From the onset,
I knew that the project was not going to be an easy one to implement. Since I teach a large number of students, I
knew that project coordination was going to be difficult to manage. Likewise, it did not take me long to realize
that just finding a time and place to meet was going to be a challenge. While organizing the project, I learned that
I was not the only one who was busy all of the time. Through planning the project, I became aware
that my students too were leading exceedingly past-paced lives.
Since I am
already working several part time jobs, tutoring, studying Chinese, as well as
teaching at Southwest University my extra time is quite precious to me. By taking on the extra-curricular work in
addition to my other responsibilities I knew I was going to be pushing myself
to my limit this semester. Nevertheless,
I recognized the importance of the work that I was doing for with students and
the community of Beibei as being important.
I also had made getting students more involved in their community a
major goal of mine this year. If I was
going to accomplish this goal I knew that I needed to start somewhere.
I started out my
first week of classes on the topic of the Service Learning project. I remember that first week being really
excited about the semester's most important assignment. I gladly fielded many well-thought out
questions from students.
After a couple
of classes I realized that I was really glad that my students had given me some
critical feedback regarding the project.
In some cases, I even found that I had not amply considered some of the
possible results of several decisions.
In this way, I am indebted to the frank appraisal of my conscientious
students. Without their support the
project would have gone nowhere in the beginning.
By the third
week of classes I learned that I was going to need to try and coordinate about
twenty different groups during the semester.
I let students decide their own group's mission statement, project type,
meeting time, and etcetera. In the
beginning, I favored letting students decide as much as possible in regards to
their project. This bottom-top model of
organization created an environment where students could feel a sense of responsibility
for the outcome of the project. One
negative outcome of this model is that the leader is not free to arrange
meeting times around their schedule. If
I had a top-bottom organizational command structure I would have more control
over the meeting times and places the activities were being held at.
Students formed
their own groups and decided the theme of their own individual project. In the end, each class split up into four to
six groups per section. In whole, there
would be a total of four classes involved in the project. Since each group is supposed to volunteer for
a minimum of three hours an activity the constraints on my schedule would be
enormous. I would be asking myself to
volunteer around sixty hours this semester.
Knowing that I could not spend sixty hours on this project placed a
sense of foreboding in my heart.
After much
deliberation, I ended up changing the tactics of my project in order to grant
myself more free-time during the semester.
I announced a new rule allowing myself to move freely between different
projects being held at the same time. The
success of the project hinged on my commitment to spend hours volunteering this
semester. If I was going to accomplish
this goal in a healthy way then having the ability to have some sort of
personal life was going to be important too.
The projects
that the students performed were wonderful to be a part of. For example, throughout the semester
different groups have visited retirement communities, picked up trash, planted
trees, made crafts for donations, put up signs, cleaned classrooms, collected
donations, and etcetera. It has been a
pleasure to witness students happily enjoying volunteering their time for the
betterment of others. I think for me the
greatest highlight of the whole experience was visiting the retirement home
with students.
At the
retirement home students and I sang songs, danced, talked, and attempted to
perform all for the entertainment of the elderly inhabitants. The merriment was literally palpable as retirees,
students, and I all found the experience to be a worthwhile one.
At the end of
our time together both students and retirees encouraged me to sing a song for
the group. Since I only know the
complete lyrics to a couple of songs I determined that signing the Beatles and
Led Zeppelin were probably my best options to choose. Thus, a group of elderly Chinese for probably
the only time in their memory heard the lyrics of John Lennon and Robert Plant. Now, how's that for "Talking a 'bout a Revolution?!?!"
I can safely say
that I am extremely pleased with the results of the project so far. During the course of the project, I learned
that indeed many of my students thought of the project as nothing more than
another request on their time; however, by the time that each group had
finished their project their attitudes towards it had changed remarkably. I was so encouraged to hear students tell me
that they felt better about what they were doing while doing it.
I have high
hopes for the future regarding this project.
If things move ahead as planned, I can expect collaboration with some of
the CSBSJU study abroad students next semester.
Judging by what I have experienced so far the future holds the
opportunity for greater things to come.
In the future, I figure on continuing to alter my current project model.
If I keep my current strategy of
flexible tactics then I am positive that things will move ahead in a favorable
manner.
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