5 Questions and Statements from the Article
1. Is it possible to have no change from your service learning experience?If so why does this happen?
2. It is possible to be so caring/understanding of one group (handicapped people) and have inherit prejudice towards another (aboriginals)
3. We are shaped by our culture and are parents views, but as we grow older these can shift
4. It is often scary to engage in the unknown and it takes time for adjustments
5. If someone never does any service learning in their life, will they be very different from a person who has done a lot of service learning?
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
SL Blog 3
On Friday I had my service learning orientation, it was short, about 20 minutes, but informative. I learned that the children that we will be working with are preschoolers with ADHD and we work with them in the sensory room at Gearity School. There are two others girls who will be coming to the site with me and also a guy who is the leader. There is no transportation for this site, but we can all walk together or we are welcomed to drive, as Gearity is only about 15 minutes away from JCU. We were also told to dress professorially, no jeans and no shirts with words on them are permitted. This remindes me a bit of when I visited Gesu last years, but I'm sure it will be different as those children were 5th graders. Now that I've had the orientation, I know more what to expect, I'm really looking forward to going to Gearity this coming Friday. I'm sure that this should be a stressful experience at times, but I also think it should be rewarding and help prepare me for the work force. There is, as we talked about, a lot of issues with the education system currently, and I'm sure I'll come across some problems as Gearity, but maybe I can help to fix those problems when I'm working with the children. Also I've been hearing a lot about the movie Waiting for Superman in magazines and of course in class, so I'm sure that Gearity might even have some problems listed in the movie, I'll know more about that after I've seen it, but I'm thinking that the fact that this movie is getting a lot of publicity will put the educational decline more at the for front of peoples minds. I think that John Dewey's efforts to reform the school system, even if it was a long time ago and there are still many problems, was inspiring, and as I begin my service learning experience I want to see how I can help to reform schools, or maybe just this one for now.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Weblog 2
The site that I will be working at for the service learning is Gearity Preschool. The preschool is mainly for children with special needs, and it is Fridays from 12:15-2:30. I believe that this preschool is in Gearity Elementary School, which I visited last year in my ED 100 class. I have not yet had my service orientation, so I don't know much else about Gearity Preschool, but I'm excited to have the chance to work there.
I'm excited to get to work with preschool children and children with special needs. I have worked before with kids with special needs at my high school, and over the summer and both were very good experience's. My cousin also has autism, so it has also been an interest of mine to work with children with autism and other special needs. I'm also a little nervous, as I've never done any service with John Carroll yet, so I'm not really sure what to expect. I think I know where the elementary school is, I think I drive past it on my way to school, so atleast I kind of know where I'm going. I'm also looking forward to this because I loved doing class room visits in ED 100 and have been wanting to do more for a while now. Preschool is also an age group that I haven't had too much experience with, other then working with them at my church, so I think this should be a lot of fun, I'm really looking forward to my first day on site.
I think that a site for service learning has to be a place where there is a need for some kind of interaction.Yesterday in class, you brought up the question that people don't come on a bus to John Carroll, but we go on a bus to certain places. I think a site could be an intercity school, where you are tutoring kids who may not have a good home life. Or a site could be working with people with special needs , or reading to the elderly. In short a site, in my opinion, is a place where you connect with people in a different realm of life than you, and you both learn things from each other.
Do the people at this site always need help?
Not help, per say, maybe more friendships and connects, it goes both ways, you and the people at the service site are really both helping each other.
Will the people at service site always have had different live experiences than I did? Yes, weather their from a different generation, culture, background, or living situations, people are always different, no one person has the same experiences as someone else. This is not just for service learning, but for life, though in service learning these different experiences can lead to learning new things and opening your mind.
I went to a public elementary school in a good school district, does this mean that I'll have a hard time connecting with kids at a service site who are having a different elementary school experience? I don't think so, I think I'll have to open my mind and think past my own experiences to get to know these kids and not have biases.
In conclusion I'm not sure what service learning will be like, but I'm looking forward to the experience and I'm sure it will help to shape me as a teacher.
I'm excited to get to work with preschool children and children with special needs. I have worked before with kids with special needs at my high school, and over the summer and both were very good experience's. My cousin also has autism, so it has also been an interest of mine to work with children with autism and other special needs. I'm also a little nervous, as I've never done any service with John Carroll yet, so I'm not really sure what to expect. I think I know where the elementary school is, I think I drive past it on my way to school, so atleast I kind of know where I'm going. I'm also looking forward to this because I loved doing class room visits in ED 100 and have been wanting to do more for a while now. Preschool is also an age group that I haven't had too much experience with, other then working with them at my church, so I think this should be a lot of fun, I'm really looking forward to my first day on site.
I think that a site for service learning has to be a place where there is a need for some kind of interaction.Yesterday in class, you brought up the question that people don't come on a bus to John Carroll, but we go on a bus to certain places. I think a site could be an intercity school, where you are tutoring kids who may not have a good home life. Or a site could be working with people with special needs , or reading to the elderly. In short a site, in my opinion, is a place where you connect with people in a different realm of life than you, and you both learn things from each other.
Do the people at this site always need help?
Not help, per say, maybe more friendships and connects, it goes both ways, you and the people at the service site are really both helping each other.
Will the people at service site always have had different live experiences than I did? Yes, weather their from a different generation, culture, background, or living situations, people are always different, no one person has the same experiences as someone else. This is not just for service learning, but for life, though in service learning these different experiences can lead to learning new things and opening your mind.
I went to a public elementary school in a good school district, does this mean that I'll have a hard time connecting with kids at a service site who are having a different elementary school experience? I don't think so, I think I'll have to open my mind and think past my own experiences to get to know these kids and not have biases.
In conclusion I'm not sure what service learning will be like, but I'm looking forward to the experience and I'm sure it will help to shape me as a teacher.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Class Survey
Personal information
1. Name, hometown, primary email.
Mallory DeLauro, Mayfield Hts. OH., Malitalia7@yahoo.com
2. What name do you prefer to be called?
Mallory
3. Grade level and subject(s) that you want to teach (For graduate students: undergraduate and graduate degree(s), education license(s), current employment: grade level, subject(s) if applicable, district).
Middle Childhood Education (4-9), most interested in 4th-7th. My core areas are English and History
4. What are you into; what makes you special? Share a few “unique” aspects about yourself that would help our classroom community get to know you a bit better.
I enjoy reading and writing, especially fiction stories. I am a commuter, so I live at home. I'm also a Christian and God is a very important part of my life. I'm also close with my parents, two younger sisters,and my cousins.
Learning Style and more:
5. Being as specific as you can, what must be in place for you to feel comfortable taking intellectual and creative risks in a classroom? I need to know that it is OK to ask a lot questions without being frowned upon. I also need to feel comfortable and to understand everything really well,which is where asking questions comes in handy.
10. Let’s imagine, humbly, that this course is definitely going to be the most meaningful and relevant course you’ve ever experienced. EVER. Drawing on your past experience in classrooms, and thinking uniquely, specifically and BIG, describe what we need to (1) DO (activities/projects), (2) STUDY (content topics and compelling issues/questions), (3) BE (interacting with each other) and (4) AVOID (in the previous three categories) in order for your visionary views of an ideal course to be mostly realized.
We need to do projects that have something to do with teaching kids directly, and that will make us feel confident as teachers one day. We need to study in depth how children learn and what they need to learn to succeed. We need to work as a team. We need to avoid too much lecture and reading, and strive for more class discussions.
About Dr. Shutkin:
11. Write down two or three questions you would like to ask me about myself or the class.
Do we, as a class, get to visit schools?
Do we have a lot of class discussions?
1. Name, hometown, primary email.
Mallory DeLauro, Mayfield Hts. OH., Malitalia7@yahoo.com
2. What name do you prefer to be called?
Mallory
3. Grade level and subject(s) that you want to teach (For graduate students: undergraduate and graduate degree(s), education license(s), current employment: grade level, subject(s) if applicable, district).
Middle Childhood Education (4-9), most interested in 4th-7th. My core areas are English and History
4. What are you into; what makes you special? Share a few “unique” aspects about yourself that would help our classroom community get to know you a bit better.
I enjoy reading and writing, especially fiction stories. I am a commuter, so I live at home. I'm also a Christian and God is a very important part of my life. I'm also close with my parents, two younger sisters,and my cousins.
Learning Style and more:
5. Being as specific as you can, what must be in place for you to feel comfortable taking intellectual and creative risks in a classroom? I need to know that it is OK to ask a lot questions without being frowned upon. I also need to feel comfortable and to understand everything really well,which is where asking questions comes in handy.
6. I am interested in your perception of yourself as a student. Please describe it. Consider such criteria as a) active oral class participation; b) responsible, timely class preparation (of readings, projects, etc.); c) honest, candid self-assessment; d) awareness of your own preferred learning styles/approaches; e) first thing that you do when you cannot or do not understand something; f)other dimensions you believe to be relevant and informative.
A. I enjoy answering questions and I love class discussions. B. I'm responsible and always prepared and ready to learn. C. I like to learn, sometimes the workload stresses me out, but 98 percent of the time, I really do try my best. I am also a very visual learner. E. Re-read it, then ask the teacher. F. I am a good student, and hope to be a even better teacher.
7. Is there anything I should know about you, your learning style, or life situation that may be relevant to your successful performance in this course? (Please decide what to share with the class and what to share in confidence with me).
I'm sometimes hard on my self, and don't do well with failure.Education Past and Present
8. Share a formative memory from your experiences as a student.
When I was in first grade we were all sitting in a circle on the floor listening to the teacher. I was looking around the classroom, and my eyes fell on the teachers desk, and from that moment, I wanted to be a teacher, and would always play school with my younger sisters.
9. Please discuss what are, for you, the some significant issues or concerns facing the field of education right now.
10. Let’s imagine, humbly, that this course is definitely going to be the most meaningful and relevant course you’ve ever experienced. EVER. Drawing on your past experience in classrooms, and thinking uniquely, specifically and BIG, describe what we need to (1) DO (activities/projects), (2) STUDY (content topics and compelling issues/questions), (3) BE (interacting with each other) and (4) AVOID (in the previous three categories) in order for your visionary views of an ideal course to be mostly realized.
We need to do projects that have something to do with teaching kids directly, and that will make us feel confident as teachers one day. We need to study in depth how children learn and what they need to learn to succeed. We need to work as a team. We need to avoid too much lecture and reading, and strive for more class discussions.
About Dr. Shutkin:
11. Write down two or three questions you would like to ask me about myself or the class.
Do we, as a class, get to visit schools?
Do we have a lot of class discussions?
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