Lain Edwards

1
Service Learning

• Lain Edwards
• September 2003

2
Mt. Vernon Presbyterian School

• May 12 14, 2003 May 28 29, 2003
• Each day from 700 am 400 pm
• Mainly I helped with classroom instruction by
  orchestrating 3 different reading groups, each
  composed of students with varying reading levels
• I also read books to the first grade classroom as
  a whole, helped with corrections in their daily
  work, and gave a spelling test
• On one of the days there was even a field trip
  that involved horseback riding and a magician on
  this day I helped the teachers with general
  management of the students

3
This is a picture taken during the Field Trip
when I was doing part of my service learning at
Mount Vernon Presbyterian School. This is me
sitting with several of the first grade students
as they watch an act put on by the magician.
4
Computer Camp

• August 4 8, 2003
• Each day from 900 am 1200 pm
• This was a week-long camp hosted by Mount Vernon
  Presbyterian School that helps students to get
  reacquainted with their classmates, as well as
  reviewing skills before they start the new school
  year
• During this camp I worked with students on
  various activities including the making of
  address labels, post cards, calendars, mad libs,
  story books, and T-shirt transfers
• I spoke with students about the Internet
  nettiquette and the dangers that can arise when
  surfing the net
• I also aided students in the sharpening of their
  math skills as they played educational games
• Generally I was a big help for the other
  supervising teachers with classroom management,
  my experience with computers, and answering
  questions the students had
• The picture on the right shows my computer
  campers after they made masks on a program called
  Kid Pix Software

5
Shape-Up

• August 4 8, 2003
• Each day from 1200pm 300pm
• This was a week long camp also hosted by Mount
  Vernon Presbyterian School
• This camp involved art, drama, creative writing,
  reading, math skills review, cooking, and
  learning games to help reintroduce kids to the
  upcoming school year I was involved in helping
  with all these activities
• The children in this camp were younger than the
  ones in the computer camp, so on the same day I
  was able to interact with children spanning many
  different age and skill levels
• I was especially interested in helping students
  with their creative writing, which was an
  activity on Thursday it was very interesting to
  see the thinking process that children of a young
  age go through when attempting to compose a
  passage I had lots of fun explaining to the kids
  that I was in school to teach older students
  English Literature which involves a lot of
  writing I thought it was very insightful for me
  to see children learning to write at this
  developmental level
• The picture on the left shows my Shape-Up campers
  doing an art activity.

6
Jiujitsu

• August 11, 2003, August 13, 2003, August 18,
  2003
• During this Service Learning activity, I aided
  with the instruction of Jiujitsu lessons. These
  took place at the home of Mr. Andrew Crow in a
  state of the art gym. Mr. Crow is a certified
  instructor. The lessons are part of the United
  States Shindo Kai Dojo which teaches children the
  basic moves of Jiujitsu, as well as self-defense
  techniques and strengthening exercises
• I assisted in the instruction and demonstration
  of the techniques taught by Mr. Crow.
• The lessons were very vigorous and required a lot
  of energy of the students. I had several very
  enjoyable evenings spending time with children
  outside of a school-like environment. This
  really allowed me to interact with children on a
  non-academic level.
• My time was well spent enjoying quality time with
  children, while also helping them learn life
  skills that may or may not be used inside the
  classroom.
• Unfortunately, I did not have access to a digital
  camera during the three sessions that I attended.

7
Other Pictures
The picture above shows me reading a story to the
first graders. The picture to the right is one
of me leading a small reading group. Both
pictures were taken during my Service Learning at
Mount Vernon Presbyterian School.
8
Why or how did this experience impact my
professional personal thinking as an educator?

• During my Service Learning experience, I worked
  primarily with younger children. My
  certification, however, is for 7th 12th grades.
  While this may seem like a disadvantage, I am
  actually extremely pleased with my experiences.
  They helped me to realize that, while I love
  younger children, I am best suited to instruct
  the older students. As an educator, I was also
  able to realize the importance of teaching to the
  younger children. In other words, I have gained
  more of an appreciation of where my students come
  from, both developmentally and psychologically.
  I would not trade my experiences for the world
  and feel they have genuinely contributed to
  molding me to be a better teacher.

9
What did I gain?

• I feel like a gained a great deal of good,
  old-fashioned experience with children
• Through the Service Learning experience I was
  able to interact with children in both scholastic
  and non-scholastic environments because of this
  I was able to really connect with children and
  gain a better understanding of what makes them
  tick, what their general interests are, and how
  to deal with them in a wide range of situations

10
Conclusion

• Overall I would have to say my experience in
  Service Learning has been an extremely valuable
  asset to my future career in education. I gained
  insight into the lives of children in a way I had
  never experienced before. Also, I was able to
  truly see what age group best fit my personal
  style. Most importantly, I feel like I made a
  contribution into the lives of these children
  something that I will always value.