For my Teaching English Abroad minor Field Period, I had the opportunity to be a private tutor at a daycare and early learning center. On my first day I met Carmen, a ten year old girl from the Dominican Republic. She came to the United States to live with her dad, step mom, and 2 younger half siblings. She also came to the United States to receive a better education. Back in the Dominican Republic, Carmen's mother was not sending her to school and because of this Carmen was really behind on her studies. My job for the summer was to help Carmen learn English along with catching her up academically as best I could with the short amount of time I had with her.

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Going into this Field Period I did not know what to expect. I am not fluent in Spanish, far from it actually, and was curious and also a little anxious about if I could communicate well with Carmen. After speaking with my supervisor I was able to get a better understanding of what our day to day would look like, however, my supervisor informed me that I would be able to change Carmen’s schedule around if I needed to. With Carmen being behind academically I was expected to make lesson plans involving other subjects along with English. During this experience I hoped to gain a better understanding about what it means to teach English as a second language. I also hoped to better understand myself and see if this is something that I would like to do as a career in the future. 

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I thoroughly enjoyed working with Carmen over the summer. Although it was challenging I think that she greatly improved. I tried to keep the schedule the same everyday with Carmen, as to not overwhelm her while also keeping the content as interesting and as fun as possible. We started out our meetings with math, as this is what she struggled with the most and other academics like reading and writing not only in English but Spanish as well. Then, after that we focused on English. We did a lot of reading and writing in both languages because it was important for her to be able to do these things in not only English but her native language as well. I believe that I was able to accomplish all of my learning objectives and goals. I was able to, with the help of my supervisor sometimes, compile lesson plans to structure Carmen's day in a way that is best for her to learn. I made sure that we covered as much as we could in the small amount of time I had with her and that if something needed to be looked back at, we did that in order to keep her moving forward and  to make sure she had an understanding of all of the material. I was able to help her improve with all of her academics along with learning English. When I met her she struggled with simple addition and now she has moved on to subtraction, multiplication, and some division. I was also able to hold a conversation with her in English. As the days progressed we used a translator less and less. It also was helpful that she studied a lot at home, as she was very eager to learn and master the English language. Lastly for my learning objectives I was able to better understand if this is a good career path for me. Working with Carmen helped me realize that after I graduate I am thinking about continuing my studies and later teach English as a second language.

 

Working with Carmen, although amazing and I loved every second of it, came with a few challenges. She was eager to learn and preferred it over free play time, but there were some things she struggled with. For example, there were some days when it just got to be too much for her and she ended up having a few breakdowns over the summer. She would find herself coming across a difficult question and would get frustrated with herself that she does not know the answer. Whether it be a math problem or an English word, there were some days when if she got the question wrong she would become very upset and emotional. After it happened the first time my supervisor and I made sure to talk with Carmen and let her know that it is okay to not know the answer or to get the answer wrong, that you are smart and sometimes things can be difficult. This was a challenge that Carmen and myself were able to overcome.

 

I was able to apply many things that I learned at Keuka to my Field Period experience. The biggest one for me was the relationship I built with Carmen. As a Child and Family Studies major I have taken a plethora of courses surrounding relationships. These courses influenced how I worked and communicated with Carmen and, overall, helped me better understand her as a student as well as an individual. I also was able to apply what I learned in my education class I took my freshman year. In that class I learned that everyone learns differently and that it is important to plan the curriculum around the student. After a few meetings with Carmen and trying different things and methods I was able to better form Carmen's lesson plans. My classes at Keuka really helped me with my teaching of Carmen. 

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I learned so much about this field of work and also myself during this Field Period. This Field Period is making me really consider furthering my education in this field. I learned that I really enjoy this line of work and that I might consider it as a career path for myself. I wish to learn more about teaching English as a second language so I can improve my skills and further my understanding in the subject so I can become an effective teacher. Working with Carmen was an amazing experience and I hope to one day help others just like I helped her.