Profound Learning about Service Learning entails the act of students especially in higher learning institutions going to the field and engaging in the actual service delivery to clients. The importance of service learning is that it helps students to engage in real life-solving issues ("Contextualizing Service-Learning" 29-33). Also gives students the opportunity to serve the community while still in colleges.
As part of the requirement in English course, during service learning, I chose to help Mr. Jimmy Nieto, a Southwest senior high school teacher. I was to attend the service for fifteen hours. Every time I went to the service I worked for three hours, and I went there seven times. My duties in the service were to help him in filing grade papers as well as help him in managing the students. The service was important since it helped me encounter real life situations away from the academic work in classrooms. It was also critical in making me understand what people do in the workplaces. Also, it helped me decide whether I should like to be a teacher or not. It is, therefore, clear that service learning is important to the student and the community in general.
During filing, I had to sort all the papers first and put them into correct categories before filing them into the box files. I then gave the files the correct titles and file numbers for easier identification. I was then supposed to arrange the files in the correct locations on the shelves to necessitate easier and fast retrieval of information. On students’ management matters, I helped Mr. Jimmy Nieto in showing the students on what they are supposed to do both in class and outside class. I helped students in guiding and counseling them, monitoring on the duties in making the school and the classroom clean to ensure a conducive environment for learning. I also helped him in ensuring the students were served with lunch and breakfast well.
Through my service learning, I realized that dealing with students is not an easy thing since most students like doing wrong things. I came to an understanding that a large number of students like to explore the wrong things in life making it even harder to assist them in any way. Students made me frustrated especially the time I needed them to perform their duties in making the environment clean. Usually, students’ behaviors are annoying as they always behave immaturely. It was hard for me to come up with the appropriate strategy for dealing with students because every time I tried a new strategy, students also tried to find ways of outdoing my efforts. Given the ages of students in high school, most of them are adolescents and dealing with adolescents is difficult. They do not even want to listen to their counselors making the work of teachers difficult. I, therefore, came to a conclusion that I cannot be a teacher because it is hectic dealing with students who always behave immaturely.
My service learning also taught me that teaching profession involves a lot of paperwork. Teachers have to set exams in papers, mark the papers and finally compile the results after doing some grading. They are then supposed to file all the grading papers and put them in the correct storage for easier and quicker retrieval. I, therefore, concluded that another reason I do not like the idea of being a teacher is because I do not like dealing with too much paperwork since it involves a lot of efforts and energy.
Grading students is also another area I did not like during my learning service in The Southwest senior high school. The activity is tedious, and it requires a lot of effort and concentration. Sometimes students are careless, and the activity of dealing with their paperwork is complicated and confusing. The paper also needs to be organized in a particular manner which is difficult for someone new in the profession. Being a teacher to me especially to Esol students is therefore out of my priorities. Even if I can become a teacher, I do not want to be a high school teacher.
Work Cited
"Contextualizing Service-Learning." Critical Perspectives on Service-Learning in Higher Education (2013): n. pag. Print.
