MY ROLE: Teaching Assistant (Volunteer)
CLASS SPONSOR: 826NYC & Bronx Leadership Academy II High School
A nonprofit with multiple sites nation-wide, 826NYC was founded by writer Dave Eggers (also founder of McSweeney's and The Believer Magazines) to support youth creative and expository writing. With its Brooklyn Superhero Supply Store in Park Slope and writing centers at partner sites around the city, 826NYC offers multiple writing programs for NYC K-12 students.
As a Volunteer Writing Teacher, I took several 826NYC instructor trainings and I got my NYCDOE GoPASS for educators. At 826NYC, I co-taught ongoing creative writing field trips, a 4-week short story writing workshop at Bronx Leadership Academy II High School, and a 6-month Journalism workshop also at Bronx Leadership Academy II High School.
At the Brooklyn SuperHero Supply Store, I greeted school groups, helped create name cards, and I occasionally led collaborative story writing sessions with large groups (25-50) of young children and their teachers. I also helped assemble bound copies of the students' stories and support students in adding their own story endings.
At BLAII, I led 3 small groups in short story writing techniques and the art of revising and constructive feedback. For the Journalism club, I supported students in choosing a topic, writing a lede, coming up with interview questions, and doing sourced online research. I also offered one-on-one support in revising their stories for their 2 printed publications.
I supported 826NYC staff in teaching creative writing workshops at the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Store for K-12 school groups. Workshop genres included Memoir, Script Writing, and Choose Your Own Adventure Stories.
Using 826NYC lesson plans, I taught 12 small group writing sessions at Bronx Leadership Academy II High School. Students each wrote and revised a short story published in "Bronx Mettle."
As a Teaching Assistant for 826NYC's weekly Journalism workshop at Bronx Leadership Academy II High School, I offered 1-on-1 coaching in research, interviewing, and article writing. Each student produced at least 1 article and, together, produced 2 editions of BLAII's paper.
We visited The Huffington Post for our journalism workshop field trip.