As I am completing my last week with Heartland Alliance’s VELT Team, I am both excited for the upcoming school year and a little sad about having to say goodbye to such a wonderful team and group of students. I have had so much fun here and although it was a bit tough for me at first, I have grown so much and I am grateful for
that. I have asked for help more, realized the importance of a work-life balance, taken on new challenges and opportunities, and built relationships with so many different people. I don’t believe I would have grown so much this summer without this experience.
Asking for help and accepting that needed help hasn’t been easy for me. I am very independent and I try to do things on my own as much as possible. I have many different reasons for that but I think the biggest one is that I don’t want to be a burden to anyone and by asking for help I may be taking out of the few resources they have. However, when I got here to Heartland it wasn’t the same and I didn’t realize that until my supervisor commended me for always asking for help when I needed it. Looking back, that was one hundred percent the case during my internship. These students were taking the time out of their day to study and work hard at learning English. So I wanted to be able to support them the best way I could and that involved me asking teachers for help. I learned how to lesson plan, find resources that students needed, and even do administrative work because I asked for help.
Many of the things that I have learned to do will also be some of the things I will miss the most. For my final week I have had the chance to be a substitute teacher for a morning class I have been helping in. Both tutoring my students and teaching in the literacy class have helped me be able to do this. When I first led the class on Thursday I was super nervous because I had never run a two hour class before let alone by myself. I know that it wasn’t exactly like how it would be if their teacher was there and at first it was a bit disappointing. But if there is one thing I have picked up from this summer it will be that everything won’t go perfectly. There will be times when you make a mistake but they are all lessons. I know I made plenty of mistakes when I first started to tutor one- on-one with my students but I know I do way better with teaching them. These are some of things I will miss the most!
Saying goodbye to my students and letting them know that I wouldn’t be teaching them anymore was hard. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I am glad I was able to sit with my supervisor and offer them the chance to get a new tutor. While I won’t be able to keep all my students I am going to be working with a couple of students this Fall! Overall I am grateful for this experience, and every single thing I have learned. Without my coworkers, students, and all the others I have met I wouldn’t have had this great experience!
-Allison Howard, Heartland Alliance Vocational English Language Training