Teaching to be taught by Muhammad

Teaching to be taught by Muhammad - May 2018 Scholarship Essay

In August of 2016, it was my first day volunteering at the local community center to teach a class. I was excited and worried about whether I would be able to take on this responsibility, after having a few meetings to get things settled out it was finally time for my class. The room seemed small, crowded with the 5 to 6 year old’s. “Oh my” I thought, “there were nearly 15 or 16 of these kids.” I didn’t know how to introduce myself as their new teacher or to even make them listen to me. So instead I did the usual icebreaker teachers at my school did, to go around in a circle with each student telling their name and something about them. I handed out candies to all of the students that told their name, and ended up using a whole bag of “Milky Ways.”

That was the first day of my volunteer experience, and a few days later the students started to respect me and it turned out to be fun teaching these kids. I enjoyed going over the material, making assignments, and testing these kids on what they learned. This linked to my learning as I saw that it takes a lot of effort and responsibility to teach others, but the payoff of seeing them learn and improve is worth it. I learned that the act of volunteering is more than payed-back with the effect and change the act causes, and that is what volunteering is all about; improving others lives. Ultimately this effect was worth it and I went on to continue to teach the same kids for another year this time in third grade and I hope to volunteer further to improve others lives.