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Project Music is the teen volunteer group of Keys 2 Success, where volunteers can expand their worldview and learn to use their own privilege to better their communities. For the next 6 weeks, we will share writings by one of our volunteers to give some insight into their experience.
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I’m not quite sure what I was expecting when the ZOOM breakout rooms opened on the first day of camp. I was going to be teaching writing at the K2S summer camp, and I had been given some information about each of the students. The slides I had carefully drawn up with my team the week before were ready. I thought I was prepared and that my experience as a teacher was going to be fairly straightforward. But, on the first day of camp, a boy (named Michael) much younger than I had been expecting appeared in my breakout room, and as I began the lesson, it became
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evident that his attention span was short. It was only 10 minutes into summer camp, my very first experience as a teacher, and I was struggling to engage him in the lesson. So, I took a deep breath and began from scratch. I asked Michael about what he liked to do, what he liked to eat, what his family was like. Slowly, piece by piece, we were able to put a story together.
As I worked through more lessons with different kids, I very soon realized that being a teacher required more than just the communication of lessons.
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By week 2, I was more prepared. I asked Michael about his favorite cartoons, and together, we watched Spongebob and Paw Patrol, and we wrote. His comfort with me was much more now, and he told me how much he liked scary stories. We wrote about Halloween while using ideas from the episodes we would watch, and I would have him read the stories back to me. In this way, I was able to help him practice his listening comprehension, communication, creative thinking, and reading skills.
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After every class, I found myself unexpectedly awed with the students. First off, it takes a sort of quiet strength to be able to share your ideas with another person.
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However, the students were so open in telling me what they were thinking, and more importantly, they were honest in conveying if they were unfamiliar with something I had said. In the end though, it was their distinct ways of thinking that made me excited to be helping them transform ideas into stories. One student, Jareth, imagined an incredible new world that reflected his love for anime, complete with a prologue and characters with powers. Nathaly, a pottery and clay art enthusiast, introduced a non-binary character into her story. It was students like these that made me thrilled to be sharing the art of storytelling with others.
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After the two weeks I spent teaching, I can confidently say that I learned just as much from the kids as they learned from me. Their undisguised willingness to absorb information and patience with me as I navigated the best way to teach made me realize that I was so lucky to be given the opportunity to pass along a subject that I love to others.
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Anusha Iyer is a rising sophomore attending the Academy for Information Technology. Although she excels in STEM, she also has a passion for writing. These divergent talents have made Anusha an invaluable addition to the Keys 2 Success team. In addition to writing press releases and newsletter articles, Ms. Iyer is part of the K2S Fundraising team. This summer, she is passing along her love of writing to our students by helping our students write their own stories during the online summer camp. Stay tuned for these wonderful creations!
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