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If you grew up going to a semi- normal middle school or high school--the kind with rows of desks, a bell that rings to send you to your next period, and required hall passes to be out of class--then Avalon will sure be a bit of a shock as it was to me. Avalon is a charter school in St. Paul, and although I went to a charter school in Woodbury, it was completely different. It's a project based school that allows students to learn tougher subjects through their own terms. But the best initial word to describe the school is 'weird'.

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While being at Avalon, I would say my skill set was greatly appreciated. At a school where the majority of students are what I would consider the creative type--where math is not exactly their strong suite--I was kept busy almost the entire time. I helped out in a tutor room where it seemed the majority of students that came in (whether wanting to or not) needed help with math. Every morning I came in and work one on one with anywhere from 8th to 12th graders. We worked a lot on algebra I or II and figuring out how to deal with functions. My biggest challenge by far was helping a girl we'll call Teresa. Together Teresa and I were working on polynomial division. Teresa loved hip-hop and rap music, but had a bitter hatred for math. She had a test next period and I needed to help her understand what she was studying. We went through some problems together and I could see a visual change in her demeanor. She seemed a lot less stressed and less sarcastic because while I was helping her I used a lot of encouraging language and some light jokes too keep her frustration and stress levels down before her test. Even with a student who had a less-than-ideal attitude and a pretty strict time limit, I was proud of what I was able to accomplish.

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Probably my favorite thing about Avalon was the variation of students that you saw. Some were necessarily math minded, but definitely more of the creative type. Some were the complete opposite. During my first few visits, one student I worked with was in 8th grade, we'll call him Sheldon. This kid was a total math wiz. My very first day there, he was asking a teacher to teach him vector calculus. The teacher immediately looked at me, and I ended up working with Sheldon. Lucky for him I had my vector calculus notes with me, but boy was I impressed. He even taught me a lot showing how vector calculus applied to some type of material called Piezoelectric material used in microphones, something I had no idea about. I later found out he had attended a math camp at MIT over the summer, which honestly did not surprise me that much at that point. Then I worked with a student who spent his weekend working on his dad's land up north. They spent the days felling trees to have fire wood for the winter, and selling a lot of it to neighbors. He was a real hands on type of person and math was a little bit harder for him. He also lacked a lot of motivation at times because he is moving to Montana after he graduates to work. Overall, Avalon has a wide range of personalities and skill levels, and I was pleased with the amount of variation that I saw.

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One student we called Sheldon earlier had quite an interesting project. Being an 8th grader, he decided to do more of a research based project on guitars. I guess he thought that guitars was too easy of a topic so he decided to research the physics behind what is called Piezoelectric material. It's apparently a material that transforms sound waves to electric signals and is found in microphones that attach to the guitar. So that is how I understand it relates to guitars. Needless to say, it was quite an... interesting project.

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I learned a lot of things while volunteering at Avalon this semester, from the physics behind Piezoelectric material to the fact that a snowmobile is called a sled up north. But I think the two biggest things I learned will really help my with my immediate teaching skills and my everlasting teaching attitude. The primer was a goal of mine that I had at the beginning of my time there. I wanted to really work on my guided learning skills with the students. Occasionally I would want to just blurt out the answer and explain it that way, but I realized the importance of letting the student get there on their own. The latter was the fact that you can learn just as much from the students as they'll learn from you. As a teacher and as a growing adult, you'll never stop learning. Sometimes a student will know something you don't and that's okay. You're not expected to know everything, but if you keep an open mind you can certainly learn a lot more and be a more effective teacher by being able to connect with your students better.

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Like I said before, Avalon is a project based school. But what does that mean exactly? Basically, all students at Avalon are involved in one sort of project or another. Projects ranged from rebuilding motorcycles to cooking different pastas to determine which is your favorite. Because of the projects, students have time to work on their projects everyday outside of their classes. So you'll see students working on various things in the cafeteria, wondering the halls, or just walking around, all during their free time. It's something you're definitely not used to if you ever went to a regular high school.

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"Basically I was working with John for nearly the entire time I was there, but it really seemed to fly by. I was pleased that I was able to help him out, and I pleased myself with how patient I was."

"Working with her gave me a chance to work on my sort of guided tutoring. As obnoxious and annoying as it is, it is pretty important in helping the student get it."