Although my experience with America Reads was short it opened my eyes to a whole new world. Even though the University of Maryland is in Prince George County I didn't know a lot about it; I didn't know much about the demographics or anything about the county. America Reads gave me the opportunity to learn more about the community and have a first hand experience with some of the residents. I was able to hear about some of their struggles and see what their public school system was like.
I uploaded a few excerpts from my working journal below. I chose these three in particular because they show you how eager I was to learn more about my mentees, and how badly I wanted to be a good mentor to them. I wanted to help build their confidence and encourage them in their learning, and by having those two things be my goal it helped me to grow more confident in my teaching. I learned what works best when teaching them how to read and how to become a friend.
How I have grown because of the informational interviews...
I've known of my desire to be a journalist since sophomore year of high school. Journalists are people I look up to because their job is so important. The want and need of news is crucial in a society and to be able to be the person that gets that out to the people is amazing. Both of my interviews reassured my craving to be a journalist. It strengthened my dedication to working hard in my classes and made me want to get involved with more publications.