Service Learning

Service Learning.
For service learning I am placed at Boulevard Elementary School on Lee Rd. I have attended service 3 times now and have been having an awesome experience.
My job is to take four students out of their classroom individually and read over their fluency packet, which is a sheet with a very short story on it. I have to time them for one minute and see how far they get. If they skip, or stumble over the word I take note one which word it was and read the word out loud to them.
After their fluency packet is completed we move onto a book of their choice that coincides with their reading level.
Just in the past 3 weeks I can see a large improvement in the students reading skills. Not only do I see an improvement in their skills, but also feel that they are becoming more comfortable with me. They are excited to tell me about their week and weekend and love to just sit there and talk.
I am very glad that I have taken part in service learning this semester. I feel like I am helping to improve these students futures. I hope that I can continue working with these students even after this service is over, perhaps next semester.

Blog 6

Safe Zones: Its OK to Be Different
Some schools are more diverse then others. It is important that in any case diversity does not play a role in teaching. Racism is a major issue in classrooms and undermines the learning culture.
The prop that I have chosen to use was a youtube video. In this video it is a little girl, probably around the age of 7, who keeps a diary. Every day she writes about what happened during her school day and how she was made fun of or treated by her peers.
Racism plays a large affect on students learning in the classroom when they are the ones been discriminated against. In the video she talks about not wanting to go to school the next day because she does not want to endure the comments from the other students.
I believe that racism is looked over or brushed aside to some extent. If a student came to an adult and said that the students she was playing with called her an alien they would probably respond with don't worry about it, go play.
What we as future teachers need to realize is that this is not okay, and we must take every step that we can to stop it in our classrooms.

Blog 4

An important historical event that I will include in my timeline is the Brown vs Board of Education court case which took place in 1954. Oliver Brown was a parent of a black student who had to walk miles just to get to her bus stop. Schools were segregated and divided between Blacks and Whites. White students were treated better and taught higher quality education than the African American schools. Brown went in front of the Supreme court and fought for equal schooling. The supreme court approved.
I feel that this is important to my timeline because it played a major role in the development of our schooling and country as a whole. Students should be taught diversity and should be accepting of others.

I feel that if someone is to give feedback it is important that it should be in a positive way and be constructive criticism. I feel that if feedback is negative that it is important to say it in the nicest way possible or else the writer may be offended.

Timeline

One major even that I included on my timeline was during my senior year of high school. We took a field trip to Broadmoor School, which is a school for students with learning disabilities who are considered to need special education. I was given the opportunity to sit down and play with these students and teach them new things. I was filled with joy when I saw how excited they would get when they learned or accomplished something new. This was when i decided that I wanted to get a degree in special education.

Service

I have been assigned to take part in service at Boulevard school on Lee Rd. I was suppose to start tomorrow, Friday October 1st but it has been postponed until next Friday. I am very excited to start and look froward to seeing what it is i will exactly be doing how what type of students I will be dealing with. I know that I will be tutoring students from grades K-3 in literacy but I am curious to see if the students are well behaved and what level they are at educationally wise. I look forward to next Friday.

Blog 3

1. in order to teach a student, one must understand and know the knowledge they are trying to teach.
2. Do you think service is important to learning?
3. How can teachers helps the students and parents be more involved in skills we are teaching in the classroom.
4. what is considered "too much" or an "overload" for students? is there?
5. Is service always positive??

Ladder of Inference

I based this service off of what I have heard my friends and others talk about their experiences with service through John Carroll University. That then led to my belief in service. I believe that service is a necessity to society and the community. I expect to be a help to students and aid them in their learning. I am very excited and look forward to attending service on Friday.