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Before:

On the first day, I joined the call feeling apprehensive. The lesson didn't go well. The kid was unresponsive, only letting out a mhm or a yeah whenever I asked him a question. I felt pretty distraught as I did not know what to do. As such, we did not get far in the lesson, and I realised I had to take a different approach.

After:

On the second lesson, I decided to have some fun with the student. I made paper planes with him, and that got him to open up. I was surprised at how he perked up when I mentioned making planes. At the end of the lesson, he was laughing along with me, and for all subsequent lessons, he was really excited to see me. I cherish and enjoy all the sessions, as I feel that I have really bonded with the student.

Take away:

I learnt how to teach. Connecting with the student was paramount to helping them learn, especially with these children from New Life Stories. I witnessed firsthand the parent of my student one session, and I really saw the fear that he felt. I tried my best to help him over the session, by drawing and joking with him, but the experience really reminded me that what we were doing was  really important, and it helped these kids academically and emotionally.

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Before:

I felt that teaching a young student was a daunting task that was out of the bounds of my abilities. As I guided the kid through his academic pursuits, I sometimes felt slightly frustrated, not only at his inability to grasp concepts, but also my ineptitude in teaching.

After:

I was happy that I could make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate. Despite the challenges, I enjoyed the session a lot.

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Before:

The student faced some technical difficulties. For example, on the first session, he could not enter the meeting as he could not access the internet and his parents weren't at home to help him. In later sessions, he could not turn on his camera and microphone at the same time, and he left the meeting several times to fix some things.

After:

For the recent few sessions, I think the student did not want to learn. He came up with some silly reasons ("there is a ghost"). Although I was rather frustrated at first, later I humoured him by playing along. I think just spending some time accompanying the student and entertaining him is still an hour worth spending.

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Before:

Initially, I was a bit frustrated as my student was not talking or replying to our questions. This made me impatient and my mentee became scared of me.

After:

Upon advice from my FTs, I was able to place myself in my student’s shoes. I was, then, able to teach the subsequent lessons with more patience and humility. I even played some online games with my student, allowing my student to trust me more. This made the lessons better as she was more willing to share her answer. This made the experience better and I was happier, nearing the end of the lessons.

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We collaborated with New Life Stories to teach math to children whose parents are ex-offenders

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One of our classmates tutors his Primary 3 Student on long addition.

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Why did we want to collaborate with New Life Stories?

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Why did we want to collaborate with New Life Stories?

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We wanted to collaborate with new life stories because we loved working with children.
Our form teacher, Mr. Zachary Kang, had personal experience with New Life Stories and suggested this organisation. Needless to say, we all jumped on the bandwagon.

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New Life Stories is a non-profit organisation that aims to prevent intergenerational incarceration.

They take on a holistic approach with a child-centric focus to ensure that both the children and their families are supported with the necessary resources to eventually reach high self-efficacy.

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It's settled: Khan Academy takes first prize for the best learning website!

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Gosh, how long has it been since I used the model method? The good old days :) Wonderful work by our classmates!

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Our classmates gave our student a Kahoot question to do. He aced it! :)

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Used for addition, subtraction and counting

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One of our students used what he learnt in secondary 2 (computer science) to make this program!

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This is not tuition related, but we gathered books that we didn't need and sent it to New Life Stories. 2 people even gave the ENTIRE Harry Potter series!

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Before:

The student could not listen to what I was saying and was constantly distracted, which made me feel frustrated.

After:

I managed to establish a connection with him and asked him to go to a quiet corner of the house. He was focused after that and learnt how to round up and down, making me feel proud.

Takeaway:

I felt grateful to have parents who can make me be focused and realised how important education is.