Building an Authentic Community of Practice

Blog

[6] Leverageable Skills Toward Collective Care

The skills that come to me the most naturally are as follows:

  1. Core Skill (Math, Reading, Writing) Lesson Planning for Grade School Students.
    • I volunteered for three years at my Saturday school as a Teachers Assistant to 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. I helped organize their lesson plans, facilitate afterschool tutoring sessions, and communicate with parents how the students were doing in class overall. I think because I adore kids and I have a lot of patience for them that I would be interested in helping children from families who can not afford the extra tutoring with the support they need to either catch up in school or make sure they’re ahead. It’s very dangerous for kids to fall behind in school because it will be difficult for them to catch up by relying on the public education system alone. There are also social and emotional consequences when kids they lose touch with their closest friends from their grade when they fall behind.
  2. Standardized Test Preparation for Gifted & Talented programs and Specialized High Schools.
    • I also spent my entire childhood prepping for state wide tests, regents exams, admission exams, SHSATs, and the SATs. And because I really don’t like the fact that standardized testing is used to weed out students who just simply do not have the resources to train as test-takers, I think it would be cool to design free crash courses on how to approach each of these tests in general. Instead of general instructions, I would break down each section, why it is designed the way it is, and what it wants from you to get the points. I also am interested in doing it in a way that breaks the stigma that these kinds of standardized tests are at all effective measures of intelligence. Like I said, I went through the journey of feeling disempowered as a student being evaluated based on these tests that I hated taking, to a student who feels more empowered to learn because I now understand they’re just tools get me where I need to go. In addition, I want to also provide a comprehensive walkthrough series for parents to help them navigate the standardized testing system, especially for admissions exams. Some families in NYC are just not informed about the specialized school system that their children can apply for, so mine would include all information and accompanying visuals (Canva) relevant to that process. (Including for students who need accommodations!)
  3. Business Management Basics + Tools: Project, Team, and Systems Management + Google Calendar, Notion, Canva
    • These management topics sound much harder than they actually are, but the amount of times trainings on these topics have been made and remade and updated is ridiculous. Nearly every consultant company or the like has their own iteration of these trainings, so I think developing a free course for anyone to learn them would be beneficial to people who want to begin doing more of the knowledge work in the workforce. It can help make their jobs easier, help them advance in their career faster, and even help them start their own businesses/organizations. I am actually already interested in catering such management trainings to the Guttman student life clubs so that they have more tools at their disposable to organize their people and make their visions a reality.