A Positively Memorable Classroom Visit
Twenty-five sets of wide-open eyes staring at you, waiting… You open your mouth, but the words won’t form. Your heartbeat intensifies with each contraction and the pounding in your ears is so loud, you think they will explode. Beads of sweat form at your hairline. You hear snickering in the back of the room... If this is what you envision when you think of working with middle school students, you have found the right blog. In a future post, I will discuss the “whys”- the reasons you want to get involved in volunteering with ScienceLIVE, but here I discuss some tactics to ensure you have a great experience working with the students in our community. I think one of the reasons volunteers hesitate to work with middle schoolers is because they often “tell it like it is”, for better or for worse ( thanks, emotional rollercoasters of puberty) . I suggest we reframe this thought positively: Isn’t it refreshing that you are interacting with people who tell you exactly what i...