Tanya – March Reflection

My March with U Plus Education

What’s Your Most Memorable “Aha!” Moment from the Past Three Months?

There are a few memorable “Aha!” moments but the most memorable one would have to be the one that happened most recently during March Break Camp, where I had to find the best methods to accommodate a camper with ADHD in my class. It was a struggle on the first day as he struggled with the new environment and was not familiar with me – a new teacher he suddenly had to listen to. But being a psychology student and an experienced classroom volunteer for both typically developing children and those with special needs, I was able to better accommodate him in the class from the second day onwards.

If Your Co-op Experience Were a Movie Title or a Movie, What Would It Be, and Why?

It would be titled “The Moose in the Coop.” The moose is in reference to our U+ mascot Mojo, who is a moose. I have used the Mojo icon in many of my teaching materials as a teaching assistant. “Coop” is sort of a play on words as “co-op” is written as “coop” in the names of a few of our company communication channels, so it has a double meaning here of referring to the co-op experience as well as a chicken coop. The reason for this title is because similar to how Mojo the moose travelled to planet Earth that he has not visited before to learn new languages from humans, I came to this company as a new employee to learn and develop my skills. I can be likened to Mojo if he was to suddenly land in a chicken coop, where he has to learn the new language of chickens like how I had to learn the operations of the U+ company. And just as how Mojo would change colours when he learns a new language, I am transforming myself to become a better employee and coworker day by day.

What’s the Coolest Thing You Learned That Wasn’t in the Job Description?
The coolest thing I learned was that personalized teaching can make a great difference in a child’s learning interests. I was the camp counsellor for the Grade 1-2 Math Elites Camp in partnership with the Markham Public Library. “Elites” is in the name of the program but half of the kids were signed up by their parents because the kids were struggling with math. It was hard to teach a whole class when every kid’s math level varied due to grade level, personal interest levels, and school curriculum, so the volunteers and I had a lot of 1:1 sessions with the campers. One girl in particular struggled with subtraction so I spent extra time with her to work through the questions during the free time the campers had as they waited for their parents to pick them up at the end of the day. I was so appreciative of her patience and efforts in learning as she could have went to play with her other classmates during that time but she chose to work through the questions. When her parent came to pick her up, she told me that she now finds math kind of fun. It is amazing to first-handedly witness the positive impact a teacher can have on a student.

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