How is my service learning?

For my service learning experience, I have spent fifteen hours so far assisting a first grade newcomer at a local school. I haven't worked with a newcomer who had no previous English language skills before. It was a challenge. I'm learning on the go. I like to think I am the solid and positive person in this young girl's life. I know it's a short time but I hope I leave a good impression. I like to think I'm getting the swing of things.

The newcomer has grown so much. She has been in school for six weeks now. She can produce a few words that is her own. Since she is pre-production language acquisition stage, she is learning receptive language and parrot language back. Since she's a very bright girl, I feel she could actually participate in very simple conversations by June.

I have made mistakes along the way. But I do learn from them. Mistakes are opportunities to learn and grow. Anyways, I go there on Thursday mornings. I have fifteen more hours to go to complete my volunteer requirements for my service learning class.

I will share with you what happened two days ago. During double dose of reading, the newcomer read to me. Sometimes she would test me and be the teacher. I would read the word and she usually repeats after me. In the middle of practice reading time, she worked on counting coins and the names of them. I kept saying the names of the coins and she repeated after me. After that quick math practice, I asked her if she wants to go back to reading. She said, "Yes" excitedly. She read aloud the next story. It was exciting that I was able to actually work with her. It's a victory! I feel that I was able to celebrate with this young student in her accomplishments that morning.

Taking a long-term approach is okay

Last week, my online class was discussing social change as a long-term approach. Here is what I said:One thing comes to mind on what walls I hit was when my dream of becoming a classroom teacher. I thought I can serve the public children by being an elementary school teacher. Things weren't coming together and twice I was diverted from that dream. Now I realized I have grown from how this dream isn't meant to be. I feel I have gotten closer in my relationship with God during these personal and professional struggles. I am learning how to be more self-compassionate. I still do see myself as a teacher and an educator; however, it would be different from what I thought for years. Right now I'm in discovery mode in where I will go professionally. Isn't it exciting? Now I can relate to older teenagers who are trying to figure out what they want to do after high school and which career path to start out on.

Yes, I believe that the local school (I'm doing my service learning experience) would need a long-term approach to really made positive social change for their students. Though each year, I feel that the administrators, teachers and staff should focus on one area to improve on. It can be overwhelming to make too many changes in a short time and they don't usually last. Over time I feel with that approach, all students will be educated based on Best Practices standards. Of course, they should start with what their strengths are and add with skills needed to better educate the students. I learned that researchers have proven better modes of teaching and learning so it's up to the educators to keep up with that. These educators need to figure out which strategies would work best with the students. (Just an add on: I believe classroom teachers can be action researchers. They can test out strategies to see what works best for their students and share the results within their school community. When teachers share their best strategies to each other, I feel students benefit the best.

As for me, this lecture reminds me that it's okay to take a long-term approach. Sometimes the stress of our society about making changes in a short time creates an anxiety in me. Since working with children all these years, my patience has grown so much. I come from a culture (Chinese) who are hard workers and sometimes we don't mind how long it takes. Sometimes there will be sacrifices in our own part to make our dreams happen. Though I am learning that self-care can't be sacrifice if one wants to live a well life and still be a social changer and a positive influence within one's community. Since starting at MU, I realized that I'm a social changer and I'm learning the tools here to prepare me professionally and personally. Anyways, I don't mind the journey and I'm learning that good changes do take time.

Compassion is connected to the heart

This is how I define compassion and how I see it:

Compassion to me is how it is connected to the heart. Susan mentioned on one of my forums that I was noticing how I see compassion as "heart work." When I am connected to someone, I can care about that person deeply. Since I do wear my heart on my sleeve and my other interpersonal strengths, I use them to help others. I enjoy helping someone when s/he accomplish something with my encouragement (sometimes people do need encouragement to get them to achieve something) or comfort them if they are sad or in pain or if they need a good friend by their side for the moment.

These last several years, I think I have developed an attitude of "How can I help you?" When I see someone in need, I feel like how can I help that person. Sometimes I am also a conduit to connect this person to someone else who can help better. Each one of us have our own gifts and talents to assist others. I learned that I can't help everyone in my path since that's impossible.

Since I have my faith, I pray to God and I do believe he would send the right person to help that person in need. Sometimes I am someone else's prayer request. For example, once I felt this urging to assist a Napoli family as they were getting ready to move to Kentucky to be closer to relatives. I join the team at my church who was helping them. I even spent my Thanksgiving Day, about a few hours, to spend time with the mother and daughter. (The sons/brothers was out with friends. By the way, their father/husband past away almost a year before they moved away. The team I mentioned was with this family that whole year with free babysitting and other assistance.) I use my strengths to help in any way possible. Since I didn't share the same language of the mother, I have observed her responses. She was grateful that I was there for emotional support as well as spiritual support. She gave me lots of smiles. The daughter who was six years old was hanging onto me. I didn't feel anything right away. During the time I was there, I was so focus on the family's needs. Later when I was able to process the exchanges, I did feel good that I could help others. From this experience, I like to help others. In this class, I learned that I'm a "heart work" type of person.

Sometimes I do get down. When I receive compassionate acts from people around me who noticed that I need encouragement, I feel good that someone did listen and show me that they care about me. I think the other person feels good that s/he can help me out too. I'm just thankful to my inner circle of friends. I have received hugs from other females that really cheered me up that they can empathize with me when I'm stressed or upset or frustrated.

It's funny, sometimes I just do kind acts without even thinking. One day last month, a co-worker thanked me for being so nice. I just responded to one of her complaints to make something easier for her. In my mind, what's the fuss, I'm happy to help you. To tell you the truth, I don't dwell about compassionate acts or even think about them. I just respond after I figure out what the other person's needs. If we are all about to do this constantly, our world would be a bit easier and kinder place to live in.