Service Learning as a Teacher Candidate

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     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 this course adds another layer to the high school experience- a nontraditional school. CCHS, the high school in which I will be visiting, is an alternative school for students who have struggled in the learning environment of a traditional school system. The faculty and staff offers the students the support they need in order to graduate. As a teacher candidate, I am excited to learn all that I can from this new type of school that I have never experienced, and I aim to document all of these experiences here.

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