Final Artist Statement

This service learning assignment has been challenging and very rewarding. When found out I had to volunteer for this class I was not looking forward to it. I ended up really enjoying meeting new people and being able to give something back to the community. I was surprised how friendly and outgoing everyone at Vieau School was.
The process of trying to take images to use in my projects has been challenging for two main reasons. First, it was challenging because it took a long time to get the permission forms for the people to sign to give me permission to take their picture. It was not until the week before spring break that I finally got permission to take pictures of the students in the ESL class. The Second reason is due to the fact that when I am volunteering in the ESL class at Vieau School I am there to teach the students English. This makes it difficult to take time out of teaching in order to take pictures to use for this class.
Another problem that came up while I was teaching in the ESL class was the language barrier. I do not know much Spanish, and many of the people in the class do not know English very well. Luckily there were two teachers who could help me if I could not understand what people were trying to say. There were a lot of times where things in the materials were not correct that I could not catch because I do not know very much Spanish.
For my final project I chose to arrange my photographs the way I did in order to tell a story. I first put in pictures from all around the community in order to give the viewer a sense of the community in Walkers Point. Then I put in the photographs of the school and some of the artwork in the school. I then put in some pictures of the hallway leading to the library and the library itself to give the viewer the sense that they are walking into the library. Next, I put in pictures of the students and an example of the materials used in the class. Then I put a couple pictures of the birthday party that we had for one of the students in the class. The last thing that I put in the presentation was an interview that I did with the teacher and founder of the ESL class at Vieau School.
I am really glad that service learning was a part of this class. It was a great opportunity to get to know people of a different culture. It was also a great opportunity for me to learn what it is like to try to make a multimedia project. I am not a film major, so this is the first time that I had to take, edit, and make my own images into a presentation.

Final Presentation

Service Learning Reflection 3

As I said in my first service learning blog entry when I first started this volunteer work I was not very excited about this project. I was not looking forward to trying to fit this volunteering into my busy schedule. I have fulfilled my required fifteen hours of volunteer work weeks ago, but I continue to volunteer in the ESL class every Monday. I plan to continue to volunteer every Monday until the end of the class, and the next class if my job permits. This service learning project has really been a great experience for me. I have really gotten to know some of the parents at Vieau School very well. Everyone has been very friendly and made me feel at home. I have really enjoyed this opportunity to give something back to the community. This experience has really shown me how much I enjoy teaching people. It is especially nice to teach people who are so eager to learn and who appreciate your effort. I really have gained a great deal of respect for them. All of them have jobs and families and still find time to come and learn English. I really hope that the people in the class have learned something from me and that this will help them to improve their lives. This experience has opened my eyes up to some of the challenges faced Hispanic people living in the U.S.

Artists Statement

Putting this multimedia essay together was a learning experience for me. I have never really made any presentation like this before. It was a little rough trying to put this assignment together due to the fact that I did not have permission to take pictures of the people until the week before spring break. Overall I think my essay went together pretty well and conveys the story I wanted to tell.
I decided to put a couple of pictures of the outside of the school first. I took a picture of the name of the school and also one of the boys and girls club sign. This tells people where our service learning is taking place. Then I put a picture of the school library in to show where I do my volunteer work. I then placed a couple of pictures out of the packets that are given to the adult students which they use to learn English from. This will give people an idea of what I do to try to teach them how to speak English more fluently. Then I put a couple of pictures in of the group sitting at the table working on their English skills. I took one at a higher level to get the whole group in, and one is a eye level to convey what it is like to be there teaching them. Then I put in a couple of group pictures. The first one is a regular group picture, and the second one I gave them the option of making a funny face to convey that even though they are there to learn we still have some fun. The final picture is of the neighborhood from the playground of the school. This is to convey the sense of community that school brings to the neighborhood.
So far what I have learned about the community is that they are a very close knit community and everyone that I have encountered so far has been very warm and inviting. They help each other out whenever they can. They are very open with you about their life and are interested to hear about your life. I have tried very hard to get to know them all by name, but unfortunately they are not all there every week so it makes it kind of difficult. I have learned most of the names of those who are there every week. I have enjoyed the time that I have spent teaching, and I plan to continue to teach even after I have my required time in. What I have learned about using the camera as an instrument of investigation is that you can make your image convey whatever message you would like. The camera is a tool that the photographer can use to tell almost any story they want. You have to be very careful that you are not conveying the wrong message when using the camera.

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Service Learning Reflection 2

I have now volunteered teaching English to the parents at Vieau school three more times since my last post. I now know the names of most of the people that are there regularly, and a little bit about some of them. All of the people that I have worked with so far have been very nice and open with me. Everyone has a good sense of humor and I have fun every time I am there. The time goes so fast that it never seems like I am there for three hours. I feel that the time that I spend with them teaching them English is very productive. It can be difficult at times due to the language barrier, and the fact that there is only one of me and several of them. This makes it difficult for me to try to answer all of their questions and still move forward in our learning. However, two more people just started volunteering last week. This was a very big help to me, and I feel that we made excellent progress last Monday. It was very helpful to have enough people to spread though out the group so that each of us could answer the questions of three or four people. This has been a great experience so far and I think I will continue to volunteer after my required hours are complete. What I plan to present for the first multimedia exercise is a presentation of the activities and materials that I use when I am teaching them English. Right now I am still waiting for permission to photograph the people at the school. Hopefully I will get this next week so that I will have some shots for my project.