Free Service Learning Reflections Essay Example

As part of my graduation requirement, I had to complete ten hours of service learning at the Alpha School in New Jersey. The Alpha School has been open since September, 1980 and its goal is to provide services for students aged three to twenty-one with special needs. This means they work with students who are autistic, communication or cognitively impaired or disabled in some way and offer another alternative to the public school system because they are approved by the New Jersey Department of Education.
The best thing about the Alpha School is the way it believes that everybody can contribute to the world if they are empowered enough. The school teaches students skills that they can use in the classroom but also out in the world and at work. It believes that everybody can lead a full life no matter who they are. This means it works with every student individually finding what works best for them. The school has academic programs covering the usual school subjects and using a multi-sensory approach but also has life skill programs. The life skill programs are about learning practical skills like shopping, cooking and laundry but also about looking at jobs they might be able to do in the future.
Every student gets an Individualized Education Program and this will also include things like occupational therapy, speech therapy, physical therapy and counselling. Overall the school works hard to provide a supportive and nurturing place for its students.
I spent two days at the Alpha School and on the first day the Supervisor of Instruction, Mrs Marie Hall, asked me what my major was. I told her it was Exercise Science and she asked me if I would like to work with the school gym teacher, Mrs Kathy Moore. I thought this was a good idea so Mrs Hall introduced me to Mrs Moore. Mrs Moore has worked at the Alpha School for twenty-five years and it is her job to develop and teach the physical education curriculum. She is a graduate of Trenton State College and seems very happy in her job.
I was thirty minutes early on the first day so Mrs Moore showed me her weekly schedule. She has five classes per day. The first class started at 9am and the last class at 1.30pm. On that first day Mrs Moore introduced me to all her students and then for ten minutes at the beginning of every class, we did stretching exercises before playing any games. Following that the 9am and 10am classes played indoor floor hockey for thirty minutes while the 11am and 12pm class played soccer and the afternoon class played kickball. Part of Mrs Moore’s job is to encourage good social skills between the students and it was interesting to see how well the disabled students cooperated when they were playing these games.
On the second day, the schedule was similar to the first with the first ten minutes of every class for stretching exercises but the 9am and 10am classes did twenty minutes walking inside the gym while the 11am and 12pm classes played floor hockey. I played hockey with them and had an enjoyable time. The afternoon class played softball.
At the end of the day I asked Mrs Moore whether she liked her job. She said "I have been doing this job for 31 years and I enjoy working with disabled kids. Alpha School works with disabled kids aged from 4 to 21 years old. They also have other special programs like art, science, music, history, maths.” I also enjoyed my time at the Alpha School. My service learning objective was to assist Alpha School’s disabled students and I learnt a lot about what being disabled means but also about how everyone can learn to work with their disability to lead a full life. The students really impressed me with the way they were able to work together so well no matter how difficult things were for them. That is a lesson I won’t forget.