Evaluation:

During my summer vacations, I decided to tutor three elementary school kids, Bilal, Momina and
Omayma. I had to help them with their summer homework and also teach them English writing skills
and some mathematics. Although my peers always told me that Im good at explaining and teaching
stuff, this was my first ever time formally tutoring someone else. I set the following goals for myself. I
was unsure about how much of them Id achieve but I wanted to challenge myself.
Goal 1 Commit to this activity for 2h30 long sessions twice a week for six weeks. (5 hours per
week)
I committed myself to this activity for over a month and Im happy to say that I managed to achieve
this as I tutored the children for every planned session. I started the activity on the 18th of June 2013
and finished on the 26th of July 2013. Initially it was a bit hard coping with three kids all at was and I
was uncertain whether I would be able to meet my goal but soon I got used to them and even enjoyed
having them around. Towards the end it became a little hard as Ramadan had started and I would be
fasting during the days but I still managed to do ok. I also uploaded journal entries in ManageBac to
show the hours I worked.
Goal 2 Help with the kids' writing skills with regards to sentence structure, paragraphs,
subject-verb agreement, etc.
This goal was mostly achieved with the eldest of the three of my students, Bilal. Momina and Omayma
were also listening so it was a little help to them too but their level was not high enough for some of
these skills. I was able to help Bilal with his English writing in two ways:
I focused on correcting his grammar. On our first lesson together, I asked him to produce a
paragraph of his own and I noticed many grammatical errors that could be fixed with some teaching. I
taught him how to place the commas properly, apostrophes, how to use the past tense properly, the
degrees of adjectives and subject verb agreement. I utilized online resources and printed worksheets for
him, evidence for which is also on ManageBac. I would teach him one worksheet, and the other was his
homework. Overtime I definitely saw improvement in his grammar.
I also wanted to teach him that writing is not all about having the correct language usage but
also about creativity and putting thoughts into order. I encouraged him to use his personal experiences
or characters from movies and video games into his writing. I helped with organization by teaching him
the mind maps, which is a skill that I learnt later on in my life but it has always been useful.
Overall I am quite satisfied with my tactics and I feel like I achieved this goal as well.

Goal 3 Guide them through their homework and summer projects
My third goal was to guide the children with their summer work, if they had any. This goal is most
applicable to Momina, the grade 3 student who had to study through the Weather and the Solar
System chapters in her science textbook and make a chart about the Solar System and a food web. I
made her study these chapters with me and then we made a chart together. I was careful to ensure that
it was her work all along and that I was only guiding her when she needed help or giving her ideas
when she seemed to be stuck. In the end, the Solar System chart came out pretty well and it can be
seen in one of the pictures I uploaded to ManageBac. Although Omayma didn't have any
particular homework, I also helped her to move ahead in her handwriting and maths books so that
shed already know about it and be better prepared when shell cover them in class. This goal too was
achieved.
Goal 4 Have new fun ways to help them learn; creating charts and using YouTube videos.
Learning can be fun!
I did utilize songs from YouTube and flowcharts and mind maps in order for a more fun time learning. I
realized that if I taught in a way that was monotonous and strict, the kids would feel bored pretty soon
and keeping up with the sessions would become tedious both for them and myself. To avoid that, and
to ensure that they were actually benefiting from these sessions, I came up with creative ways to teach.
After every half an hour, we would take a semi-break. But the break itself would be a song or a
mnemonic pertaining to their work that day. For example, the Solar System song which I linked in
ManageBac was very useful in helping Momina memorize the order of planets and their characteristics.
Achieving this goal was no problem at all!
Goal 5 Reflect on the whole teaching process and use it to help my own studying and work
ethic
This last goal was in effect achieved simultaneously with all of the aforementioned goals, and a process
that was done subconsciously as much as it was done physically. For instance, making learning fun was
the previous goal but it was also a result of reflecting on the teaching process. Organizing thoughts,
being mindful of time, etc were all the various things that I learnt from this activity and I used them too
in the second year of my IB diploma. Although this goal is more abstract than some of the other goals, I
think I was successful in achieving it too.
In reference to the CAS learning outcomes I feel I have achieved all of these too.
Awareness of strengths and areas for growth - I gained a better understanding about my strengths
and areas for growth. I've found that I can make it pretty easy for children to understand what theyre
learning and I can communicate ideas well with others, which was useful in this activity and can be
considered as a strength. One possible area of growth is tackling the three kids simultaneously.
Although I tried hard to teach all of them and be balanced, ultimately I probably helped one more than
the other and when I was focusing on one, the others were free and time couldve been managed
differently.
Undertaking new challenges - As mentioned earlier, I have never taken part in a similar activity
before so this was a new experience for me. I was a bit anxious before starting but once we got used to
each other and we had clearer expectations of each other, what was quite challenging became quite
fun. I believe this was a valuable experience and in the future I could tutor kids as a summer job
Planned and initiated activities This was a planned and initiated activity because I was the one
who set up all the different sessions and timings. I thought of this idea independently and contacted the
childrens parents and asked whether they would be interested in an arrangement like that. I had to
make sure that both I and the children were available during that time as it was summer vacations and
this outcome was perhaps a bit hard to achieve but even if on a given session we were busy, I was able
to move the time forward and carry the session on anyways.
Show perseverance and commitment Even when it became a bit hard to keep up, due to Ramadan
or if I had guests at my place, I still chose to tutor the children which shows perseverance and
commitment. Of course, during the summer, most would much rather chill with movies and hang out
with friends, but I still did my part for furthering CAS progress and making a difference in the
community around me.
Engaged with issues of global importance- Education and specifically childrens education is an idea
that is relevant globally. We keep hearing about how certain ways of teaching children are more
appreciative of the child learning process, etc. During this activity, I had to be personally conscious of
all of this and I tried to make teaching more fun and interactive suited best to each of the childrens
capabilities. For instance, I noticed how Bilal needed more examples and teaching time to grasp some
ideas compared to Momina, who seemed to pick up things more easily and loved solving exercises. I
had to be mindful of these differences with both of them.
Developed new skills - This is related to the first learning outcome, that of undertaking new
challenges. I did learn new skills over the course of this activity, primarily being how to organize
thoughts and convey them in a manner than is easily understood by others. I also learnt which learning
approaches are best for children and if I decided to do this type of activity again I would have enough
skills to do so easily.
Consider ethical implications- Because I was dealing with children, I had to be careful that my tone
and language was appropriate for the children and amongst each other they were being respectful and
friendly. I also watched the YouTube videos beforehand to ensure there was no inappropriate content,
etc.
Reflection
Overall I feel I have really benefited from this activity. I feel confident undertaking a similar activity in
the future. I also feel like an activity like tutoring should be done by all IB students because it gives
them a way to give back to their community and apply the learning skills they have learnt in their
diploma programme. I hope the skills I learnt in teaching others and organizing thoughts and
presenting them concisely will be of use to me in my IB projects such as presentations and exploration.
Planning my time for the sessions will hopefully be also useful in revising for IB exams. As far as what
Ive learned about myself, I think this has taught me that I work well with children and even when Id
much rather do something more fun, I stay focused and I dont give up. If I had the chance to do it all
again I think I would have put in a bit more time planning the sessions ahead so that I would be able to
teach all three kids (or however many kid)s at the same time with less awkward breaks for the two
other when Im focusing on one.