Service Learning Experience

Service learning is taking time in the surrounding community, and making a positive difference through the words or actions that occur. Doing this allows for us to be out and connecting what we are learning to do in the classroom and applying it to the real world. In my service learning time I spent I was able to make a positive difference in the lives a few children even if it was just for a day. I spent a Saturday afternoon working with a Milton Hershey employee in what they call a “home visit.” It was a weekend where the students were able to go home, however, some students and their families can not afford to do so. The students that can not go home, are invited to go to an employer 's home and spend the day engaging in activities …show more content…
It allows us to first off be in the community which is an essential part of elementary social studies. It allowed for us to engage and be a positive in lives of people that come from different socioeconomic backgrounds and diverse lifestyles. It gave me the opportunity to be socially accepting, but not only accepting but learning from them, and understanding what their lives are like, and be able to compare and contrast to my own. Service learning also engaged me in being a facilitator and allowed these teenagers to be able to learn in the environment, but stay safe and make good …show more content…
I can now be an advocate for volunteering and making a difference in the community, because I have done so, not because it is good to tell students in the classroom that volunteering is right. It can lead to discussions in the classroom about what sort of things can be done to help the community, and then can branch off into at home, in school, in the county, the state, the country, the world. I will also be able to link subjects together easier because of this. Community is a social studies topic, but all the other subjects were included into this activity making it very interdisciplinary. I do have a strong belief in helping the community in a positive way, and so I want to pass that on, in every student that I have, that they should make a difference where they live, or the people that is around them, because the reward for it is the feeling of accomplishment, helpfulness, and making a