Lucy Kunz

April 23, 2019

Block #26
Service Learning Reflection

As teachers nowadays, we are faced with many different situations regarding the extra
help or care that our students need. Many parents are working double just too pay the bills,
therefore they are unable to give their child the attention they need or help with their
homework. Helping out in the community as well as at your school will be eye opening. As a
class we volunteered at an elementary school in Lauren’s, New York. The service we provided
for students in need was during their after-school program called CROP. Participating in this
project helped us understand as future teachers the important role we play in children’s lives.
Donating my time and knowledge to students who couldn’t get this help at home made me
realize that we as people can really impact another student’s life positively.
CROP stands for Creating Rural opportunities Partnership and it is funded by a BOCES
grant. It is designed to enhance the lives of youth living in Otsego and Delaware Counties. There
were many students who stayed after at this program. This showed that me how important this
program was to the students and their families. At the beginning of CROP children were
provided with a snack and drink. Many students in that district could not afford snack or even
had a sufficient amount of food at home, therefore an organization in their town funded these
supplies. After they had snack the children with homework were sent to work I the quiet room
and students without homework participated in some sort of project. While I was at CROP the
students had Math, ELA, and Science. I spent my time working with a boy whom was very quiet.
In order for the student to feel more comfortable with me I asked him what grade he was in,
how old he was, what his favorite subject was, what his name is, etc. He told me that he was in
3rd grade and his favorite subject was Math. Thankfully that day they had some math
homework that was due. This student didn’t really struggle much when it came to math, but
when reading the instructions, you could tell that he was a little delayed. He could speak to me
clearly and understand what I was asking him. Also, when reading the math directions, he
understood how to solve the problem just wasn’t at a third-grade reading level. As we worked
through the math problems he struggled a little when he had to regroup. He would get a little
frustrated at times during the process, but once he got it I would complement him, and he
would keep going. I would have to help him a little when he got stuck to give him an extra push,
but he flew through the worksheet in no time. The student also had a sheet with number patter
which he didn’t want to do. He was becoming very bored with doing homework, therefore I
stopped and talked to him for a little while to give him a break. Once we got back to the
number patters worksheet he had a little more of a problem understand what you had to do. I
explained to him you have to find a pattern that these numbers are forming with addition and
subtraction. For example, if its 10, 20, 30, ___, 50, 60 we are adding 10 each time so the missing
number would be 40, because 30+10=40. After I gave him an example and talked him through
the first question he was getting the hang of it. Once he was done with all his homework, he
was able to join the other group and work on the project.
Participating in CROP was an amazing opportunity. You could tell that all the students
were excited to see new faces and meet us. You could tell that this after school activity was
very beneficial in helping the parents who worked late and the students that needed extra help
or just wanted to be involved in something. I would volunteer my time every week if I could! I
can’t wait to be a part of something like this in my future school!