Classroom Observation

Mrs. Phan has volunteered many hours at our local public schools. From the time I was in kindergarten through third grade, she came every week to my Hayfield Elementary classroom to do Thursday folders. When she came, she stuffed graded papers, fundraiser information, and newsletters into folders which were sent home every Thursday. This helped keep the parents of the students informed about how their child was doing and what was going on at school. Mrs. Phan also saved the teacher time that would’ve been spent filling up the folders. So the teacher could focus on class instruction. Mrs. Phan made a difference in my classroom by stuffing Thursday folders every week. Almost five years after my mom finished filling her last Thursday folder, she took up another volunteer opportunity at Springfield Estates Elementary School. At this time, my younger sister had just entered 4th grade to find that her school had been totally redone. She had a

Phan has always encouraged me to do service learning in the community by literally dragging me to where ever she thought appropriate. Last year, she convinced my sisters and me to come with her to pick up wreaths from solders’ graves in Arlington Cemetery after Christmas. From that memorable experience I know she always knows how to find service opportunities for us that will be lots of fun or “I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t like it.” So when I asked her for advice in the interview about finding service learning opportunities. She said, “First, figure out their skills are and what they like to do and look for volunteer opportunities that use that skill. For example, if you have swimming skills, then you could volunteer at the community swimming pool”. Mrs. Phan had a lot of good advice to share about service learning. In conclusion, Mrs. Phan has followed her own advice which has contributed to our local elementary school classrooms; by volunteering to stuff Thursday folders and file school library