I had a wonderful experience at Highland Junior High School,where I worked in a technology class with an outstanding teacher. I was able to observe a few of the many ways in which technology can be incorporated into the classroom. The teacher I worked with taught several elective computer courses, but I spent the most time in a class called Citizenship and Responsibility where the students only used the computers to write a daily journal entry in which they could talk about any worries or questions they had. In this class I had the opportunity to observe several presentations in which the students were asked to create a poster creatively explaining their values. I was very impressed with all the work the students presented and it was interesting to see the different ways the students interpreted the directions. One student’s poster in particular, caught my eye. She had drawn a picture of herself in the center of the poster and then drawn her values around herself. Another student decorated her name with her values. After their presentations, the students hung their posters on the wall creating a beautiful mural of their work. I’m extremely grateful that I had the opportunity to interact with this wonderful class.
The experience I had at Madison Elementary School is one I will never forget. Under the mentorship of a marvelous fourth-grade teacher, I was able to learn a lot about the age group I am most interested in teaching. In this class, I discovered the many ways teachers can adjust their lessons according to the interests of their class, while still maintaining the students’ focus on the teacher’s objectives. The teacher I worked with at Madison knew her students’ interests and incorporated them into her lessons. For her class full of animal-lovers, she based a math lesson about mean, median and mode on hamsters. A science lesson that same day was all about arthropods. In her classroom she had snakes, gerbils, hamsters, a bunny, and a turtle, among several other pets. She knew all her students loved animals, so she used this as her strongest tool in the classroom. After I finished my service learning in her class, I left with a better understanding of the importance of knowing your own students well enough to be able to keep them interested in their education.
One experience I will never forget is the Williams Community School Fall Festival. Along with my learning community, I spent Halloween night helping out at the annual festival. I had the opportunity to lend a hand with the horse rides and then after sunset, I had the opportunity to assist in the milk bottle booth. The children enjoyed attempting to knock down the milk bottles and also enjoyed picking their prizes. I learned that spending a little extra time with children can be very rewarding. I had such a great night and am looking forward to next year’s festival.</A>
I had the most extraordinary experience at the annual Fall Craft Party for the Boys and Girls Club on the Williams Field Campus. As a team, my learning community organized different booths with amusing activities in which the children participated. There was monster snot, face painting, pizza, monster claws, and so many other exciting things that the children enjoyed. I had the opportunity to take part in the face painting booth and although my paintings weren’t all that great, the children absolutely loved them and the smiles on their faces were enough to make me feel like Picasso!
One unforgettable experience for me was at San Marcos Elementary School, where I had the opportunity to observe a wonderful teacher during "Saturday school." I had the chance to work with children of a Hispanic background, and was able to help them better their writing skills in preparation for the AIMS test. My favorite part of the day was when the children taught me Lattice Multiplication, a method of multiplication they use frequently. They were very excited to teach me something new, and were very proud of themselves when I understood it! The children were extremely friendly and the teacher was very encouraging and gave me great teaching ideas that I hope to use in my own classroom one day.
One of the greatest service learning experiences I have had so far was at Gila Crossing Community School. It was there that I had the privilege of working with a wonderful teacher in an extraordinary fourth grade class. One of the many things I enjoyed about the teacher I worked with was the way she relentlessly promoted reading in her classroom. One of the coolest ways she did this was by making lists every two weeks on the topics her students were interested in and checking out books for them at the public library. I enjoyed the one-on-one time I spent reading with her students while I was there. I was also able to learn a little bit about the various cultures of the Native American students. It was truly an unforgettable experience.
The service learning experience I had at St. Anne Little Flower is one I will never forget. This experience more so than others, allowed me to experience different situations that lent themselves to my service. Due to the Montessori style of learning at St. Anne's, I was able to do a great deal of one-on-one work with individual students which allowed me the opportunity to really take on the role of "the teacher." The students and I became very attached to each other and I learned so much about the influence of religion in the development of children. Overall, it was a wonderful experience that I will never forget.
My time at St. Mary-Basha provided me with many new experiences. Throughout my time in the 4th grade classroom, I had my first opportunity to observe and work with an exceptional learner. I also had my first real look at the use of literature in a classroom, and was given the opportunity to perform two read-alouds. During this time, I also wrote my first lesson plans using state standards for activities to supplement my read-alouds. In addition, I had the opportunity help the students in my class with their semester PowerPoint projects. It was a wonderful experience that really allowed me to make great connections between the “real classroom” and my courses.
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