AAS 197J ClassWeb Magazine

Community Education: Student Empowerment

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Assignment 5: Reflections on Relationship between Various Class Projects for This Quarter

By the end of this quarter, our class will work on several different projects with the children and teachers of Wilton Place Elementary School. These projects include our weekly site visits to Wilton Place classrooms, a booklet of student writings from the five classes of children, a tour of UCLA for the children, and an end-of-the-term reception for the children and their parents at Wilton Place.

In most UCLA classes, it is easy to see assignments and projects separately. However, in this class it’s important for students to see the relationship between these projects and to work with children and teachers from this perspective.

For this reflection journal, write about how you see the relationship between the various projects in our class. In other words, how will your work with the children on the booklet connect with your weekly site visits and the end-of-the-term reception? Similarly, how can you use the various projects to help teachers and their ongoing work with kids on improving reading and writing skills?

Eriko Suzuki, "Teamwork and Community Relationships"
Meredith Lee, "Applying What We Learn from Our Class in Our Community"
Dean Saranillio, "The Unity of Theory and Practice"
Melissa Hilario, "First Visit to Wilton Place Elementary School"
Melissa Hilario, "School Can Be Fun When Learning Relates to You"
Cheryl Samson, "Youth Empowerment and Service Learning"

First Visit

By Hilario, Melissa

My first day at Wilton Place Elementary School was last Tuesday, in Ms. Son’s second grade class. The class is made up of about twenty Latino/Latina seven-eight year olds. Most of the students spoke to us in English. One student spoke mostly in Spanish. I am excited to learn more Spanish from the students.

I was accompanied by six other classmates. We introduced ourselves and our grades. The students faces formed “o’s” after they heard we were in the sixteenth grade. It was a good way to introduce the discussion about college.

We talked to the students a little about what college was like. We first asked the second graders what they knew about college. It is important to see where the students are coming from first and not approach them lecture style. A spelling activity of “college” lead to a discussion about teamwork and respect which the students defined as “working together, helping” and “when you listen to each other, when you don’t hurt each other.” The students were very excited to talk about their experiences, their favorite foods, their siblings, and they were reminded by Ms. Son and the sixteenth graders to listen to each other.

It was a little difficult for me to have the students listen to each other during the breakout session. They were so excited to talk and share. However, they would listen to each other when we talked about how it was a part of teamwork. It was also difficult for me to expand on a topic. Our conversation touched upon many things, what our favorite foods were, what we wanted to be when we grow up, experiences with snow and rain, and what fever meant in Tagalog and Spanish.

I left Wilton Place feeling very excited. I know the students will have a lot of stories to share. They show so much enthusiasm already. My concern is how to facilitate the discussion, how we can all listen to each other and not go on tangents.