Oak Park School - Service Learning Project

Oak Park School:

Oak Park School Michelle Ezelle mezelle@knights.ucf.edu 19 July 2011 EEX 4242

Introduction to the Host Setting:

Introduction to the Host Setting Oak Park School: Diversity – our cause for celebration Oak Park School caters to students ages 3 to 22 with physical, mental, and behavioral disabilities. The school hosts an “in-school scouting” program. This program helps integrate the students into the general population – it also is a part of character development. District Sarasota Type of School Public Enrollment 365 Student/Teacher Ratio 6 to 1

Engagement Activities:

Engagement Activities Volunteering in the classroom at the local special needs school during their summer program. Helped the aids in the classroom in management, participated in the arts and crafts, assisted the teacher in directing the students to their next assignments. Completed the 15 hours in a 3 day period of volunteering in my little sister’s classroom.

Participant Demographics:

Participant Demographics

I.D.E.A:

I.D.E.A The classification of a student with a disabilities in I.D.E.A is defined as: A child with mental retardation (developmentally delayed), hearing impairments, speech or language impairments, visual impairments, serious emotional disturbance, orthopedic impairments, autism, traumatic brain injury, other health impairments, or specific learning disabilities and who [because of the condition] needs special education and related services.

Participants:

Participants

Service in Action:

Service in Action

Service in Action:

Service in Action

Perceptions of Differences:

Perceptions of Differences My initial feelings towards the assignment were welcoming. My youngest sister is special needs and I’ve volunteered to help out at her school and in her classroom plenty of times. I was excited that a project was directly made for volunteering. My thoughts are the same. Getting to know the parents and families has affected me the most.

Connections to Your Course:

Connections to Your Course EEX 4242 Instructional strategies: methods that can be used to deliver a variety of content objectives. Co-teaching: helping a teacher to better serve the students. Assistive technology: any device and/or service that is determined to be educationally necessary for a child to receiver a Free and Appropriate Public Education and help these individuals to interact with the world around them. Understanding these 3 concepts will help me to better perform as a high school history teacher.

Civic Engagement:

Civic Engagement My perspective on volunteering or civic engagement has just had one more positive experience added to it. I’ve always seen it as an admirable and very fun experience. It helps the person who is gaining the experience to better understand the world around them. It also helps those being helped to better their lives, and gain a fun educational experience in the world around them. I believe service-learning is the best way to learn. It’s experiential, and any type of experiential learning is beneficial to the betterment of the individual. I will be helping out in the classroom for the remainder of August because I enjoyed my experience so much. Yes, I believe that teachers and students should embrace and take advantage of service-learning because of its benefits to the classroom and understanding of material – let alone have some sort of experience to base the subject matter on.

Final Thoughts & Reflections:

Final Thoughts & Reflections More people can get involved and try to do their own understanding of the person and the disability alike. Personally, I love people meeting my family. My youngest sister being autistic with 4 older sibling being typical developing really shows that there’s more than meets the eye. Teachers are responsible on understanding how to best get a student to progress educationally – they hold a role that is pivotal in betterment of society as a whole…they educate. This was a wonderful experience.