Community Service/Meetings

The community service that was performed at Arts High really gave me some personal information regarding the various different functions that occur within the different areas of the High School.  I began my community service by organizing the files of various students in the guidance office.  I was organizing the files by the year that the student took the HSPA exam.  As I skimmed through some of the files, I saw that some of the students had to take the exam more than once in order to pass it.  I personally do not believe that these standardized tests are pertinent information as it pertains to the future success of the students; but it was interesting to get a first hand glance of these scores.  The next day I helped Mr. Waldron (Athletic Director for Arts) by being a referee in the Junior/Senior Basketball Tournament that took place in the gymnasium.  This was a great experience because I was able to witness how the students interacted with each other and the administrators.  You were able to see the different types of students and the groups that they were a part of.  For instance, there was the group of arrogant students who acted like they knew it all; or the dance major students who did not participate in the game but were cheering everyone else on.  I loved this experience because I was able to interact with actual students and realized that I can control them if they get out of hand.  This is mainly because I can relate with their experiences and this allowed me to get some sort of respect from them.  It was very interesting to see that Mr. Waldron was able to run such a great tournament and control the large number of students with only one other member of the Arts High faculty helping him.

 As for the meetings, it was interesting to view the different aspects that go into running a Department within a High School.  The only problem with the Department Meeting that I attended was that there is not a Department Chairperson available at this point in time.  For the time being, there is an Interim Chairperson overseeing the Physical Education department.  As an unbiased observer, it seemed that there were many points of conflict within the Department and that there was some restructuring and organizing going on.  It was great to see a different perspective of the teaching experience because I was able to see how many different activities (i.e., grading, scheduling, and collaborating) a teacher has to take part in.  This proved that teacher’s job does not end when the bell rings because there is more to teaching then lesson plans and administering tests.  The final meeting that I attended was a meeting of the Athletic Department.  I enjoyed attending this meeting because I would like to become a coach in the future.  This meeting helped me realize that sports and academics go hand in hand.  There have been many changes that make this possible and I viewed it first hand at Arts High.  A student did not want to participate in gym class and because of this he was unable to participate in the School’s baseball game that was taking place after school.  These meetings gave me different perspectives from both sides of the school (athletics and academics) and I am very thankful and appreciative for it.