Community Service Reflection

For my community service I did assist at two different places. One of the places I

assisted was at Holy Lutheran Cross Church, I did a bible camp with children in a variety of ages.

I got to do this one with my dad and we did bible verse readings and my dad even played a

puppet! When we weren’t doing that, we were doing bible oriented crafts and games. For the

other half of my community service I volunteered at a daycare. At the daycare I helped prepare

breakfast and lunch. When I wasn’t cooking or playing outside with them, we were doing arts

and crafts or learning to count. Both adventures gave me great lessons to take into my future

teaching experiences.

I believe that the bible camp gave me the opportunity to form my own lessons based on

certain standards and information I was supposed to share with the groups of children. With

forming my own way of relaying the information to the students based on their ages, it also

gave me the opportunity to make my own activities based on what I was teaching. I also

learned that sometimes the longer you wait for an answer to a question, the more likely they

are to answer it because they don’t like the “awkward silence”. My favorite part of teaching

these bible lessons was hearing the kids relate the stories in the bible to their lives or even their

interpretation of the verses. Every age group of kids was always different, and it seemed the

younger the group got the more extravagant their explanations got.

Little kids always have the best stories to tell and the best reactions when they catch on

to things you are trying to teach them. When I was volunteering at the daycare, I learned

something that I know is key with being a teacher and that is sometimes your plan for class or

an activity or anything does not always work the way you imagined. When that happens, you
have to put a smile on your face and think to yourself “how can I adjust this so that the kids can

still learn and so they can still have fun”. I was planning a craft with paints and paper so they

could learn the colors of the rainbow. I came into the daycare the next day to find out the they

used the last of the paints and white paper to make a craft for the front window that their

parents could see when they walked in. I then rearranged the original schedule around to give

me time to come up with a new craft that would be just as fun and while also being a good

learning experience. So, we switched craft time and playtime around so the other teachers

could watch them while I looked at the supplies and come up with a new craft. They ended up

making rainbow paper chains with paper that was already the color of the rainbow. They had

fun talking about colors and learning the order of the rainbow while also getting to make a

rainbow paper chain that they could take home and tell their parents about. I am so grateful to

have been part of their learning process.

Through my entire experience I learned that adapting and overcoming is the key to

becoming a successful educator no matter what age group you have. Never letting a rotten

mood from anyone, especially yourself, ruin your entire day. Most importantly a bad moment

doesn’t make a bad day. Always strive for the best for yourself, your classroom, the students. If

you do not enjoy what you’re talking about or doing there is no way you can expect your

students to enjoy it either. You set the attitude for the day so be the best you that you can.