Expectations about Smart Girl

One of my expectations about working with Smart Girl is that it will be a very good learning tool for myself when I graduate from college and start teaching.  The sessions for Smart Girl are set up like a teacher's lesson plan because it has a step by step plan for implementing what is about to be taught.  I also get a lot of practice working with middle school aged children and my degree is for secondary education.  I want to teach middle school aged children in Math when I graduate.  I feel this expectation comes from the Smart Girl manual I received with all the sessions in it.  It also comes from the fact that during the training we had to teach the other girls a session and I feel it is going to prepare me for teaching in the future.  The expectation of Smart Girl helping me with teaching is founded because their program is researched based to help middle school girls make middle school suck less.  They have professionals working for them and teaching the volunteers what they are looking for when the session are implemented.

Another expectation I have about working with Smart Girl is that I will be able to the techniques I have learned about classroom management to help me in the future.  During the training, Sameen and the other Program Directors, told us a few tricks and tips for keeping the group together and not losing them by distractions.  One of the suggestions was to circle up the chairs the girls are sitting in so everyone can see everyone.  Another reason why to circle up the girls is so that none of them feel like they are better than the other and they are all equal.  These tips about classroom management has been implemented in my own Gender and Communication class.  My professor tells us to circle up so we can see the whole class and also to feel like we all play an equal role in the class.  The expectation of being able to use these techniques come from the fact that circling chairs up has worked in the past with Smart Girl sessions and it has been used in my own college class.  This expectation is founded because again Smart Girl uses researched based methods in their sessions. They have also said they don't want us to be unprepared to run a session.