Service Learing

            Coaching at Deer Park Elementary School.
             My service - learning project was working with elementary school students (grades k - 5) at Deer Park Elementary School in the Physical Education department. Going into this project I thought it was going to be a breeze and that my leadership skills were going to just erupt and shine right away. This assumption turned out to be far from right. My first time out to the school I was a little timid and shy. I was basically just sitting back and doing what the P.E. coach told me to. I wasn't really interacting with the kids as much as I wanted to and I also think that I wasn't interacting as much as they wanted me to either. My leadership skills were turning inside me just waiting to burst out but for some reason I wasn't letting them. My second visit to the school I was like a whole different person. I had the feel for everything and everybody around me. I was much more active and interactive with the students. While I was working with the students I was not only displaying my leadership skills but I was also building close relationships with them. "There can be no friendship without confidence and no confidence without integrity" -Samuel Johnson (Covey 185). This quote is very true. Confidence is the key word in this quote. When a person has confidence in themselves as well as the others around them it makes for a good solid relationship. That quote not only made my confidence level rise it helped me understand how I could relate to the kids without necessarily having to be an authority figure. I told myself while entering this project that the first thing I will do is try to get the students to respect me as a person. The reason I wanted to do that first was so the students would trust me later in the class when I had to help them with drills and athletic skills. I also wanted them to be able to talk to me as if I was just another one of their friends and not a superior.