Learn To Be Foundation

“ I won’t forget the faces of students who were engaged, excited, and confident about their science projects.” ― Shannon Wey

Through our successful partnership with the Harmony Charter Schools, operated by the Cosmos Foundation, we have had the opportunity and pleasure of providing Harmony students with our tutoring services. In light of our success, we were invited to judge a science fair at the Harmony Science Academy.

More than fifteen LTB tutors spent their Saturday morning engaging in person with students. Arriving early, we entered the judges' room where we were briefed on our duties. After the briefing, we enjoyed a much-needed breakfast centered on coffee, courtesy of Harmony. I personally found the food to be a great stimulant after a restless night. Shortly after, we filed into a science lab where we evaluated the projects and then interviewed the kids, all of whom were very responsive and bright. Their responses left us awestruck and smiling, as only a student’s energetic youthfulness can evoke. The hard part for us as judges involved ranking the student projects and selecting a winner. It was very close in some situations and sometimes involved intense debates as judges fought for their favorite projects. In the end, however, we reached a decision. At the awards ceremony, we watched as our decisions were translated into students’ joy from being recognized for their hard work.

“As I was handing out awards, staging on the stage, I felt joyful. Learn To Be is making an impact, and I can see it making a difference.” ― Sagar

Upon on this success we were invited to the other two science fairs held by the Harmony network. The success continued at each of these science fairs, as they both bore new winners, smiles, and enriched learning. In the end, 30+ Learn To Be volunteers came to these science fairs on Saturday mornings.

“ It was a great experience to see how interested they were in science .. and how much they knew. One of them even did an experiment with liquid nitrogen. That was exciting!” ― Jeff

Apart from our usual online tutoring, we, the tutors at the UT Dallas chapter had the wonderful opportunity to interact with and teach little 3rd and 4th graders all about health in science as part of our annual Math and Science Camp.

As soon as we settled in our room usually occupied by serious business students, about 15 elementary school students came in, some jumping excitedly and others looking shy. We first tested the students' knowledge of the circulatory system by having them team up in pairs and trace each other’s outlines on butcher paper. We asked them to label where they thought their heart, brain, veins, arteries, and lungs were. As soon as they figured out that the heart didn't belong in their head and that their lungs weren't in their legs, they got creative and decorated their outlines with different stances and facial expressions. Who knew that kids would have so much fun labeling their own bodies?

Next, we demonstrated the properties of different blood types. The students mixed red and blue food coloring in water to illustrate different blood types, then guessed whether transfusions between blood types would be successful. The kids had so much fun predicting if a type-O donor could give blood to others, or guessing which blood types an AB-type person could receive. I guess teaching things with a little color really does make a big difference.

We passed out candy and snacks for our final lesson on taste buds. The students received Goldfish for their salty taste buds, Sour Patch Kids for their sour ones, and of course, chocolate and other candies for their sweet ones. In the end, we talked about college, high school, and even dream jobs. One student said he wanted to be a firefighter, while another hoped to be a surgeon. We were amazed by the students' questions and aspirations. Overall, this face-to-face teaching experience was such a great opportunity, and we’re sure that all the tutors who participated felt good about making an impact on the community's next generation.

The Math and Science Camp gives students in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas a chance to experience university life and engage in higher learning. Students attended four different classes, learning everything from mathematics to exercise physiology. Students are provided free lunch, a t-shirt, and a take-home bag.

OrgSync, the popular online community management provider for institutions of higher education across the United States, is featuring Learn To Be today on its blog. OrgSync offers a one-stop shop for student organizations to seamlessly facilitate administrative work and web publishing.

At Learn To Be's college campus chapter at the University of Texas at Austin, OrgSync is used to provide the following key functionalities:

• Web publishing, including an automatically updated list of officers
• Sharing photo albums
• Processing requests for tutor orientations
• Sharing files
• Managing event attendance and membership point system
• Mass emails and text messages
• Contact form which is also useful for taking in anonymous suggestions from the members
• Individual profiles that help members impress potential employers
• Maintaining property inventories

At the national level, Learn To Be leverages the OrgSync suite for:

• Hosting our national discussion forum for all Learn To Be volunteers everywhere
• Submitting and processing tutor applications
• Tracking candidates as they go through the tutor application process
• Signing our digital contract
• Taking in requests for supplies from our various chapters
• Maintaining address books

We appreciate the support that OrgSync has shown us since the inception of our partnership. Without OrgSync, it would have been significantly more cumbersome to replicate our campus chapter model across colleges and universities.

Learn To Be is running a fundraiser through Hoot, a free Facebook app that allows you to easily organize quality video conferences with your Facebook friends. You can help by simply adding the app by December 1st.

Many believe that it is impossible to teach a second-language English learner without being able to communicate in his or her native tongue. However, a study by Maxie Gluckman and Alison Bailey at the University of California, Los Angeles has shown otherwise. Gluckman and Bailey called on the Learn To Be chapter at the University of Texas at Austin for tutors to interact with young ELL students in California in order to see how simple conversation can improve communicative competence, a skill which includes syntactical skills as well as social knowledge that guides the use of certain utterances at the proper times. Results showed that simple, natural one-on-one interaction greatly improved communicative competence.

The study included nine elementary school students and eight especially trained Learn To Be tutors over the course of eight weeks. During the first three sessions, tutors gauged the student’s natural speaking abilities without intervention. In the latter six sessions, tutors used intervention techniques including asking more complex questions, encouraging more nuanced responses, and creating a more fluid flow of conversation. At first, most students were shy and relatively unresponsive, but after three sessions, conversation became more elaborate and natural. For example, seven-year-old Raquel went from being minimally responsive in 94% of tutor prompts in the first session to giving elaborative responses 74% of the time by session six.

This program was beneficial not only to the ELL students but also to the tutors involved. The tutors casually discussed topics such as school and sports, and over the course of the weeks, they even developed friendships with the students. Gretchen Dao, one of the tutors affiliated with this project, stated that she had the opportunity to hear quite a bit about her student’s fascination with Pokemon. And while the students chattered away excitedly about their interests, tutors could take pride in the fact that they were helping young children develop English skills that would aid them immensely in the future. All it took was is a little time, patience, and conversation.