Student blogger Amanda Walencewicz (Certificate '20)
writes about the volunteer teaching group at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center.
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| HNC Volunteer teacher Jose Gonzalez leads his class in a game to learn directions. |
Every Friday, a group of Hopkins-Nanjing Center (HNC)
students travels to a nearby elementary school to spend the afternoon teaching
English to third grade classes. Splitting into groups, these HNC volunteer
teachers work with three classes of 30 students each, teaching for 45 minutes.
With the third-grade students' teacher not present, the volunteers lead the
classes in games and English drills, giving the students the chance to interact
with foreigners in a fun, informal way before they end classes for the week.
The school primarily serves underprivileged students that
come from migrant families. Most students likely do not have access to
resources like English tutoring outside of class, so the HNC volunteer teachers
focus on simple vocabulary and grammar. One week, they may teach animals and
colors, and the next they may work on emotions and classroom vocabulary. This is
complemented by learning grammar patterns so that students can create phrases
using the new words they have learned.
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| A group of students work on a unit about emotions with HNC volunteer teacher Aiden Greer. |
The students' reading level is better than their
speaking, so the class time with HNC volunteers gives them an important chance
to practice with native English speakers. HNC volunteer teacher Aiden Greer explains
that, "Most of the students are pretty shy when using English, but when we would
ask who wanted to speak next, they’d all jump up and raise their hands." Many
of the HNC volunteers comment on the students’ excitement during class,
describing the classes as full of rambunctious kids happy to have a break from
their regular English coursework. In the beginning of class, though, it can be
difficult to get the students to come out of their shell, and “the most
important thing is getting them comfortable and excited to interact with
foreigners, which can be intimidating,” says volunteer teacher Tristan
Chapman.
By the end of this semester of classes, the students had
gotten to know their HNC teachers, and thanked them with presents and letters.
Next semester, the volunteers will be paired with new groups of students. When
asked to describe her experience teaching, Teeana Cotangco replied, "It was
interesting to see firsthand a Chinese classroom and work with students, and [was] definitely a rewarding experience."
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| Enthusiastic students raise their hands to be the next one to speak. |
