Community Service at Newark Arts HS

I tutored Math after school at Newark Arts HS under Mr. DiAntonio for my community service requirement. For the time that I tutored which was most of the semester on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, I really enjoyed the environment and teaching the students that they put in my care. It was really worth the daily commute. I found that many of the students who were motivated and came when they were supposed to, to my class truly took a lot out of it. They progressed very fast in just a couple of weeks.

I found it interesting how overall, even though HSPA scores were not very high, that most the students were very knowledgeable in math even though their focus was arts. I know that if I was an Arts HS student, I would probably be more concerned with practicing than anything else. While I was tutoring them, I kept using analogies to real like situations such as shopping, sports, etc. to make it interesting and to help them apply the knowledge.

I felt that I made a real connection with most the students. I actually never had a problem with volume and cell phones. I allowed a couple of calls since it is after-school tutoring, and the calls usually pertained to rides and siblings which is clearly important. I also found that the students were very polite and respected me. I also guessed what their focus was the first day since I am a music major, and we usually describe each other by instrument, etc. I found the students to be more civilized in Newark than my junior year high school theology class.

One of the math teachers actually trusted me with hooking her calculator up to a monitor, so I could show the students as a whole and not individually how to correctly use their scientific calculators with ease. It was interesting how much easier it was to teach them by using the monitor. Technology is very appealing to our generation, and this really made it clear to me even though it was a calculator and not a smart board. I also took a lot out of teaching the classes since I had to remind myself how to do the math correctly in the ten minutes I had before the students started to come into class.