Running head: SERVICE LEARNING AT UTAH SCHOOLS FOR THE DEAF AND BLIND

A Reflection on My Service Learning

Gabrielle D. Humlicek
EDU 1010
Salt Lake Community College
April 4th, 2016

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A Reflection on My Service Learning

Since I was a child, I have always alternated between becoming a teacher or being in the
criminal justice field, but being able to observe and volunteer in a junior high school English
class has assisted me in my decision. I have officially decided that I do want to pursue a lifelong
career in teaching simply because I adore and love seeing that lightbulb in a students head go
on. I love the look on their faces, a sense of pride and understanding is a sight to cherish. The
instructor has been phenomenal with her approach and definitely has a way of captivating her
students attention, be strict yet still maintain a warm and friendly environment.
The first week of volunteering, I was in utter shock because I could not believe how
unmotivated and unfocused the students were, and I already had a notion that deaf students will
not be interested in English since it is a very tough subject to master without being able to hear.
Ms. Kerr always began class with a trivia question, and this seemed to always set the tone for the
rest of the class, ensuring all students continued to be engaged. Secondly, Ms. Kerr always
addressed the students by their name and told them something positive about themselves like
Bob, I like your shoes! They look dandy. Another thing that I noticed was that Ms. Kerr always
made eye contact with every student at least twice and held her gaze to show acknowledgement.
These three aspects that I noticed about Ms. Kerr really promoted my understanding of how
personal relationships and maintaining these relationships are very important in having a warm
and friendly environment which I desire in my classroom.
There were some points where students because very rambunctious and rude, and all Ms.
Kerr had to say was I do not appreciate that because everyone and everything deserves respect.
Dont you agree? This is all she had to state and the specific disruptive behavior would cease. I
was sitting with one student, and he was testing my patience and limits by ripping his assignment

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into little pieces and throwing the pieces all over the floor. I ignored this behavior and began to
walk around to help other students. Ms. Kerr addressed me, and said that I needed to confront the
student in a friendly way, in a way that would make him notice his behavior rather than me
directing him. I went ahead and sat by the student and encouraged him to write his assignment on
a blank sheet of behavior since his other paper was ripped up. He just shrugged, and Ms. Kerr
signed ask him if the he would appreciate paper all over the floor of his bedroom. I proceeded
to ask him, and he responded No, Mom wouldnt like to vaccuum that! I responded by saying
Neither would Ms. Kerr with her classroom. The student looked down in shame, and began to
pick up the pieces of paper himself without any directing from me.
This was a monumental moment for me because this helped me comprehend that as a
teacher, guiding the students in reasoning rather than being authoritative can be the better
approach because this will allow the students to come to their own decisions and become more
meaningful. Overall, I really appreciated and enjoyed the passion Ms. Kerr had for English
because you could see this radiate to the students. However, there were times where I saw chaos
happen with the schedule due to a lot of discussion because of the passion Ms. Kerr had. When
this occurred, Ms. Kerr would admit her faults to the classroom, and proceeded with a new
lesson. There were also times where students missed class frequently, and this really frustrated
Ms. Kerr because the class sizes are small ranging from seven to twelve students. Yet, Ms. Kerr
seemed to always help the students catch up and still maintain on track because of her
motivation, words of encouragement, and patience.
All in all, this field experience with this amazing teacher as well as the students really
helped me come to realization of how much I desire to teach future generations. From this
experience, I want to incorporate discussions and guidance as a disciplinary action to encourage

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the student to come to their own conclusions and understanding. Along with that, I aim to
maintain a positive relationship with all of my students by starting my class with something fun
like a trivia question or a word of the day, address the students with their first name, as well as
continually state positive compliments and sayings. One thing I would change is to keep track of
the time to make sure my classes maintain schedule. The patience and passion I have learned
from Ms. Kerr to instill in my future as a teacher because without these two components, I do not
believe the classroom and my instruction will be successful.
Without this field experience of learning how to interact with students, understanding
crucial aspects of teaching, observing and practicing disciplinary actions, and so forth, I probably
would not have been able to truly comprehend all the challenges and rewards teaching provides
before deciding this as my career. This experience was very enriching and allowed a lot of
personal growth and personal career choices for my future. I am very grateful that I had Ms. Kerr
as a mentor because a lot of the lessons she taught me, I will utilize in my classroom because I
believe they are important as much as she does.

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