All Project Trust volunteers are tasked with establishing a "secondary project", in addition to the main project we are tasked with while on assignment. Our secondary projects are an oppotunity to leave our personal mark on our project, to add real value in our communities using the specific skills that we possess.
Secondary projects aren't easy to think of or establish but they can be intensely rewarding, as I have been learning.
I'm sure that most Project Trust volunteers must have their fair share of failed secondary projects. (At least, I hope so.) I ran a girls sports club for a few weeks that dwindled into non-attendence. Two months of evening adult English class petered out when my students (and myself, to be perfectly honest) couldn't work attendence around their jobs and responsibilities.
However, around mid-December last year I gave semester exams to all of my students. Although they're all eager and sometimes desperate to learn (and non un-intelligent), their ability to be tested clocks in at a low zero. I remember the grading-madness when I began to talk (shout) at the tests about how students could remember the word for "school" on the third page but get an identical question correct on the second. My students didn't know how to read instructions, take notes, study independently or even do something as simple as eliminate wrong answers on multiple choice questions. Bright students nearly failed because, without basic study skills, they struggled to turn a test to their advantage.
In response, I decided to take matters into my own hands and teach study skills and test-taking abilities myself. After discussing it with my principal and the school's educational advisor, I agreed to run an after-school program for 8th graders. In the Dominican Republic, 8th graders sit national exams that determine where and whether they will be able to continue on to higher education. I and the school administration felt it would most benefit the 8th grade. The club ran once a week and had open attendence. Although restricted to 8th graders, I tended to turn a blind eye to the occasional 7th grader who snuck in.
I felt the program was a great success. We covered diverse topics, including flashcards, critical thinking, educated guessing, note-taking and how to prepare mentally and physically for a test. The results were incredibly rewarding, especially when students would approach me outside of class to tell me that something they had learned in "tecnicas de estudio" had helped them do well on a test. Although much was the same here as what I remembered about studying myself (and helping other study as a tutor), there were some adjustments I had to make to another country and culture.
For instance, at home it's important to discourage students from staying up late to cram-study the night before a test. However, since the electrical power in the DR is fleeting and rare in the evenings, staying up would be pointless (it's too dark to study). Most students will instead force themselces to wake up at hellish hours of the morning to use whatever sunlight they can get from the dawn.
In additional, I wanted to run a short course as part of classtime (therefore forcing all 8th graders to attend, also reinforcing my minor repuation as a diabolical teacher who doesn't let you get away with resting) With the end of the school year and the national exams fast approaching, the study skills course began this past Monday the 6th and will finish tomorrow, the 9th. We've covered instructions, educated guessing, the use of flashcards and will be tomorrow talking about how to be ready for the test.
So far, the sessions have been going great and the 8th graders seem to be enjoying and getting a lot out of the course.
While I hope to establish other secondary projects during the summer, teaching study skills has been intensely rewarding and a lot of fun.
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