Final Blog Post

I did not expect to have the time that I did at 826 Boston. This has two meanings. The first meaning is literal. I did not know that the section of First Year Writing that I signed up for was going to be a service-learning section, so I did not expect to spend time at 826 Boston. The second meaning is that the experience that I thought I was going to have was completely different from the experience that I did have. After the long and thorough orientation, I expected the tutoring to be a blur of attempting to help kids at the John D. O’Bryant School but failing since I’m not the best at writing papers, and I was in the same position as the kids about a year ago. My class schedule conflicted with most of the tutoring times, so I ended up doing the evening tutoring on Mondays and Wednesdays. This meant that my tutoring would be at 826 Boston instead of at the O’Bryant School, and the students that I would be tutoring would be in elementary school instead of in high school.

On my first day of tutoring, I didn’t know how everything was run. Since there were already tutors for writing, but there weren’t any for math, I was asked to tutor math, which was surprising. My first day seemed incredibly fast, but I got to help a few kids. After that, it became easier every time I went. I got into the routine of helping kids and knowing how different subjects were taught at different tables, and I became better at pacing myself with the students. I was asked to tutor a different subject almost every time, and many times one student would stick with me to help him with all of his homework. I had a few kids who would routinely do this, so I got to know them pretty well.

Overall, I taught math, science, history, and english, often multiple subjects each day. As it got closer to the end of the semester, not as many students came to the evening tutoring sessions. On a few of these days, I was asked to help kids who were in the NOVA program. This program has students write a scientific research paper. I got to help with the research collection and the beginning of a first draft with one of the students. She was writing her paper on the effects of stress on students in elementary school, high school, and college.

Throughout my time at 826 Boston, I met new students, taught various subjects, and grew in my ability to help and communicate with kids. I also found the time that I spent there to be helpful to me because I learned more about my writing by reflecting on it and giving the good parts as advice. At first, I thought that tutoring would take up a lot of time and I would dread it, but it became a place for me to forget about my academics for a while and help the community, one student at a time.

Signing off, this is Adrian,

over and out.