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.

C:\Fakepath\Service Learning Project

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C:\Fakepath\Service Learning Project

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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.