Service Blog #8

This was out last week of service, and before we left to go to the service site we were handed a box of candy canes. I had no idea how big of impact those candy canes would have on my day. I thought that the candy canes would be used at the end of the class as a way of saying goodbye. I wanted to accomplish something in the last day, however the people that are in the class room with me, the teacher, and as a result the students had other ideas. As soon as we walked into the classroom my co-teachers started to handout candy canes, assisted by the teacher.  I think one of the toughest tasks a teacher can have is to try to settle down a class of 5^th graders after giving them candy canes. We tried to then review what we have learned with each other, it did not work. Instead of trying to work through the student’s energy my co-teachers decided to just play games. I will not be returning to this service site next semester. 

Service Blog #7

This week was the last service project before Thanksgiving Break, and I found it extremely frustrating. I really dislike the idea that the service meets only once a week, I feel like nothing is accomplished. The only thing that is accomplished is the basic terms, and those terms are drilled into the students. Nothing deeper is ever accomplished. I know that this is only a service project, that we are only there one day a week to teach things that the students, at least in the school’s eyes, the students don’t need to know. I feel like we are there sometimes just to give the teachers a break, at it frustrates me. I take the tasks seriously, I’m not just there to make the students laugh, as much as I would like to, but to teach them something. That task is not being accomplished right now. 

Service Blog Cont.

This week was a first for me at my service. This was the first week that I could not connect to the students that I was teaching. I thought that I had made my lesson plan so that it would actively engage the students, but that was not the case. I’m sure that in my future career as a teacher I will eventually fail at more lesson plans, but I can honestly say that I hated every minute of the class. I was met with nothing but blank looks, and the occasional glance by the teacher. I felt that I was on an island and my boat, the lesson plan, was in pieces all around me. I will take steps to make sure that this doesn’t happen in the future.

Service Blog #5

The week before this blog my service project was cancelled due to a mass that had been scheduled during our class time, and I was disappointed as a result. In the previous blog I had noted that I had started to make advances in student relations. I had gotten to know some of the students in my class, and they started to know me. In essence we were just getting comfortable being in the same class room together, then we had a week off and some of that relation vanished. It seems to me that I am once again starting from scratch to get to know the students, and the students to try to remember who I was. The students seem to have forgotten much of the details that we have taught them so far. It will be interesting to see how the class progresses from here, and to see if we can overcome 

Service Blog #4

Before service this week, as we did in the prior week, my group met to gather a lesson plan to teach the students in my project the next day. Like last week, the plan was extremely successful. What impacted me more than the lesson this week though the demeanor of the children. As part of our lesson we spilt the students into four groups, with different tasks. This was the first week we had done this and it amazed me how different the students were without their teacher directly above them. Each of us took a group and work with them, as a result I learned a lot of about the students on a personal level, something that I would have never gotten to do in the big classroom environment. I hope that my group enjoyed the group time as much as I and the students did. 

Service Blog #3

Before my service project this week, I organized the rest of my group so we could sit down and talk about our lesson for the next week. In the week prior we had very little organization, and I believed it showed. I wanted to be prepared for this week and surprisingly so did the rest of my group. We met the day prior to the service day and talked about the chapter that we were to be teaching the next day. We had a very good discussion and led to a greater understanding of the material as a whole. The difference that preparedness made was extraordinary. The students became more involved in the material from the lone fact that we were. Another thing that I observed was a change in the teacher’s demeanor. She is now past the stage of trying to impress “outsiders,” and is showing her actual classroom demeanor, which involves yelling at the kids often.   

Blog 6

The chapter in the book pertains to school culture. The assignment for class was to bring in a prop that symbolized my school culture. The prop that I brought is a sign that says, "Those Who Stay Will be Champions."  The slogan originated from The University of Michigan and was brought to Perry High School by a former football coach who played at Michigan, Bob Ritley. While the slogan first only applied to the sports fields, the idea soon spread to the rest of the school. What the slogan meant to the school, at least from my perspective is simple. That if you continue to work hard and do the right things to accomplish your goal, then something good will happen to you. It does not necessarily mean that you will achieve all your goals but if your keep working to the best of your honest ability than you will succeed, one way or another. I think that was a great thing to tell students. They might not be doing the best in all their classes or athletic fields, or in the broad sense of every day life, but if they continue to work hard they will be rewarded.

Service Blog #2

This week of my service was much more useful both for myself and for the students of my class. We arrived on time this week and had the full hour and a half to instruct the students of the class. The full hour and a half was something that I thought was a good thing, and it was, well not completely. We had about a full hour of valuable class time and about 30 minutes of dead time. This is the first time that I have taught this lesson, while my fellow JCU mates have taught the book for at least a year, so I don't place all the blame on myself. I think we understand as a group have a lot to work on. I'm looking forward to next week.

Blog 4

                While reading chapter 6 I was kind of shocked on how far back the idea of assessment traveled. From Chinese civil service exams to present day OGT’s, exams have forever had an impact on most human beings. I am no exception. The first idea that impacted me as a student has been the idea of recitation. As a student I always hated being on the spot in front of the class, especially when I did not know what the answer to the question being asked to me was. I have always believed that there are better ways of assessing children than through recitation. In the same sentiment I do not think that high stakes testing is the best way to assess student either.  In the same sense that recitation puts children “on the spot,” high stakes testing does the same thing. In 1845 testing began being switched from oral to written, which at least in my opinion was an improvement. I have always preferred the opportunity to sit down and think through things, as opposed to being forced to stand in front of a teacher or class and talk my way through questions. 

Blog 3

How do you feel past experiences shape us as future educators?

Is being dis-positioned a positive or negative thing?

Are the education classes that we are taking currently doing anything to shape “our stories to live by”?

I think that it is very important to know one’s ideals and principles before they can teach another person to do anything.

What happens when a teacher has nothing to relate to their students? If the “stories to live by,” very cross paths?

Service Learning Blog #1

As expected, when I woke from bed Monday morning I was extremely nervous. Monday morning marked my first service learning experience. The meeting time for my trip to St. Monica’s in Garfield Heights was scheduled for 7:45 a.m. However due to a mishap in the scheduling department, something I guess I shouldn’t be surprised about, our van didn’t leave until 8:30. In the We the People program there are three college students assigned to a room, and none of us consulted each other. Call it a rookie mistake on our part. When we finally entered the class room we were in no way, shape, or form prepared to be there, at least not collectively. Luckily because of our late depart from the school we only had to be in the classroom for a half a hour instead of the normally scheduled hour. Being in the front of that room with 28 pairs of eyes, including the teacher, staring at you was not a great feeling, a feeling I would like to avoid in the future.

Blog 2

As with every new experience I have, for the most part, I always get nervous as the event approaches. My service project is no different. This Monday I had my orientation meeting for my project which is “We the People,” at St. Monica. From what I learned about We the People, it is a project teaching students, in my case 5^th graders, about the constitution. I decided on this project for the obvious reason that I wish to become a social studies teacher in my future. This project offers me the opportunity to get some real life experience, something I’m sure I will need plenty of.

                The We the People program is a government funded program that teaches students about the constitution. Since most schools use the program there is a need for a lot of volunteers, like me.  St. Monica School is located in Garfield Heights, Ohio. From what I have been told it is one of the nicer and wealthier schools that we provide service to. I’m looking forward to the project for many reasons. The first is that I have yet to do service at a catholic school before. At this point I’m somewhat curious if there will be any change in the demeanor of the children due to that. Also I have never done a considerable amount of service at a wealthy school either. Even thought I attended Perry as a student, I have never gotten to look at a class from the other end of the perspective. Even though I did my field observations at Perry I never actually had the opportunity to teach a lesson. At St. Monica’s all have all the opportunities I could hope for.