Final Community Service Self-Reflection

1- I was a volunteer at future centre, and this centre is for special needs students. The range of the ages is from 3-20 years old and they’re from different nationalities and this is great for the student to know about the other cultures around the world and it helps them to communicate with each other. And the disabilities there are physical disability, Down syndrome, Autism, learning disabilities.

2- As a volunteer I was an Arabic teacher for kids and they have special needs and as you can see this is not an easy job to do! And this is the best of it, when it comes challenging and you try new ways to do it and to get the idea to them, and when the students at the end success specking or writing in Arabic it gives me a great feeling that I did something and I taught them something they need because the students need to learn the language of the country, It feels really great when the students say good morning in Arabic to me.

3- The students of the future centre are part of the community, but because of their special needs they don’t get involved that much in the society, and this volunteering helps them to talk more with each others and to communicate with the society, and we are the youth of this society so we are the best who can teach them how to be more active. And learning the language of the country will help them to communicate with the people here and it will solve many problems of their, because they are shy and they don’t want to be involved in the society but when they learn Arabic and how to greet in Arabic it will open the door for them to be involved, maybe this is a small thing but it helps a lot.

4- Actually of being a teacher for special, I learn more than I teach, the students taught me how to appreciate your health and how to be happy with what you got, and to try your best to success in what you’re doing, And not to see what other people can’t do but to see what they can do and achieve it until they can use it in a good way, and this is what the centre about to achieve the skills of the students, and I learned how to help the kids with special needs and how to be a friend with them and not to hurt their feeling, this thing is the best thing I did it in many years and I will always remember it and I will go back for them of course.


451 words.

Video About The Future Centre

The Interview

On the last day of the volunteering project, I did an interview with Ms. Rachel and I recorded the interview, than I uploaded the interview's sound track to this link:

( https://soundcloud.com/salem-alhammadi-1/interview )

and here's the text of the interview:

Good morning everyone today we are going to do an interview with Ms. Rachel, Good morning Ms. Rachel, Ms Rachel: good morning Salem.

- Salem: So why don't we start with telling us a little bit about yourself? 

- Ms. Rachel: My name is Rachel. I have been in the UAE and working in the future centre for 5 years as a teacher for children with special needs.

- Salem: Why did you choose to be a special needs teacher? 

- Ms. Rachel: I have always been interested in helping others from a young age. When we were looking at career choices at school, I decided S&LT was what I was interested in, and did my degree in this, and along side this I did some volunteering in special needs schools. I loved it so much that when I moved to Abu Dhabi with my family, I was offered a job here and haven't looked back since! 

- Salem: Is it a hard job or not, why? 

- Ms. Rachel: There can be moments when this job is challenging, but that is what I enjoy about it! for example, it can be challenging modifying some inappropriate behaviours, but at the same time it is so rewording watching them succeed at things and learn to feel confident in themselves. It is important as a teacher to reflect on each day and see which strategies and lessons went well and which might require alternative techniques, in order to make sure we are doing our job well. 

- Salem: What is the best solution to get the students involved in the community?

- Ms. Rachel: First and foremost it is important to have an accepting open minded and welcoming community. It is also important to be able to look and focus on these students strengths and what they can do. not focus on what they can't. by having this mindset, many of communities and have a lot to offer, just like all children they too, so helping them to be as independent as possible is key. for example taking them to the shops, taking them to prayer, social gatherings with family and friends, is just as important for their social development as it is learning in the class room and I believe as important for the rest of the community as well.

- Salem: Does the volunteers help teaching the students? And how?

- Ms Rachel: Yea for sure! you've been a massive Help for me personally I think its really important when you're living in  another country for your students to have access to the language of that country  and being English I obviously don't know much of it, and also I wouldn't to attempt to teach it as my second language, so you've being an amazing amazing help because a lot of my students also speaks arabic as their first language and i think it is really important for them to continue this and for my students that it would be there second language it will be great for them to learn it and study it.

- Salem: What is the best feeling you had as a teacher?

- Ms. Rachel: For me there was two things. Watching two of my students leave last year, one to complete GCSE qualifications and learn to be a diving instructor, and the other to start a job. The other thing was watching one of my students finally learn to tie his shoe laces. after months of practicing. watching him finally realise he could do it was magical. And these things that make me realise how blessed I am to have one of the best jobs in the world. 

Salem: Thank you Ms. Rachel and I wish the best of luck for you! 

Ms. Rachel: thank you and to you.

Day #10 Future Centre - Final Day

So this is the last day in our volunteering project and I'm really sad because I will miss the students a lot and I will miss teaching them Arabic! but I will see them after finishing what I have to do like exams and projects because I really love teaching them new things, and from the morning I was holding my feelings and trying to be normal as much as possible.

I went to the centre earlier and went to Ms. Rachel to do the interview which was very good and I will post the interview in a new post with the details, then the students went for launch break and stayed with them to share the news with each other.

Then it comes for the Arabic class and today was the beginners students day, and I'm going to teach them the numbers from one to ten in Arabic! It was little bit difficult for Tomas to spell the numbers in arabic but he did his best to do it and memories it and he did it ! Fareed was already know the numbers in Arabic but he had a little problem with saying the number seven and eight, he was mixing them together so I explained to him how to say it and the different between them. Khuzaifa learnt from one to five because its he has difficulty spelling the numbers.

The students and Ms. Rachel and Ms. Jenny surprised me before going out, they made cards for me saying thank you for teaching them, even if it was a little things from them but this mean the whole world to me, I couldn't hold my feelings and these cards from the students and Ms. Rachel are the best gifts I got:

Those gifts means a lot to me and I can describe how happy I am because I helped the students and I wish the best for them and for Ms Rachel and Jenny. I won't stop going to them even if it's not for the college I want to do it because I want to help them It makes me feel really good and happy. and it's a big experience and I'm happy that this course brought this chance to me because I needed it.

Day #9 Future Centre

In the first of the class we had a silent moment which allowed the students to imagine things depending on the music that Ms. Rachel played, So the music was pretty good and the students started sharing their imagination, Omran has been very good and had a lot of success comparing to the first days and now!

After that, Ms Rachel divided the class into two group and like I said in the last week, begineers and advanced students. and today I'm going to teach the advanced class, the class how can speak arabic, And they're arabs so I'm giving them the arabic alphabet and how to write the letter in the initial, middle and final position because this will help them writing and spelling the letters pretty good, and I putted in the materials I gave an example on each position on each letters so it will be easier for them remember it.

Omran is very good in arabic so I went throw something much more with him which is to start writing a whole sentence in Arabic and he did in a good way but he should now more about how to write the letters depending on their positions so the letters who he had a problem with I asked him to practice it in the paper I gave so he will now how to do it.

Day #8 Future Centre

Today we have to go to the centre at 8:30 because Mr. Gregory will come to see us how are doing, so it was long exciting day, I arrived to the centre and went to the class and they have a sport class, so they will have to day some exercises and I went to watch them and see how good they're, they're very good in this actually. then Mr. Gregory came and watched me teaching Omran and Khuzaifa some arabic and I taught them the alphabet, then I taught Khuzaifa some Arabic words and Omran is a local student so I don't need to  teach him these words, actually he might help me teaching the other students because he's really good at it and very helpful. then it comes the launch break so I went to set with the students to know how they're doing in their life, Tomas told me that he loves sport and he's a rugby player and he have a match next week with Alain team! when the students finished their launch they played football table with each other.

Ms Rachel had an idea that we should split the class into two group and, the first group is the student who don't know how to speak arabic at all. the second group is for the Arabian student, so in the first group they will get some sample stuff about arabic to start with, and the arabian students will get something more advanced to deal with, it feels so good to me to teach the students and I don't want these to end and the students loves me so much and they same very excited when they see me and I have the same feelings for them and I'm happy because I'm teaching them something new. 

Day #7 Future Centre

today at the first half hour of the class time, we went the background of the centre, to do some stretching with the students, they did one stretching first and the leader was Omran, then they went for jugging a little bit and it's really good for the students to keep them healthy, I thought that I need to do some sports too because I'm such a lazy person, then the students played a game together to keep it fun. We went back to the class and its Arabic class time !! so to help the students more I brought some worksheet with me for the students to be more organised and to know what to study at home, it will be easier for me and for them and will help them more:

So the work sheet include the arabic alphabet and include the how do you spell it in english and this will help the students more, and it have some arabic vocabulary to make the understand easier, this time I taught the first group the fifth and fourth letter in arabic alphabet and how to write it and how to spell it, teaching is not an easy thing to do, now I can feel my teachers but it's one of the best things I did in my life no matter how much the students learn I will always be happy because I taught someone a letter or a word or even made him happy and I'm really sad that my volunteering is about to finish but I will keep visiting them and I will try my best to keep them learning some arabic and this thing makes me feel good about myself and it makes me feel sad at the same time because I will be away from the students for a long time but I will visit them for sure.