In this service, we will be working with students from Lighthouse, who are either visually or hearing impaired.  The students will be visiting our school every Tuesday and will be taking part in the activities that our service group plans.  We will be doing activities with them that will help develop their motor skills.  (Learning outcome 6: Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance.)

During our first service meeting, we discussed the importance of the 5 stages of service and the 7 norms of collaborative work.

5 Stages of learning:

We also began to discuss setting goals that we can work towards during our service time.  Our group worked together to decide on the main goal which was: ‘In 2018-19, our service group is committed to building strong relationships with children at Lighthouse, improving their motor skills, well being and confidence.’

I believe that the goal we set is very realistic and that we will be able to achieve it through the activities we plan for the students.  By planning engaging and entertaining activities we will be able to form bonds with the children, as well as help them improve their motor skills.

On our shared google doc, we began to fill out an action plan.  As a group, we discussed the importance of this service and the knowledge we gained from the investigation stage.

Why is this Service needed?

This service is needed to provide the children with a different environment and allow them to engage in activities that build on their motor skills and engage them. It allows us to interact with different people and learn how to adapt to these situations. It also provides children with access to facilities at our school.

What did you learn from investigating the issue and the organisation/s addressing it?

We learned that it is very difficult to place ourselves in their shoes. We observed that there were children with varied personalities and each of them needed to be handled in specific ways.  Playing duck duck goose allowed us to understand the ways in which we need to adapt activities to suit the needs of the children.

 

Visiting Lighthouse School

Our visit to the Lighthouse school was to help us get a better understanding of the environment these kids learn in and to see how the kids interact with each other and the teachers.  This really helped with our investigation stage as we could get a better understanding of the types of activities we should be planning.

After our visit to the school, we broke off into smaller groups to start planning activities.  We found it very difficult to plan activities for the students as they were a group of either visually impaired or hearing impaired kids.  When planning activities, we had to take into account what the kids would be able to do and enjoy.  We made sure to have backup activities in case the kids get bored with the others, or we need a last minute activity change.