SFL service learning

Joy Prior
Review of Volunteering with TOPS
I have worked in Preschools before, but there was a remarkable difference between how I worked with children before and now. Not only did my confidence blossom, but I was able to practice several things I learned in class. It was almost insane to see how much teaching happens when I was simply talking with the students. When I was in the classroom it became clear how varied kindergarteners are in their abilities. The final lesson I learned was that the lesson plan should cater to my and the student’s attention spans, and abilities.
When I was talking to the students on topics they were interested in they could remember what was being taught more clearly. I really did try to put DAP ideals into practice, particularly by drawing “on children’s own interests and introduce children to thing likely to interest them,” (p. 21). For example I will always remember when we were talking about infinity. As we talked about infinity I mentioned how the sign for infinity is a sideways number 8. Then we talked about how the number one is represented by a 1 image, and we went through a list of numbers. Although the children were interested in the idea of infinity I did not think that they were paying attention to what I was explaining. The next week when I was at the writing center I overheard one of the boys I had explained infinity to last week draw a picture of a sideways 8 and tell his friend that it was the sign for infinity.
As I began to talk with the students I was able to see how varied they were in their abilities. Before, during, and after every writing activity all I could think was how “children’s skills vary and they will need different levels of support,” (p. 19). It took a lot of concentration to notice all of the varied levels of ability, but it also took a lot of thought to know how to support the entire student’s in the various levels of ability. It took me a few weeks to notice that one of the little boys never actually talked. Sometimes he would respond when I asked him a direct question, but the majority of the time he worked quietly. Although he finished his work I realized that I was responsible for helping him to develop social abilities as well. I made a point to ask him questions about his sentences, and next time I think that I will try and have him ask and answer questions with a student next to him. I was only able to learn this as I began to spend more time talking and working with the students.
Some days were easier than other days to get a topic of conversation going. One day the assignment was to write two sentences about a dinosaur. Most of my time was spent breaking down the names of the dinosaurs into one or two letter sections. The length of the names intimidated most of the students and instead of wanting to write the name they would just put their pencil down. This day I was so thankful that the group sections were only 15 minutes long. I know that kindergarteners can often only work at a station for 15 to 20 minutes, but in all honesty I do not think that I could have worked another 15 to 20 minutes on dinosaur names (p. 204). I had no idea how to pronounce most of the names and wished that I could have looked some of the pronunciation up. It was a really short section, but I was unprepared for it. The few minutes that I was working in each group was stressful to me, because I did not know what I was doing. The curriculum I design does not only have to capture the attention of the students, but I have to take the responsibility to know and recognize the material.
Overall it was a great learning experience and it helped me to apply learning how to talk with students, recognize different levels of development, and how to organize a lesson plan.