Service - learning

My service learning initiative was repainting and re-doing a classroom into a science classroom. I did this service learning with Tawonga. I did four classrooms, the main classroom consisted of painting the cupboard as the previous colours were very distracting and the classroom was cleaned, I added posters some of my own and some of my mentor teachers, I got the learners to do space wreaths, added in hooks for all the coats and for the cloths and I added science items to the classroom. The other two classrooms, I got the professional painters to paint the whole class and the last class, two large boards were painted.

The successes of my initiative was the end project, as my mentor teacher absolutely loved the new classroom and the principle really loved the fact that classrooms were repainted. The learners also enjoyed helping where they could and I had fun doing this initiative for the school as I saw what joy a classroom that has science items in and that looks like a science class brings to not only the learners but the teachers too.

My challenges that I faced was time management as the school was extremely busy and we had protest action, this limited my time and I battled to get the painters to come through due to their schedule. Another challenge was getting access to the school on a Saturday, and I thought we wouldn’t be as long as we were.

My service learning has changed me personally as I really enjoyed it, I loved seeing how excited and happy my mentor teacher was with the new class and how the learners were eager to see and their reactions to the classroom will hold a special place In my heart. It also shown me that no matter how hard it got, I could do it and I did it with a smile on my face. This has developed me professionally as I had to manage a lot of people coming in and out of the classroom, it’s helped me with time management skills and I always remained respectful to all that was helping.

My new knowledge that I have gained is that a classroom that has posters and items to do with that subject, allows teachers to be more eager to teacher the learners and for learners more eager to learn about the subject. I learnt that I am not the best painter but that I can paint if I needed too, I learnt about being in a team with my partner.

This initiative does not only benefit the one teacher, but also the other teacher’s classes that were painted as it lighted up their classrooms. It benefits these learners and future learners to the school. It benefits all the teachers that use the classroom and allows them to enjoy teaching in an environment that has to do with their subject and the topic for the term. The sustainability is that this can last a long time and the main classroom can be easily changed to the next topic, I also donated the rest of the paint to the principle so they could carry on with painting the rest of the classroom, I also told her that when the next students come that they could also carry on this initiative.

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The Finished project of the main classroom.