Service Learning Paper

Henry Adams once claimed, A t separatelyer affects eternity she can never tell where her influence stops. Although Adams word choice only pertained to the man wish well teachers, it can only be assumed he believed any teacher could achieve this. In invest to be a successful teacher, accomplishing a lifelong affect on a students life is a necessity. Adams quote describes my belief in teaching quite perfectly, and my encounters during service study provides read for his statement. These experiences make only added to reinforcing my decision to choose teaching as my profession.My service learning took place at two disaccordent schools. My very first base experience was through Sherman Elementary School. Unfortunately, only having matchless and only(a) daytime there constricted me from gaining the full experience of the school. However, the schools read/write head amazed me with his determination for ameliorate their academics and surround. The school seemed fairly new, like most of Toledo Public Schools. His passion was contagious, and his heart was truly in it for these kids. The environment at that school had a very take vibe, and the students were completely eager to work with us.It seemed like every these schools, who were struggling to keep their academic level at an acceptable status, just needed someone to be confident in them. Teaching at a less developed school like this one definitely appeals to me. I sat in a 6th grade classroom momentarily that day, because the star topology had taken up most of our time with a tour. The teacher was very sweet, and had good control on students who liked to test her patience. Although I believe that I could have benefited tremendously from that experience, I accepted my bring to an other school.I am currently fulfilling my service learning hours at Keyser Elementary. The environment at Sherman Elementary and Keyser differ dramatic wholey. The staff at Keyser was usu wholey very disorganized and seemed unprepared for our visit each week. The Bowling one thousand students and I would file into their cafeteria, find a spot on one of the folding tables, and wait for students to be sent down to be tutored. The first student I had was a third grader named Marcus. Although on critical point he would be absent, he was my main student for the first furcate of our time at Keyser.Marcus is a very quiet boy, but once he warmed up to me I learned in all his favorite activities. Each week, Marcus and I read a story. Reading is the only thing I have done with Marcus. His reading skill was below average because of abundant reading issues with inconsistency and vocabulary. Up until a few sessions ago, my second students name was Keivon. He is a second grader and has the opposite disposition as Marcus. He looked at his trip to the cafeteria as an escape from his classroom. Getting him on task was my first job, and then reading came after that.We also never strayed from the subject of Reading . It was the same thing every week. Keivon had an gauzy reading skill, and always comprehended what he read. However, the past few sessions I have been sitting in a exceptional Education classroom, to help me decide if I would like to specialize in that area. I was very excited to get the opportunity to work in a classroom. The students and teacher were very welcoming to me, and seemed eager to have a new face in their room. These students were easily distracted and had definite behavioural problems.The teacher barely got through her sentences without an interruption. I never worked one on one with students until my most youthful experience. As a result of my experiences at Keyser Elementary, my expectations did not match the reality of my situation. I expected to be in the classroom throughout my whole service learning. I was expecting to be able to absorb the insouciant experience of teachers in their classrooms and learn from them. If I would not had asked to be placed in a S pecial Education classroom, I never would have experienced the environment of the classroom.Although I feel as if other sections were more fortunate in their experiences, I still thoroughly benefited from mine. Furthermore, I believe no experience is an unpleasant one, always a great opportunity to learn. In my first experience with Marcus, I helped him freshen the Reading section of the Ohio Proficiency Tests. He struggled with having a fluent reading pattern, along with confusion on numerous words. I encouraged the technique of breaking up the word and sounding each part out, and then putting the whole thing together.He seemed to benefit from this technique, and his reading fluency evened out. Reading and Language arts have always been my strong point in school, so I felt I had the fitting knowledge of the satisfy to help Marcus understand the test. Kauchak and Eggen (2009), report that having a diminutive understanding of the content one will teach improves the quality of ho w the teach it and how the student learns (p. 15). In my most recent experience, I helped a few students with dependent and independent clauses. Again, this content is very familiar to me and I have a detailed understanding for the clauses as well.This also demonstrates Ohio Standards for the Teaching Professions (OSTP) second standard, which states being familiar with content is a responsibility for the teacher (Standard 2). to boot, I felt my overall experience at Keyser gave me a human face of teacher collaboration that I did not expect. Whenever the Bowling Green students arrived at Keyser, we seemed like more of a burden than beneficial for the school. There would be times when the administrators would forget we were coming, and it was evident the school had a dance orchestra of communication problem.With Sherman Elementary, I felt the principal and the school all collaborated really well with each other, and they all had positive energy that promoted student learning to the maximum. Additionally, the principal do the effort to reach out to the society and keep everyone involved. Both schools demonstrated how they collaborated and communicated, which aligns with standard six (Standard 6). However, Keyser Elementary failed to meet up to the standard, whereas Sherman Elementary succeeded it. To bring forward expand upon Sherman Elementary Schools excellence, I believe they created a very encouraging environment.For OSTPs standard five, the main idea is that teachers create learning environments that promote high levels of learning and achievement for all students (Standard 5). In my one-day experience at the school, I felt that the school implemented a very tillable learning environment. In past years, the school had been categorized as an academic emergency school. However, they have been creating programs like Parents Power Hour where they allow the parents to come into the school and learn closely their students progress in school.The principal al so shares some news about the schools progress and this helps the parents get a feel for what their child is learning. Additionally whenever the principal shouted, Whats that smell, the students would shout Sherman pride The environment and school spirit in that school was contagious. The sixth grade teacher I encountered deeply cared for her students, and in the ten minutes I spent with her I already knew she promoted a successful learning environment. She led her students through a greeting activity where each student was greeted properly and in a mature manner, and then they also shared something they were proud of.This made the classroom climate very positive, which is an essential key to a productive learning environment (Kauchak and Eggen, 2009, p. 236). The students were all supportive of each others proud moments, and I believe that was a good run low to a productive learning day. As a result of my experience within an actual classroom being very limited, I lost the opport unity to witness the teacher delivering their instruction. My hope was to learn about how a teacher hard-hittingly instructs her students, which fits in OSTPs standard four (Standard 4). However, I did encounter an effective instruction within the Special Education class.On my most recent experience, the teacher was reviewing Christopher Columbus journey to the vernal World. To limit the lesson to her lecture would not have given the students a full understanding of the journey. Therefore, the teacher brought the dry land to the front of class and physically explains the journey by tracing his journey on the globe. Having the lecture along with the demonstration on the globe proved to be much more effective than the lecture alone. As previously stated, all of my experiences have only reinforced my decision to continue on the path of bonny a teacher.I witnessed a positively charged environment and one that did not have such delight. However, when I am a teacher in the future, I w ill be positive no librate what type of school I am in, and promote the learning environment my students deserve. I plan on continuing my expansion with the content I intend to teach, therefore my students will gain the ultimate learning experience with me as their teacher. I believe encouraging, teaching, caring, communicating, and believing in my students will benefit them tremendously. As a teacher, its all in a days work.