Hello lovely friends! I hope everyone is healthy and continue to stay safe as places start to open up. Iowa is opening up quite a few places and that is concerning to me, but I trust that our state leaders have it’s people best interest in mind. It is a step towards normalcy and like everyone else, I am looking forward to it.
The family I am working with in Decorah has three little kiddos and they have school work to finish up. Ages are 4, 7, 10. This has been an adventure trying to tutor them because I have not prior experience tutoring children this young. It is definitely harder than it looks… I a enormous shoutout to teachers out there! I have scoured the web finding different ways to explain concepts because we all learn differently and I personally think it is important to provide different methods to see which one clicks. It has been a struggle to encourage the kiddos to be motivated when they are frustrated. We all have struggled with something and it is discouraging, feeling like you cannot accomplish something. Encouraging words have helped. Allowing the kiddos to make mistakes and then learn from those mistakes has shown them that they are capable of the task at hand. I also found it useful to encourage them to try their best and that it does not have to be perfect because they felt that their work has to be perfect, but it doesn’t have to be. It takes time. So those are the things I have been using to encourage them. Let me know if you have an ideas that worked for you!!
I am on a path to another adventure for the future! On Friday, I had an informational session on Fulbright, a program started right after WWII by Senator Fulbright to encourage and develop understanding between people and nations. I am very interested in this program because it funds students to teach english in another country, independent research, or for student to get their masters. It is competitive, but I am up for the challenge! Who knows where it will take me?! With my year cut short in Nottingham, I want to go back, but there are also other places I want to visit. But anywho, the application is now open and shall be starting it soon!
Before going to Nottingham, all my focus has been on options in the US. I never considered anything outside the US, my comfort zone. But now, I noticed myself considered graduate school in different countries, primarily the UK. Never in a million years would I have ever considered that if it weren’t for my study abroad program. It does not seem like am impossible option and it does not seem scary anymore. Being comfortable trying something new and open to other possibilities than the ones near you is a definite benefit of studying abroad. So yeah… grad school might be in the UK for me! Only time will tell. I will keep you update on my graduate school search!
That is all for this week. 🙂 I hope you all find a new adventure, small or big. No virus can keep us from obtaining our goals. Stay safe!
Nottingham Adventures 