Running Head: SERVICE LEARNING REFLECTION

Service Learning Reflection Ashley Jordan Ivy Tech Community- College

SERVICE LEARNING REFLECTION INTASC Standards for Beginning Teachers Standard #8 Instructional Strategies The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways. Name of Artifact: Service Learning Log #3 Date: April 18, 2013 Course: Education 101 Brief Description: For this assignment, I will briefly go over my Service Learning experience this semester and reflect on concepts that I encountered. I will talk about my own personal reflections of Service Learning, as well as how the experiences with affect me in the future, as a teacher. Given this standard, I gained understanding of different content areas in order to build skills that I can use in the future. Rationale: To document my Standard #8, Instructional Strategies, I included that there are various strategies that can be used to develop deep understanding in content areas. Throughout, my time at Brookside Elementary School I gained skills that I will be able to take with me as a future educator. This assignment allowed me to realize that I did, in fact, learn from working with the children and teachers at my Service Learning site.

SERVICE LEARNING REFLECTION Introduction My Service Learning visits were definitely an eye opening experience for me. I

participated in Service Learning at Brookside Elementary School on the Eastside of Indianapolis. The teacher that I shadowed during my experience was a first grade teacher named, Mrs. Roberts. The students in the classroom were about half boys and girls with diversity being very apparent among the children. When entering the classroom I automatically felt the open and friendly atmosphere and environment that the teacher and the students represented. Brookside Elementary School to me was also a very diverse and friendly school from my point of view. I hope that the students also, took something away from my presence in Mrs. Robertss, first grade class. Service Learning Related to the Classroom A couple of Service Learning experiences in the classroom that I went to can relate to actual activities that were done in our Education 101 class. The first idea that stood out in both Service Learning and in our Education 101 class was the fact that, I truly have a love to be a lifelong learner, and wish to become a teacher due to my previous teachers. In our education class we were to do an inventory called Where Do I Stand? this inventory confirmed that I had a desire to be a lifelong learner and had been influenced by my previous teachers to go into the education department. This inventory relates to my Service Learning experiences because when I observed Mrs. Roberts I remembered I too had a teacher similar to her when I was in third grade. I noticed that I had a love to learn more when I was so interested in what the students were doing each week and how I could better help the kids. Another, cross over that occurred between my Service Learning visits and our education class was when our class done our personal statement presentations. When creating my personal

SERVICE LEARNING REFLECTION statement power point I had to think about effective teacher traits that I personally thought

teachers need to possess. By, observing Mrs. Roberts and working with the children in her class, I realized that there is tons of patience that goes with teaching some children. I noticed that I had a passion for helping the children and I found enjoy in aiding the students. Even though it was apparent to me traits that I had already possessed by going to Mrs. Robertss class I also comprehended that I had to work at more traits to become a better teacher. I understand that I have to become a better listener because when working with the students sometimes I did not always understand what they were saying until I gave my full attention to them. I can work on becoming more knowledge in the teaching profession which I felt as if I wasnt aware of how some classrooms were conducted before going to my Service Learning site. A couple assignments that were done in our Education 101 class correlated to a few experiences that I had while working with the children in Mrs. Robertss classroom. Personal Reflections Based on my Service Learning experiences I took away some teaching skills that I will reflect on. From the eyes of a future educator I observed how difficult it is to plan a lesson plan and actually stick to it; when trying to follow a lesson plan there often is not time built in for distractions. Whether someone has over twenty years of teaching experience, or is just experiencing students that have disabilities of all sorts for the first time as I did; it is still challenging to work with these children daily. Seeing children that misbehavior from a teachers perspective is somewhat what I expected. In a close knit classroom, a teacher is always going to have a couple trouble makers, and sometimes kids behavior becomes too extreme. Someone else needs to assist the teacher when children reach a certain level. As far as noticing the light bulb go off when I child finally understands something I personally experienced this and to me that is

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what I am going to live for as a teacher. Even though I have learned various concepts by going to Service Learning these ideas are the ones that stood out the most to me personally. Future Teacher Service Learning has been highly beneficial to me as a future educator. There are many aspects of Service Learning that I took away from the experiences and everything that I took away from the experiences will benefit me in the future. I gained knowledge as a hopeful teacher as to all of the traits I need to work on personally in order to become the best educator I can be. I discovered my true reasons behind wanting to become a teacher which are my past teachers and my desire to be a lifelong learner. During, Service Learning I took away the idea that I too want an open, friendly and giving environment in my class. Safety and getting to know all of my students to the best of my ability is imperative too; I will incorporate these ideas in my classroom as well. I realized that I wish to teach in the same type of school community that I grew up in and that is an urban/suburban area. As a future educator that will have a minor in special education, I plan to apply the patience and understanding that I gained from working with the special needs children in Mrs. Robertss classroom. Service Learning has caused me to build countless skills that I will put to use when I am a teacher. Summary/Recommendations Serving Learning essentially has numerous helpful aspects for future teachers but there is always room for improvement. I believe that within the first three weeks of class students should already have filled out the paperwork to go to their Service Learning site along with whom their teacher will be. For our class this was a set back because we did not start Service Learning until the fifth or sixth week of class. Another, recommendations that I would have for Service Learning is that the students are made fully aware of been the schools breaks are. Our class had

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some confuse when it came to the breaks at Brookside Elementary School; maybe a paper stating when the breaks are can be put online. I suggest that there just be better communication overall for Service Learning. Hopefully, my recommendations will better help prepare Service Learning for future classes.