West High Partnership!

Although the later exchanges between me and my partner had some technical glitches, overall I loved our exchanged! I was really surprised with how open my student was with me. In the beginning exchanges I realized we had some similar interests so it was nice to be able to relate to him, which I think is what helped him be more open in sharing with me.

My exchange experience reminded me of some of the time I spent as a youth group leader. What I liked about this youth group was that it was about getting to know the whole student, rather than just focusing on their religion (although that was a focal point no doubt). But what I remember is the first time a kid wanted to talk with me outside of the sanctioned time for youth group (no worries everyone! this was something we were supposed to do as being leaders as we got to know the students better). I started off by just asking about how their week was going, but after about 15minutes they were telling me about their family life and issues with their familial relationships. I felt so honored that they felt comfortable enough to talk with me about only knowing me for a few weeks!

I know I'm just supposed to talk about the West exchange, but I got that same feeling I had when I talked with the kid from youth group when my partner sent me their autobiography about a really traumatic event in his life. Maybe it was because he didn't think I was going to judge him, or he had enough distance from me where any potential criticisms I had wouldn’t affect him as much, but whatever the reason he opened up that part of his life to me. One of the things that made me really excited was the change in the title of his autobiography.

The name of the attachment of the first draft he sent me was “autobiography crap.” I knew from our previous exchanges that he wasn’t one to do “crap” work, at least not in English which said was his favorite subject. After I sent back my comments on his first draft, the next time he sent me his autobiography the attachment read: “Revised AutoBio.” He told me he expanded on some parts which I had suggested and that my comments really helped him improve his essay. I think the seriousness with which I commented on his first draft (serious as per the gravity of the content, not as in mean or demeaning) made him take pride in his work, versus calling it “crap,” or thinking that it wouldn’t be good enough based on whatever standards he envisioned me to have. Maybe I’m just tooting my own horn, but I feel like the comments I made help him become a more confident writer. I only hope that I can do that when I am a teacher.