Service learning provides opportunities for students to collaborate with professionals and other community members for the better of the community as a whole. This could mean a variety of things, such as developing specific activities or interventions to help members of the community or address individual and specific goals. In relation to this course, the community members that I worked with were mostly grade students, teachers, and other staff at an elementary school. While unforeseen circumstances have shortened the length of our service learning experiences this semester, I am thankful to have met the students and staff at GME and thankful for the opportunities that I have had so far.
The service learning site that I was assigned to was an elementary classroom consisting of students with mainly moderate to severe disabilities. The students varied in age, but many of them were between 1st and 4th grade. Diagnoses varied among students, so while some students may have more physically-driven goals, others may have goals that are more cognitive-related. Many of the students spend most of the day in the same classroom, but some will move to different classrooms throughout the day, especially those who are older (most likely in preparation for middle school). Faculty and staff in the classroom included a special education teacher, student teacher, and multiple paraeducators (some of which moved from classroom to classroom as needed).
Service Learning Reflective Essay: by Karla Moore
Despite being cut short, I am grateful for the experience that I had in Ms. E’s classroom. The students, teachers, and other staff were welcoming and a joy to work with. My experience was unique because I happened to also see some of these students outside of service learning during my music therapy internship. This was helpful for me because I was able to spend additional time interacting with students and had the opportunity to get to know the students and their needs. Perhaps this gave me an advantage, because some of my classmates may not have had such opportunities due to unforeseen circumstances.
During my short time with service learning, I discussed classroom goals with Ms. E and asked what she thought might benefit her students the most. The main goal that we came up with was to create a unique song to help students memorize the “next dollar” technique. In short, mastering this technique will help students pay for necessary items at the store. While there are already songs to help with this learning technique, I wanted to create something that could be adapted to address individual goals. For example, some students were working on next dollar using yellow blocks as a visual cue, while others were using actual money to address the goal. While I have not had the opportunity to finish creating a song for this goal, I would like to work on it in the future. If I am not able to complete this myself, it is my hope that perhaps someone else may be able to help with this in the future.
Overall, I would say that service learning is a great opportunity for students, professionals, and community members to collaborate to help better the lives of those within the community and the community as a whole. In the future, I think this will be very beneficial for everyone involved, and I do believe that it should be incorporated into as many courses as possible. I would like to thank all of those who made this possible, despite the challenges that everyone has faced in recent months. I look forward to continuing to help my community in the future outside of this course.