Why I Learned Just as Much as Cassie

As you can tell, Cassie and I strayed off the subject of English quite a bit during our twelve hours together. I was a tad bit nervous at first, but concluded that it opened venues that working on reading and writing alone would have left closed.
 For example, on Valentine’s Day we baked cookies and had to refresh our conversion and fraction skills (not exactly my strong point I might add…but ssshhh, don’t tell Cassie that), since we made 2.5 recipes worth of pink chocolaty-divine gooeyness.
I was able to bring in materials that were both entertaining enough to keep us both motivated to give 110% to the task at hand, and relevant to the paper/project.
 For example, during the sessions where we worked on her science ecosystem, we watched an educational show that aided Cassie by providing both accurate information and visual models to base her work on. I wish I had done the same with our session pertaining to poetry; I would have brought The Dead Poets’ Society.
 A note for using media in the classroom: be sure to keep the material relevant, and to take several breaks in order to discuss what the student(s) have learned and what that means to them and their learning process. This tactic will also keep the student(s) on track and focused on the primary object.
My favorite parts of my sessions with Cassie were when we focused on writing, especially creative. They allowed me to see where she was at, and let me draw on my own learning experiences as a student to implement lessons that worked for me.
 For example, when Cassie was working on her persuasive speech, she knew she needed to catch and keep her audience’s attention. I asked her questions that drew on her prior knowledge that enabled her see how and where she captured her “new” knowledge. Essentially, she already knew what she could say; she just need a little nudge in the right direction.
 A note for the classroom: It is very important to utilize metacognitive techniques, such as this example. Be sure not to just hand out information, without the “direction manual” to aid the student(s) in seeing where and how they can make connections to prior knowledge; be sure to let them know that it was they who already had the information. This will help to foster confidence in their abilities as successful students.
I myself achieved confidence in my ability to pass on and communicate my love for words and hands-on activities. My next step is to up the scale to a group of students, in order to see what correlates and what is different.