Leadership: Summary of What to Do and What Have Been Done

Leadership Final Paper
Your Name
Department, University
Course number: Course name
Professor’s Name
Date
Detailed Summary of What You Planned to do
           I proposed a plan of teaching English to orphans at the Nanning Children's Welfare Institute. This institute receives its resources from the government and people from all walks of life. However, they do not receive proper education systems because of the lack of teachers that can focus on their educational need. As a result, the children are in irregular classes that limit their systematic learning. Although I am studying in the United States, I am passionate about helping the institution. However, because of the global pandemic, the only way to teach children is online distance learning. So, I planned to organize an online learning management system for the orphans. I coordinated the logistics and teaching process with the head of the orphanage through different communication networks. We considered the required lesson plan, the tools, the equipment, and the strict scheduling to match the time zone difference.
In the lesson plan, we developed a combination of learning goals of speaking, reading, and writing in English. Since the class has an irregular grasp of the English language, the lesson plan was developed to cater to children’s level of understanding. So, it was necessary for the use of teaching tools to maximize the abilities of the children to better understand the lessons. I included songs and videos about English alphabet learning that I search over the internet that can improve the learning experience and overall engagement.
I made PowerPoint presentations for each lesson as digital visual aids and planned to read English learning textbooks to the class. Then, to make sure that each child can review the concepts without the use of digital media, I mailed the orphanage handouts and letter cards as teaching aids to increase the grasp of the children about the lesson. I also included homework in the lesson plan to facilitate continuous learning outside the class. The homework is meant the teach the children the importance of being responsible in practicing and refining the English skills that they learned from the lesson. 
Summary of What You did
           I followed the original plan in conducting online classes, distributing teaching materials, giving activities, and homework. However, after a few lessons, I became worried about the efficacy of the initial online distance learning plan. I started my community service work in February of this year, and I have been working for five hours every Friday. There are lots of English lessons to cover, but I do not have sufficient time. Fortunately, the orphanage acquired additional help from other college students from different regions that are willing to join in teaching English with me. We formed a small team and reorganized our teaching structure. We monitored and discussed the teaching progress every weekend to see what needs to improve and rectified. We presented our teaching analysis reports of each class in every discussion. We refined the content and changed the weak points observed during each session. However, our small team is not sufficient to cover all the necessary teaching requirements for the English language, and we need continuous educational support of the learning system of the orphanage. 
           After discussing with the team, I decide to promote the project on the internet and gather more support from the people, especially from the local community. To increase public value and awareness, we published some basic information about the situation of the orphanage and the children on Weibo, a microblogging website that has around 550 million active users. This website was jointly established by me and my community partner. The website documents the main problem faced by the institution, which is the lack of consistent English teachers, and the solution we proposed, which is volunteering for the cause. I currently manage the content of the Weibo website. I update the post daily with photos of the children, our teaching process, and the institution in the hopes of attracting more volunteers through the internet. 
Overall Impressions of the Event
           Honestly, online distance teaching is challenging, especially in the preparation and the teaching process. We also do not know if the students can digest the lessons effectively during each class due to the limited interaction. Because of the pandemic situation, the online learning management system was the optimal choice to make the project successful. I would not do things differently. Online teaching is cheap, scalable, and time-efficient. We can gather the teachers from different locations. We can easily add them to our online teaching structure without them committing to visit the orphanage. But if the situation is different, I would consider a face-to-face interaction with the students so that it is effective in simultaneously addressing the learning problems. Additionally, face-to-face classes can help the students concentrate better on the lessons and gain a better understanding of the subject. The teacher can sense the overall ambiance of the room and has better sensitivity about the individual needs of the students, including their level of comprehension.   
           Whenever our small team meets every weekend, our discussion is mostly focused on the problems in the teaching process and the activeness of the students, including the self-confidence of the children. During the start of the project, the children were initially uncomfortable with the English learning management system. They hardly communicate with us, especially when we try to make them recite using the English language. The students are unfamiliar with the words and dare not to express themselves. The students are hesitant to engage in classroom interaction because of their language and the unfamiliar pronunciation. At this point, we need to find a way to improve rapport with the students. We also need to make them comfortable in committing mistakes and learn. To address this issue, we thought of a way to ask the children to sing the tri-letter song every day, and found some English teaching CDs as teaching aids, and showed them to the children during their daily breaks. Additionally, we used the English cartoon Franklin that is written by Susan Sun to increase the interest of the children and entertain them while learning. After continuous encouragement and...