Service Learning-2

The past several weeks I have been continuing my service with Many Villages at Fairfax Elementary school where I work with a young boy in the third grade.  Working with Nakalub has been very interesting, not only in the skills he displays academically but with the items about his home life that I have learned about.  A week ago he had a cast on his right arm and he then proceeded to tell me how he broke his pinkie finger the day before.  I asked how it was done and he said that he had been hit by a car.  He said it without a care in the world and as though this is a normal thing that goes on.  I did not find this normal and was a bit taken aback by what had happened.  It is just interesting to hear about a third grader getting hit by a car, I do not know if he was playing when a car came ad did not see him or what really happened other than his pinkie being broken from a car hitting him.

Yesterday he had a real cast on (earlier was just a temporary one) that was green and he wanted me to sign it.  We were working on graphing data that the students had collected for homework so I made him a deal that we had to complete our work before I would consider signing his cast.  It is funny how adamant a kid can be about something as little as a name on a cast.  I actually was touched that he wanted me to sign it considering I meet with him once a week to help with work and I don't even know if he remembers that I will be back again in the future.

Another part of the service to follow up on is his reading level that I had previously noticed was really low for a third grader.  I was asked to give him a reading test where he read a book out loud to me and I was to write down any words that he missed or that I needed to help him with.  The book contained 71 words and he only missed 7 which was pretty good.  He then works with his teacher reading that same book each day and has flash cards made of the words he missed.  After giving him the test I asked the teacher a little more about it and the book we had just read was a kindergarten level book.  She shared with me that it would be really hard to get him to a third grade reading level by the end of the year but she was hoping to have him up to a second grade level.  I really have been enjoying this experience and learning a lot about this classroom's particular culture and trying to let everything soak into my mind.

Prop

The "prop" chosen to represent what was read in the chapter 9 was a journal.  On page 369 they are talking about how to most benefit the school culture and one way that seems like it would be good is those "who have the willingness, skills, and opportunities to continuously examine every aspect of their teaching"  I thought that what better way to reflect and examine than through writing.  I know that personally by writing things down it helps me to release my thoughts and then allows me to go back and evaluate where I have been, what I want to change or have been working on improving.  This strategy could definitely be applied to teaching and allowing them to be critically reflective in the work that is done in the classroom.