Service Learning Values

In some ways, service learning should be valued. You can get a lot out of working with the community and volunteering for people. If you would just like to be simple and straightforward, it’s the feeling that you get inside for helping other people out. Giving people an extra helping hand when they need it is such a big deal and can go a long way, especially when you volunteer for long periods of time. Plus, they appreciate it whether they actually say it or not. Volunteering is a great thing in any community and more people should get involved. If each person did one volunteer or service learning work with the school this world could have potential to be such a better place physically and each person would feel so much better about themselves. Service learning is a good idea for some college courses but I don’t think they should be incorporated into all of them. It is a very good opportunity to learn and grow into you while helping others but when the service learning is placed into a general English class, they don’t fit together very well. I would suggest placing it into a Social Work class or maybe just a different general class all together. Say for instance, if service learning were incorporated into more college courses then there would be more volunteer workers throughout communities and then the world would be a better place so in the end, it is important to have them around in college but more towards classes that involve volunteer work. It is sort of like a chain reaction where you start off with a small classroom setting of service learners and if those people learn to like volunteer work then they will continue on. I know, personally, that I wouldn’t have volunteered if it wasn’t for this class but afterwards I will probably continue to volunteer. On a different note, this service learning helps a lot when it comes to writing resumes because I don’t have much to start with. To conclude, I don’t think service learning should be in all college courses but I think they should be in some.

Communication Skills

During my service-learning experience I feel like my communication skills have changed because I’ve had to communicate with a range of people. There were many adults who were authority figures to the kids as well as myself where I had to figure out when the appropriate times were to be professional with them and then when it was okay to be more comfortable, as if they were my friends. I have had other jobs before but not where I would have to watch for kids standing around me all the time because kids should not listen to exactly what you’re saying all of the time. I have learned more about becoming comfortable with people when you first meet because there were many other volunteers who would come and go throughout the time that I volunteered. I found myself being able to start conversation a lot easier also. I think a lot of the reason why was because I became more comfortable with the location. Another reason for why I believe my communication skills have changed is because I haven’t had to much experience with young kids and when I volunteered at Head Start I got to spend a lot of time interacting with the kids. When you work with kids you need to have another voice and also be very patient. At first it was hard to understand this and figure out how to deal with it. There was also the situation of how to deal with the children who would goof around or not pay attention and cause trouble for the rest of the children. As an adult figure to them, you could not start yelling because then the kids would copy you and not understand what they’re doing wrong. Instead, you have to stay calm and figure out the problem and also try to solve the problem right there so it doesn’t happen again. My communication skills have been changed a lot because of all the different range of people that I volunteered with.
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Pros and Cons of Service Learning Locations

I think service learning is something that everyone should experience sometime in his or her life, even if it’s only once. There are many different reasons that people may or may not want to incorporate service learning into a college course. Should college classes and professors require a person to do service learning especially when it’s a class like English where the two don’t correspond too much together?
One argument for having service learning in college courses would be that it’s an excellent way to introduce students into volunteer work and guiding them on the way. Most students don’t know much about volunteering and even if they have an idea, they aren’t sure where to start looking. Another argument for service learning would be that when students write papers their topics and main ideas can be on something that’s from their location with first hand experience. Lastly, service learning looks excellent on any resume when you’re trying to find a job and may influence students to do more volunteer work if they want their resume to look outstanding. It could actually be the breaker between choosing you over another person for the job.
A major argument for not including service learning into college courses is that it doesn’t have much to do with the actual course itself, especially an English class. English courses are trying to help students learn how to enhance their writing and a service learning location doesn’t seem to work into that very well. Another argument against service learning is that it can be tough to find a location that’s within a reasonable distance from where the student lives. Most students don’t have cars during school or even if they do it’s pretty expensive for gas, which means they would have to walk. As a final point, a lot of students are very busy as it is and to add in extra time to walk there and do the volunteer work only adds more stress to their life.
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Head Start

If I was to try and persuade a fellow college student to volunteer at Head Start Inc., I would explain to them that it’s always a fun and comfortable atmosphere. If you’re not used to working with young children all day, this might not be the job for you but if you’re looking for somewhere that the people are extremely nice and very helpful I would highly suggest it. I am always excited to wake up and get ready to go and volunteer. The job is so entertaining with something new happening every second that you could never get bored. Children have such an imagination that it makes me want to be as young as them again. It’s always nice to know that you can be such an influence to someone else’s life in a positive way, especially when it comes to children because after all, they are our future. They look up to me so much that when I do something as simple as painting my nails a different color then they want their nails a different color. Watching the children learn and grow with you is such an achievement. Another argument that I would explain is that I don’t have to worry about dressing up or looking nice as long as it’s appropriate for the kids because you need to be flexible in your clothes so you can play and spark imagination with them. It’s so laid back that even the teachers wear sweatpants to work sometimes. I would definitely go with the appeal to pathos because you have so much emotion running through you with this service-learning location. The emotion can be anywhere from joyous that these children are learning to frustrated that they aren’t listening and even heartbreaking to hear the background stories of where these kids are growing up. Head Start would be a great volunteer work for anyone looking into working with children as their career.

Relaxing Atmosphere

When communicating with people at my service learning location I have never felt like I didn’t belong or I was out of place. Everyone that I work with treat me like I deserve to be there just as much as they do, whether it’s actual teachers or other volunteers, and I actually like how they talk to me like a regular person. Most of the teachers and volunteers are younger adults so I imagine that has a lot to do with it. The only time where they might communicate with me different is when we’re actually around the children and they can hear what we’re talking about. But other than that they’ve included me on almost everything that goes on. I also communicate with them the same way I would with any other adult. When I first arrived at Head Start, I presented myself in a mannered way but once I realized that this volunteer location is much more laid back then I started communicating on a more relaxed level. I don’t use many appeals to the situation when it comes to the adults that I work with but with the kids, for sure! I try to be calm when they’re too excited about something or if they’re mad I try to talk it out with them. I have many different emotions around the kids because they need to see that you care. But again, when I’m communicating with the adults they have shown me that they would like me to talk to them like a regular person and not as their manager or boss of the situation. It’s almost like I’m on the same level as they are. When I’m trying to present or establish my ideas I just bring up my topics when the time is right and the other workers have never brought down my ideas or told me not to say anything. Most of the time we talk about our lives to each other to get to know one another. I like this laid back style of teaching and working because it puts a lot less pressure on my shoulders and I can be myself.
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Remodel Please!

I believe that this service learning location is to small for the amount of children they have attending here. There are about three other groups of kids that come to different rooms besides ours and the whole place that we work with seems like the size of a gym. So that gym, which I’m referring to, has to be split into four rooms to fit about 15-20 kids a day. Head Start is connected to the Boys & Girls Club and they let us use their gym but that’s it. This small teaching place causes the kids to learn in a small area that also constricts what furniture and how many things they have to learn and grow with. In the end, this causes the kids to learn less and when they actually go into the years of schooling they might be behind because they haven’t been introduced to that many things. We have about 15 students who come in the morning and the same for the afternoon. Each week when I go back there’s nothing new for them to do and I can tell that they’re bored. Head Start can hardly get any new things because where would they put it? Our room is split off into many different sections as possible with different area’s of play and an area for them to sit and listen to the adults. This is not enough because there are only about five different stations that means there’s three kids at each and it gets crowded, let me tell ya. So, if the place could be remodeled or somehow added on more space to work with I think the children would come out of the experience with more knowledge because hopefully there would be more things to learn about every week or even every day.
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Excitement every day!

Since my last blog, I’ve gone to volunteer at Head Start three more times. And every time that I’ve gone I’ve enjoyed it very much. I’ve learned a lot about each individual and how they like to learn and play. Along with that, I’ve learned a lot more about the other volunteers and what goes on besides just helping out with the kids. The thing I find most appealing about my location is the student to teacher/faculty ratio and the time I get to spend with each of the children in the short amount of time that I’m there. There are about 15 students in the Head Start program in the morning that I have gotten to know but there are also four, and sometimes five, faculty who help out. I think that it is very important in each child’s growth because there is always someone there to help them or to ask questions. Another thing that I find appealing when I volunteer is that the teachers hardly ever tell the kids what to do or how to do it but they just show them the better way to do it. I believe this helps in growth of imagination and also makes the children learn on their own. I really like to see the kids when they figure out something by themselves even if it’s as simple as a puzzle. When it’s time to go and play in the gym for a while it’s my favorite part because it’s when I get a lot of interaction with most of the children. Simply throwing the ball back and forth gives them so much entertainment and we always have so much fun. I always get excited to just hang out with the kids and listen to all the stories that they have to tell. I don’t have to many fears or anxieties and if I had to pick some concerns it would just to get some feed back on how I’m doing personally. I’m not always sure if I’m doing or saying the right thing with the children but going by my instincts I would have to assume I’m doing okay. I am very happy with my experience so far and am eager to see what it has to offer.
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