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MY SERVICE LEARNING PROJECT

By: Lisa Bewley

Mr.Buescher Period 3

Decmeber 7th,2013
Introduction Through elementary and junior high I attended Neighborhood Christian School. Now being that I am a senior in high school it was very sentimental to go back and give my time to a place that had poured so much into me. Neighborhood is a small Christian school with teachers that have a heart for the kids more than I have ever seen before. Being a student at Neighborhood not only gave me the basics to further my education through high school but also helped me shape the basics of who I am as a person. The school is developed on basic Christian morals and they very well follow through that with their students.

Why I chose the site Before picking Neighborhood I knew I wanted to bless someone or something that had blessed me. I feel that generosity is often undervalued and not given to the measurement that it should. My goal in general my senior year has been to appreciate those who need to be appreciated to new levels and new heights. I first considered doing something for Buckingham but I preferred to do that as a gift and not as my forty hours and so I chose my old school. Neighborhood deeply blessed me and in return I wanted to bless them. One of my other reasons was to bless kids with skills that I felt I was not given. As a junior high student I believe that many schools under prepare the students for what high school will bring them. My main goals were to bless and prepare.

Experience at my site After asking Mr.Lanning if he would be open about me teaching the class I immediately went into go mode. Within a week I had lesson plans for the whole semester. My first day, I walked into the classroom with pure excitement and high expectations for the class. However, the kids definitely didnt feel the same about me. I received a lot of stares and uncomfortable glares. Within a week I was a close friend with every single kid in the class. I looked forward to going every Thursday and teaching the hour and a half class. Not only did I enjoy connecting with the kids, but also I loved making connections between them. I had forgotten the attention span that a junior higher holds and it was quite a task to work around that. I had to alter a lot of my lesson plans to adjust to the amount of time I was able to contain them while I was talking or addressing an assignment. Once I found a good groove I picked multiply lessons to build basic structure in high school preparation and real life tools. For example, one of my favorite assignments I had them put together was a collage about themselves. Over the course of three weeks we glued, cut, and pasted to a large piece of paper in which they had to

use pictures and art to describe things that they loved about themselves. At the end of the assignment I had them share out with a presentation by describing the collage to the class. Not only did it build self confidence, it also tied together student relationships by them learning more great things about their classmates! I didnt have enough time to get through all of my lessons because some of them took more than a week span to cover. The classes that I taught that took over a week to cover were debating, the collages, leadership skills, and moral dilemmas. It was truly an incredible experience with these kids and I couldnt have been happier with it!

Evaluation To reflect on my supervisor evaluation i would start by acknowledging the time my supervisor put into this. My supervisor spent a great deal of time acknowledging my strengths and what I did well. Although he said I had no weaknesses, I do believe at the beginning I had a little trouble getting control of the class. I do agree that i got the class excited and pumped up. Every Thursday that I came in they would all cheer and be excited. I think that I did a great job for the resources I had and the experience that I held! I still think I couldve strengthened things with a little better time management and junior high appropriate work from the start! Overall, I agree with Mr.Lannings evaluation!

Personal Growth I saw great personal growth in myself through this experience. Tieing in with the personality test I feel like this hit me dead on. I wanted to show the students that I cared about them and I wanted them to learn for them to care more about each other. It also opened my eyes to my heart for young people. In our culture many people can put a side young peoples opinions as unnecessary, yet in my opinion they hold great value. I learned how to come into a room and get attention and it has actually rolled over into my techniques of leadership and freshman forum. It showed me that anywhere you go you can really learn something and grow in different areas. I think that I greatly benefited myself from teaching this class and that the class greatly benefited from me! It was great to finish out a project that I started and see my goals reached!

Reflection/Personal Thoughts I am so grateful that I was able to work with those kids. I couldnt have asked for a better experience with the group and I enjoyed every minute of it. If I had to do it all over again I would choose that exact same class. I am even considering going back next semester and teaching a few more classes just to spend time with the kids and further my speaking skills. It is always fun to look back on people younger than you and realize where you at when you were there age. One of my favorite parts was watching them figure things out and seeing how ideas and thoughts form in their minds. If I couldve done anything differently it wouldve been to spend time with the kids before the class started because it made it a little more difficult to alter my class plans when I was in the middle of a class. There was multiply times where I had to adjust the class while it was going on because the kids were getting ancy. It was a spectacular learning experience and gave me a lot of respect for teachers. It also showed me the deep need for preparation in schools. Often school prepare schools for academics, but not daily life experiences. I greatly feel like I accomplished my goal in guiding the

children to have greater understanding in the life of being a high school student.