Learning Through Doing: Service Learning in Teacher Education

All staff and students have pseudonyms.    3:50pm          As I walk into CCHS on Thursday February 8th, I see about 5 students waiting in the lobby of the school. Since this is my first visit, I try to go to the front office; after explaining that I'm a tutor for Foothills, the receptionist unlocks one of the glass doors to the hallway for me. I go to the door labeled "Foothills;" the woman that I met last week is inside. I remind her about who I am, and she allows me to sign in with the notebook that contains a sheet for each tutor. After completing that, she tells me that I'm early, and that Mr. Dodd., one of the Foothills English teachers, will be here shortly; I wait standing in the hall, unsure what to do. In a few moments, a man in a button-down and khakis comes to the little office. The woman introduces us; this is Mr. Dodd. We head to a classroom down the hallway.          We enter one of CCHS's math classrooms loc...

     Currently, I am a junior in the first semester of the English Education program at UGA. I have learned more about education in the last month of school than I thought possible. I know the long journey of discovering who I am as a teacher is still ahead of me, and I think this course will play a major part. Although I have been in two service learning courses previous to this one, I am excited about this specific service learning experience. In this class, I have the opportunity to work with high school students: something I have been waiting for since the day I decided I wanted to be an English teacher. In the past, I have experienced an elementary school with my educational psychology course and a middle school in a Shakespeare service learning course. Right now, I work with middle-schoolers as a part of the Teaching Writing cohort course. I have never been inside a high school with the purpose of learning for my teacher education. Additionally, I am excited that t...