Week in Summary

I came into KIPP pretty much expecting to be a teacher’s aide—running papers back and forth, making billions of copies, putting up bulletin boards, the usual. Since that’s what I was expecting, it didn’t come as much of a surprise on Monday when I looked at the list I picked up from Ms. Chen. Although I was disappointed that there wasn’t going to be much student interaction, I figured that since I plan on one day becoming a teacher myself, I definitely didn’t mind helping; I’ll probably be super grateful to be on the receiving end of any help available in the near future.
When we did wrap-up on Monday night, I did get a little disheartened. I’d spent my day doing pretty mundane things compared to most of the people who worked at the middle school, who raved about how cool working with the kids had been.

On Tuesday I got to eat lunch with some freshmen, which was pretty interesting. They seemed a lot less jaded than the few upper classmen I’d talked to seemed to be. Ms. Chen asked me to do one on one tutoring in Pre-Calc, so I helped a junior girl out with an exam review. I hadn’t done pre-calc in awhile, so I was pretty nervous, but it seemed to go well, and ShaQuana seemed genuinely appreciative. My second day was really good, and even though I had still spent time doing the little things, the few “big” things that I did were worth it.

On Wednesday, I spent pretty much the entire day tutoring—I spent every period except for one helping students with Pre-Calc. It was definitely more tiring that anything I’d done on Monday or Tuesday, but so much more rewarding. ShaQuana brought two of her friends with her, and they actually asked if they could miss class to stay with me to get extra help. It made me feel really good, and even though there was still stuff I couldn’t remember how to do, I re-taught myself in the process of trying to help the students with it. (An excellent review for me…the Math major…J)

After spending half the week in the high school, I was ready to experience the middle school. I ended up watching the principal lecture the sixth grade pride about their recent behaviors that he was disappointed with. I was blown away by how much different the middle school atmosphere was than the high school. At first glance, it didn’t really feel like both schools could’ve been part of the KIPP program; the middle schoolers were jumping out of their seats to answer questions, and were incredibly obedient and seemed eager to do anything. The high school felt more like a regular high school, except that teachers probably had more control over the students there than in regular schools. But still, I loved being at the middle school because the kids were so lively and hilarious.

On Friday, most people finished up the tasks they had for teachers, and a lot of us went to the middle school to watch the Mental Math competition. It was so much fun! The students were so into the competition and it was funny to watch. We got to go to CiCi’s to eat with some teachers and some students, which was also great.

The week was over so quickly, and it was eye-opening and great. Our group had awesome conversations during reflections (and even otherwise), and everybody got along great. It was a little bittersweet to be leaving Gaston, but we all, including myself, came out of this experience as better, more educated people. We saw things in person that a lot of people only hear about or see on TV, and hopefully, we can bring our new insights back home and help do something about the education system in America. We’ve seen what some effort can do, and I’m sure I speak for everybody when I say that more schools like KIPP are worth it.

-Harveen Bindra