School and Community Reflection

The first school event that I volunteered for was the fall festival at Bushfork Elementary. I

volunteered to help a parent of a special needs student that attended Brushfork Elementary

throughout the festival so that she could participate with the student’s younger siblings in other

activities. I took the student through each event that was wheel-chair accessible and the student

had a wonderful time. The teachers had made each event accessible for students or individuals

with diverse needs and that was really awesome to see. The student participated in the egg race,

as pictured, the cakewalk, the haunted house, the bowling and darts game, and many others. I

helped the student participate int eh activities that she could not do on her own. The parents of

the student were so grateful to have help with their child so that they could spend some time with

their other children at a school activity.

The second school/community activity that I participated in was coaching middle school

cheerleading at MHS. I coached for two years until Covid hit last year and canceled most

sporting events. I enjoyed coaching and being a role model/influencer to these young and

impressionable girls. I was a cheerleader in middle and high school and cheer has always been

my passion. I also coached middle school softball for MHS. Coaching sports teams that I am

passionate about was so rewarding because the “teacher” in me focuses so much on their

learning experience and not about winning or losing. I loved teaching and watching these kids

grow in all aspects of life. I hope to continue coaching after I graduate this May.

The third school activity that I volunteered for was the shop with a cop event that Brushfork and

the Bluefield PD teamed together for the Brushfork students. I transported one of the special

need students from the school to the location of the event and supervised the student during the

event. This was such a cool event to go to because a lot of unfortunate students were chosen to
go and their faces and excitement when receiving presents from people that they look up to as

heroes was truly priceless. The student I was supervising was so excited and engaged in the

event. Each student got a gift they got to open from an officer and they also had lunch with the

officers. The officers explained their line of duty and the training and work that they had to put

in to be come policemen. The students had such a wonderful time, and it was also a great career

experience for the students.

The fourth school/community event that I attended was helping the staff and other volunteers of

Mercer county pack food boxes for students during the pandemic. This was such a rewarding and

eye-opening experience because this was a worldwide pandemic and shutdown that no one knew

how to navigate. The amount of food that had to be distributed to each school to feed the

students breakfast and lunch was overwhelming. We had to create an assembly line to get the

bags paced properly and it took us close to 6 hours the first day that we packed food. After we

learned how to get a system down, we became quicker at the process, but it truly took a village

of staff and volunteers to pack these bags. We then had certain individuals that rotated riding the

buses to distribute the meal bags. This was also an eye-opening experience as we got to see some

of the places where our students live, which was both enlightening and heartbreaking. This was

an experience that I will get to tell others about for the rest of my life.

The fifth community event that I participated in was transporting boxes from BSC to Brushfork

Elementary. I had the student worker help me carry the boxes out to my car and then I unloaded

them at the elementary school.

The sixth school event I attended via TEAMS which was a virtual Valentine’s Day dance. The

students were all given a bag to go home that Friday before Valentine’s Day which had a number

and other goodies in the bag. The number was for if the students wanted to participate in the
dance competition. Although it seemed like it might be hectic with 100 some people on a

TEAMS meeting but the principal told students to turn their camera’s off by calling out their

number they were given. This worked very well, and the students loved this virtual event. The

students also got to play bingo and participate in other virtual activities such a scavenger hunt.

Some of the teachers, myself included, danced for the kids to see which they absolutely loved.

During such a challenging time in the school year, this was a great event to be a part of to show

our kids that we can make the best of any situation.

The seventh school event I attended was a faculty senate meeting via TEAMS. Since the

beginning of the school year most of our school and staff meetings have been virtual which

seems to work well as long as the technology and internet is working. We discussed news, old

and knew and up and coming events for the year such as EOY testing and our summer program.

The eighth school event that I participated in was a pet food drive that my special education class

hosted for the Mercer County Animal Shelter. Our school has been doing a one school on book

read aloud where each school gets the same chapter book and every class reads the same two

chapters every morning as their read aloud during breakfast. The book we were reading was

“Because of Winn Dixie,” and our class decided to host a pet food drive for our school to help

and support stray animals like Winn Dixie. I helped our students make posters, fliers, and even

come up with a commercial to show to the school. We raised a lot of food and pet supplies and it

was a hit for the whole school. Our class was so proud of their hard work and the donations that

were contributed from their other classmates. This was a great event to be apart of because the

students got to take over and manage the pet food drive themselves and it was awesome to see

them come up with ideas.

The ninth school event that I attended was the title one parent involvement night at Brushfork

Elementary. Since schools still cannot have large gatherings, the title one teachers and Brushfork

staff put together a parade for students and parents to drive through to get resources and

information and a treat bag and book for the students. It was great to see all of the effort and hard

work that the Brushfork teachers put into the event and there was a great turnout from students

and parents. It is so important to try to continue to have some normalcy for our students since

they have had such a tough and challenging year of learning since the pandemic started one year

ago. The students had a blast waving at all of their teachers as they passed through and the staff

had just as much fun dressing up and waving signs and having a great time for their students.

The tenth school event that I participated in was an IEP meeting for one of my students. I have

participated in 6 IEP’s thus far in my student teaching which has been a great experience since I

will be holding IEP meetings on my own fairly soon. Due to Covid, all IEP’s are done by phone

and the gen. ed and special ed. teacher, principal, and special ed. specialist sit in on the meeting

to discuss the needs of the student. The meeting was not very long and there were no changes to

the meeting, as this was just an annual review IEP meeting. Learning how to write IEP’s and

hold meetings can be intimidating, but my cooperating teacher has taken me under her wing and

walked me through it so I feel confident I will have a great head start on completing these tasks

on my own for my students in the future.