Indepent Service Learning Reflection

The Three Levels of Reflection

The Mirror (A clear reflection of the Self)



* What have I learned about myself through this experience?
I have learned that just because you're young doesn't mean that you can't help. I learned that I can do what ever I put my mind to.

* Do I have more/less understanding or empathy than I did before volunteering?
I basically have the same understanding, I know that some people think volunteering is useless. They think "why do something, if you're not getting paid". But volunteering is a thing that everyone should do once in their life.


* Will these experiences change the way you act or think in the future?
I think some of these experiences will change the way I act and think in the future because I am now more open to helping people.


The Microscope (Makes the small experience large)


* What would you change about this situation if you were in charge?
I would change the organization skills of some fundraisers.

* What have you learned about this agency, these people, or the community?
When I walked for the help of Funding for Cherry Hill, I learned that many people actually care about their community, because they have fundraisers like this to fund different things. & I think that communities here should do the same. When I volunteered for Frankie's Fight Carnival, I learned that people do care, especially when students from our school showed up.


* What more needs to be done?
I think that more people need to volunteer for things, because although it may seem so small, in actuality it;s helping a lot.



The Binoculars (Makes what appears distant, appear closer)


* What are three big issues that create problems that our service is trying to address?
-Violence
-Homelessness
-Health

* What else could be done to change the situation:
o Locally - Create awareness groups.
o Nationally - Use the media.
o Internationally - Create big fundraisers, like ( Keep A Child Alive )

* How will service learning change your future behaviors/attitudes/and career?
Service Learning will help change my future behavior because I am now more aware.
Service Learning will help change my attitude because it opens my eyes of how I should be grateful what I have.

New York

To sum everything up...

We went to Time Square First
Walked around, bought things for about 45 minutes
Got on the bus, went to Sylvia's located in Harlem
Walked around to Sylvia's.
We ate, after we were finished we walked to the Apollo.
At the Apollo we were told the history of the Apollo.
Then the "man in charge" asked if we could have 5 people that wanted to perform.
Five people went up, and they all sang. It was pretty funny :]
After that we were met outside by two people from Grand Master Flash & The Furious Five. We were split into groups, and we toured around Harlem.
At the end of the tour we went to the NYC museum, there we watched a movie about the history of NYC.
We bough souvenirs, and after that we got back on the bus at about 5-ish to head back to school.
Pretty nice day. I enjoyed it.

For Next Year..

For next year, I believe that we should become more organized.

TBC

Next Weeks Service Learning Plan.

For next week's service learning hopefully we will visit the nursing/elderly home once again, and actually introduce ourselves to them. If we don;t visit them we can continue to further our research on finding other places to go. Not to mention the ESL at the library is going extremly well. :]

Service Learning Reflection <3

I loved our last service learning meeting. Our group went out, for our meeting on Thursday. It was a great sunny day, & we enjoyed the weather. Firstly we went to the park, and discussed what events we could go to for the elderly. Then we walked to the Elderly Home, and three of the sophomores went into the lobby. When they came back out, they told us that they would love for us to come back, that we were welcomed there anytime. Not to mention afterwards we went to get our free ice coffees. Lol. Very Good day :]

Service Learning <3

1. Reflect on Friday's meeting (May 9). Specifically answer:

a. What have I learned about our group's topic?
I've learned that there are many people using ESL in Philadelphia. I also learned that they enjoy, and actually really want to learn English.

b. What have I learned about myself through service learning?
I've learned that I am a very prositent person, and I excel at working in groups. Although I am the same by myself.

c. If I were in charge of this group I would change:
I would change the amount of time we get for each Service Learning Period. I would make more outings to different Nursing Homes, Elderly Homes etc.

2. Plan for Thursday May 15 meeting. Post at least 3 ideas, polls, information, websites, or resources on your topic.
- Idea; Go out to different Elderly Homes
- List of elderly homes in philadelphia http://www.paseniorcenters.org/community/county/philadelphia.htm
- Idea#2; I think we should have a fundraiser to raise money for an elderly home of our choice

3. Talk to a friend in a different group, or read a blog from a different group. List 3 things that you found out about the other group.
Ayanna-
Service Learning Group* Darfur
"At our meeting we talked about different ways of making people aware of the genocide in Darfur. We also talked about different fundraising methods to raise money for t-shirts and rist bands to sell. The group leaders brought up an idea on going to other schools and making presentaions to make people aware and reading books about Darfur to children in elementary schools."

Service Learning :] *

Service Learning Plans For Today May 1, 2008

We planned to go next door to the library, to teach at an ESL program. Before we teach we are going to learn the basics of what we have to do. I hope that our day is succesful.

Obama & Lincoln.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21290


I do think these two are alike like the article says in many aspects. Today is a different time, and I believe people should want a change. You never know a person's abilities. People should give Barack Obama a chance. Forget what his pastor has said, because his Pastor is not the person running for president. People over look the big picture, stop asking him questions that don't have any connection to what he would do for our country.

Lincoln was too a different kind when he ran for president. Obama could possibly change our country for the better. Our country is in a bad state, and we need someone to heal the wounds.

[Extra Credit.]

Research Update.

I sent an email to
Philadelphia Senior Center Coffee Cup Satellite and Asian Pacific Senior Resource Center.

New updates later...

Service Learning Day 3 <3

We had a very successful day, which isn't surprising. My group is full of hard workers. We talked about how we could manage our schedule. One day we would go to the ESL students, and another day we would go to Elderly Home. Mr. Todd asked us to split up responsibilities, because in the end this is our Service Learning Project.

On another note I think I will go to the Child-Hood Cancer Carnival. I would like to help out to get Independent Hours.


*;- Alexis

Research .

* I sent an email to Project SHINE
* Went to the library to ask about ESL.
* Got an appointment with the library
* Researched places [elderly homes]

Reflection [Service Learning] Day1&2

Day 1 :
On the first day of service learning with Mr. Todd, was just a day to branch out our ideas. Many people spoke up, although some stayed quiet. We talked about how we not only wanted to help the elderly with their langauge but help them with other things. We jotted down a couple locations we could try to venture out to. And before you know it, it was time to go.

Day 2 :
The second day of service learning was very serious. We got a lot of things done. We emailed to Project SHINE, and to the Temple ESL program. After that we went to the library. We talked to the ESL teacher their, and he gladly wanted our help. :]

Friday's Meeting

Language With Mr. Todd . . .

Three Positives
1. Many idea were presented
2. People got involved
3. We discussed how we could help fit this service learning project with different personalities.

Three Improvements
1. More information should be given
2. Some people should speak up.
3. Meetings should be a little longer

http://nursing-homes.aplaceformom.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/
This website relates to my topic because it helps us search for an elderly home.
That helps us sum down our choices.
Maybe we could possibly find a elderly home close to our school.
https://www.superservice.els.com/ss_centerprofile.asp?locid=PHI
Learn more about the Spanish language.
Only 25 minutes away from our school

Service Learning :]

Five Independent Service Opportunities

1. Take time to help out at a local recreation center.
2. Help out with multiple things at my Church
3. Read to younger kids at my little brother's school
4. Help out my siblings
5. Local Soup Kitchen

Six Ideas For School-wide Projects

1. Visit different elementary schools.
2. Make a Mural
3. Participate in different Food Drives etc.
4. Plant a flower bed in a specific area.
5. Clean the area
6. As a school raise money for those in need.

National History Day Reflection

Our topic for National History day is Tupac Vs. C Delores Tucker. This topic has truly become very interesting. Our interest in hip-hop triggered our topic choice. Music is a big part of society, and to actually make an educational project out of it is amazing. We knew various facts about hip-hop prior to my research. For Example hip-hop was basically made by other genres of music, even back to slavery days. Hip-hop started off fundamental, things have changed now. Degrading of women, and violent messages has been sent out to today’s youth. Does the positive of music now over power the negative? That’s what we had to ask ourselves.

The most important resources for our documentary were, an interview with Cosmic Kev (A DJ for a local Philadelphia radio station). It was very important because he was in hip-hop back when the case took place. He described to me his feelings toward the case and hip-hop in general. Another important primary source was an audio interview with C Delores Tucker contributed from laze.net. This was extremely important because we can hear exactly how Tucker felt about hip-hop’s misogynist and violent messages. We used a variety of sources from books, websites, articles and interviews.

Creating this documentary we experienced challenges such as a lack of sources for C Delores Tucker. Most of the sources mentioned the same things continuously. We overcame them by digging deep into our research, even finding books from Temple University. Another challenge we experienced as a technical difficulty, a flash drive that we stored our sources on crashed. We overcame that issue because we had an enormous amount of back up files. The last challenge we experienced was we could only work on our documentary at school. School ends at 3:29 pm, to overcome that we decided to stay after school.

As two creative and technological advanced people we both decided a documentary would fit us best, rather than writing a paper, acting out a play, or designing an exhibit. A documentary would attract more people maybe even amaze them. Although a documentary took plenty of hard work and determination we loved every minute of it.

Our documentary Tupac Vs. Tucker relates to the N.H.D theme conflict and compromise. The conflict that occurs is hip-hop music started to degrade women, and send violent messages. C Delores Tucker found that as a problem, especially when Tupac harshly mentioned Tucker’s name in two of his songs on his 9 million selling album “All Eyez On Me”. Tucker than took him to the U.S district Court of Eastern Pennsylvania located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Although Tupac wasn’t found guilty, the following compromise was Time-Warner dropped Interscope and Death Row Records, a major source of rap music. That compromise was achieved because of the determination of C. Delores Tucker.

In Conclusion this year’s 2008 N.H.D theme: Conflict and Compromise was a very interesting experience. This taught both of us how to consume our time and to gain better work habits. The case Tupac V. Tucker let us both take a look on the two different sides. This should teach many people to stand up for what they believe in, as Tupac Shakur and C Delores Tucker did.

English Grade

I believe that my grade in your English class should be an A+, to be specific (100). I’ve strived to be the best student I could ever possibly be in every 45 and 90 minute class. Through out these two report card terms I’ve shown you respect, completed my work, and remained a well-organized student.

As Alexis and as your student I’ve shown you the highest amount of respect. For Example when you try to talk to me about certain things I listen and never have I “talked back”. I know that you must show respect to get respect and we both get the respect we deserve.

There has been not one time that I haven’t handed in my assignments on time. Huck Berry Finn and many other essays have gotten me high grades. Although I’ve learned never to “marry your work”, I have pride in what I’ve created. That pride has helped me succeed.

Last but not least, I’ve remained a well-organized student. Whenever you’ve walked around with a book or folder check I’ve always received nothing less than a “plus”. At times I thought that some of our essays didn’t make sense, but I’ve complied and handed them in on time.


In conclusion I believe that my grade in your English class should be an A+. We haven’t had you long but I’ve learned more than a handful. The first thing you asked us was to write what we thought was the most important subject in school. As many other students I answered Social Studies. You told us we were wrong, and that the most important subject in school was “You”. I didn’t understand why at first, but now I understand perfectly.