Service Learning Academic Experience

September 27^th, 2013

As part of my service learning experience, I volunteered at Forsyth Woods Elementary for Ms. Ramos’ kindergarten class. I’ve worked with her class many times time before because I also substitute teach at her school and for her class from time to time. Therefore, when I help out in the class, I’m very hands on with the kids and help with their work and instruction when she really needs things to get done. This is Ms. Ramos’ first year teaching kindergarten, but her second year actually teaching. Last year she taught second grade, so this year has been a great learning experience as it was last year.

I first volunteered on September 27^th, and because I was going to be assisting with the instruction Ms. Ramos gave me the run down on each and every one of her students. She advised me she was still working with adjusting Anthony’s behavior in school. He often had temper tantrums and did not respond well to consequences. Andrea and Adrian both suffer from ADD and aren’t always given medication so they tend to get into trouble. To top it off, they sit right next to each other. Edaimy couldn’t keep her hands to herself. Bryanna doesn’t talk, but parents don’t want to get her tested for anything. Then of course there’s the ones I could count on. Natalie LOVED following rules and so did Madison.

I got there right at lunch time, so the first thing we did was pick up the children from the cafeteria. It’s so funny how excited children get when they have a guest helper in their class. They had so many questions for me and did whatever they could to get my attention on them. We went to recess straight after lunch so they could get all their wiggles out and Ms. Ramos mentioned recess does well for her as well since it gets her out of the classroom and allows her to get some fresh air.

When we got back from lunch to children were had left off on their Math lesson. Ms. Ramos gave me a rundown on what they were working on and I was going to help them make sure they stayed on track and understood their lesson. The class was working on a worksheet from their Go Math! Workbook. The worksheet dealt with counting and comparing numbers. As part of their math lesson they needed to use counters. Counter are small cubes that resemble Legos in a way, but they use them to have a physical object they can visualize and utilize while they count. I’m terrible at math, and as silly as it sounds, helping teach math even at a kindergarten level stressed me out a bit. I understood it, but I didn’t know how I would help the students understand it. Teaching them the concept wasn’t my only challenge, keeping them focused on completing worksheet in the allotted time was even harder. I started noticing the counters built in shaped of airplanes and the kids sharing their counters with each other. Although I felt overwhelmed inside for all these reasons, and also because I had never worked with kindergarteners before so it took more energy to keep their attention. I thought I was doing horrible but before I knew we were done with the lesson just in time. I also assumed I couldn’t have been doing a horrible job if Ms. Ramos didn’t cut in but a few times to get their attention.

The last lesson of the day was Language Arts. I was relieved for this subject because at least it was in my area of “expertise.” Yet still, somehow, I struggled. I think because I’m accustomed to more complex lessons, teaching things I never remember learning, because today they are second nature to me, is really harder than I thought it could ever be. Even getting children to understand basic tracing of letters sounds easier said than done. Given, I didn’t struggle as much with this lesson as I did with math but I definitely underestimated it.

The four hours I spent with them that day felt more like an hour or two, because time flew by so fast. The students were all packed up and ready to go before I knew it. It’s amazing the sense of relief you feel when the classroom is empty. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved spending time with them and the reward I felt teaching them was more rewarding than I ever thought possible. I chose secondary education because I always envisioned feeling far more rewarded teaching older children than younger children, but that day I had a different perspective on elementary aged children. The children left that day hugging me and telling me they love me. I absolutely loved my time spent with them!

October 4^th, 2013

For my second service learning, I subbed for Ms. Muller’s 7^th grade Language Arts class at Jackson Middle School. I had worked for Ms. Muller before when she worked at Glenridge Middle School. I knew this year she was at a different school, but I did not think she would be at
Jackson Middle School. I’m pretty picky when it comes to the schools I work at. I don’t feel I have enough training and knowledge to manage certain behavioral issues that I would encounter in certain schools. Jackson Middle is well-known for their reputation of fights and behaviorally-challenged students, but I trusted Ms. Muller as a teacher and he classes were always well-behaved.

I got there while the students were still at lunch and first thing Ms. Muller made me aware of was that I would need to pick up the kids from the cafeteria and bring them back to her classroom. This confused me a little because it was middle school and they were needing to get picked up as if they were in elementary school. I asked why that was, and she explained to me that too many fights break out and that’s their way of preventing them from happening.

The classrooms at this school were very different from what I was used to. There were no windows and every classroom was directly connected to that grade level dean office. So the classroom had two doors and no windows. One door to exit from and another door to the Dean’s. The walls were brick and bare and the desks were old. Ms. Muller had some posters up and a bookshelf and even had some Glade plug-ins in Fall scents to give the room a warmer feel, but it reminded me of a jail kind of.

The lessons for me were very easy. They were working on editing their essays in partners so they could turn in their final draft that following Monday. The primary ethnic group in this school is Hispanic. So keeping these students on task and getting to reduce their talk time was very hard. I’m Hispanic and I know how much my culture talks. I didn’t encounter any behavioral issues like I anticipated, but it was hard to get this group of kids to understand and value education the way they needed to. I probably had one or two students in each class that had their rough draft with them and were ready to work. The grade level of these students was clearly not where it needed to be. Some of the essays I read had serious grammar and spelling issues that I have never seen in that grade level. The kids wrote much like they texted actually, and most didn’t understand how a five paragraph essay worked. So I explained to them what each section needed to include and how to successfully create a five paragraph essay, but sadly students kept checking out and thought they’d be better off devoting their weekend to their papers.

My experience at Jackson Middle School was unlike any of my experiences I’ve ever had. I’m so accustomed to smaller children and that day I realized I really need to get more experience with secondary schools. I can’t use strategies I use with younger children because they think they’re adults, but I can’t always speak to them like they’re adults because they are still children. To surprise, I really enjoyed my time in Ms. Muller’s class because I learned so much. I understand the difference between behavior issues and culture. The school has children who are not only mostly Hispanic, but come from poor homes and I know most of their behavior in school is not because they are acting out but because that’s how they act at home and what they know to be “normal.”

October 18^th, 2013

As I mentioned before, I am often asked to work at Forsyth Woods Elementary. On this particular day, Ms. Seepersaud who teaches 4^th grade at Forsyth Woods asked if I could come in and substitute for her class. Fourth grade teachers had a teacher planning day for that date. I’ve subbed for fourth graders before and enjoy that age group, because they are a little older but still very infantile as well. Ms. Seepersaud was kind enough to give me a run down on her students like Ms. Ramos had. She left her lesson plans laid out for me with detailed notes explaining the directions and time allotments for each subject.

As the students came in first thing in the morning, they were very polite and followed their daily morning procedures like normal. Ms. Seepersaud gave me the heads up on one little boy in particular. I can’t remember his name, but I’ll call him “Alex” because a lot of my day’s experience involved a challenge with his behavioral issues.

The day flowed really well, we even got ahead on some of our lessons in hopes of earning more recess time. Math, of course, was a challenge but luckily this time I had an older group of kids who didn’t require as much “teaching” and were able to even help me figure out what they were supposed to do.

I want to focus on “Alex” though. From the moment he walked in, he was in a different world. He brought a little toy to play and was walking around showing his friends distracting them from what they were supposed to be doing. I called on him and asked him to have a seat and put his toy away. My biggest challenge with him came when we were doing Interventions and after repeatedly asking him to stop distracting his peers and to pay attention to me, I finally had to separate him from the group (they were working in groups on the floor) and asked him to go back to his desk and work independently from there. He was very upset. He went back to his desk and refused to do his work. I asked him to please take out his Journeys workbook and complete the assignment. He would not even look at me. This was the last lesson of the day and he had nothing completed. I decided to sit down next to him and speak with him. I asked him if he understood why I felt the need to separate him from his group. I got no answer. So I explained to him that, because he was distracting his peers from doing their work and I had to repeatedly ask him to please stop and get back to work. I asked him if he thought it was fair that other students could not do their work because he wanted to play around and talk, and he replied “no.” So I told him that he had plenty of chances to obey the rules, but he refused to do so therefore he had to face the consequences of his actions. I asked him if he would please take out his workbook and complete the assignment and he agreed. Either way, he spent the rest of the class period “looking” for his book, which happened to be in his desk the entire time.