"My New Beginning"

“My New Beginning”

Growing up in a white, successful middle-class, suburban neighborhood, where almost everyone I live near and went to high-school with also lives in a white, successful middle-class home; you can say I am not too familiar with diversity. When I got assigned to Laurel Hill Elementary School, I knew this was going to be a huge step out of my normal “boundaries,” but I was thrilled to finally be exposed to diversity and more ready than I’d ever be. On my first day of service learning to say I was nervous would be an understatement, I was so overwhelmed that I drove on one of the coldest days of the year so far with all my windows down, because otherwise I would have passed out. I was mainly concerned with how the students would react towards me and vice versa. I did not want to be judged in the wrong way, on my first day, because I felt that would have ruined my whole experience during service learning.

As I pulled up to Laurel Hill Elementary, I noticed the school is directly across from a project complex and a run down convience store, where a lot of people seemed to be lingering around. The school itself is the size of most high schools, and is very run down and old. The hallways are very old with colors of musty yellow and dark brown floors. The school is also setup differently from most because when you enter you need to walk up stairs to the office, then back downstairs where the classrooms are located.

The third grade classroom where I do my service learning in looks exactly like my third grade classroom from elementary school. The students have their desks in organized rows and are seated in alphabetical order by last name. The teacher has decorated the room with all sorts of math equations and letters from the alphabet, but what I found strange is that everything was in English, even though most of the students speak Spanish at home with their relatives.

The school values giving very much because they have a lot of food drives. All the students are encouraged to bring in at least one can good a week to go towards the food drives. I found this extremely interesting that all the students do participate in this activity, since they come from very low incomes, but are still willing to give to those that are in more need than them. In the classroom the teacher Ms. Amy* values respect towards others and is strict towards the students using the words “please” and “thank you.” This is such a positive step towards the right direction for these students because it will follow stick with them as they grow to be adults.

* means name has been changed