Conclusion!

With work at the PLC done and the semester coming to a close, I reflect back on all the PLC experience has allowed me. First of all, it showed me a completely new approach to teaching. It blew my mind the first day to see the entire course on a website and the teacher minimally interacting with her students. It granted me experience working with a new technology that may one day find its way to my own personal classroom. The website course taught me various tutoring techniques as I worked with different students and explored different techniques to the learning. I tweaked and adjusted my methods to fit the individuals and the material and soon it became easier to work through their work with them. I also learned what it was like to work with students of completely different backgrounds from myself. The students I worked with live an entirely different life compared to mine and it was at first, hard to relate to them on a personal level. After a while however, I was welcomed into their world and accepted as an aid. Working with the different backgrounds I learned how to relate the work to their lives, how to make it relevant and important, and how to motivate each student separately. There is no one winning strategy to helping the students at the PLC because no two are alike. I learned to adapt and accommodate to certain needs and characteristics. The PLC also taught me the importance of literacy. It showed me that I was lucky to be given such an opening to the literary world and made me want to open the students to it also. Personally, I love to read and wanted the students to gain the same adoration in literacy instead of simply view it as a hassle or meaningless assignment. The PLC made me want to show others what reading can actually do for you and what its benefits are beyond the gradebook and diploma.