Reflection On Community Placement

My community placement is at Brampton Caledon Community Living. The community is mostly for adults and people with intellectual and physical disabilities. It works to support and empower all people in the area and it works alongside the community and families in the community. Most of the people that attend the program are adults that live with either their parent(s) or a family member (low income) in Bolton. To help reach out to and accommodate to families with lower income, the center charges a small fee for the adult to attend. In that time that the adult attends the program, they can experience activities inside/outside of the center (cooking, working, trips, apple picking, knitting, etc.), as well as attend academic classes to help develop

In the beginning, I was asked to sit with multiple adults, but was not told of their needs or accommodations. When I tried to socialize with them or help them, they would either react negatively or stare at me confused. I found this challenging for both the participant and myself because the participant is placed with a stranger and is expected to respect and follow along what they are telling/asking them to do, and the instructor goes in empty handed, not knowing anything about the student’s needs or learning style (they can have poor vision, cultural differences, language barriers, physical/intellectual disabilities). Another challenge I encountered was with the teaching methods from the instructor of the literacy program. We shared different beliefs in teaching and I found her methods to be very “by the book” and unengaging for the participants. Ghuman captures her way of teaching by describing the teacher being the ““academic” instructor who stood or sat at a distance from” the students, and the students are “asked to refer to instructions written on the board or to listen carefully to what they said” (2009). From being a student myself, I personally do not find learning beneficial when it is simply told to me. Instead of reinforcing the traditional teaching methods, I believe that students need to be active learners. Most people learn best when they are part of the learning process, have a voice in the discussion and can evaluate and reflect on their own learning. Furthermore, I also found it difficult to prepare and lead a lesson that was appropriate for the age group, yet not too difficult. From all the diverse backgrounds, learning styles and needs in the program, there were many obstacles that I had to overcome to create a lesson that would