Since this is the last week of the program, I decided to ask some Teacher Assistants about their experience so far with the Peninsula Bridge Program. I asked if they had any lasting realizations from working with the kids one on one, or if they had any special moments with the students. Each and every TA had something to bring to the table.
A great, irreplaceable thing this program does for the middle school students is to give them one on one attention from TAs, teachers and family group leaders. It is this personal level that gets the kids to listen, the TA's to reach out and both to remember this summer.
For the TA's. this summer has offered them a chance to see things from the eyes of a teacher yet also at the level of a fellow student. "Being a teacher is harder than I thought," said one TA. Peninsula Bridge has not only been a learning experience for the students but for the teachers and assistants to expand their own knowledge and gain new experiences. It is a chance to put student volunteers, teachers and students into each other's shoes and see things we otherwise would not have had a chance to see.
Abram, one of our enrichment TA's, told me about this great experience he had with the students. He explains, "The students are so fascinated by the smallest things. They come up to you and ask you questions about anything, everything, life. I showed them the inside of a piano, I showed them what happens to the strings when you press a note and hit the pedals. They had never seen it before. They had never had a chance to see what makes a piano a piano." As small as it is and even though it doesn't have much to do with their other classes, Abram's story has everything to do with something that the students wished to know. It is a moment like this that stretches the students' imaginations, their knowledge and their understanding. These are the moments that remind us what Peninsula Bridge is really about. A moments like this is one that we all remember after our summer here is gone.