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Kevin Mackey: AmeriCorps Fall 2001
School Year Placement at Prescott Elementary School
As I drew to the end of my college career, I realized that for all the knowledge I had gained and all the opportunities I had been given, I had shared little in return. Therefore, I decided to join AmeriCorps. I fulfilled my service at Prescott Elementary School. I provided supervised assistance to Kindergarten through 2nd grade classroom teachers through tutoring, assisting, and working with small groups of children. In class, I did a variety of tasks; such as reading to students, assisting in games, participating in group activities, tutoring individual students and helping teachers prepare activities. I had never worked with young children before, and I believe it was this inexperience with children that helped me adjust quickly at Prescott. I went to Prescott to live out an ideal and learned that the ideal was more than just some grandiose dream, it was a series of small actions like teaching, disciplining, smiling, frowning, encouraging, remembering, sharing, laughing, crying, and teaching that together made one baby step towards that ideal.
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Kevin also helped with numbers and counting.
"There is no experience comparable to the expression on a youngster's face when they have just written their own name for the first time." | |
My most enjoyable classes were my youngest students. As for what I did, well, I did what you do with kids that young; you play with them; you show them to the potty; you help them with their little projects; you hug them---oh, you hug them a lot; you tell them no, you sing with them; and you show them love. I made an effort to get in as much extra time with my young students as was possible. They were so moldable and impressionable.
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