Community Service in our Neighborhood.

On April 9, I stood nervously in a computer classroom in Hempstead High School. I clutched the lesson plan I had come up with and looked it over multiple times, wondering if I had left anything out, or if it would be too simple or difficult for my students.

I couldn't help but worry that I would do a terrible job, or that those coming to the class wouldn't want to listen to a college student. I didn't really have any experience teaching a class after all, although I did have about three years worth of undergraduate education courses under my belt. Still, as confident as I was in my education, I had little confidence in my experience to apply what I've learned. Then I realized that the only way I'll ever get have experience is if I actually get some.

I wasn't alone in the classroom (which certainly helped alleviate some of my anxiety), I was co-teaching it with my good friend and fellow LGS student, Asif Zaman. We were volunteering our time to teach an adult education class in computer skills.

Our students varied in both age and experience, so we decided it was best to split the class based on what our students wanted to learn. There were many who had hardly touched a computer at all, while others were looking to expand thier knowledge of common office programs. We both thought it would be a bit unfair to bore more experienced students with the basics of right and left-clicking, while it wouldn't be fair to the less experienced students to immediately jump into how to use Microsoft Excel.

Once we split everyone up, we began our lessons and my nervousness immediately subsided . There were some hiccups here and there with having two simultaneous lessons taking place in one room (luckily we'll have two labs at our disposal for our next class), but many of the students were excited about learning how to use a computer and were eagerly awaiting our next class.

As I continuing planning for my next lesson, I find myself eager to continue my work in Hempstead and help my community. Asif and I aren't the only LGS scholars helping out those around us, there are many LGS scholars who are not only eager to help out, but are already doing so!