An update from the Secondary Urban Educators and the good work they've been doing in the community:
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For the last month the Secondary Urban Educators at IUPUI have been working with the Hawthorne Community Center’s Teen Club. The Summer Civic Program, which will wrap up at the end of July, has been a huge success both for the teens and the pre-service teachers involved. The ultimate purpose of this program is to provide youth (some of whom come from traditionally at-risk communities) with the opportunity to explore a university atmosphere and to investigate occupational interests they may possess as developing students. At the same time, this program is designed to give pre-service teachers from IUPUI opportunities to work with diverse urban students and practice educational techniques and skills learned in the college classroom.
The theme of the program has been Identifying Obstacles and Achieving Goals. On the first day, students decorated cards that identified a goal they wished to achieve. The second and third days were centered around identifying obstacles that may prevent them from reaching their goals and activities were designed to reinforce teamwork and planning skills. The most recent visit was based on overcoming obstacles, and the students had a blast navigating various obstacle courses meant to teach them about communication, self-confidence and cooperation. Additionally, students toured the IUPUI campus and learned about the different schools and various career paths available to them.
Even in the short time that we’ve had with the students, it’s easy to see how they’ve grown. Some of the students struggled with identifying goals in the beginning, but many are now finding it easier to look to the future with wider and more hopeful vision. No longer is the idea of college foreign or unattainable—students are becoming more articulate about what they want to achieve and how they plan to do so through education.
Similarly, the theories and practices we have learned in the college classroom as pre-service teachers are no longer lost in the abstract. We have had the opportunity to build real relationships with students. We have taught some great lessons and have learned to recognize when things weren’t going well, and have practiced the flexibility needed to change directions and meet the needs of our students. We have given them assignments and watched them make the product their own in a way that we could never have imagined or hoped for. Not only have we been able to teach our students, we have been able to learn from them as well, which is certainly one of the greatest blessings of teaching.
Alicia Morris, Secretary of Secondary Urban Educators IUPUI
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