A Summer Tutoring Gig

The Dilemma

About a week ago, as exams were ending, I was faced with a problem. What was I going to do this summer? I will be out in San Francisco but I didn't have any plans to hone my teaching skills and learn about creativity and learning, two of my favorite past times. Sad, isn't it? Then I watched a TED Talk.

The Answer

I was watching a TED Talk about 826 Valencia, a tutoring organization in San Francisco, and I suddenly realized I found my answer. The TED Talk discussed how 826 Valencia was created to support students who needed the one on one help that their public schools were not offering. There are similar organizations that offer tutoring and support to students outside of the classroom but there was something that caught my attention. 826 Valencia is creating life long learners by making learning how to write something that students WANT to do. By using creativity, fun, and allowing the students to be active participants in the learning process, 826 Valencia takes the simple process of tutoring and gives it a shake. And by the way, they have a pirate store. Need I say more?


I don't know if it's student publishing, the artists they have come and preform for the students, the field trips, or the fact that there is a pirate store as apart of the organization, but the idea of being a part of such a creative and dynamic "school" made me begin to get excited about teaching in the summer. Wait, I thought teachers were supposed "shut down" for the summer.

I believe that creativity, student involvement, and fun are at the core of making our students truly passionate about wanting to learn. Isn't that our goal? We aren't teaching our student just for the sake of teaching them, we are trying to inspire them, trying to get them to see their potential and run with it.

At this point in the 21st century, for our students to become successful in a global marketplace, we must reconsider how we teach. If we continue to teach like we did 30 years ago or even 10 years ago, I fear that our students will not be armed with the skills necessary to tackle today's problems.

In his book, A Whole New Mind, author Dan Pink argues that many of the left brain jobs (law and accounting to name a few) will be automated and that for future generations to succeed, they must use their right brain and think creatively. To that end, it is our responsibility to create environments that support and nurture that ability to create and use your right brian.

826 Valencia does exactly that, it is helping to prepare our future leaders for a world that is and will be very different from the one that we knew even 10 years ago. It is imperative that we support institutions like 826 Valencia and that is exactly why, when I watched that TED Talk, my mind began to go wild.

The opportunity to work in such an environment would not only be satisfying because I will be able to do what I love, teach, but I will also be able to learn. I have applied and will have an interview in a few weeks. If accepted, I hope to learn how to create such an environment such as 826 Valencia because it is places like that, which our students will develop a passion for learning. That passion and the creativity that will come from their experiences will create "a whole new mind" that will arm them for their future.



photo credit: Sean Munson and Kiwikewlio