On Sunday, October 6th, the AYLUS Roslyn Branch volunteered at the Chinese Cultural Association of Long Island’s Chinese school from 1:30PM – 5:00PM. Our jobs as volunteers was to become teacher assistants and help kids with various activities and classwork.
As TAs, we minimized the stress and workload of the teacher and helped achieve a fun and educational learning environment for the children. We started the class off, where we created a lively welcoming atmosphere, by greeting the children for a fun educating afternoon and helping them to their seats as well as unpacking their bags to check the homework from the week prior. We also did various tasks such as bringing the children to the bathroom, handing out papers, checking students’ classwork, going downstairs to copy papers for the teacher, as well as bringing the children to shop at the school store using the coupons they worked for through participating during class. TAs helped work individually with children who may be struggling or having difficulty understanding the lesson. This allowed the teacher to teach without worrying about any kids not understanding or falling behind. We also helped make dismissal an easy process for the teacher and parents, by helping the children pack up their supplies while also bidding a friendly farewell to the kids, allowing them to recognize Sunday school as a fun-filled place of education where they are excited to return. Even though these tasks may seem easy, it allowed for the teacher to not worry about small problems and focus on efficiently educating the children, which is their main priority.
Overall, being a TA allowed us to experience a fraction of the difficulties a teacher must go through. Even with the challenges, the work was rewarding; Being able to help volunteer at a school allows us to learn to be patient and compassionate for the young children while also helping to achieve an engaging environment the kids would want to come back to.
Members who participated include: Sofia Chen (3.5 hours), Elizabeth Ouyang (3.5 hours), Lyann Lin (3.5 hours), Ryan Lin (3.5 hours), Joy Zou (3.5 hours), Jinrui Lei (3.5 hours), Mingyao Xu (2.5 hours)
Reporter: Sofia Chen