Running Head: SERVICE LEARNING REFLECTION 1

Service Learning Reflection

Timothy Henley
Ivy Tech Community College
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The first thing I noticed when I walked into the classroom that I was going to be

volunteering my time in was how there were no traditional desk formations. I am used to seeing

neat rows or half circles or some other type of organized, individual desk classroom set-up. This

classroom was designed more into stations. There is an open kidney table for kids to work and be

able to interact with each other during their assignments. There were desks that have dividers

around them for the children who may have issues of some kind working with a group. These

issues could be anywhere from being distracted by their peers or being the distractor, social

anxiety or even as a form of discipline for a prior infraction. There is another section for

computer work, and a section for physical activities like dancing and exercise. At the particular

school I volunteered at, there are two separate classrooms for exceptional children, of which a

few select children could be transferred from one to the other based on their needs. For example;

if a student was having a bad day with another student in the class room he/she could be moved

until they calmed down, or if a child responded better to a curriculum in one class, they would

attend the lesson then return to their own room. It was a semi fluid environment guided to best

serve the students needs at any given time. It was quite the sight to see and it really worked to

the children and teachers benefits to have that kind of support system.

At any given time, the classroom had five to nine students. These students primarily had

some degree of Autism. There were two or three that were regularly and consistently in the class

without fail. There were a few who are primarily in the classroom but would leave with aids or

attend other classrooms for instruction. There were also, at any given time, students who were

not normally in the classroom, present for any of the aforementioned reasons. The day would

start off quite unstructured. As the students would trickle in they could either eat, or read a book
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or meander about the classroom. I understood this to be a time of transition from the freedom of

home to the structure of school and to get a sense of where each child was at emotionally, to

decide how to continue on with the day per student. I think this technique was using Applied

Behavior Analysis and its systematic approach to the assessment and evaluation of behavior, and

the application of interventions that alter that behavior (Autism Speaks 2012) If a child was

having a bad morning, an aid or (often) the teacher herself could jump in with one on one

intervention and try to nip it in the bud before the day really started. After this transitional

period however, the general objective became far more structured, this structure is vital for

children with ASD. Providing a very clear structure and a set daily routine including time for

play (Hensley 2017) is important so the kids would all do their morning work, which consisted

of writing out vocabulary words and answering questions about the day (whether it was a sunny

Monday or a rainy Wednesday etc.) From there it would be dance and activity time. The teacher

would play Go Noodle videos at random and the children would dance and sing to them.

Everyone joined in and had a great time. After this is when some students would go to music

class, other students would get one on one instruction, while others would visit other classrooms

for a portion of the day. This was all very fluid, and each day was different depending on the

needs of the child. The one thing that stayed consistent was the teachers, aids and other staffs

flexibility to provide whatever was needed to help each child succeed for the day. It is well

known that Autism Spectrum Disorders involve a myriad aberrant perceptual, cognitive,

linguistic, and social behaviors (Hallahan, Kauffman, & Pullen 2015) and given this fact the

teachers and aids treated each child to their specific needs. It was almost as if mini IEPs were

designed on the fly, daily. As it states in our Exceptional Learners textbook A.S.D.s range
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widely with respect to type and severity, no one program is appropriate for all. (Hallahan,

Kauffman, & Pullen 2015)

Scenarios could and would pop up at any-time with any given child. One child in

particular would get very upset if she messed up a word or on a drawing. By messed up I mean

she could be almost done with the drawing of a scene, make one stick figure arm longer than the

other, and she would scream NO, this is not right and crumple her paper up and demand loudly

for another piece of paper to start over. The staff was well aware of this habit of hers and the

kneejerk reaction of most people would be to tell her no and to deal with her mistakes. But the

well prepared staff would have multiple slips of the paper especially for her and give her a limit

of 3 or 4 tries to get it right. With each successive outburst the staff would attempt to convince

her to carry on with what she was doing, compliment the drawing, discuss how it could be fixed

or whatever other reasoning they could come up with to curb her self-loathing at making a

mistake. At the last piece of paper allotted she would be warned that it was the last attempt and

that she would be getting no more. If she messed up the staff stood firm and gave her the option

to either continue on with the one she had or retrieve one she discarded and finish it. There were

times that the staff could convince her to carry on after attempt two, and times where she used up

all her options and was stuck with something she didnt like. Either way the staff was lenient but

with boundaries. And it worked very well (most of the time) for the students.

The biggest thing I learned is that patience, understanding and flexibility are key

components to successfully educating students with special needs. There is no hard, uncross-able

line you can draw and have complete adherence to in the classroom. Every child is different and

needs different things to succeed. The staff at this school knows their students, could rely on

each other for support and maintained a nurturing environment for their kids by bending to the
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events of the day and adapting curriculum to what would best suit the students needs at any

given time. I believe the only thing that can prepare someone to be this sort of exceptional

instructor for exceptional learners is experience, getting back up after you fail and sticking to it. I

learned a great deal of what to expect from myself as I move forward from this experience.
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Reference

Autism Speaks (2012) Educating Students with Autism: Retrieved from:

https://www.autismspeaks.org/sites/default/files/sctk_educating_students_with_autism.pd

Hallahan, D., Kauffman, J., & Pullen, P., (2015) Exceptional Learners: An Introduction to

Special Education (13th Ed) Upper Saddle River, NJ. Pearson

Hensley, P., (2017) 22 Tips for Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Retrieved

from: http://teaching.monster.com/benefits/articles/8761-22-tips-for-teaching-students-

with-autism-spectrum-disorders