service learning reflection (carnival)

In this reflection I will be outlining my experience in the carnival and the importance of students to take part in carnivals as future foundation phase teachers. Here I will be reflecting on the experiences I had before when we were still preparing for the carnival. I will also reflect in, which is my experience I had while I was busy with the carnival and reflect on how helpful it was for me and my course as a future foundation phase teacher. In my reflection, I will also mention the challenges that we faced on keeping the children focus and what we did to overcome the challenges.

service learning is a planned and organised activity that enriches education to the community in which students can reflect on to enrich their learning experience. the service learning involves students in community service activity to apply their academic experiences and personal development based on their career.

Describing what happened

When we as a group was preparing for the carnival we can work together as a group and coming up with ideas to make our carnival effective to the learners. We did this by referring to the multiple intelligence proposed by Howard Garden, which argues that every person is intelligent in her/his own way and that if the person gets a good guidance he/she can develop their abilities well. We planned our carnival to accommodate all learners with different abilities to make sure that every learner participates in the carnival. .I have learned that working with a large number of learners one needs to be gentle and caring to the learners to make sure that everything goes according to the plan. As we created different games for the carnival in different groups, it was challenging to keep the learners focused on what we prepared for them. This helps us as students to develop our social skills, emotional skills and management skills by finding solution to such issues. We had to think critically to alter a bit of our games and combine ideas them to come up with that will really excite the learners.

Analysis of why it happened

The carnivals is important to my education because it gave me a chance as a student to experience how it is in life to work with children and learn why is it important to make sure that what I will prepare as a teacher will be effective to the children than doing something that will not trigger the cognitive development of the child, because the games in services also contribute to the development of children. The carnival games gives learners with disabilities an opportunity to interact with other peers since there may have little previous experiences in gross motor play, this can be due to unfair treatment and discrimination to disabled people by others. Friendship also begins due the play in carnivals as learners start to interact with each other and feel secured to be at school.

Theories to improve my practice.

In conclusion, the carnival as part of service learning is very helpful to students and the community as well, because it is part of the student’s course in which they gain experiences that are relevant to their career as future foundation phase teachers.To succeed in our planning, we created games that requires children to think, but the games were not difficult as we planned them by looking at the level of thinking in young children, this help me to plan what is right for the learning of children as it is the role of a teacher to be an Interpreter and a designer. Which means that by reflecting to my experience in the carnival I should know what to prepare for my lessons and how to introduce them to the children. according to constructivism theory it is said that people construct through experience things and reflecting to those things and the service learning is part of a experiential activity where one will acquire new experiences and add it to what he/he already know.

Acting to test the theory in practice

As a university student, i learned theories of children`s development and through that i applied the knowledge i gained to the service learning event. this proves that new experiences does help in the development of a person and one can use what he/she experienced to achieve greatness. 

my reflection on the May 2016 carnival

Carnival reflection

In this reflection I will be outlining my experience in the carnival and the importance of students to take part in carnivals as future foundation phase teachers. Here I will be reflecting on the experiences I had before when we were still preparing for the carnival. I will also reflect in, which is my experience I had while I was busy with the carnival and reflect on how helpful it was for me and my course as a future foundation phase teacher. In my reflection, I will also mention the challenges that we faced on keeping the children focus and what we did to overcome the challenges.

When we as a group was preparing for the carnival we can work together as a group and coming up with ideas to make our carnival effective to the learners. We did this by referring to the multiple intelligences proposed by Howard Garden, which argues that every person is intelligent in her/his own way and that if the person gets a good guidance he/she can develop their abilities well. We planned our carnival to accommodate all learners with different abilities to make sure that every learner participates in the carnival. To succeed in our planning, we created games that requires children to think, but the games were not difficult as we planned them by looking at the level of thinking in the young children, this help me to plan what is right for the learning of children as it is the role of a teacher to be an Interpreter and a designer. Which means that by reflecting to my experience in the carnival I should know what to prepare for my lessons and how to introduce them to the children.       

I have learned that working with a large number of learners one needs to be gentle and caring to the learners to make sure that everything goes according to the plan. As we created different games for the carnival in different groups, it was challenging to keep the learners focused on what we prepared for them. This helps us as students to develop our social skills, emotional skills and management skills by finding solution to such issues. We had to think critically to alter a bit of our games and combine ideas them to come up with that will really excite the learners.

The carnivals is important to my education because it gave me a chase as a student to experience how it is in life to work with children and learn why is it important to make sure that what I will prepare as a teacher will be effective to the children than doing something that will not trigger the cognitive development of the child, because the games in services also contribute to the development of children. The carnival games gives learners with disabilities an opportunity to interact with other peers since there may have little previous experiences in gross motor play, this can be due to unfair treatment and discrimination to disabled people by others. Friendship also begins due the play in carnivals as learners start to interact with each other and feel secured to be at school.

In conclusion, the carnival as part of service learning is very helpful to students and the community as well, because it is part of the student’s course in which they gain experiences that are relevant to their career as future foundation phase teachers. 

MY UPCOMING LIFE AS A TEACHER

As a future foundation face teacher my goal is to bring change in the wold by giving children good education to enrich their mind knowledge that they can rely on and use it to succeed in in life. i will dedicate myself in improving leaners` literacy in school and outside the school, including participating in community services to help my country move forward.                          

I believe that all children are capable of learning despite their health which is learning barrier to learners, such as visual, hearing problems and physical disabilities. This means when I teach I should create lessons in different way according to the multiple intelligences, which means that I should create lesson out of pictures, music, using counting objects, take children outside of the classroom to explore nature and learn through all this this things. I will be doing this because some children fail to grasp a certain context in one way, that is why it is important as a teacher make sure that every learner in the understands what she/he has been taught. I should also use bodily associated lessons to accommodate every learner in the classroom. I think teaching is only about teaching learners to write and read only, but teaching is to expose children to help children develop in every way. Teachers help children develop cognitively, social and emotionally. I should give children the opportunity to interact and share ideas with others because it will improve their communication skills and improve their language, than let children sit down in the class quiet and listen to me alone. This can avoid losing concentration and feeling asleep in the classroom and will keep them focus. Allowing children to interact with each other can clear their Zone of Proximal Development because they will be able to figure out their strength and weaknesses. I will inspire learners to care and have patients in school no matter how hard it is for them to learn in the classroom. Teaching is not an ending process which means that I will never stop learning so that I will develop more skills in the teaching profession and be flexible with the curriculum to give children appropriate learning.

When I am a teacher I should not teach learners based on what is expected from them and limit their cognitive thinking. I must give learners the opportunity to explore their imagination and use what they have learned by how they learned it and turn it into something useful. I should show learners that they can learn more than what they expect from themselves and what others say to them, such as being told that you they are not good at anything. This let them know that what people say about them will not affect their learning even if someone told them that they are failures as I was told when I was young, but none of that prevented me from chasing my dreams and today I’m at university because I believed in myself.

My teaching will be helpful to children because I will give them opportunity to socialize and talk to each other and use light humor to create a learning environment that is helpful and suitable for learning. This will help learners to fill safe and excel in their learning. When learners show good performance, answering question and display a good behaviour they will be encouraged by clapping hands so that they carry on doing so, but when learners display bad behaviour they will be a sanction to discourage such behaviour. I will give them challenges that they will have to overcome as peers and Individuals. This will assist them in developing good skills for team work and how to solve problems alone which will be a lesson that will last long in the learner`s memory.

My role as a future foundation phase teacher is to prepare and expose learners to life by means of helping them to adapt to the ever changing world. I should make easier and appropriate ways to help learners adapt in learning and in their environment. I should also make lessons that enables learners to learn more information at the same time to be more adaptable. I should also know how to work together with other teachers, parents and learners to create a more suitable environment for learning in order for learners to learn, than taking teaching as a job for salary. As a leader to children i should also make learners want more than passing at the end of the year, but make want to discover more about education by sharing exciting stories that will help them solve problems and overcome challenges they face by reflecting on my stories that inspires them. This will make learners see something in me that shows them what is good about being educated such as being organised, being well presented in the way i dress and do things and showing confidence when i teach, then they will develop a good attitude towards education and take it seriously. I should be their role model then they can reflect on my life and know that even if i had problems before in my life but that never stopped me from chasing my dreams but i managed to succeed to and that will build them hope and keep them focus. Being collaborative can also teach learners to develop sense of humor and assist others when they are in need and bring change. I should also be open to learners and show care so that they can feel free to ask question, this will help them develop emotionally.

In concluding being require some to skilled for teaching to not mislead learners, teaching needs someone who is willing to give their time to change the world and produce a generation that will be able to stand up for one another as humans and also value everything in this world.