Supplemental Instruction

What is SI?

In simple terms Supplemental Instruction (SI) is a glorified study group hosted by a student who has taken the class previously with a high grade. At first glance that is what it seems like, but in reality it was a space where I am able to cultivate a collaborative learning community. As a SI leader I held two weekly sessions covering content from the previous class using engaging activities I formulated.

Teaching Style

I knew going into this position that I did not want to lecture, I did not want to be another professor to students, I wanted to be a mentor. When hosting my two sessions I crafted them around a silly activity known as the SUPER SUPREME ACTIVITY. This essentially was a “real life” problem our school’s mascot had that applied what was recently learned in class. Below is an image of one of the various activities I had prepared.

From this I would provide a link to a collaborative coding enviornment such as Replit with starter code to give them a head start. The goal behind this was to help them build the habbit of talking outloud and walking through their thought process. An additional benefit I strived for was to get them to code more because I felt that it was beyond necessary to learn how to code.

The whole motive behind these activities is the belief that “gamifying” will make them engaged in the learning process and therefore making that knowledge stick. I know for sure that I remember the factors of 8 in multiplication because of playing Minecraft for an ungodly amount of hours (the multiples are 8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48, 56, 64,… by the way). I truly believe that the present education system we have in place now is beyond flawed where only a few students can thrive in. I love being an SI leader because it gives me the power to show people that learning does not have to be just boring and dull lectures, they can in fact be fun games.

Beyond this silly acitivity I would create smaller games and have quick group discussions about what the previous material covered to further solidify their knowledge. Overall I only had this job for a semester so far and I am excited for the future in refining my teaching style so that the willing students who are present during my sessions will go far in their career.