Initial Reflection: EAL Student Mentor

Initial Reflection: YWCA Building Bridges EAL Student Mentor Today was my first day being a mentor for EAL students in Argyle Elementary School. The school itself was a warm and welcoming environment with teachers greeting me and helping me find my way around the school. As I had first day jitters, I arrived at school twenty minutes early and waited in the staffroom. While I was waiting at the staffroom, I was surprised to find out that Mr. Panko, who was a vice-principal at Campbell Collegiate, was a principal at Argyle Elementary School. I was even more surprised when he recognized me first and warmly greeted me. At 1: 15 pm, I met with the program coordinator and she led my mentee, X, and I to a separate room where I could do the activities with her. I was
After, I handed out a sheet where my mentee could either write or draw about herself such as her family, favorite colour, book, and movie. At first, she only answered by saying yes or no to the questions I have asked about pictures she drew. Personally, I thought this was due to the difficulty in forming a sentence as she is an EAL student. However, as soon as she opened up, she started to form simple sentences. I was also surprised that she was able to read sentences and write simple words on the sheet as well. Through this activity sheet, I even found out that we had several things in common such as our favorite TV show being Running Man, which is an Asian variety show popular in both Korea and China. Although I had planned to do a reading activity with her, I altered my plan as I wanted to teach through how she learns the best which was through drawing. This, I was able to find out through the activity sheet she did. By teaching her how to draw a self portrait, I also taught her about the different body parts, as well as the