I have enjoyed my service learning hours.  I liked seeing Mr. Smith teach at the beginning of the semester in the elementary school.  He is a fantastic teacher and I learned valuable lessons from him about rapport, trust, planning, and structure.  He was a great example of "creating a productive classroom environment."  I think this might be a little easier in an elementary school class because the teacher and the students spend so much time together.  Mr. Smith spent a lot of time uplifting his students, giving them praise and encouraging them.  The class responding by doing their best and enjoying it at the same time.

Halfway through my hours I moved to Mrs. Cragun's class at the jr high.  This has felt very relevant to me since she is teaching my content area.  I've been able to observe many things that we have been talking about in class.  Each time I go to Mrs. Cragun's class she uses a different method of teaching.  I never would have noticed this before the module on "engaging learners."  There is so much benefit in having hands on activities and asking the students to be involved in their own learning.  While asking review questions at the beginning of class, most of the students eagerly raise their hands to answer questions.  This is because they aren't just being fed information in a lecture, but they are reading and participating and finding answers for themselves.

For me, I have learned so much.  It's been a long time since I was in an elementary or secondary classroom.  The teachers didn't focus as much on engaging students.  There was much more lecturing.  This class has opened my eyes to the variety of ways to teach, how the student will learn best, and how to get the most out of my students.