school year again!
This summer has made me realize a lot of things about myself and about my life goals. Working at Exodus has been wonderful in so many ways, and has especially given me a new appreciation for social workers. They are always going places, always taking care of problems, interpreting for different languages, making appointments, and getting paid not a whole lot! To those of you out there who do social work, hats off to you. You're making the world a better place, helping those who need it, and working hard for the well-being of others and getting not a lot in return. As many of my students would say, "God bless you."
And this summer has made me realize what I really want to pursue in my Fulbright scholarship. I have decided to make it my goal to try to go to Colombia. I have a newfound passion for the situation of misplaced people, and with all that is going on in Colombia right now, there are many people who have had to leave their homes and either go to the city or to other countries to seek refuge. I feel a strong need to find this story, to express it somehow. Although I don't have a strong background in research, I would like to write some sort of compilation of stories from people in the community who have had to go through similar situations as those who I've worked with at Exodus. And I feel strongly that Colombia is the place to do it. So when I go back to school, I'm going to work hard, get that application in the best that I can, and hope that this scholarship works to the best of my abilities.
Sometimes people ask me why I don't want to go to a place that I would never go to in a million years, like southern Africa or Eastern Europe. And the truth is that communication through language is the key to understanding a community, and my best shot at understanding a community is speaking the native tongue. Since my strongest language is Spanish, I know that I can make more of a difference in Latin America than I can anywhere else in the world. And making a difference can come in many shapes and forms. I know tons of people who make a difference every day and aren't recognized for it. One doesn't have to travel halfway across the world to feed hungry children in order to make a difference. Sometimes the answer is right at our doorstep, and someone not too far from you is waiting for your help. It's all about making the right effort to take the opportunity to do something about it :)
Sometimes it is very hard to feel like I can't communicate with my students. Although I am teaching English to them and we are communicating, I feel as though I would have a more meaningful relationship with them if I spoke their language. But they make a great effort to learn English and to come to class every day to better their lives. And I have to say, I am a firm believer in ESL around the world. After having seen the struggles that some of the clients go through here because of language barriers, and how much easier it is for those who have an English background, I feel that denying people around the world the right to learn English doesn't have an overall positive outcome. I understand the argument of cultural and lingual preservation. I love different languages as much as the next person! But I also understand a bit of how the world works on a global level, and the truth is that the world is changing, and English is the new trend. These days, people need to speak English to be able to have access to so many opportunities and resources. It's a shame, I admit, that English is the most important language. I don't think it's fair that some people like me get to go through life without really having to learn another language while others who are trying to make it in the world must learn two or three.
But I believe that because this is the way society works, we have to adapt to give everyone equal opportunity. Equal opportunity of education means equal opportunity of language acquisition. I think that everyone should be given that right.
But alas, my days teaching English to these students are numbered, and soon I will be off to school and the students will have a new teacher and the cycle will begin again. Let's hope it gets better and better each time around. :)
Thanks for reading and my final post of A Summer of Refuge will be up next week!
Anna
Monday, August 12, 2013
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Scores and Inequalities
Hey there and welcome back to A Summer of Refuge! After this I will only be posting 2 more times, as I only have 2 more weeks left at Exodus.
This week, my new students took their first unit test to assess how much they have learned so far in the course. And I was surprised at how well they did! I think they have learned a lot and have improved their English, even after only 2 weeks. I have to say, as a teacher I feel responsible for their test scores. When I was in the Dominican Republic taking an ESL certification course, we had to read a very interesting article about teachers feeling a sense of too much responsibility. And it's absolutely true. How happy would a teacher be if all of his or her students scored 100% on their exams? I would be thrilled! But this is an unrealistic expectations, because our students are humans, not robots. Everyone learns differently and everyone takes tests differently, some better than others.
Often I think that we base too much of what we think is intelligence on test scores. Now, I know that this is an argument that we get into a lot, and I'm aware that in the United States our system is a whole lot less test-based than in other parts of the world. But often I wonder how many students fall behind, are seen as dumb, are not respected or given opportunities just because they test badly? Unfortunately, this is a lot of people. I have always been an advocate of equal opportunity in every sense of the word, especially when it comes to education, because I am one of those people who believes that a good education is a key to security, success, and the improvement of a person's quality of life. This is my sociology side coming out, and now I've come across a new idea: that the importance of test scores in the education system is a form of inequality.
Of course I agree that standardized test scores do not promote an equal playing field whatsoever. If you don't go to a good school, you aren't going to learn as much. If you don't have the resources to seek extra help, how can you expect to study correctly? A score on the ACT or SAT does not represent how intelligent you are. To me, it represents two things: your accessibility to certain information and your willingness to study for the test. When I first came to DePauw, I specifically remember how exciting it was to talk to my new classmates in my first year mentor group. The first night, a few of us were hanging out in one of the dorm lounges, getting to know each other and getting past the preliminaries (where are you from, what do you want to be your major, etc) before really becoming friends. Well, we started to get on the subject of AP courses.
I went to a small public high school in rural Iowa, which is not necessarily what colleges like DePauw are looking for. However, I considered my high school to be one of the better ones in the area, and I appreciated all that was offered to me. In my eyes, I had just as good a chance as any to get into the school I wanted. And when I went to DePauw, I felt even more confident about this. But when I started talking to other first year students, I realized that I might not have been as high on the spectrum as I thought. I was asked, "What AP courses did you take?" "How many AP credits do you have?" "My score on the ACT was 32...how about yours?" At first, I felt very out of place. I had never taken AP courses because my school didn't have them. I got a 27 on the ACT, which wasn't the score that I wanted, but eventually it worked out. Many of my fellow classmates went in to college already having college credits because of their AP scores, and could less classes in one semester. This was something I couldn't relate to, an opportunity that I couldn't take advantage of. And I slowly came to realize that not having taken AP courses put me at a major disadvantage when applying to college.
But I have no room to complain because I definitely consider myself on the middle to high rung of the social spectrum. I never had to deal with major financial difficulties growing up, my parents were able to help put me through college, and now I have an internship and plan to go to grad school. This is as far in life as I ever hoped to get, and I am so grateful.
But what about everyone else? Not everyone else has been so fortunate as I have. I consider myself a pretty good test-taker if I know the information at hand. But what about everyone else?
Now I find myself on the other side, expecting my students to get As on the tests I give them, becoming frustrated when they don't. But then I come to realize that not only am I raising the bar too high for them, but also for myself as a teacher. Every point that is wrong, I wonder if I just didn't do a good job teaching the material. Once again, students are human beings, not robots. No one is perfect, and for me to expect perfect scores across the board is unrealistic and doesn't necessarily represent my skills as a teacher. So now I am working on not worrying so much about the scores, but about the individual in class, and whether I am contributing to their active learning. Being a teacher sure makes me miss being a student sometimes :)
Just some food for thought! I'll be back next week with more to report!
Anna
This week, my new students took their first unit test to assess how much they have learned so far in the course. And I was surprised at how well they did! I think they have learned a lot and have improved their English, even after only 2 weeks. I have to say, as a teacher I feel responsible for their test scores. When I was in the Dominican Republic taking an ESL certification course, we had to read a very interesting article about teachers feeling a sense of too much responsibility. And it's absolutely true. How happy would a teacher be if all of his or her students scored 100% on their exams? I would be thrilled! But this is an unrealistic expectations, because our students are humans, not robots. Everyone learns differently and everyone takes tests differently, some better than others.
Often I think that we base too much of what we think is intelligence on test scores. Now, I know that this is an argument that we get into a lot, and I'm aware that in the United States our system is a whole lot less test-based than in other parts of the world. But often I wonder how many students fall behind, are seen as dumb, are not respected or given opportunities just because they test badly? Unfortunately, this is a lot of people. I have always been an advocate of equal opportunity in every sense of the word, especially when it comes to education, because I am one of those people who believes that a good education is a key to security, success, and the improvement of a person's quality of life. This is my sociology side coming out, and now I've come across a new idea: that the importance of test scores in the education system is a form of inequality.
Of course I agree that standardized test scores do not promote an equal playing field whatsoever. If you don't go to a good school, you aren't going to learn as much. If you don't have the resources to seek extra help, how can you expect to study correctly? A score on the ACT or SAT does not represent how intelligent you are. To me, it represents two things: your accessibility to certain information and your willingness to study for the test. When I first came to DePauw, I specifically remember how exciting it was to talk to my new classmates in my first year mentor group. The first night, a few of us were hanging out in one of the dorm lounges, getting to know each other and getting past the preliminaries (where are you from, what do you want to be your major, etc) before really becoming friends. Well, we started to get on the subject of AP courses.
I went to a small public high school in rural Iowa, which is not necessarily what colleges like DePauw are looking for. However, I considered my high school to be one of the better ones in the area, and I appreciated all that was offered to me. In my eyes, I had just as good a chance as any to get into the school I wanted. And when I went to DePauw, I felt even more confident about this. But when I started talking to other first year students, I realized that I might not have been as high on the spectrum as I thought. I was asked, "What AP courses did you take?" "How many AP credits do you have?" "My score on the ACT was 32...how about yours?" At first, I felt very out of place. I had never taken AP courses because my school didn't have them. I got a 27 on the ACT, which wasn't the score that I wanted, but eventually it worked out. Many of my fellow classmates went in to college already having college credits because of their AP scores, and could less classes in one semester. This was something I couldn't relate to, an opportunity that I couldn't take advantage of. And I slowly came to realize that not having taken AP courses put me at a major disadvantage when applying to college.
But I have no room to complain because I definitely consider myself on the middle to high rung of the social spectrum. I never had to deal with major financial difficulties growing up, my parents were able to help put me through college, and now I have an internship and plan to go to grad school. This is as far in life as I ever hoped to get, and I am so grateful.
But what about everyone else? Not everyone else has been so fortunate as I have. I consider myself a pretty good test-taker if I know the information at hand. But what about everyone else?
Now I find myself on the other side, expecting my students to get As on the tests I give them, becoming frustrated when they don't. But then I come to realize that not only am I raising the bar too high for them, but also for myself as a teacher. Every point that is wrong, I wonder if I just didn't do a good job teaching the material. Once again, students are human beings, not robots. No one is perfect, and for me to expect perfect scores across the board is unrealistic and doesn't necessarily represent my skills as a teacher. So now I am working on not worrying so much about the scores, but about the individual in class, and whether I am contributing to their active learning. Being a teacher sure makes me miss being a student sometimes :)
Just some food for thought! I'll be back next week with more to report!
Anna
Monday, July 29, 2013
Bus Training
Welcome back to A Summer of Refuge! The summer is drawing to an end, and I only have three weeks left at Exodus. While I know that I will miss it, I will be ready to go back to school and welcome DePauw's international student class of 2017.
This week started off in a very interesting way. On Monday morning I woke up 2 hours early and did a bus training! I thought it was funny that I, who have never ridden IndyGo, was entrusted to teach clients how to ride the bus. I was a little nervous, but I took my fellow intern with me and off we went. I don't know why I was so anxious about it; if I can take Chilean micros and Dominican conchos, I'm pretty sure the Indianapolis public buses can't be that hard. And they weren't! We took the family and we got to Exodus and back safe and sound. I may or may not have second-guessed where to get on and get off a time or two, but they got the gist of it :) I think it was actually more of a learning experience for me than it was for them, but they probably don't need to know that!
This week at Exodus we have a group of brand new students! This round I have my own group that I work with every day, whereas before I switched between the most advanced group and the most basic group. This time around I have my own group of intermediate students. While I enjoy the intermediate level because it's a lot of grammar and phonetics (things that I am better at teaching), all of my students are at very different levels, which is a constant challenge. Sometimes I stuggle a bit to keep them all on the same page because some of them grasp the concepts quickly and are ready to move on while others fall behind. Alas, I think this is a constant battle that all teachers have to fight. Have I mentioned how much more respect I have for teachers after doing this internship? Mad respect!
This Tuesday we have an intern appreciation lunch at Exodus. Although I'm mostly excited about the food, I'm sure all interns can relate when I say that sometimes we get tired of being the interns. We do the grunt work, we don't get paid, and we don't get the same cred as the staff members. But this is an experience that we all must go through in order to build our resumes and prepare us for the real world. It's kind of a rite of passage into the professional world. Although I've never seen myself as someone meant to go into the professional world, it's good experience to work in an office and get to do a lot of the same things that the staff do. And I couldn't have asked for better supervisors; they tell me every day how much they appreciate me. So although the intern appreciation lunch is a nice idea, it's very unnecessary. But I know not all interns are so lucky.
Apart from the professional life, this weekend I went with a friend of mine to the NASCAR Brickyard 400 race. Since living in Indy, I have gone to two car races, something that I had never done before in my life! I have explored and ran around Butler's campus, can cruise Mass Ave, explored every inch of Broad Ripple, know how to take the IndyGo, been to the 500, and been able to pay all my bills! Next thing I have to do is go to an Indianapolis Indians game, which will hopefully happen this weekend.
More to come next week!
This week started off in a very interesting way. On Monday morning I woke up 2 hours early and did a bus training! I thought it was funny that I, who have never ridden IndyGo, was entrusted to teach clients how to ride the bus. I was a little nervous, but I took my fellow intern with me and off we went. I don't know why I was so anxious about it; if I can take Chilean micros and Dominican conchos, I'm pretty sure the Indianapolis public buses can't be that hard. And they weren't! We took the family and we got to Exodus and back safe and sound. I may or may not have second-guessed where to get on and get off a time or two, but they got the gist of it :) I think it was actually more of a learning experience for me than it was for them, but they probably don't need to know that!
This week at Exodus we have a group of brand new students! This round I have my own group that I work with every day, whereas before I switched between the most advanced group and the most basic group. This time around I have my own group of intermediate students. While I enjoy the intermediate level because it's a lot of grammar and phonetics (things that I am better at teaching), all of my students are at very different levels, which is a constant challenge. Sometimes I stuggle a bit to keep them all on the same page because some of them grasp the concepts quickly and are ready to move on while others fall behind. Alas, I think this is a constant battle that all teachers have to fight. Have I mentioned how much more respect I have for teachers after doing this internship? Mad respect!
This Tuesday we have an intern appreciation lunch at Exodus. Although I'm mostly excited about the food, I'm sure all interns can relate when I say that sometimes we get tired of being the interns. We do the grunt work, we don't get paid, and we don't get the same cred as the staff members. But this is an experience that we all must go through in order to build our resumes and prepare us for the real world. It's kind of a rite of passage into the professional world. Although I've never seen myself as someone meant to go into the professional world, it's good experience to work in an office and get to do a lot of the same things that the staff do. And I couldn't have asked for better supervisors; they tell me every day how much they appreciate me. So although the intern appreciation lunch is a nice idea, it's very unnecessary. But I know not all interns are so lucky.
Apart from the professional life, this weekend I went with a friend of mine to the NASCAR Brickyard 400 race. Since living in Indy, I have gone to two car races, something that I had never done before in my life! I have explored and ran around Butler's campus, can cruise Mass Ave, explored every inch of Broad Ripple, know how to take the IndyGo, been to the 500, and been able to pay all my bills! Next thing I have to do is go to an Indianapolis Indians game, which will hopefully happen this weekend.
More to come next week!
Sunday, July 21, 2013
New Class
Welcome back to A Summer of Refuge! Just one more month and I will be back in Greencastle in my senior year at DePauw. Exciting, yet sad because it means that my time at Exodus is slowly coming to a close.
This week there was no class because my students graduated and we had a week's break before the next students roll around the corner. While it's nice to have a break to be able to get office work done, the week also goes by much more slowly without teaching. And I really miss my students. It's weird to think that I might not see some of them again, but I hope they went away having learned a lot and having worked their way toward becoming self-sufficient in their new lives.
However, not all the week was filled with office work. The other two LCORE interns and I went on some adventures to take pictures for the new curriculum, like how to cash a check and how to ask for things at the supermarket. Our first stop was Saraga, which is a large international grocery store in Indianapolis. If you haven't been there, you need to go. My favorite part is rummaging around all the aisles looking at things I have never seen before. We got permission from the owner to take pictures, and although we were stared at for a long time by many people, we got the pictures we needed and we had fun doing it! When we were taking pictures at the cash register, a man came to check out thinking that we worked there. Guess we were convincing :)
Our next stop was the bank. Of course, most banks don't let people take pictures inside due to the security risk. We didn't get to do it, either, no matter how legit we pretended to be. But we did park across the street from the bank and take pictures of the outside of the building, which wasn't creepy at all. The worst part was that right now the Muslim community is celebrating Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. This means fasting every day from sunrise to sunset without any food or water. My fellow intern is Muslim, and although I always try to remember he is fasting, I often forget and talk endlessly about food (which I do anyway). So when we were in the international grocery store, I had him accompany me down the aisles, pointing out different fruits and vegetables from his side of the world that I couldn't find here. Of course, he's probably the most polite person on earth, so he was happy to tell me all about them.
It wasn't until later that I thought how hungry it must have made him to walk through all that delicious food without being able to eat it. And after we were done, we stopped to get junk food at the gas station and I ate it right in front of him! Good job, Anna. Good job.
Tomorrow I am doing a bus training to teach students how to ride the bus to English class on the IndyGo bus system, which I have never used before and might not use again. I think we're just gonna wing it and see how it goes. I figure if I'm able to use the micros in Chile and the conchos in the Dominican Republic, a bus in Indianapolis should be no problem. Plus, it will be a good chance for me to understand the city at a whole new level. At this point, I drive everywhere and gas money only keeps going up. Might do me some good to learn how to use the bus so I have a different option available to me.
Exciting day tomorrow...bus training, new students, new week, new class! You'll hear more about it next time
This week there was no class because my students graduated and we had a week's break before the next students roll around the corner. While it's nice to have a break to be able to get office work done, the week also goes by much more slowly without teaching. And I really miss my students. It's weird to think that I might not see some of them again, but I hope they went away having learned a lot and having worked their way toward becoming self-sufficient in their new lives.
However, not all the week was filled with office work. The other two LCORE interns and I went on some adventures to take pictures for the new curriculum, like how to cash a check and how to ask for things at the supermarket. Our first stop was Saraga, which is a large international grocery store in Indianapolis. If you haven't been there, you need to go. My favorite part is rummaging around all the aisles looking at things I have never seen before. We got permission from the owner to take pictures, and although we were stared at for a long time by many people, we got the pictures we needed and we had fun doing it! When we were taking pictures at the cash register, a man came to check out thinking that we worked there. Guess we were convincing :)
Our next stop was the bank. Of course, most banks don't let people take pictures inside due to the security risk. We didn't get to do it, either, no matter how legit we pretended to be. But we did park across the street from the bank and take pictures of the outside of the building, which wasn't creepy at all. The worst part was that right now the Muslim community is celebrating Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. This means fasting every day from sunrise to sunset without any food or water. My fellow intern is Muslim, and although I always try to remember he is fasting, I often forget and talk endlessly about food (which I do anyway). So when we were in the international grocery store, I had him accompany me down the aisles, pointing out different fruits and vegetables from his side of the world that I couldn't find here. Of course, he's probably the most polite person on earth, so he was happy to tell me all about them.
It wasn't until later that I thought how hungry it must have made him to walk through all that delicious food without being able to eat it. And after we were done, we stopped to get junk food at the gas station and I ate it right in front of him! Good job, Anna. Good job.
Tomorrow I am doing a bus training to teach students how to ride the bus to English class on the IndyGo bus system, which I have never used before and might not use again. I think we're just gonna wing it and see how it goes. I figure if I'm able to use the micros in Chile and the conchos in the Dominican Republic, a bus in Indianapolis should be no problem. Plus, it will be a good chance for me to understand the city at a whole new level. At this point, I drive everywhere and gas money only keeps going up. Might do me some good to learn how to use the bus so I have a different option available to me.
Exciting day tomorrow...bus training, new students, new week, new class! You'll hear more about it next time
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Momentos
Hey there and welcome back to A Summer of Refuge, everyone's favorite online summer reading column. If only... :)
This past week at Exodus, we graduated all of our current students, both the advanced group and the basic group. Although I felt sad at the thought of not seeing my students every day, I also felt very proud of them. These men came to class every day, ready to learn, and put forth their best effort. Looking at their comparative test scores, I can see that most of them improved quite a bit from the level they were at before taking the eight-week course. This week, we had a class field trip and we took the students to the Indy Reads Bookstore, which is a bookstore that takes donated items and all the profits go toward adult literacy programs in Indianapolis. This is one great thing about my internship; not only do I get to have a group of students and gain teaching experience, but I also make connections with important non-profits in Indianapolis. I've come to realize that although Indianapolis might not be my favorite city in the US, it's filled with people trying to make a difference in ways that are often not apparent to the public eye. For World Refugee Day, we took our students to Indy Urban Acres which raises organic vegetables for low-income families in Indy who can't afford to eat healthy food. Indy Reads is an organization that helps adults in the city become literate, and today a friend told me about a non-profit for opera singers that puts on shows to help students be able to study music who usually wouldn't be able to afford to do so. It just makes me think that there are so many ways to get involved, and there is something out there for everyone who wants to make a difference. The world is full of opportunities, isn't it?
Anyhow, after getting sidetracked, the students each got to pick out a book in English to read. The two most popular books were dictionaries and the Bible. Not surprising at all :) Many of our students from Burma are of a very strong Christian faith. Every time we ask, "What did you do this weekend?" The answer is always: "I went to church." We also have the advanced students write journal entries every week, and they are quite interesting to read. While some of them are pretty funny, some of them are sad and some of them are hopeful. But they all talk about God and how God has helped them through these times. And trust me, these guys have seen some pretty hard times. On our last day, we played a game where they each were given a few cards from a stack that had various questions on them. And I mean, VARIED. Some cards say, "What is your favorite color?" while other cards say, "Do you believe in the death penalty?" I think we need to go through the stack next time and pick through the questions whose answers will start a debate that takes up 2 of the 3 hours of class. But one question was, "What makes you sad?" One of my students wrote, "Flashbacks." Flashbacks. It's moments like this when I realize once again that it's not just fun and games in English class.
As an English teacher, sometimes it's easy to forget what the students have been through. In class, there are always stories and laughter and interesting discussions, so it's easy to feel very good about the situation and think that the students are so happy in class. However, every once in a while there comes a moment in which we are once again reminded that life hasn't always been, and in many ways still isn't, enjoyable for these people. This moment may come when talking about family or friends without remembering that many of these people lost their loved ones and most of their family. This moment may come when talking about sports with an amputee who tells you that he loved playing soccer before he lost his legs. This moment may come when teaching elderly men and women how to differentiate between the letters I and L, knowing that they are probably never going to learn how to read in their lifetime. It's moments like this that force me to put what I do into perspective. I admit that sometimes I think too much about it and become really sad and angry, wondering how the world can be such a cruel place. But honestly it's of no use to sit around and be sad about it. The whole purpose of my internship is to help people, so that's what I'm going to keep doing. I've come to the conclusion that it's normal to get a little emotional about what the students go through, but it's also important to keep a good head on my shoulders and put my best foot forward. Maybe seeing their teacher happy will make them happy too :)
But the time has come for them to move on, and after eight weeks together I've become very close with them. Hopefully they will go on to get jobs and become self-sufficient. I can only hope that the our class together has helped them in some way and that I was of use to them in their new life. But no fear, the next class will be coming soon and I am excited for the new group! This time around I will be getting my very own single group who I will be working with each and every day, so I'm looking forward to having some freedom in my curriculum and becoming close with them in my last month at Exodus.
Thanks so much for reading and I hope this blog is at least somewhat insightful!
Anna
This past week at Exodus, we graduated all of our current students, both the advanced group and the basic group. Although I felt sad at the thought of not seeing my students every day, I also felt very proud of them. These men came to class every day, ready to learn, and put forth their best effort. Looking at their comparative test scores, I can see that most of them improved quite a bit from the level they were at before taking the eight-week course. This week, we had a class field trip and we took the students to the Indy Reads Bookstore, which is a bookstore that takes donated items and all the profits go toward adult literacy programs in Indianapolis. This is one great thing about my internship; not only do I get to have a group of students and gain teaching experience, but I also make connections with important non-profits in Indianapolis. I've come to realize that although Indianapolis might not be my favorite city in the US, it's filled with people trying to make a difference in ways that are often not apparent to the public eye. For World Refugee Day, we took our students to Indy Urban Acres which raises organic vegetables for low-income families in Indy who can't afford to eat healthy food. Indy Reads is an organization that helps adults in the city become literate, and today a friend told me about a non-profit for opera singers that puts on shows to help students be able to study music who usually wouldn't be able to afford to do so. It just makes me think that there are so many ways to get involved, and there is something out there for everyone who wants to make a difference. The world is full of opportunities, isn't it?
Anyhow, after getting sidetracked, the students each got to pick out a book in English to read. The two most popular books were dictionaries and the Bible. Not surprising at all :) Many of our students from Burma are of a very strong Christian faith. Every time we ask, "What did you do this weekend?" The answer is always: "I went to church." We also have the advanced students write journal entries every week, and they are quite interesting to read. While some of them are pretty funny, some of them are sad and some of them are hopeful. But they all talk about God and how God has helped them through these times. And trust me, these guys have seen some pretty hard times. On our last day, we played a game where they each were given a few cards from a stack that had various questions on them. And I mean, VARIED. Some cards say, "What is your favorite color?" while other cards say, "Do you believe in the death penalty?" I think we need to go through the stack next time and pick through the questions whose answers will start a debate that takes up 2 of the 3 hours of class. But one question was, "What makes you sad?" One of my students wrote, "Flashbacks." Flashbacks. It's moments like this when I realize once again that it's not just fun and games in English class.
As an English teacher, sometimes it's easy to forget what the students have been through. In class, there are always stories and laughter and interesting discussions, so it's easy to feel very good about the situation and think that the students are so happy in class. However, every once in a while there comes a moment in which we are once again reminded that life hasn't always been, and in many ways still isn't, enjoyable for these people. This moment may come when talking about family or friends without remembering that many of these people lost their loved ones and most of their family. This moment may come when talking about sports with an amputee who tells you that he loved playing soccer before he lost his legs. This moment may come when teaching elderly men and women how to differentiate between the letters I and L, knowing that they are probably never going to learn how to read in their lifetime. It's moments like this that force me to put what I do into perspective. I admit that sometimes I think too much about it and become really sad and angry, wondering how the world can be such a cruel place. But honestly it's of no use to sit around and be sad about it. The whole purpose of my internship is to help people, so that's what I'm going to keep doing. I've come to the conclusion that it's normal to get a little emotional about what the students go through, but it's also important to keep a good head on my shoulders and put my best foot forward. Maybe seeing their teacher happy will make them happy too :)
But the time has come for them to move on, and after eight weeks together I've become very close with them. Hopefully they will go on to get jobs and become self-sufficient. I can only hope that the our class together has helped them in some way and that I was of use to them in their new life. But no fear, the next class will be coming soon and I am excited for the new group! This time around I will be getting my very own single group who I will be working with each and every day, so I'm looking forward to having some freedom in my curriculum and becoming close with them in my last month at Exodus.
Thanks so much for reading and I hope this blog is at least somewhat insightful!
Anna
Monday, July 8, 2013
Post-break
And now I've come upon the final week with my first group of students. They will graduate from the course on Thursday, and after that I will receive a new group.
I didn't write this past week because I was at home for the fourth of July (among other things.) I, like most people, need a break if I am doing the same thing day after day. I was getting pretty burned out there for a while, and needed some time to recharge and see my friends and family. However, my job is probably one of the least day-to-day jobs there is, such is the job of any teacher. Every day is different, every lesson is different, and every group of students is different. When I was home I sort of stayed out of the teaching mindset for a while, so it didn't even occur to me that pretty soon my group of students wouldn't be my group any more. And I gotta tell you, it's not the best feeling in the world.
I think I've become more attached to my group than I thought. I never really thought about what it would be like at work without them there. I started on May 20th, the same day that my students started taking the class. Even though a month and a half seems like such a short amount of time, after spending three hours a day four days a week with these guys, we've gotten to know each other pretty well. Even though sometimes in my advanced group we spend too much class time listening to stories of the Congo and trying to understand advanced grammatical rules that even I struggle with, I really have enjoyed my time with them.
I think there comes a time in every teacher's life when your students become not only faces you see in the classroom, but people you have real relationships with, and who even become your close friends. And I've felt that toward all my students, who are all grown men looking for jobs, who have to provide for families, who are honestly just trying to get by in their new life. And I have such a deep respect for them and all that they've been through that the least I can do is go in that room every day and try to make it easier on them by giving them a useful skill. It makes me a little irritated to think of some people that I go to school with, who complain about going to class and say, "when am I ever going to use this material?" At least we have the opportunity to take a useless class, or a class about a random subject, or something that we really like. In my class at Exodus, the students try to squeeze everything they can out of those three hours, every rule, every spelling correction. Because they need to, and because they have motivation to do so. Today one of the students was asked if he thought being a teacher was hard, and he said yes, of course it was. And to that my coworker and I said that it's easy to be a teacher when you have good students. And indeed it has been.
Another thing that I have gained from these students is a male perspective. I will admit that I can tend to be a hardcore feminist. And no, this doesn't mean I'm scary or mean, it just means that I truly believe that men and women should be equal and therefore should be given the same rights and opportunities. Sometimes, however, I get so caught up in this mentality that I assume the worst about men and don't try to listen to their side of the story. But in the past six weeks I have been with a bunch of men every day who respect me and listen to me and take a vested interest what I have to say. This has allowed me to soften my edges a bit, and to take time to sit down and listen to what some men in this world have been through. Sometimes it's painful to observe this and to see men who were once educated in their own country, were important figures, maybe had their own land or their own business, and are now struggling to speak the native language, working minimum wage jobs, and living off of food stamps. And they are expected to be the tough ones, the ones who know what to do and who are supposed to provide for their families and be the role model. These guys have had their pride scraped off the floor with a metal shovel and thrown back in their faces. But here they continue, day after day, coming to English class with an open mind and an open heart. And if that's not inspiring, I don't know what is. Maybe not all men have it as easy as some of us would like to think :)
Next week I'll have a new batch of students to teach. Although I will be sad to see this current group go, I'm looking forward to hearing some more stories, explaining more grammar and gaining some new perspective from the toughest group of people I've ever met in my life. Till next time...
I didn't write this past week because I was at home for the fourth of July (among other things.) I, like most people, need a break if I am doing the same thing day after day. I was getting pretty burned out there for a while, and needed some time to recharge and see my friends and family. However, my job is probably one of the least day-to-day jobs there is, such is the job of any teacher. Every day is different, every lesson is different, and every group of students is different. When I was home I sort of stayed out of the teaching mindset for a while, so it didn't even occur to me that pretty soon my group of students wouldn't be my group any more. And I gotta tell you, it's not the best feeling in the world.
I think I've become more attached to my group than I thought. I never really thought about what it would be like at work without them there. I started on May 20th, the same day that my students started taking the class. Even though a month and a half seems like such a short amount of time, after spending three hours a day four days a week with these guys, we've gotten to know each other pretty well. Even though sometimes in my advanced group we spend too much class time listening to stories of the Congo and trying to understand advanced grammatical rules that even I struggle with, I really have enjoyed my time with them.
I think there comes a time in every teacher's life when your students become not only faces you see in the classroom, but people you have real relationships with, and who even become your close friends. And I've felt that toward all my students, who are all grown men looking for jobs, who have to provide for families, who are honestly just trying to get by in their new life. And I have such a deep respect for them and all that they've been through that the least I can do is go in that room every day and try to make it easier on them by giving them a useful skill. It makes me a little irritated to think of some people that I go to school with, who complain about going to class and say, "when am I ever going to use this material?" At least we have the opportunity to take a useless class, or a class about a random subject, or something that we really like. In my class at Exodus, the students try to squeeze everything they can out of those three hours, every rule, every spelling correction. Because they need to, and because they have motivation to do so. Today one of the students was asked if he thought being a teacher was hard, and he said yes, of course it was. And to that my coworker and I said that it's easy to be a teacher when you have good students. And indeed it has been.
Another thing that I have gained from these students is a male perspective. I will admit that I can tend to be a hardcore feminist. And no, this doesn't mean I'm scary or mean, it just means that I truly believe that men and women should be equal and therefore should be given the same rights and opportunities. Sometimes, however, I get so caught up in this mentality that I assume the worst about men and don't try to listen to their side of the story. But in the past six weeks I have been with a bunch of men every day who respect me and listen to me and take a vested interest what I have to say. This has allowed me to soften my edges a bit, and to take time to sit down and listen to what some men in this world have been through. Sometimes it's painful to observe this and to see men who were once educated in their own country, were important figures, maybe had their own land or their own business, and are now struggling to speak the native language, working minimum wage jobs, and living off of food stamps. And they are expected to be the tough ones, the ones who know what to do and who are supposed to provide for their families and be the role model. These guys have had their pride scraped off the floor with a metal shovel and thrown back in their faces. But here they continue, day after day, coming to English class with an open mind and an open heart. And if that's not inspiring, I don't know what is. Maybe not all men have it as easy as some of us would like to think :)
Next week I'll have a new batch of students to teach. Although I will be sad to see this current group go, I'm looking forward to hearing some more stories, explaining more grammar and gaining some new perspective from the toughest group of people I've ever met in my life. Till next time...
Sunday, June 23, 2013
World Refugee Day
This week at Exodus was one of my best weeks in Indianapolis. On June 20th, we were able to celebrate World Refugee Day with my students, as well as other members of the Burmese population on a farm called Indy Urban Acres.
I have to admit that sometimes it is easy to forget how much of a difference we actually make. Working in the office, entering data, and keeping track of attendance are all important parts of the upkeep of the organization, but I often find myself losing track of what we are actually working toward. This has made me realize how much I really enjoy actually working directly with the people that we are serving. Sure, the office work is needed; it's crucial to the efficiency and structure of the organization. But now I realize that when I decide to go out in the real world and pursue a career, if I'm not working with the people then I'd rather not work at all :)
Lately I've been feeling a little burned out; I've been tired and running out of money and trying to keep up with all of my intern projects at the office. And to be honest, I think I've been losing a little bit of my motivation to do a good job at my work. I'm sure we all go through this in every job we ever have. When we first start, we feel excited and ready to tackle new challenges because we understand that we are going to be making a difference. However, you reach a point where you start losing sight of that difference and start forgetting why you signed up for this job in the first place. When you wake up in the morning, you want to sleep in that extra hour. You are counting the minutes towards the lunch break and 5:00, and when you get home from work, it's all you can do to make your way up the stairs to your bed. I think a lot of Americans go through this, and for some people, this phase never ends. Americans work extremely hard, and it makes us worn out and unable to do much else besides lay on the couch on our days off. And I gotta tell ya, that life is not for me.
However, every once in a while you are pleasantly reminded of the reason why you took the job in the first place. Maybe it's the fact that you get 4 weeks of vacation. Maybe it's that really big Christmas bonus. For me, it was World Refugee Day. I finally got to go to work dressed as my actual self: shorts, a headband, and a grubby tank top. And why? Because this was a day to celebrate what it means to be a refugee, and we were going to the farm. Indy Urban Acres is an organic farm in Indianapolis that grows food for low-income families in the city that can't afford to buy healthy things to eat. For World Refugee Day on June 20th, we took our students out to their gardens to work together with the staff and do some farming for the community.
The coolest part about this whole day was that many of our students were farmers or worked on farms in their home countries, so I could tell that being able to be outside and doing something that was familiar to them did a lot of good. After arriving to the United States, being placed in an apartment with neighbors they don't know and trying to learn a language that many of them have no experience with is a challenge in and of itself. Most of us are unable to imagine this kind of reality, so next time you think your life is hard, maybe think twice about that and think about some people who might be in your own community going through an experience not unlike that of the refugees. And use that to do some good in the world.
The farming day was also good for me, because not only had I grown up around farming communities, I also worked on an organic vegetable farm the summer before I went to college, and so pulling weeds was definitely something that I had done before. But I was no match for some of the students; I don't think I've ever seen such fast weed-pulling in my life. They worked like pros, swift and mighty. We worked in pairs, so I got to work across from one of my students, and it was really nice to be able to have a conversation outside of English class with him. He taught me some words in his language, one of which is "Siama" which means "teacher." He now calls me Siama, and now I know whenever that word comes up in conversation, someone's talking about me! He told me that in Burma his English teachers were very bad, and that when he had questions, he often had to go without answers. Since he is one of my most inquisitive students, he told me how much he appreciates that I answer all his questions the best I can. It's moments like this when I am reminded that yes, I am in fact making a difference. This is why I wanted this job. This is why I need to wake up every morning.
At the end of what was the most rewarding day of my summer, I walked back to the car with another student of mine. I asked him if he enjoyed the day, and you know what he said? "When I farm, my heart is good. When I am at home, my heart is sad." I was so happy that the students could get a day to go out and do something that they loved and something that was familiar to them. I'm sure in their daily routines they feel as though everything is a struggle, from going to the grocery store to riding a bus to speaking English to paying bills. Things that we think of as easy, as things to check off our simple to-do lists, are real challenges for some people. So to give them a day to do something that they are good at, something they know that they can do, made them happier than any English class I've given them.
So, if you have a minute, take some time to learn about refugees and about the journey they make. And if you have any living in your home community, volunteer and help them out. Because although it may seem like a small difference, to someone else, it could mean the world :) Thank you
Anna
I have to admit that sometimes it is easy to forget how much of a difference we actually make. Working in the office, entering data, and keeping track of attendance are all important parts of the upkeep of the organization, but I often find myself losing track of what we are actually working toward. This has made me realize how much I really enjoy actually working directly with the people that we are serving. Sure, the office work is needed; it's crucial to the efficiency and structure of the organization. But now I realize that when I decide to go out in the real world and pursue a career, if I'm not working with the people then I'd rather not work at all :)
Lately I've been feeling a little burned out; I've been tired and running out of money and trying to keep up with all of my intern projects at the office. And to be honest, I think I've been losing a little bit of my motivation to do a good job at my work. I'm sure we all go through this in every job we ever have. When we first start, we feel excited and ready to tackle new challenges because we understand that we are going to be making a difference. However, you reach a point where you start losing sight of that difference and start forgetting why you signed up for this job in the first place. When you wake up in the morning, you want to sleep in that extra hour. You are counting the minutes towards the lunch break and 5:00, and when you get home from work, it's all you can do to make your way up the stairs to your bed. I think a lot of Americans go through this, and for some people, this phase never ends. Americans work extremely hard, and it makes us worn out and unable to do much else besides lay on the couch on our days off. And I gotta tell ya, that life is not for me.
However, every once in a while you are pleasantly reminded of the reason why you took the job in the first place. Maybe it's the fact that you get 4 weeks of vacation. Maybe it's that really big Christmas bonus. For me, it was World Refugee Day. I finally got to go to work dressed as my actual self: shorts, a headband, and a grubby tank top. And why? Because this was a day to celebrate what it means to be a refugee, and we were going to the farm. Indy Urban Acres is an organic farm in Indianapolis that grows food for low-income families in the city that can't afford to buy healthy things to eat. For World Refugee Day on June 20th, we took our students out to their gardens to work together with the staff and do some farming for the community.
The coolest part about this whole day was that many of our students were farmers or worked on farms in their home countries, so I could tell that being able to be outside and doing something that was familiar to them did a lot of good. After arriving to the United States, being placed in an apartment with neighbors they don't know and trying to learn a language that many of them have no experience with is a challenge in and of itself. Most of us are unable to imagine this kind of reality, so next time you think your life is hard, maybe think twice about that and think about some people who might be in your own community going through an experience not unlike that of the refugees. And use that to do some good in the world.
The farming day was also good for me, because not only had I grown up around farming communities, I also worked on an organic vegetable farm the summer before I went to college, and so pulling weeds was definitely something that I had done before. But I was no match for some of the students; I don't think I've ever seen such fast weed-pulling in my life. They worked like pros, swift and mighty. We worked in pairs, so I got to work across from one of my students, and it was really nice to be able to have a conversation outside of English class with him. He taught me some words in his language, one of which is "Siama" which means "teacher." He now calls me Siama, and now I know whenever that word comes up in conversation, someone's talking about me! He told me that in Burma his English teachers were very bad, and that when he had questions, he often had to go without answers. Since he is one of my most inquisitive students, he told me how much he appreciates that I answer all his questions the best I can. It's moments like this when I am reminded that yes, I am in fact making a difference. This is why I wanted this job. This is why I need to wake up every morning.
At the end of what was the most rewarding day of my summer, I walked back to the car with another student of mine. I asked him if he enjoyed the day, and you know what he said? "When I farm, my heart is good. When I am at home, my heart is sad." I was so happy that the students could get a day to go out and do something that they loved and something that was familiar to them. I'm sure in their daily routines they feel as though everything is a struggle, from going to the grocery store to riding a bus to speaking English to paying bills. Things that we think of as easy, as things to check off our simple to-do lists, are real challenges for some people. So to give them a day to do something that they are good at, something they know that they can do, made them happier than any English class I've given them.
So, if you have a minute, take some time to learn about refugees and about the journey they make. And if you have any living in your home community, volunteer and help them out. Because although it may seem like a small difference, to someone else, it could mean the world :) Thank you
Anna
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