Abbie+Brash

Table of Contents: Service Essay Goals Action Plan Journals Disability Abbie Brash 26/5/12     Service Learning Through out the past few years, I have been visiting orphanages and places in which need care, or help, or maybe just some company. Through all of my middle school years, I got to experience the carting side of service learning when I would visit the orphanage with my sister, Laura, who was a service learning student for most, if not all of her high school years. Also, when I was in middle school, I can remember being in a service class where we would learn about places around Cairo that we could help, or be service to. I don’t remember the class exactly, but I can remember going on trips to orphanages, and collecting food or clothes to take with us. This is when I really became interested in service learning. This is my second year of high school service learning now, and I enjoy it just as much as the first. The first year I was in service learning, I visited the Yanouba El Noor orphanage with two friends of mine, Cassie and Erin. While we were there, we tried to improve their English by doing simple activities, such as colouring in fruits and counting them. This way, they would learn their fruit names, the colour’s and how to spell them, and the numbers by counting how many fruits there are. Then we would bring the amount of fruits for them to eat, so that they could see and eat them too. We also organized a book drive, with girl scouts in which we were also running at the time. This was beneficial for both parties, because the girl scouts got a helping badge, and got to experience working and collecting for others, and the orpanage received over 50 books for the children. When we got there, we must have read over half of them, but the children liked them so much it didn’t matter. Through out this year, we also went back to the Yanouba El Noor orphanage. As the children grew older, the owner of the orphanage wanted us to start helping them with school work and such, so we would help them with their home work and work books. The books included them tracing letters, and writing out their names and simple words. Also, it had puzzles and word games that would help improve their vocabulary. We bought them books, similar to the ones they were working with, to further improve their words, spelling and vocabulary. It was disappointing that when we went back we never saw any of the books again, because it made me think the children did not have them, but I didn’t know that for sure and it was not my business so I would not say anything, and I knew that the day they got them they were very happy, and got to read them, because my friends and I were there to see it.

Later on in the year, I started going to a different orphanage with some other friends, mean CAC. I felt like the language barrier with the children there and I was not as big as the children at Yanouba, so I continued going there more often. I found the work that I was doing there was more effective, and the children were learning more. This is one time when I went to the orpahange and the children were working productively with us, and were doing their work perfectly.

Through out my experience’s this year with the service learning class, I have learned so much. I have seen and experienced things that I appreciate much more now, and the places that we visited showed me how lucky I am, but also how much doing something little can have such a big impact; for example when we went to the cancer hospital and got to give out food to all of those children, patients, workers, and their families. It may not have been a big deal to us, but you could tell by how thankful they were that to them, it meant a lot.

__ My plan- (Original) __ Last year I went to the Yanouba el nour orphanage with a few of my friends. We taught them vocabulary, the alphabet, their fruits, and their colours. Previously to last year, I visited the same orphanage with my sister, because she did her service learning there. This year I plan on expanding their vocabulary, because I know their levels and I think I can continue helping them, even though they are getting older. I think it will be more challenging this year, because of their age and because I am running out of things to teach them, so I may expand on other subjects, like basic maths. I might have to split them into groups this year, because there is a lot of them and If I am going to go into detail then I want to make sure they understand and are following, so they don’t learn it wrong. __ How my plan turned out- __ I went back to the Yanouba el Nour Orphanage a few times, and did the same project with the fruits etc. but then I want to another orphanage, by CAC, and did the same thing there. I know this orphanage gets more help, but when I went there I felt it was easier to talk to the kids, and they understood me more, meaning the language barrier was not so strong. So I went to that orphanage and did the same project I did last year, trying to help them improve their English.

MY SMART GOAL SPECIFIC

My goal is specific because I am teaching them English, but I know how and exactly what I am going to do to achieve that goal.

MEASURABLE

There are several ways my goal can be achieved, for example when they are colouring and drawing they are learning the words, colours and numbers, which is all part of the English language.

ACHIEVABLE I believe it is achievable because I was doing the same work last year, and I saw how the children improved, and I believe that if I continue with the same techniques in which I was using last time, their vocabulary, colours, and numbers will continue to get stronger as they continue to work and learn with me.

REALISTIC My goal is realistic, because there is room for their language to improve and by doing this project, it can and will improve. Sometimes there is a language barrier that is a problem, but usually we overcome that problem and it works out okay.

TIMELY My goal is timely because I believe this goal can be achieved by the end of the year. The children will know English better, and I hope the language barrier will come down.

Action Plan-

TARGET PROBLEM: TARGET GROUP: PROJECT TITLE: GOALS: ◦ strengthen their language skills, and make their fluency stronger. ◦ Teach them their colours ◦ Teach them their fruits OBSTACLES:
 * Teaching a group of Orphans English
 * Group of children 7-8 years old, about 9 of them.
 * Yanouba El Noor English Project
 * Smart goal 1-
 * Smart goal 2-
 * Smart goal 3-
 * Language barriers
 * Space (as we work in the orphanage and there are lots of children)
 * Getting the children to work with us at the end of the day

TASKS:
 * preparing
 * Organizing and buying resources
 * Talking through the lesson plan
 * Making sure the lesson isn’t boring, and the children will learn something

Journal 1

Over this year of service learning, I have been spending a lot of hour at the vets with Alyosha. When we are there, we walk the dogs, clip and groom the cats, and feed/clean them when they need it. This taught me how to take care of animals that are in need, and though technically it isn’t helping people, we were helping the vet and caring for the animals. I also worked at the international fair this year, in the bumper cars section. Basically, we had to watch the kids and just supervise the basketball court, where it was held, while they played. These are the little projects, among others, that I have done and may not sound like the best service hours, because they don’t help needy people, but still helping people in general. I’d like to do projects like this more often, because they are fun and they still help the community. I also think they are realistic because they are many available projects like this, where you can help while having fun and maybe attending an event, like the fair, for example.

Journal 2

This year, I spent the majority of my service hours at an orphanage. At this orphanage, I basically did the same thing I did at the alwadi, this being colouring, teaching them numbers and letters and fruits, and overall improving their English. I think this project was useful, because as I worked with them, they grew and improved greatly. I have known these kids for a long time because my sister used to do her service hours with them too, and I used to go with them, so I understand what they need and I think I know how to help them. Through out the year, I have helped them not only by improving their English, but also by providing books for their reading and donating food. I helped them with the reading by getting the girl scouts to donate books to the orphanage. They did it to get their helping badge, and I did it so I could have some children’s books to read the children and work from. When I arrived with the books, they really seemed to like them, I must have read about 20 books that day. The next time I came there were only some books, so I don’t know where the other books went, but the fact that they had that day to enjoy them was still a nice feeling.

Alwadi Orphanage

I have spent many hours at the alwadi orphanage. Here, I brought hand made books with fruits in them, coloured pencils, pencils, erasers, and sharpeners. The children colour in the fruit, and the amount of fruits they are. By this, they get to learn names of fruits, the colours, and the numbers, while having fun colouring and learning. Because there is a language issue, it was sometimes hard to communicate what I needed them to do; so sometimes I brought friends with me that speak Arabic. I really enjoyed this project, and also felt like the language barrier at this orphanage was not as strong then it was at the Yanouba El Noor orphanage. The children also paid better attention here, and though there were more of them, I found them easier to work with. I went to this orphanage many times, and though I know they get more attention than the one I used to go to, I have started going here more often. Though I know this, I still think I am being useful and developing their language skills to the best of my ability, by using the same techniques that I used in the other orphanage. These are pictures form the Alwadi orphanage, when the children were working well with our lesson plan of the books and colouring etc.

I recently haven’t been going to the Yanouba El Noor orphanage, as it wasn’t a safe area when I got back and now I don’t have a time plan with the owner, but I plan on setting it up again and continuing working with the same children if I can, but these are some pictures of when we were there, working with the kids.

A service project I will never forget this year is the Cancer hospital. We went in and brought food, sorted through all the food, boxed it up, carried the boxes out to the buses, then we went to the cancer hospital. When we were there, we gave out the food to the cancer patients, their families, and the workers. Seeing the smiles they gave us was such a nice feeling, because you know that you have don’t something special for them, that may not be a big deal to us, but is to them. I wont forget the pleased looks they gave us, and the thankful comments we received.

Dyslexia Dyslexia is a reading disability that occurs when the brain does not properly recognize and process certain symbols. Its when there is a problem in areas of the brain that help interpret language. It is not caused by vision problems, but the disorder is a specific information processing problem that does not interfere with one's ability to think or to understand complex ideas. Most people with Dyslexia have normal intelligence. Some even have above-average intelligence. Dyslexia may appear in combination with developmental writing disorder and developmental arithmetic disorder, but all of these involve using symbols to convey information. These conditions may appear alone or in any combination. Dyslexia often runs in families. Symptoms include difficulty determining the meaning of a simple sentence, difficulty learning to recognize written words and difficulty rhyming. Causes include emotional disorders, mental retardation, diseases of the brain, and certain cultural and education factors factors. There are various treatments, depending on the person. An individual education plan should be created for each child with the condition. They should get extra learning assistance, private tutoring, and special day classes to help improve their condition. Complications may include problems in school, including behavior problems, loss of self-esteem, reading problems that persist into adulthood.