Student Experiences
"My name is Ross Cartwright and this quarter I have had the privilege of inspiring
and hopefully changing the course of a student or students by capturing their imagination.
The most specific example would have been my first day observing when all the students
were asking what grade I was in and what college life was like. I told the kid that
I liked math and wanted to be a math teacher. He really liked this, as he happened
to be in a special advanced math class."
My name is Rina Bhattacharya. I work at John Muir Elementary School in Cupertino Union
School District. I help in a 3rd and 4th grade English Language Development classroom. This
time I had a very rewarding experience with a girl. She is not only a non speaker
but had a very disturbing background. She came from a shelter and from a very abusive
father. She remained totally silent. Her teacher shared her history with me and told
me she keeps moving from school to school because of her father. She hardly gets any
chance to develop her skills in anything. I felt a strong connection with that girl. I
had been asked to work with her about an hour every week. The first week she was not
ready to sit beside me. She did not know how to even hold a pencil. She had no concept
of math. It was very hard in the first week when I was trying my best to gain her
confidence. The second week was easier. She wore the same clothes every day and did
not even look at me. I did not give up. I increased my time with her and went on volunteering
more often. By the third week I realized that she expected me to come. She started
to cooperate with me. I first taught her how to hold a pencil than made her familiar
with every day words. She listened but never said a word. But something happened at
the end of the third week. It was raining and I tripped in the water and hurt my knee. She
talked to me that day. She asked me, "Are you ok?" Then she started talking. From
the fourth week onwards she was awesome. She is very sharp and intelligent. She still
wears the same clothes but her hair is now properly combed and braided. She looks
clean. She used to stand up and get her books out as soon as she saw me. On Valentine's
Day she surprised me. She gave me a card and a cookie. She told me, Happy Valentine's
Day. I made this card and cookie just for you." That day I realized that there can
not be any better reward than this"
"I am Kathleen Gonzales and I am working with the second grade class. My most outstanding
experience I had in the classroom working with the children was when I would help
them with their math and they felt that with my help they were able to finish. A lot
of the times they were able to do the math activity on their own, knowing that I helped
them through it."
"My name is Lauren Gould and this quarter I had the opportunity to create a lesson
plan. the lesson involved writing letters and an art project. The second grade class
enjoyed it and were all jumping out of their seats to participate. The joy in learning
they had experienced made me extremely proud. I look forward to creating more of these
experiences."
"Rob Rinsky (Mr. Rob): I've been working with Ms. Lin's 2nd grade class at Nimitz
throughout the quarter. After having had the wonderful kids warm up to me after a
few visits, I asked Ms. Lin if I could teach a lesson. Without hesitation, she replied"sure",
and I started brainstorming ideas. With Valentines Day fast approaching I decided
to incorporate the theme of hearts with some math concepts they had been studying,
and ended up with a creative arts and crafts activity. The project required about
1 hour of preparation and planning to ensure the students would e able to accomplish
the fun assignment and learn in the process. I had a fantastic time standing in front
of the class and explaining to seventeen excited kids the steps required to complete
the project."
"My name is Ana Berg. An outstanding experience that I had was when I learned how
to shadow and choral read with the children. When I would shadow read with a small
group of children, I would read a sentence and the children would then read the sentence
after me. With choral reading, the children would read out loud in unison. By learning
two types of reading, I was able to assess the reading comprehension of each child. I
was especially glad to see the improvement in the children over time knowing that
I made a difference."
"My name is Julie Chu. It has been a wonderful experience working as an intern in
Ms. Kuan's first grade class. I have learned so much from observing her in action. One
unforgettable experience I had in the room was when I helped her make the Oobleck
on Dr. Seuss's birthday relating to a science lesson they are covering in class. When
they first saw the green slime they were fascinated by it. They were not quite sure
it belongs to the solid or liquid category. Each of them were given a cup of slime. At
first many of them used the spoon to scoop it up. After awhile they started grabbing
it with their hands and had a blast with the Oobleck. I still remember the smiles
on their faces when they were squeezing the slime between their fingers. Ms. Kuan not
only read the book Barthalomew and the Oobleck from Dr. Seuss in celebration of his birthday but successfully linked it to the science
lesson and gave the students an excellent hands on activity that they will remember."