Reflective Account On Service Learning Experience

I have always known that I wanted to work with kids, even before I knew for sure which career I wanted to pursue. Being one of the oldest children in my extended family, I have had the pleasure of looking after all of my younger cousins. I really love being a positive role model in their lives and being someone they can count on. I babysit whenever I can and even watch my teacher’s children on a pretty regular basis. Knowing this, it was no surprise that I jumped at the chance to volunteer once a month in my church’s nursery. Every second Sunday of the month, I watch all the “new walkers” to two year olds during the busiest service. I really love this age range because even though the kids are just learning to walk and talk, they all have their own unique personalities. I love to watch them interact with one another. I once saw a little boy put his face right into another little girl’s face. He slowly stuck out his tongue and licked her cheek, she pulled back, bewildered, and then handed him the book she was holding. Then the little boy simply walked away as if receiving books in exchange for licks was completely acceptable, which I suppose it is when you are that age! Helping out in the nursery is very important to me because I want the children’s parents to feel free to worship in the main service without having to worry about the safety of their kids. I am very blessed to have this

As I prepare to serve at kids connection I have a few set goals for myself to get the best out of the experience. I plan to fully commit and not just go there because I have to. I want to interact and build relationships with the children. I hope to find the children's interests out, so I can participate and do activities with them. By doing this I hope to learn about them and start building a trusting relationship with them. This is my plan as I am going in, but I know when dealing with children nothing goes as planned. I am going to be ready to adjust to whatever happens, but I am excited to help out with the children. All in all I believe this is a good opportunity to interact with children and learn how each individual is unique in their own way.

During my field-work experience, I learned many important things. I shadowed Prince Avenue Baptist Church and their MOP 's (Mother 's of Preschoolers) program. The program contains mostly middle to upper class Caucasians. It is located in Bogart, Georgia, and offers many

Visiting the crèche every week really is a treat! The children there are bundles of energy and fun who absolutely love having us there. As we arrive and pull into the entrance we see lots of little faces appear at the window, already bouncing with excitement and as we walk into the little lounge that serves as the classroom for 30 + children, we are suddenly overwhelmed by loads of little bodies all wanting to give us hugs and high fives. We start by getting all the children settled again and then greet them all in isiZulu and English. Then we tell them a short Bible story using pictures or getting the children up to act in their own little play. The stories are expertly translated by the crèche teacher Lorraine,

This semester my class, Adult Development and Later Life, had to do a mandatory 10 hours service learning activity. We either had to choose between Brown’s or Bulloch Parks and Recreation. For my service learning activities, I chose Bulloch Parks and Recreation. I did 4 of my hours for line dancing and 6 hours for scramble. I also did an extra hour for the girl scouts.

First of all, I am thanking you for considering me to be apart of your childcare team. I have a wonderful and charming personality and energy for children. And most importantly, every child that I have personally been with no matter how sweet and naughty they are I can get them to be the best child. In the summer of my sophomore year I have already personally worked at a childcare as a teenage volunteer four to five days a week and I have always gotten great feedbacks from parents. I have also interned at an elementary school for two weeks as a teacher’s assistant for a first grade class after those two weeks I would still visit the children’s sometimes and all of them they loved. And for the last five years I have been apart of my church’s

The Middle Tyger Community Center’s volunteer coordinator, Donna Dawkins, was very excited about my interest to volunteer with their This is My Child early education program. She was able to work me into the agency’s busy schedule and was also super understanding of my packed agenda and limited time. My first volunteer experience I spent in the one year old classroom. The teachers have a routine based schedule that is performed every day. Each student is to be dropped off, find their assign seat, eat breakfast, throw away their OWN trash, and then wait their turn for their health check. When their name is called, each of the children know what they are expected to do. He or she comes to the sink, brushes their teeth, and climbs up to the changing

For my Community Service Learning placement, I am volunteering for PAAL, which is a program for children and youth with physical and intellectual impairments. Their vision is to offer individuals who otherwise may not get the chance, an opportunity to participate in a wide variety of physical activities.

I have completed my service learning as of March 18, 2017, and I can say it was a lot of fun. Me and five other friends enjoyed our spring break the same way other college kids did, but in the process, we cleaned up our environment. With the beaches crowded with spring breakers, the beach also became littered with trash that would have harmfully impacted our ecosystem. Our group spent about two hours walking along the beach picking up garbage, while avoiding the overly intoxicated. Along the way, we listened to good music, met interesting people and felt as though we were doing society and Earth a great service. Two weeks prior my sister, cousin, mother, and I took a trip down to South Beach where we also performed a trash cleanup on the beach.

After reading the notes that people left for me after receiving kind notes from the children of 3rd grade and the staff, I feel that my action was successful because, according to the cards, I made a difference on how they students treated each other. My actual action is very close to my action plan. I completed every that I planned and even did more, like visiting autistic children that attend my old elementary school. I researched, interviewed, made a presentation, and presented to the school. After completing the project, my knowledge and understanding of service learning improved by seeing the difference between autistic and non autistic children in between the ages of 5-10, and how tease the special needs kids. If I could make any sort

According to Kathleen Flecky and Lynn Gitlow, service-learning is defined as, “learning that occurs in experiences, reflection, and civic engagement” (Flecky & Gitlow, 2011). In recent years more universities are implementing service learning into their curriculum. A key concept of service learning is civic responsibility. Civic responsibility can simply be defined as your responsibilities as a citizen. As will be shown later in this paper, service learning can have many benefits not only to a student, but also to the community members

During our winter break I will be starting my community serivce i’m excited to experience the challenges that I will be facing. I’ve decided to volunteer at a local daycare to help teach our young future with ordinary tasks that are vital to know and will benefit them in life. I would be dealing with children from the ages from 3 to 5 years old. I would have the role of helping them with simple math, reading to them, helping with art activites, and with commucation and more. The idea of helping children makes my heart very happy. We live in a new era were fathers aren’t the only bread maker. Daycares are so benefical not just for the parents but for the children. Studies have shown that kids who go to day care may be more ready for school

Although volunteerism is commendable at all times, serving my community is not an activity that I pursue only to satisfy state mandates, club requirements, or even to enhance my high school resume, it is a lifestyle. Therefore, I am a dedicated volunteer at the Upstate Family Resource Center and have embraced a myriad of activities, however, none of which are comparable to the impact of providing childcare. Committing to Grace permits a fellow “Bulldog” stricken with a rare form of leukemia to recover from weekly chemotherapy treatments without the disturbance of his lovable but rambunctious baby sister. Volunteerism has been a strategic link to refining my communication and organizational skills. Effective communication with Grace enables

The hiring process will begin four months after securing a building and submitting an application for licensing. Click et al. (2014) state, “The first step in a recruiting process is understanding what makes an excellent teacher” (p. 212). The goal of the childcare center is to teach the whole child and in so doing, staff is to model Jesus. Staff will need to have an understanding that personal experiences affect a child’s learning experiences so those experiences should be combined with the learning process to make learning a more gratifying experience for the children. Staff must be able to be humanistic at all times bearing the image of God. Creating the best learning environment for our students will be a priority for all staff. All children will be treated with respect and dignity, no matter the differences or diversities that may exist.

Aside from the instances in my service learning experience that I was able to relate to sociocultural factors and the impact that these factors had in her schooling, the experience of my student in my service learning project was that she was there to be tutored in order to expand her academic success. Both her and her sister attended the after school tutoring session each time I went. Her mother always dropped them off, and after the tutoring session, I would discuss with the mother Annie’s progress for that session, what we did for that session, and things we were going to further work on for our next session. At my last session, Annie’s mother made the effort to tell me how Annie had recently been announced as the highest scoring student on a particular exam and that she was excelling more in school. This conversation particularly struck me because it made me believe that in some small way, I contributed to some of that success that she had because of the intimate relationship we had and how we connected and learned together as a team. This is an instance in my service learning that affected me and made me truly believe that as a future educator, having a culturally relevant pedagogy and connecting with all my students on a personal level will help them to acquire academic success.