On Sunday, December 21st, the Roslyn AYLUS branch volunteered at the Chinese Cultural Association of Long Island (CCALI) from 1:30-5:00 PM. Our jobs as volunteers were to become teacher assistants and assist both students and teachers with various activities and classwork. Today, we had an additional task to help ensure the end-of-year holiday party ran smoothly.
As TAs, we started our productive afternoon by welcoming students to the class and helping set up activities. Additionally, we helped collect any snacks and food the parents might have brought in preparation for the party later on. TAs helped students to their seats, printed activity sheets, brought students to the bathroom, and helped collect any due homework. We also helped students one-on-one to ensure no one was falling behind on the work. This way, the teacher was able to effectively teach the class without any worries of minor issues that could take away from class time.
Throughout the party, the TAs assisted with a variety of responsibilities to ensure a smooth end-of-year celebration, including setting up the classroom and food and serving it to each person in an orderly manner. We also helped with other small tasks, such as cleaning up messes and spills, restocking food, and assisting students with their work. Volunteers also helped make dismissal easy and efficient by cleaning up leftovers, packing students’ belongings, and ensuring each student got home safely with their guardian. We also bid them a warm farewell, leaving them excited to come back to class again after the winter break.
Volunteering as teaching assistants gave us a firsthand understanding of the effort and dedication required to run a classroom. Although we only handled a portion of the responsibilities, our support helped reduce the teacher’s workload and contributed to a smoother learning environment. Overall, this experience taught us compassion and patience when working with young learners and deepened our appreciation for the work teachers do to guide and support their students.
Members who participated include:Sofia Chen (3.5 hours), Jasmine Lin (3.5 hours), Lyann Lin (3.5 hours), Kayden Cheng (3.5 hours), Joanna Huang (3.5 hours), Ethan Liu (3.5 hours), Shinree Zhang (3.5 hours), Jenny Chen (3.5 hours), Henry Li (3.5 hours), Chloe Liu (3.5 hours), and Abigail Zhao (3 hours)
Reporter: Sofia Chen
