Service learning is becoming more and more popular in schools today. Discuss the advantages and/or limitations of integrating service learning into your curriculum.
Would you include service learning in your lessons? Why or why not? (NOTE: Tie your response to the grade level of content area you plan to teach.)
I am a very big proponent of Service Learning as part of a school curriculum. I believe Service Learning provides an opportunity for students to engage in social learning in ways not available within the school walls. When students are participating in Service Learning projects that deal with the disparity in SES within their community they receive lessons in Social Science that apply to real life with understanding the students could never receive within the classroom curriculum.
The disadvantages of Service Learning are usually based within the motivation of the students to engage in the projects. Students tend to see Service Learning as an unnecessary (and unwanted) extra curricular requirement. They enter into it with a negative attitude and a resistance to learning. Most students come around to the positive side once they are emersed in the project and start to experience the self-satisfaction that comes from helping others. Some students however never move beyond using the opportunity for providing humor at the expense of others.
I intend on utilizing Service Learning in my Elementary School Resource Room. I believe Service Learning allows my students the opportunity to generalize many of the social and communication skills that we will be working on as remediation for their disabilities. I also believe that Service Learning opportunities can provide my students with special needs the chance to be on the giving side of helping others and the chance to benefit from a lift in self-esteem, an improved sense of ability, and a renewed sense of self-confidence.
The school district in which my son attends school instituted a mandatory Service Learning requirement for graduation a few years ago. There was quite an uproar from a few parents and many of the students who felt that this was an unnecessary burden. The district stuck to their plan and now it is considered a success and is enjoyed by the students. I was actually gazing out the window of the Elementary Classroom I was subbing in yesterday, watching a group of the High School students cleaning up the yard and doing minor repairs on a house across the street (where an elderly woman resides). The students were enjoying the camaraderie and the beautiful fall weather and the woman was enjoying “mothering” the lot of them. Of course the students in my classroom couldn’t keep focus off the High School students until I closed all the blinds…
I am very much for service learning in the schools and in my classroom. Service learning opens up a students compassion, imagination, skills in cognitive and cooperative learning and helps them become a person who is engaging within their community. Students from these groups are able to take a variety of things they have learned with them throughout life. Some of the advantages in doing this are learning civic responsibilities, teamwork skills, community involvement, engage in problem setting and solving areas and helps them have a deeper knowing of their community and learn from it. Some of the disadvantages are from within the community, from each other or not having the will to do anything. Some community members may not want to put up with students doing anything for them and see it as a waste of time and of no point. Students might have to start from scratch, without support from the community and show their deetermination to get something started in the community. In my 4th grade classroom I plan on using Service Learning as a way to get students involved with our community and environment around them. One way would be through hosting a 9 week Kids that Harvest during harvest time. We would study about what comes from harvesting grain, how it is done, when did it start and then from there visit a grain elevator and some farms. To make it service and not just learning, we would bake bread made from grain we collected and studied from local farmers and send it along with our local Meals on Wheels Program. We wouldd then send our findings of our local grain to K-State where it would be compared with other grains from the area to see how we compare and share the findings with the community through newsletters from the school. Another Service Learnig experience would be to assist the highschool students when they are making our community house. Every year the highschool students and woodshop teacher build a house for a local family that has lost their home for any reason. If there is no family they build it and sell it. The proceeds go into an account for the next year. My 4th grade students could help by sweeping, cleaning up inside the house, providing lunch for the highschoolers or whatever they would need help with so that these younger students felt like they had accomplished helping out someone that had needed that extra bit of kindness. We have required students here to go out and do Service Learning before they can graduate. Some students help to take care of the 4H buildings and fair grounds, others volunteer with the special ed. students by taking the shopping, bowling or out to eat. These are all really great to see in the community and make you feel proud to see these students do these things.
Reply to Lyn B., I am so happy that your community did not give up on the idea of Service Learning and that you now have it. I wanted to tell you that my mom was a special ed. teacher and she had at one school 2 blind students, 1 with downs and another with cerebral palsy(sp?). Anyways she worked with them on counting money and had ordered the 2 blind students special wallets for their money. They had brail on the and different pockets for the different bills. After that they worked on manners of please, thank-yous and so on. Finally about a week before Christmas she decided to take them walking uptown to do some shopping. They had earned money from odd jobs at home and had permission to spend it...so they did! Anyways again, she took one of the blind students into a store and he had heard on his t.v. set at home about a cologne called Sex. So he walked over to the counter and said to the man, " Excuse me sir. I was wondering if I could buy some sex?" Till this day it still makes me laugh!! At least he was polite. They are still using her lessons in that specail ed. classroom and she keeps in touch with them yearly.
Service learning would be a good addition to my agriculture education classes. The students would learn from life experiences from men and women in the community. The knowledge taught in the classroom is great, but students can take that knowledge with them and incorporate it with experience in the community. Service learning will also help get the students names out into the community (and FFA in my situation). This may help with employment options if the community knows the work ethic of the students.
Some disadvantages would be that some students would not give all there effort to complete the service learning and only do the required time. It may also have to be done on free time of the student and not during a class period.
I would use service learning in my class. For my agriculture education classes (and FFA chapter) it could be incorporated anywhere.
In welding, the class could make panels for a rancher who is in need of replacing a sorting pen. Also, the FFA chapter can collect canned foods to help their local food banks. Highway cleanup is also a good service learning project.
Service learning projects will help the students realize the satisfaction of helping other people. It also helps to show students feel good about themselves. They have made a difference and more students need to get involved in their home community.
I like the idea that you presented about your fourth grade class helping with a high school woods class service learning project. This is another step toward community unity and cooperation.
I also agree that the community will feel proud of the students for helping them in any way. When the community shows pride it boosts the confidence and pride of the students. They will want to do more service learning and not be apt to stop after they complete the requirement.
My high school did not require service learning. I think if they did, like your school, more students would have appreciated the lifestyle that keeps my home community running, agruculture.
Service learning can provide ample opportunity for students to involve themselves with the social world and increases their social skills. Service learning also helps students learn more about a certain area they might be interested in. This can also serve as an after school activity that can keep students out of trouble.
However, student service can be a hinderance to the students grades. Some students may not take the hourse seriously and depending on what the student has going on after school already, may not have time for them.
I do not plan to use service hours in my class. Firstly, I understand that sometimes there are situations, either with family or work or something else, which would make doing service hours difficult. I would really like to involve service learning in my classroom, but I don't think it would be more of a problem.
I like your idea of using service learning in your class. It would work well in your field of study. I think that service learning is an important way to help students learn more about real world situations.
However, I don't believe that service learning would be fit for all classrooms. It would be difficult for some students to find a service that is related to their feild of study. Also, like you stated, it would be hard for some students to be motivated to complete these hourse.
I like your presenting involvement in the community as a major plus of service learning. I know the Social Studies standards require students to learn about their community, but that doesn’t mean they actually learn to be involved in their community. Even if they would want to be involved in their community, they might not know how to start. Service learning does provide us the opportunity to show our students how to go about becoming involved in the community.
Do you think the district would let the 4th graders clean up at the construction site? I wonder what the legalities of that would be.
Okay, I am laughing like crazy now. This is why I love working with kids. The show you the world from a pure perspective and we are all better people for it. Glad to know you have a super role model for a special education teacher!
Unfortunately, whatever the lesson, some students will never put their best effort forward, and therefore not gain everything than can from a learning experience. The highway clean up is a good project. My son’s school does it every year the week before the state fair. The highway is only a block from their school. The kids have such pride as they are cleaning up their own neighborhood as well, and they get to see the results every day as they come and go from school.
Interesting take on service learning. I think the concept to improving their social skills is good, as well as enhancing their knowledge regarding things they are already interested in. I am certain students would be more involved in service learning projects if the projects involved concepts they were interested in.
Do you think Service Learning should be part of the requirement for the Social Studies standards in order for students to truly understand the concepts of being a citizen in a community?
One of the main advantages that I see from a service learning project, for all ages, is what the text called an “ethic of care.” Although many students are raised with this ethic, there are still many students that are never encouraged to do something for others and probably wouldn’t even think about going out of their way to do something for the community or someone they don’t know. I will be working with younger children, probably preschool age, so service learning projects for my class might be a little different than older grades.
The first thing that comes to my mind for preschool students is raising money for a cause or making cards to send to people. When the tornado hit Greensburg May 2007, our church and other organizations received multiple cards from school age children from all over. I really enjoyed these cards, especially because I just have a heart for kids and appreciated their thoughtfulness. We could also use this approach to send to elders in the community or school that are ill, not doing well, etc. I come from a small town, so even though it may not be realistic in some areas, the senior citizens here would love to receive the cards and would even know most of the kids (or at least their parents). We could also do a money or material drive to help specific causes. In addition to helping or encouraging others, I think most of the students will feel good and be very excited to help out in such a way. Being a part of something bigger and helping others opens individuals’ eyes to a perspective they may not have ever seen and helps make a well-rounded child in areas other than just reading, writing, etc.
Some might see service learning as a waste of time that takes away from academic activities, but I think it is an extremely important part of education. All individuals need to care or have a heart for others, regardless of what they do after they graduate; however, not every student is going to need the academic skills they are taught in school. Both aspects of education should be considered and addressed, and I think by starting as young as preschool, the results can only improve. If we don’t try to encourage caring and kind-hearted students throughout the school system, how can we complain about ‘kids these days’ who only care about themselves and participate in destructive activities?
I agree that service learning projects provide students with information while teaching them in a way that they could never get inside the general curriculum. I can imagine that there would be some disagreements when the requirement was introduced to your son’s school, but this is even more reason that it needs to be included. The parents who opposed it probably had not instilled an “ethic of care,” as the text stated, in their children. This is precisely why it’s necessary for the school to do it. I’m glad the school stuck with it, even with the opposition.
I do believe that in order for the service learning hours to be effective, they should relate to the class they are required for.
As far as social studies service hours, in order to find out for themselves how to be a better member of the community, they could involve themselves with helping those students who are not native to the region. I know here in Hays, there is a high amount of diversity. Involving the students in the international student community will teach them more about other cultures and how to accept diversity. If you wanted to focus more on the community as a whole, involve them with environmental groups that go around and clean parks and open lots. This will teach your students about the area they live in and the historical value of the community.
Service-Learning is a teaching and learning strategy that provides several advantages. It connects students with the community; it integrates meaningful community service with instruction to enrich student’s learning experience; it teaches students about civic responsibility; promotes personal and social development; strengthens communities and exposes the students to different careers.
I plan to teach 4th or 5th grade and I believe integrating service learning in the curriculum would provide the students with an exciting, hands-on approach to education. For example, I might include a recycling project during science where the students might have to work with preschoolers and their parents to increase their knowledge and participation in recycling.
At my kid’s school, 4th and 5th graders get an opportunity to participate in a service learning called the Magellan Project. Through this project, the students capitalize on the international and multicultural nature of the school. They complete various projects in the community and every year, there is a new theme for the students to work on. Last year the students worked on raising money for World Peace. It was amazing! I believe no matter what the service learning is, teachers should integrate service learning into the curriculum because it allows the students to become actively engage in learning.
I think the main limitation with service learning is that teachers, students and parents have to be committed to the project in order for it to be successful.
RE: Lyn B. Great response! I also think service learning provides students with real life experiences. In addition, the students get to interact and help people in the community no matter what ethnic and cultural background they belong to.
Re: Jennifer Great ideas! I think service learning like what you included will definitely be appreciated and very importantly, it will instill a lifetime of values for the students.
Reply to Lyn, I think it would depend on what constuction they would be cleaning up. If it was just picking up the trash and sweeping then I think it would be great for them to do it. Of course there would have to be parent permission forms signed, but I believe it would be such a great learning experience for them. They could go in small groups and be paired up with a highschooler to walk them around as they pick up things. Just thinking here ;).
I think that service learning is a new and exciting way to connect what is learned in the classroom to the community. I believe that the biggest misconception of service learning is that it is the same as community service.
Service learning has several advantages, such as teaching students to give back, showing relevance, connecting content to the real world, and much more. I think the main disadvantages of service learning would occur when the project is not planned or tied into the content.
I would like to do service learning in my business and computer classes. I feel that there are several things that my computer students could do. One idea I’ve had is having them work at the Senior Center, teaching basic internet, or e-mail tools. I struggle finding a service-learning project for my accounting classes, that would be at their level, and tie into the content that I have to cover.
The "ethic of care" is a great point that I left out of my post. So many kids are not brought up to give to others, so it is wonderful, if we can help foster that in the children we teach.
My son's school had a "penny" drive for many of the disasters that have occurred recently, including Greensburg. I think it's wonderful to give kids a chance to help out!
I can see your point about how service learning can negatively impact grades, and with all the focus on AYP, graduation rates, and meeting other critera, administration may not be as supportive. I do think service-learning can be implemented within the curriculum effectively, but you are right about some of the negatives of using it as an after class activity. I'm just curious, What do you plan on teaching?
Jacque Schawe said I think that Service Learning is a great opportunity to help the students involve themselves and do what is right. This helps increase their social skills and also their knowledge about the world. The service learning projects for example in our school is recycling; this helps them learn how to keep the earth clean and free of trash and things. This can also help them in other service activities at school to help them get involved in their community. I feel that students should be proud for helping other students in this way and take pride in what they are doing. When the people in our community notice that students care and take pride in their work this helps the town grow such as ours. Our high school does require service learning. They also keep students very involved in the community and I am glad. In the classroom that I have they also do recycling and they are very happy to do that as well.
Jacque Schawe replied: I agree that AYP and also grades and graduation rates often affect AYP. I know that this does affect that but I do feel that in the graduation requirement they should be implemented correctly. I also think that if the school offers these kinds of projects then this also helps the students get to have a job in the community later on and also become better citizens.
Regarding the question of whether I would integrate service learning into the curriculum, my answer is a yes and no. I intend on teaching elementary aged students. I believe that it is important to expose them to different issues and experiences. Surely it is great to give students opportunities to see things from different viewpoints. This helps develop many social skills necessary for the real world. That being said, is this really the classroom teacher's job? Where do we draw the line about what is our responsibility and what is the parent responsibility? Our day is already jammed packed with teaching the core subjects as it is. Where would we fit that in? It would have to depend on the type of learning project and its real connection to learning. I will use the example of recycling. I could establish a center in the classroom for recycling and the class could make it a habit to sort and recycle items that would normally be thrown away, ie water bottles, paper... We could then take a field trip (virtual or real) to the recycling center to see where our items go. This would be something easy to do and easy to sneak into the curriculum. Plus, this could be a great connection to science. Now I will give another example. Let's use the book's example about serving soup at soup kitchens. Really? How will the students get there? Is this for a grade? Will it end up being a commitment the teacher ends up fulfilling? What if students serve their peers soup in the line? How does this tie into school? Don't get me wrong, I am all for volunteering and spend a lot of my time doing so. But, I volunteer through organizations such as my church. Students can volunteer for things through various organizations like Mallory suggested (FFA). I don't believe that this should be included in the curriculum. YIKES! And while I am on the topic of this, I don't like doing service learning at FHSU either. I think this is a waste of my time and don't see the benefits of it. I think in order for this to be beneficial, the service must fit the class. Example...last year I worked at a school carnival for my reading and social studies class. Then I had to pull a rabbit out of the hat so to speak and find a creative way to say how one related to the other in a reflection paper. This was dumb. Was it my fault? Yes, in a way. If I wanted to make the most of the service learning, I would have volunteered to read at the public library for a few hours until I met the requirement. I took the easy way out. But even if I read at the library, those few short hours would not have had a profound impact on how I interacted with the public. It was a check in the box. The text said it should be more than just a few hours in order to really create a successful learning experience. I am sure I come across sounding mean or uncaring or at worst, lazy. That is not the case. I guess I am just in a mood and get tired of people putting more and more pressure on teachers and expect us to raise their children with a sense of morality and values. I think that is the parents job. I should know because I am a parent and do not expect this from my children's teachers.
Lyn, I agree too that service learning, if used, should directly tie into the class subject. Did yours at FHSU? I think if FHSU continues to make service learning a practice, they need to have different stipulations so that the service matches the class. Do you agree?
I think service learning is a valuable integration to the curriculum. Service learning enhances academic achievement, promotes social and political development, improves tolerance and attitudes toward others and increases self-esteem and responsibility. I think it is a priceless experience to get students to think about the world around them and think beyond themselves. Students should realize their blessings and learn to help others that are less fortunate.
I definitely would like to include service learning in my 5th grade curriculum. I think this is a vital age for teaching tolerance and the need to help others. I think I would like to incorporate service learning in our own community as well as across the nation or even world. This enhances the idea of the global classroom as well. I would use service learning as an ongoing process throughout the school year. The students would be responsible for documenting successful/unsuccessful projects and attempt to help others. The idea for my class would be to allow the students to see their impact on the community and reflect upon their efforts as well as documenting their feelings about the service learning (whether they are positive or negative).
For community service learning projects the students might design an art mural for the elementary school and help the younger students paint it as well as helping tutor younger students. The class could partner with a local senior center and help by cooking, playing games, visiting, and drawing with each student’s assigned elderly person. The student might assist a local animal shelter with caring for the animals (feeding, walking, playing, grooming, etc) or the students might donate food and time to the local food bank.
For nationwide and global service learning the students could help raise funds and send supplies to victims of hurricane Katrina and other disasters. The students could each be assigned a soldier overseas to communicate with and send things to. The class may even get involved in projects such as sending old cell phones to soldiers to call home with. These ideas could also tie into the plans I have with assigning my students E-Pals from other nations.
I think that you have a great idea for service learning in computer classes. Elderly people tend to struggle with the idea of computers, internet and email. I think it is mostly fear of something so unknown to them. Helping them to see how easy and convenient these tools are could be very beneficial to elderly people. Have you also considered the virtual volunteering ideas on page 336 of your text book? These would be great ideas for computer classes as well.
As for accounting, could the students maybe assist lower income taxpayers with preparation of their tax returns and/or questions about paying their taxes? Maybe they could volunteer at a local accounting business during the busy tax season as well. Would it also be possible for them to assist older members of the community in managing their finances or something in that area? Just some thoughts….
I personally am a strong proponent of service learning in the school system - and probably all the more so because of my social work background. I think serving others - whether it be the community as a whole, a local family, or a younger student - is imperative to the responsibilites that are children need to learn to be good citizens of the United States. Our current generation seems to be such a "me" society - which is evident whenever I go somewhere and experience the customer service (or lack thereof). Our children need to realize how blessed they are and how it feels to give back to others who have less or who are experiencing great hardships in life. Our local school is very active in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program and allow the high schoolers to miss class to spend this time with their "little" over at the elementary class. It is actually written into their schedule. They also have two days a year (I wish it was more) where they try to find elderly individuals or others that might need help in the yard or with their homes. Although this is not a graduation requirement for our seniors, I do wish that a certain amount of service learning was required.
The main disadvantage I see to service learning is the one student who remains negative throughout the entire experience and is not swayed by what he/she has gone through. I think the negative attitude would be difficult, but it would mainly be concerning to me if this student was paired with a younger student or a person in the community with little supervision. This leads to the disadvantage of it being very time consuming for the teacher in charge of these experiences to make sure the students are on task and are acting appropriately to the people they are serving. It would also take time to grade the students' reflections on their service that the text suggests.
In teaching a first grade class, I think that it would be difficult to pursue this outside of the school. It could be stressed that we help each other in the classroom by doing kind things. Perhaps the class could adopt a soldier that we could send supplies to on a consistent basis, as well as become pen pals with him/her. I think small jobs - such as raking an elderly woman's yard or working in a garden (with great supervision) could be accomplished as well. So yes, it is possible, but would be on a different scale than that of the high school students.
I understand your frustration with feeling that parents should take more responsibility in the proper raising of their children in all areas (emotional, social, academic). As a social worker who worked in foster care, I too have seen "parents" who should never have had children. However, is this the child's fault? If the child's parents are unable to give that child the social and moral knowledge that the child needs - isn't it our responsibility to assist with this? If our true calling is to serve each child in our classroom, aren't we called to do what we can to make that child a productive part of society and succeed not only academically, but also turn out to be a "good" person? This is hitting home with me as our neighbors across the street communicate with each other via many choice four letter words. Their son, who is in my daughter's class, is literally in the principal's office almost every day. Why? He threatened to kill one of his classmates (my daughter), he curses (He is eight years old), he lies,and basically has no moral code. I look at the life he has led and see the teachers and the principal as the only people that will hopefully be able to instill a sense of respect for mankind in his heart.
I strong believe that service learning is great. Is allows students to develop skills and knowledge that can not be obtained with in the walls of the school. Having students participate in service learning helps them develop communication skills with others, responsibility, self respect, and independence. There are a few negatives to service learning; depending upon age/grade students may not have access to participate in service learning and/or lack the motivation to want to. If the students live in the country or rural areas there might not have the same opportunities of service learning as someone who lives in a major city.
I would love to include service learning in my lessons. It can be used at any grade level. You just have to make sure it is age appropriate. For example, I want to teach K-2, you could have kindergartners do art with the elderly, or 1st and 2nd grades read with elderly.
RE: Jessica T. I can see how it could present a problem, with participation. Students are very busy and have so much going any now a days that, it would be hard to get them to find the time. An idea for dealing with this is to, once a month or every other month have a class trip for a service learning activity. That way it can be done during school hours. It could also be where it is only done 2 times a year.
RE: Lyn, I like the idea of mandatory service learning at the HS level. When I was in HS it was not mandatory, but I choose to take a service learning class. None of my time was spent at the school. I got to chose what I wanted to do for it and had to meet certain guide lines and hours. I meet some incredible people, developed a lot of person skills, and learned a lot that would never have been taught with in the school walls.
Service learning is a great experience for everyone. However, with a class of second or third graders it is harder but it still can be done. The advantage of having students do a service learning project is that they feel like they should participate in the event since the outcome will be better than what the situation was before. A child is willing to take the risks to get a situation fixed, as adults we tend to already have tons on our plate so we put aside other projects that come up. So by adding service learning into my curriculum allows the students to have more pride in their community and allows the students to become more creative when helping society. However, since the students are only second or third graders the service learning projects are limited but like girl/boy scouts they can help out with the little situations that usually effects the bigger situations in society. I would love to include service learning into my lessons starting with how poverty effects the economic and then discuss ways to help (food drive, coat drive, etc.). By choosing to integrate service learning into my curriculum, this may make students become well-rounded with their attitudes towards helping out others and doing the right thing. Involving students with situations that happen throughout the world, may impact the students to start helping the elderly, make signs for voting or a cause, and adopt a mile of highway to clean or even just read a book to a younger child. I say by getting these students involved in service learning within a classroom at a young age will help them out as they grow up. The traits and attitudes learned from these experiences are life impacting. So for me, I’m going to be that teacher who helps the students become a well-rounded person.
Service Learning has become a huge part in the classroom. This is in part to how successful it is. I feel that even at a young age of 4 or 5 children should be learning about service learning. While I was in high school I volunteered over 1000 hours of my time. Service learning can be tied into any part of the curriculum. I would like to teach children in the 5th grade and with in this area of children there are so many service learning projects that can be completed. The first one that I think of is with History. Having children provide service at a historical landmark is very important. They can learn about the place while helping to get it cleaned. With English a child could go to a nursing home and read to an elderly person or they could draw a picture and put it on the wall. With Math being the hardest level to integrate it the idea that I continue to come up with is have them figure out an area of a space and the length of time that it would take a small group working together.
RE: Christine G, I agree with you that my passion for service learning come from my background. I think it is great that you have social work background and also agree with you that it is imperative for student to learn they must help someone else out too!
RE: Kirby W, I think it is great how you were able to do local, state, and national! That was a great way to put it out
I too think that service learning makes students into a well-rounded person. I also agree that students who live in the country do not have the same service learning opportunity as students who live in a town. Growing up I couldn’t do extra projects as my friends who lived in town did. However, the librarian did involve us with planting and growing flowers and grass for the school garden and I remember having tons of fun with that project. I love your idea of having kindergartners do art with the elderly and the first and second graders read with the elderly. Great ideas!
Re: Sarah Rhodes I see why you are frustrated but like Christine G said, it is not the child’s fault for having out of control parents. This summer I helped out a town in Oklahoma that only a few children had both parents raising them. The parents that the kids looked up to are in jail half of the time, jumping from bed to bed, doing drugs, or they couldn’t handle parenting anymore so the kids were shipped to grandma’s house to be raised. The education of these kids are poor because the adults don’t see hope in them. I went down there and gave them hope to succeed in life and their spirits were lifted. For me, I see that teaching is a second home to kids and that as teachers we should give them what they need even if that means an arm and a leg to make them change. School maybe their only opportunity to improve their lives. Being a teacher is not easy, if you’re looking for an easy and not challenging job than you have the wrong profession.
Having performed many service learning projects with my students I can tell you that I am a big fan of service learning. The biggest reason is that it develops a servant's heart in students. In a "me-centric" society, it is a great tool to teach kids perspective in life. In my leadership classes, we have performed two service fundraising projects. One was a Sportin for Leukemia project last year were our athletic teams raised money through pledges. We also ran a dance and had sponsors to make money. The project made $8,000 for their work. This year, we made over $10,000 on a similar project. We put on a community block party where we had games for little kids, live music and a drive-in movie. At our school, we also do an annual Community Service Day where our teachers draft kids and they sign up to do various work projects for our community. These projects bond our school and community. I feel that our community members have a new found respect for our school and our students. This type of learning is great because every student can get involved. It does not limit them by them being frustrated with content material. The concept of giving is really the biggest lesson you can give a student.
RE: Amanda S. I love the fact that you are trying to incorporate service learning in with the younger children. Yes, it can be difficult to find that right project for a younger age, but it can be very beneficial in the long run. I know students that have been involved in service learning at a young age will gain such an advantage over others that have not because their perspective will be much larger.
RE: Lyn I agree with your assessment that there is such a benefit from service learning. When we did ours the first time, we had a few who "balked" at the idea, but after the day was over they really enjoyed it. The second year that we did it the kids were fired up. I built a rock garden with some students that typically get in trouble quite a bit. Those students worked so hard and were so proud of their work. They are going to be laborers as they get older and they showed me that they will be very successful.
I am for Service Learning, especially when multiple subjects can be used together. As a physical education teacher there are many opportunities to help out in the community that involve physical labor. Some of the advantages of incorporating service learning are community involvement and getting students more interested in what they are learning in the classroom by putting their knowledge to use. Some limitations would include some students doing more than others, and the interest level of those students that would not participate as much. This would also be a lesson that would not be able to be completed in one class period so as a teacher I would either have to schedule multiple days to work on a service learning project or talk with other teachers about incorporating all their classes together for a day or two. At either the middle or high school level I think a service learning project would benefit the students. I think the students would be more able to do the physical labor at the high school setting, but there are community needs that middle school students could perform as well as part of a physical education curriculum.
I definitely agree with the students being willing to do this and it being more on the adults of putting something like this aside because of other involvements and class projects. I think involving young students, even second and third graders would be great for character building, and for them to understand what is going on in their community all around them. I definitely agree that this would be a great tool to help build well-rounded members of society out of our students.
I definitely think that service learning is important to all grades. Being able to help out in the community and teach students that it is important from an early age is key. I always enjoyed getting to help in my community when it came to school because it gave me a great feeling of accomplishment. I hope to teach in the primary grades or special education. Either way I feel that it is imperative that students have some service learning. One way that I plan to do service learning is to have the students make crafts and artwork to take to nursing homes. I used to love doing this and it was an even greater experience when we got to deliver them. Watching their faces light up was amazing. I think that any student can participate in arts and crafts and even the littlest of abilities would be appreciated by residents. I would also like to do a trash pick-up. With the younger grades and special education you could just pick up trash on the school playground, you wouldn't have to leave and you could incorporate a recycling unit to it.
It sounds like you have some great ideas that you got from your leadership classes. I love the idea of a block party to raise money. Who would have thought to have fun and games for kids be a fundraiser for the community. I also think it would be neat to try and host some sort of walk-a-thon that could take place during recesses and such. Students could collect money to pledge so many laps around the playground or blacktop.
Including service learning in the curriculum can provide many opportunities that otherwise wouldn’t be present. It also allows the teachers to integrate it into different areas of study allowing them to broaden the students’ knowledge and understanding. By using service learning students are becoming more aware of their surroundings and creating their own moral development. It places them in situations they may be unfamiliar with, and allows for new ideas and new relationships. Even more importantly, I feel that service learning teaches students to become more tolerant of those who may be different than them, or who may not live the way they do. The downfall to this, however, is that students may be apprehensive to the idea of being put in unfamiliar environments. They might also lack the motivation and enthusiasm to participate which may create more work for others. Besides the few limitations to service learning I would find it beneficial to include it in my lessons. However, since I would like to teach kindergarten I don’t think as many opportunities would be available as they are in higher grades. There are still activities we could do, such as having a food drive at Christmas to help Genesis or adopting a family to help in many different ways throughout the year. You could create lessons that tie into the activity you are performing at that time. Overall I feel that regardless of the grade level service learning would benefit the students.
Brandon P., I also feel that kids today feel more entitled and concerned about themselves rather than others. Service learning would give them a greater appreciation for others and a broader perspective on life. They also learn how it feels to provide something for someone else. The service learning projects you have been involved with seem very helpful and beneficial for others. They also were very creative.
I think that service learning projects are important for children to learn and understand. I think it is great to teach the "hidden curriculum". Students can learn team work and develop leadership skills in service learning projects. They can also learn empathy,compassion, community and global pride while working on certain projects. The disadvantage to these projects is that are time consuming and take a deep commitment from the students, teachers, and community. Many times people are not responsive to some student projects and look at them as a burden instead of a good teaching lesson. Some students may also not like to participate, but that is the teachers jobs to find ways to activley engage them and show them that community service can be fun and beneficial to all.
I plan to teach upper elementary and junior high. I think that a service learning project that I would do would be to adopt a grandparent at a local nursing home. We could our incorporate English lessons while writing letters to our grandparents. We could also visit them and play games with them some afternoons. This teaches social skills and respect for the elderly. I would also ask the residents to teach history lessons to our students. We could speak to them and interview them about certain aspects of history that we are learning about. I think that this would be fun for the elderly as well as the students. This is a project that students can still learn and use in the classroom. We could also incorporate art by making cards for them.
RE: Sarah Rhodes I do think it is our job as teachers to teach social skills. It is sad to say but many parents do not teach these skills at home. It may not be our job specifically, but if we do not do it then many students will not get it at all. Many parents are not actively engaged in teaching their children these skills and I feel it is our job to teach them.
RE: Jessica T I also feel that finding the time to do service projects could be difficult for some students. It seems that students are into everything from FCA to KAY club and all the sports. I think it is important for a school to find the time and for students to learn to budget their time wisely. My dad is a basketball coach in Salina, Kansas and every year his team helps take down the Christmas light in downtown Salina. It is demanding to find the time, but for most projects if they are well planned in advance people will undertand the time it takes. Students must learn to budget thier time to do good deeds. It is a life lesson I think is important to learn.
I am a huge fan of service learning. There are just some lessons that students cannot learn in the classroom. For as long as I can remember I have been volunteering for my local community. I love giving back to my community and I want my students to understand how rewarding volunteering can be.
I would defiantly include service learning in my lessons. It is a great topic for social studies. Currently I am in a second grade internship and my students are learning about community. What better way to learn about community then through a service learning event. When the different components of the community come together, the students can learn first hand who creates a community.
There are many advantages to service learning. First service learning helps students to think of others. Second giving back to the community can help introduce the students to new experiences. For example if students from Kansas were to volunteer to help rebuild Greensburg, they might be able to empathize with the students who lost their belongings. I have a difficult time finding anything negative with service learning other than a lack of community support. If the community has a negative attitude about service learning then the students will develop negative attitudes. This can be avoided with the proper public relations.
Service learning integrated in the school curriculum is very important in my eyes. Service learning allows students to be social with other groups that they might not naturally socialize with and it also allows them to do something for their community. This allows students to take their textbook learnings and apply them hands on to real life situations. Service learning allows students to take their education up a notch.
The only disadvantages of service learning that I can really think of are students not being willing to open up and participate and advance their learnings. If a student doesn't allow themselves to be of service to their community and tie that service to their school learnings, the service learning curriculum will not meet the objectives of the project. There has to be a purpose to the service learning project in order for it to be integrated with the textbook curriculum.
If appropriate, I will definately consider including service learning into my lessons. By participating in a service learning project, the students are learning how to socially interract with different groups in school and in the community. Students get to put the information they have been learning from a textbook into a hands on situation. Service learning can also give students a connection to their community that they may or may not get to opportunity to do otherwise. This could be tied to lessons for 4th graders dealing with social skills, social studies when discussing communities. As discussed by others in the class, the school that I went to also used to have a community service day where all of the students were split up into teams and then businesses in teh community came up with projects that could be done to better to appearance of their business thus bettering the appearance of our community. Students were grouped with several adults whom they worked with all day.
I agree that it's hard to come up with quality service learning projects for the young students. I think that teaching the students about donating items and time to better those in your community is the most important step. Starting early will only make this more natural to students. Having young students bring in toys, clothing, food etc. and then letting them go as a group to deliver these things to the designated drop off zone, or even having someone from there come in and talk to the students about how the things they bring in benefit others is a wonderful service learning project.
Brandon, It's sad to thing that kids these days are more centered on themselves than those around them. I see this so often in the schools today where I work. I wonder where the big turn started? Hopefully by starting students young with service learning projects where they are helping others will turn children into people who care about those around them versus just themselves.
You do not sound mean, uncaring, or lazy! You make a good point. As teachers we do take on more and more. It can be over whelming. I never thought about if a group of students were to give a fellow student soup at a soup kitchen. That would be horrible. You made many creative points. Way to think outside the box!
I am very much a proponent for service learning in the school systems. First of all this teaches our students the responsibility that everyone carries to make this world revolve. Students who engage in service activities have a sense of pride for their community and neighbors and are less likely to engage in destructive behaviors. Students learn the properties of teamwork. These advantages is why service learning will continue to be a part of our curriculum.
There are disadvantages to service learning. First, service projects may take a lot of time away from reading, math, and arithmatic. Also, it is difficult to include everyone in service projects, especially those who have disabilities. In larger school districts, it may be difficult to transport all students. Materials may become expensive.
I plan on teaching upper elementary levels and do anticipate service learning projects. I may choose to use several short-term projects, though. Some projects I can think of include: city cleanup, planting a community garden, collecting food for food banks, and singing in nursing homes. I would like to tie these service projects to the classroom material that is being studied. For instance, if were were learing about plant nutrition, my students could plant trees around the community. If we were singing to the elderly, we could discuss the death and dying process and how cultures vary.
SarahR, You have made some great points in your blog regarding the topic at hand. However, I think that each community has it's own boundaries when it comes to service projects, and right now it is kinda hard to determine if I will incorporate these projects without knowing the demographics of the community. Obviously in my hometown of 200 residents, we do not have soup kitchens, so more than likely I will never cross that bridge of serving my own student. But what a dilema if I did!! I am in agreence with you in that the project should fit the curriculum and what is being studied. In a fourth grade class, I have envisioned lessons on plant growth while planting a community garden. My final advice to you Sarah is to please do not completly block this idea out without first knowing your demographics.
I feel that service learning is important for every age of students. Not only does it show students real life experiences, but it also shares a valuable opportunity in the curriculum. It also teaches students to get involved in the community, and learn the value of “giving back” I plan to teach elementary, and would prefer a younger grade. It I was working with emergent readers, we would practice our reading skills to younger students, perhaps in a preschool/nursery school. The elementary students would be giving back to the community by taking time to read with kids. This would also benefit the elementary students by practicing reading skills, learning to read fluently, and gain comprehension. Another idea would be to read to adults in a nursing home. The adults would benefit from the company, and enjoy seeing the students. Again, the students would benefit from reading aloud. Before taking the students out of the classroom, I would make sure that there were plenty of adults to help monitor the students while reading. After returning to the classroom, the emerging readers/writers could also reflect upon their service learning experience, and write about their trip.
Liz: I agree that a problem would be that students are not willing to open up and participate. I think it would also be a problem for students who are not willing to participate to get into trouble while on a group outing or service learning project (especially in the upper elementary school level). However, I think it is important for students to learn the idea of helping others, and feel the sense of accomplishment.
Responding to Christine G and Amanda S. I NEVER said that I am not for teaching social skills, because I think we should. However, I do not think that service learning is the way to go about it. Whatever happened to old fashioned modeling of the behavior on a daily basis. I have kids at my house whose parents "jump from bed to bed" and act irresponsibly. However, I can make an impact in their lives by just being me and opening up my home. I have many kids like that in my youth group as well that take themselves to our group. They take themselves and the parents have zero involvement. THIS is what I mean about it not necessarily being the school's responsibility. It is one of a moral responsibility of the entire community. Students that I have worked with before and those that I interact with on a daily basis see how I interact with others on a daily basis and use me as a model for how they should be as well. An addition into the curriculum is not needed for this. It is an automatic. We can squeeze in service learning types of things everyday into our lives without attaching a name to it. It's called teaching compassion and love towards our neighbor by EXAMPLE. I am NOT against teaching social skills. Adding it to an already jammed packed curriculum is what I think is unrealistic. Amanda..how dare you incinuate that I am lazy or choosing education as an easy way out. you were way out of line with that comment and unprofessional. I was very offended.
Lacey K I like your idea regarding the garden and think that is great! I can see doing THIS kind of "service learning" because you can tie it into science etc... and you can do it during school hours. My point was that where do we find the time for all of these extra responsibilities? My plan is to teach love and compassion in every way possible that I can think of. Surely our students are lacking in this when you consider the violence in our schools. However, I just don't agree that service learning to the extent that the text mentioned where you actually serve soup (in the evenings I presume) on a regular basis to others is being realistic. I think this need should be filled by church youth groups (which I lead), or other community organizations. I plan on giving my students 110% but at some point there has to be a line. That was all I was saying.
Good job of thinking outside the box on the Service Learning concept of the mural. I have actually set up to do an interim project during spring break at one of my schools to paint a mural of the planets on a hallway wall. I wonder now if maybe having my students paint a mural on the hallway wall of a citizens center might not be a better idea. Perhaps if we did a mural about the historical buildings/locations in our town we could do a service learning and history project at the same time.
You made a good point by bringing up transportation costs. My school districts have all cut back drastically on their field trips (I am going to personally fund one for my son’s class so that they can get that experience). I hadn’t realized before that the cost of gas and driver is usually half of what a field trip costs. Service learning would run into the same expenses in that respect.
Materials may be a different story. I imagine you might be able to get local businesses to sponsor your service learning project and provide supplies.
I think service learning is a great opportunity for students to be involved in the community. It allows my business students to get experience with those in the workforce and get hands on training. The students get to work on community projects and get full credit for their work. Our students get to use their talents to design, maintain and update the city website. We have had students work as a group to help with the campaign of city officials. We have also had students work in groups to develop a plan and budget for a new playground for the city park. The students get lots of experience with real world projects and enhance their social skills. Service learning may not work for every teacher. If you find a way to include everyone and be able to implement reading, writing and math into these projects, you will have great success.
Re: Sarah Rhodes I'm sorry, I wasn't meaning to offend you, or say that you are lazy in any way. At that time I was thinking of those people who think that teaching is the easiest job and those "teachers" are just there for the benefits and not for the kids which really irritates me. I tried to take the post off but I can't so I'm sorry that I worded it wrong.
Service learning is becoming more and more popular in schools today. Discuss the advantages and/or limitations of integrating service learning into your curriculum.
ReplyDeleteWould you include service learning in your lessons? Why or why not? (NOTE: Tie your response to the grade level of content area you plan to teach.)
This blog is due October 22.
I am a very big proponent of Service Learning as part of a school curriculum. I believe Service Learning provides an opportunity for students to engage in social learning in ways not available within the school walls. When students are participating in Service Learning projects that deal with the disparity in SES within their community they receive lessons in Social Science that apply to real life with understanding the students could never receive within the classroom curriculum.
ReplyDeleteThe disadvantages of Service Learning are usually based within the motivation of the students to engage in the projects. Students tend to see Service Learning as an unnecessary (and unwanted) extra curricular requirement. They enter into it with a negative attitude and a resistance to learning. Most students come around to the positive side once they are emersed in the project and start to experience the self-satisfaction that comes from helping others. Some students however never move beyond using the opportunity for providing humor at the expense of others.
I intend on utilizing Service Learning in my Elementary School Resource Room. I believe Service Learning allows my students the opportunity to generalize many of the social and communication skills that we will be working on as remediation for their disabilities. I also believe that Service Learning opportunities can provide my students with special needs the chance to be on the giving side of helping others and the chance to benefit from a lift in self-esteem, an improved sense of ability, and a renewed sense of self-confidence.
The school district in which my son attends school instituted a mandatory Service Learning requirement for graduation a few years ago. There was quite an uproar from a few parents and many of the students who felt that this was an unnecessary burden. The district stuck to their plan and now it is considered a success and is enjoyed by the students. I was actually gazing out the window of the Elementary Classroom I was subbing in yesterday, watching a group of the High School students cleaning up the yard and doing minor repairs on a house across the street (where an elderly woman resides). The students were enjoying the camaraderie and the beautiful fall weather and the woman was enjoying “mothering” the lot of them. Of course the students in my classroom couldn’t keep focus off the High School students until I closed all the blinds…
I am very much for service learning in the schools and in my classroom. Service learning opens up a students compassion, imagination, skills in cognitive and cooperative learning and helps them become a person who is engaging within their community. Students from these groups are able to take a variety of things they have learned with them throughout life.
ReplyDeleteSome of the advantages in doing this are learning civic responsibilities, teamwork skills, community involvement, engage in problem setting and solving areas and helps them have a deeper knowing of their community and learn from it.
Some of the disadvantages are from within the community, from each other or not having the will to do anything. Some community members may not want to put up with students doing anything for them and see it as a waste of time and of no point. Students might have to start from scratch, without support from the community and show their deetermination to get something started in the community.
In my 4th grade classroom I plan on using Service Learning as a way to get students involved with our community and environment around them. One way would be through hosting a 9 week Kids that Harvest during harvest time. We would study about what comes from harvesting grain, how it is done, when did it start and then from there visit a grain elevator and some farms. To make it service and not just learning, we would bake bread made from grain we collected and studied from local farmers and send it along with our local Meals on Wheels Program. We wouldd then send our findings of our local grain to K-State where it would be compared with other grains from the area to see how we compare and share the findings with the community through newsletters from the school.
Another Service Learnig experience would be to assist the highschool students when they are making our community house. Every year the highschool students and woodshop teacher build a house for a local family that has lost their home for any reason. If there is no family they build it and sell it. The proceeds go into an account for the next year. My 4th grade students could help by sweeping, cleaning up inside the house, providing lunch for the highschoolers or whatever they would need help with so that these younger students felt like they had accomplished helping out someone that had needed that extra bit of kindness.
We have required students here to go out and do Service Learning before they can graduate. Some students help to take care of the 4H buildings and fair grounds, others volunteer with the special ed. students by taking the shopping, bowling or out to eat. These are all really great to see in the community and make you feel proud to see these students do these things.
Reply to Lyn B.,
ReplyDeleteI am so happy that your community did not give up on the idea of Service Learning and that you now have it. I wanted to tell you that my mom was a special ed. teacher and she had at one school 2 blind students, 1 with downs and another with cerebral palsy(sp?).
Anyways she worked with them on counting money and had ordered the 2 blind students special wallets for their money. They had brail on the and different pockets for the different bills. After that they worked on manners of please, thank-yous and so on.
Finally about a week before Christmas she decided to take them walking uptown to do some shopping. They had earned money from odd jobs at home and had permission to spend it...so they did! Anyways again, she took one of the blind students into a store and he had heard on his t.v. set at home about a cologne called Sex. So he walked over to the counter and said to the man, " Excuse me sir. I was wondering if I could buy some sex?" Till this day it still makes me laugh!! At least he was polite. They are still using her lessons in that specail ed. classroom and she keeps in touch with them yearly.
Service learning would be a good addition to my agriculture education classes. The students would learn from life experiences from men and women in the community. The knowledge taught in the classroom is great, but students can take that knowledge with them and incorporate it with experience in the community. Service learning will also help get the students names out into the community (and FFA in my situation). This may help with employment options if the community knows the work ethic of the students.
ReplyDeleteSome disadvantages would be that some students would not give all there effort to complete the service learning and only do the required time. It may also have to be done on free time of the student and not during a class period.
I would use service learning in my class. For my agriculture education classes (and FFA chapter) it could be incorporated anywhere.
In welding, the class could make panels for a rancher who is in need of replacing a sorting pen. Also, the FFA chapter can collect canned foods to help their local food banks. Highway cleanup is also a good service learning project.
Service learning projects will help the students realize the satisfaction of helping other people. It also helps to show students feel good about themselves. They have made a difference and more students need to get involved in their home community.
RE Jennifer R.:
ReplyDeleteI like the idea that you presented about your fourth grade class helping with a high school woods class service learning project. This is another step toward community unity and cooperation.
I also agree that the community will feel proud of the students for helping them in any way. When the community shows pride it boosts the confidence and pride of the students. They will want to do more service learning and not be apt to stop after they complete the requirement.
My high school did not require service learning. I think if they did, like your school, more students would have appreciated the lifestyle that keeps my home community running, agruculture.
Service learning can provide ample opportunity for students to involve themselves with the social world and increases their social skills. Service learning also helps students learn more about a certain area they might be interested in. This can also serve as an after school activity that can keep students out of trouble.
ReplyDeleteHowever, student service can be a hinderance to the students grades. Some students may not take the hourse seriously and depending on what the student has going on after school already, may not have time for them.
I do not plan to use service hours in my class. Firstly, I understand that sometimes there are situations, either with family or work or something else, which would make doing service hours difficult. I would really like to involve service learning in my classroom, but I don't think it would be more of a problem.
RE: Mallory
ReplyDeleteI like your idea of using service learning in your class. It would work well in your field of study. I think that service learning is an important way to help students learn more about real world situations.
However, I don't believe that service learning would be fit for all classrooms. It would be difficult for some students to find a service that is related to their feild of study. Also, like you stated, it would be hard for some students to be motivated to complete these hourse.
RE: Jennifer
ReplyDeleteI like your presenting involvement in the community as a major plus of service learning. I know the Social Studies standards require students to learn about their community, but that doesn’t mean they actually learn to be involved in their community. Even if they would want to be involved in their community, they might not know how to start. Service learning does provide us the opportunity to show our students how to go about becoming involved in the community.
Do you think the district would let the 4th graders clean up at the construction site? I wonder what the legalities of that would be.
Lyn
RE: Jennifer reply to me
ReplyDeleteOkay, I am laughing like crazy now. This is why I love working with kids. The show you the world from a pure perspective and we are all better people for it. Glad to know you have a super role model for a special education teacher!
Lyn
RE: Mallory
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, whatever the lesson, some students will never put their best effort forward, and therefore not gain everything than can from a learning experience. The highway clean up is a good project. My son’s school does it every year the week before the state fair. The highway is only a block from their school. The kids have such pride as they are cleaning up their own neighborhood as well, and they get to see the results every day as they come and go from school.
Lyn
RE: Jessica
ReplyDeleteInteresting take on service learning. I think the concept to improving their social skills is good, as well as enhancing their knowledge regarding things they are already interested in. I am certain students would be more involved in service learning projects if the projects involved concepts they were interested in.
Do you think Service Learning should be part of the requirement for the Social Studies standards in order for students to truly understand the concepts of being a citizen in a community?
Lyn
One of the main advantages that I see from a service learning project, for all ages, is what the text called an “ethic of care.” Although many students are raised with this ethic, there are still many students that are never encouraged to do something for others and probably wouldn’t even think about going out of their way to do something for the community or someone they don’t know. I will be working with younger children, probably preschool age, so service learning projects for my class might be a little different than older grades.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing that comes to my mind for preschool students is raising money for a cause or making cards to send to people. When the tornado hit Greensburg May 2007, our church and other organizations received multiple cards from school age children from all over. I really enjoyed these cards, especially because I just have a heart for kids and appreciated their thoughtfulness. We could also use this approach to send to elders in the community or school that are ill, not doing well, etc. I come from a small town, so even though it may not be realistic in some areas, the senior citizens here would love to receive the cards and would even know most of the kids (or at least their parents). We could also do a money or material drive to help specific causes. In addition to helping or encouraging others, I think most of the students will feel good and be very excited to help out in such a way. Being a part of something bigger and helping others opens individuals’ eyes to a perspective they may not have ever seen and helps make a well-rounded child in areas other than just reading, writing, etc.
Some might see service learning as a waste of time that takes away from academic activities, but I think it is an extremely important part of education. All individuals need to care or have a heart for others, regardless of what they do after they graduate; however, not every student is going to need the academic skills they are taught in school. Both aspects of education should be considered and addressed, and I think by starting as young as preschool, the results can only improve. If we don’t try to encourage caring and kind-hearted students throughout the school system, how can we complain about ‘kids these days’ who only care about themselves and participate in destructive activities?
In response to Lyn
ReplyDeleteI agree that service learning projects provide students with information while teaching them in a way that they could never get inside the general curriculum. I can imagine that there would be some disagreements when the requirement was introduced to your son’s school, but this is even more reason that it needs to be included. The parents who opposed it probably had not instilled an “ethic of care,” as the text stated, in their children. This is precisely why it’s necessary for the school to do it. I’m glad the school stuck with it, even with the opposition.
RE: Lyn
ReplyDeleteI do believe that in order for the service learning hours to be effective, they should relate to the class they are required for.
As far as social studies service hours, in order to find out for themselves how to be a better member of the community, they could involve themselves with helping those students who are not native to the region. I know here in Hays, there is a high amount of diversity. Involving the students in the international student community will teach them more about other cultures and how to accept diversity. If you wanted to focus more on the community as a whole, involve them with environmental groups that go around and clean parks and open lots. This will teach your students about the area they live in and the historical value of the community.
Service-Learning is a teaching and learning strategy that provides several advantages. It connects students with the community; it integrates meaningful community service with instruction to enrich student’s learning experience; it teaches students about civic responsibility; promotes personal and social development; strengthens communities and exposes the students to different careers.
ReplyDeleteI plan to teach 4th or 5th grade and I believe integrating service learning in the curriculum would provide the students with an exciting, hands-on approach to education. For example, I might include a recycling project during science where the students might have to work with preschoolers and their parents to increase their knowledge and participation in recycling.
At my kid’s school, 4th and 5th graders get an opportunity to participate in a service learning called the Magellan Project. Through this project, the students capitalize on the international and multicultural nature of the school. They complete various projects in the community and every year, there is a new theme for the students to work on. Last year the students worked on raising money for World Peace. It was amazing! I believe no matter what the service learning is, teachers should integrate service learning into the curriculum because it allows the students to become actively engage in learning.
I think the main limitation with service learning is that teachers, students and parents have to be committed to the project in order for it to be successful.
RE: Lyn B.
ReplyDeleteGreat response! I also think service learning provides students with real life experiences. In addition, the students get to interact and help people in the community no matter what ethnic and cultural background they belong to.
Re: Jennifer
ReplyDeleteGreat ideas! I think service learning like what you included will definitely be appreciated and very importantly, it will instill a lifetime of values for the students.
Reply to Lyn,
ReplyDeleteI think it would depend on what constuction they would be cleaning up. If it was just picking up the trash and sweeping then I think it would be great for them to do it. Of course there would have to be parent permission forms signed, but I believe it would be such a great learning experience for them. They could go in small groups and be paired up with a highschooler to walk them around as they pick up things. Just thinking here ;).
I think that service learning is a new and exciting way to connect what is learned in the classroom to the community. I believe that the biggest misconception of service learning is that it is the same as community service.
ReplyDeleteService learning has several advantages, such as teaching students to give back, showing relevance, connecting content to the real world, and much more. I think the main disadvantages of service learning would occur when the project is not planned or tied into the content.
I would like to do service learning in my business and computer classes. I feel that there are several things that my computer students could do. One idea I’ve had is having them work at the Senior Center, teaching basic internet, or e-mail tools. I struggle finding a service-learning project for my accounting classes, that would be at their level, and tie into the content that I have to cover.
In response to Andrea M.
ReplyDeleteThe "ethic of care" is a great point that I left out of my post. So many kids are not brought up to give to others, so it is wonderful, if we can help foster that in the children we teach.
My son's school had a "penny" drive for many of the disasters that have occurred recently, including Greensburg. I think it's wonderful to give kids a chance to help out!
In response to Jessica T.
ReplyDeleteI can see your point about how service learning can negatively impact grades, and with all the focus on AYP, graduation rates, and meeting other critera, administration may not be as supportive. I do think service-learning can be implemented within the curriculum effectively, but you are right about some of the negatives of using it as an after class activity. I'm just curious, What do you plan on teaching?
Jacque Schawe said
ReplyDeleteI think that Service Learning is a great opportunity to help the students involve themselves and do what is right. This helps increase their social skills and also their knowledge about the world. The service learning projects for example in our school is recycling; this helps them learn how to keep the earth clean and free of trash and things. This can also help them in other service activities at school to help them get involved in their community.
I feel that students should be proud for helping other students in this way and take pride in what they are doing. When the people in our community notice that students care and take pride in their work this helps the town grow such as ours.
Our high school does require service learning. They also keep students very involved in the community and I am glad. In the classroom that I have they also do recycling and they are very happy to do that as well.
Jacque Schawe replied:
ReplyDeleteI agree that AYP and also grades and graduation rates often affect AYP. I know that this does affect that but I do feel that in the graduation requirement they should be implemented correctly. I also think that if the school offers these kinds of projects then this also helps the students get to have a job in the community later on and also become better citizens.
Regarding the question of whether I would integrate service learning into the curriculum, my answer is a yes and no. I intend on teaching elementary aged students. I believe that it is important to expose them to different issues and experiences. Surely it is great to give students opportunities to see things from different viewpoints. This helps develop many social skills necessary for the real world. That being said, is this really the classroom teacher's job? Where do we draw the line about what is our responsibility and what is the parent responsibility? Our day is already jammed packed with teaching the core subjects as it is. Where would we fit that in? It would have to depend on the type of learning project and its real connection to learning. I will use the example of recycling. I could establish a center in the classroom for recycling and the class could make it a habit to sort and recycle items that would normally be thrown away, ie water bottles, paper... We could then take a field trip (virtual or real) to the recycling center to see where our items go. This would be something easy to do and easy to sneak into the curriculum. Plus, this could be a great connection to science. Now I will give another example. Let's use the book's example about serving soup at soup kitchens. Really? How will the students get there? Is this for a grade? Will it end up being a commitment the teacher ends up fulfilling? What if students serve their peers soup in the line? How does this tie into school? Don't get me wrong, I am all for volunteering and spend a lot of my time doing so. But, I volunteer through organizations such as my church. Students can volunteer for things through various organizations like Mallory suggested (FFA). I don't believe that this should be included in the curriculum. YIKES! And while I am on the topic of this, I don't like doing service learning at FHSU either. I think this is a waste of my time and don't see the benefits of it. I think in order for this to be beneficial, the service must fit the class. Example...last year I worked at a school carnival for my reading and social studies class. Then I had to pull a rabbit out of the hat so to speak and find a creative way to say how one related to the other in a reflection paper. This was dumb. Was it my fault? Yes, in a way. If I wanted to make the most of the service learning, I would have volunteered to read at the public library for a few hours until I met the requirement. I took the easy way out. But even if I read at the library, those few short hours would not have had a profound impact on how I interacted with the public. It was a check in the box. The text said it should be more than just a few hours in order to really create a successful learning experience. I am sure I come across sounding mean or uncaring or at worst, lazy. That is not the case. I guess I am just in a mood and get tired of people putting more and more pressure on teachers and expect us to raise their children with a sense of morality and values. I think that is the parents job. I should know because I am a parent and do not expect this from my children's teachers.
ReplyDeleteLyn,
ReplyDeleteI agree too that service learning, if used, should directly tie into the class subject. Did yours at FHSU? I think if FHSU continues to make service learning a practice, they need to have different stipulations so that the service matches the class. Do you agree?
I think service learning is a valuable integration to the curriculum. Service learning enhances academic achievement, promotes social and political development, improves tolerance and attitudes toward others and increases self-esteem and responsibility. I think it is a priceless experience to get students to think about the world around them and think beyond themselves. Students should realize their blessings and learn to help others that are less fortunate.
ReplyDeleteI definitely would like to include service learning in my 5th grade curriculum. I think this is a vital age for teaching tolerance and the need to help others. I think I would like to incorporate service learning in our own community as well as across the nation or even world. This enhances the idea of the global classroom as well. I would use service learning as an ongoing process throughout the school year. The students would be responsible for documenting successful/unsuccessful projects and attempt to help others. The idea for my class would be to allow the students to see their impact on the community and reflect upon their efforts as well as documenting their feelings about the service learning (whether they are positive or negative).
For community service learning projects the students might design an art mural for the elementary school and help the younger students paint it as well as helping tutor younger students. The class could partner with a local senior center and help by cooking, playing games, visiting, and drawing with each student’s assigned elderly person. The student might assist a local animal shelter with caring for the animals (feeding, walking, playing, grooming, etc) or the students might donate food and time to the local food bank.
For nationwide and global service learning the students could help raise funds and send supplies to victims of hurricane Katrina and other disasters. The students could each be assigned a soldier overseas to communicate with and send things to. The class may even get involved in projects such as sending old cell phones to soldiers to call home with. These ideas could also tie into the plans I have with assigning my students E-Pals from other nations.
Ember-
ReplyDeleteI think that you have a great idea for service learning in computer classes. Elderly people tend to struggle with the idea of computers, internet and email. I think it is mostly fear of something so unknown to them. Helping them to see how easy and convenient these tools are could be very beneficial to elderly people. Have you also considered the virtual volunteering ideas on page 336 of your text book? These would be great ideas for computer classes as well.
As for accounting, could the students maybe assist lower income taxpayers with preparation of their tax returns and/or questions about paying their taxes? Maybe they could volunteer at a local accounting business during the busy tax season as well. Would it also be possible for them to assist older members of the community in managing their finances or something in that area? Just some thoughts….
I personally am a strong proponent of service learning in the school system - and probably all the more so because of my social work background. I think serving others - whether it be the community as a whole, a local family, or a younger student - is imperative to the responsibilites that are children need to learn to be good citizens of the United States. Our current generation seems to be such a "me" society - which is evident whenever I go somewhere and experience the customer service (or lack thereof). Our children need to realize how blessed they are and how it feels to give back to others who have less or who are experiencing great hardships in life. Our local school is very active in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program and allow the high schoolers to miss class to spend this time with their "little" over at the elementary class. It is actually written into their schedule. They also have two days a year (I wish it was more) where they try to find elderly individuals or others that might need help in the yard or with their homes. Although this is not a graduation requirement for our seniors, I do wish that a certain amount of service learning was required.
ReplyDeleteThe main disadvantage I see to service learning is the one student who remains negative throughout the entire experience and is not swayed by what he/she has gone through. I think the negative attitude would be difficult, but it would mainly be concerning to me if this student was paired with a younger student or a person in the community with little supervision. This leads to the disadvantage of it being very time consuming for the teacher in charge of these experiences to make sure the students are on task and are acting appropriately to the people they are serving. It would also take time to grade the students' reflections on their service that the text suggests.
In teaching a first grade class, I think that it would be difficult to pursue this outside of the school. It could be stressed that we help each other in the classroom by doing kind things. Perhaps the class could adopt a soldier that we could send supplies to on a consistent basis, as well as become pen pals with him/her. I think small jobs - such as raking an elderly woman's yard or working in a garden (with great supervision) could be accomplished as well. So yes, it is possible, but would be on a different scale than that of the high school students.
In response to Sarah R.,
ReplyDeleteI understand your frustration with feeling that parents should take more responsibility in the proper raising of their children in all areas (emotional, social, academic). As a social worker who worked in foster care, I too have seen "parents" who should never have had children. However, is this the child's fault? If the child's parents are unable to give that child the social and moral knowledge that the child needs - isn't it our responsibility to assist with this? If our true calling is to serve each child in our classroom, aren't we called to do what we can to make that child a productive part of society and succeed not only academically, but also turn out to be a "good" person? This is hitting home with me as our neighbors across the street communicate with each other via many choice four letter words. Their son, who is in my daughter's class, is literally in the principal's office almost every day. Why? He threatened to kill one of his classmates (my daughter), he curses (He is eight years old), he lies,and basically has no moral code. I look at the life he has led and see the teachers and the principal as the only people that will hopefully be able to instill a sense of respect for mankind in his heart.
I strong believe that service learning is great. Is allows students to develop skills and knowledge that can not be obtained with in the walls of the school. Having students participate in service learning helps them develop communication skills with others, responsibility, self respect, and independence. There are a few negatives to service learning; depending upon age/grade students may not have access to participate in service learning and/or lack the motivation to want to. If the students live in the country or rural areas there might not have the same opportunities of service learning as someone who lives in a major city.
ReplyDeleteI would love to include service learning in my lessons. It can be used at any grade level. You just have to make sure it is age appropriate. For example, I want to teach K-2, you could have kindergartners do art with the elderly, or 1st and 2nd grades read with elderly.
RE: Jessica T.
I can see how it could present a problem, with participation. Students are very busy and have so much going any now a days that, it would be hard to get them to find the time. An idea for dealing with this is to, once a month or every other month have a class trip for a service learning activity. That way it can be done during school hours. It could also be where it is only done 2 times a year.
RE: Lyn,
I like the idea of mandatory service learning at the HS level. When I was in HS it was not mandatory, but I choose to take a service learning class. None of my time was spent at the school. I got to chose what I wanted to do for it and had to meet certain guide lines and hours. I meet some incredible people, developed a lot of person skills, and learned a lot that would never have been taught with in the school walls.
Service learning is a great experience for everyone. However, with a class of second or third graders it is harder but it still can be done. The advantage of having students do a service learning project is that they feel like they should participate in the event since the outcome will be better than what the situation was before. A child is willing to take the risks to get a situation fixed, as adults we tend to already have tons on our plate so we put aside other projects that come up. So by adding service learning into my curriculum allows the students to have more pride in their community and allows the students to become more creative when helping society. However, since the students are only second or third graders the service learning projects are limited but like girl/boy scouts they can help out with the little situations that usually effects the bigger situations in society.
ReplyDeleteI would love to include service learning into my lessons starting with how poverty effects the economic and then discuss ways to help (food drive, coat drive, etc.). By choosing to integrate service learning into my curriculum, this may make students become well-rounded with their attitudes towards helping out others and doing the right thing. Involving students with situations that happen throughout the world, may impact the students to start helping the elderly, make signs for voting or a cause, and adopt a mile of highway to clean or even just read a book to a younger child. I say by getting these students involved in service learning within a classroom at a young age will help them out as they grow up. The traits and attitudes learned from these experiences are life impacting. So for me, I’m going to be that teacher who helps the students become a well-rounded person.
Service Learning has become a huge part in the classroom. This is in part to how successful it is. I feel that even at a young age of 4 or 5 children should be learning about service learning. While I was in high school I volunteered over 1000 hours of my time. Service learning can be tied into any part of the curriculum. I would like to teach children in the 5th grade and with in this area of children there are so many service learning projects that can be completed. The first one that I think of is with History. Having children provide service at a historical landmark is very important. They can learn about the place while helping to get it cleaned. With English a child could go to a nursing home and read to an elderly person or they could draw a picture and put it on the wall. With Math being the hardest level to integrate it the idea that I continue to come up with is have them figure out an area of a space and the length of time that it would take a small group working together.
ReplyDeleteRE: Christine G, I agree with you that my passion for service learning come from my background. I think it is great that you have social work background and also agree with you that it is imperative for student to learn they must help someone else out too!
ReplyDeleteRE: Kirby W, I think it is great how you were able to do local, state, and national! That was a great way to put it out
Re: Kelly F.
ReplyDeleteI too think that service learning makes students into a well-rounded person. I also agree that students who live in the country do not have the same service learning opportunity as students who live in a town. Growing up I couldn’t do extra projects as my friends who lived in town did. However, the librarian did involve us with planting and growing flowers and grass for the school garden and I remember having tons of fun with that project. I love your idea of having kindergartners do art with the elderly and the first and second graders read with the elderly. Great ideas!
Re: Sarah Rhodes
I see why you are frustrated but like Christine G said, it is not the child’s fault for having out of control parents. This summer I helped out a town in Oklahoma that only a few children had both parents raising them. The parents that the kids looked up to are in jail half of the time, jumping from bed to bed, doing drugs, or they couldn’t handle parenting anymore so the kids were shipped to grandma’s house to be raised. The education of these kids are poor because the adults don’t see hope in them. I went down there and gave them hope to succeed in life and their spirits were lifted. For me, I see that teaching is a second home to kids and that as teachers we should give them what they need even if that means an arm and a leg to make them change. School maybe their only opportunity to improve their lives. Being a teacher is not easy, if you’re looking for an easy and not challenging job than you have the wrong profession.
Having performed many service learning projects with my students I can tell you that I am a big fan of service learning. The biggest reason is that it develops a servant's heart in students. In a "me-centric" society, it is a great tool to teach kids perspective in life.
ReplyDeleteIn my leadership classes, we have performed two service fundraising projects. One was a Sportin for Leukemia project last year were our athletic teams raised money through pledges. We also ran a dance and had sponsors to make money. The project made $8,000 for their work. This year, we made over $10,000 on a similar project. We put on a community block party where we had games for little kids, live music and a drive-in movie.
At our school, we also do an annual Community Service Day where our teachers draft kids and they sign up to do various work projects for our community. These projects bond our school and community. I feel that our community members have a new found respect for our school and our students. This type of learning is great because every student can get involved. It does not limit them by them being frustrated with content material. The concept of giving is really the biggest lesson you can give a student.
RE: Amanda S.
ReplyDeleteI love the fact that you are trying to incorporate service learning in with the younger children. Yes, it can be difficult to find that right project for a younger age, but it can be very beneficial in the long run. I know students that have been involved in service learning at a young age will gain such an advantage over others that have not because their perspective will be much larger.
RE: Lyn
I agree with your assessment that there is such a benefit from service learning. When we did ours the first time, we had a few who "balked" at the idea, but after the day was over they really enjoyed it. The second year that we did it the kids were fired up. I built a rock garden with some students that typically get in trouble quite a bit. Those students worked so hard and were so proud of their work. They are going to be laborers as they get older and they showed me that they will be very successful.
I am for Service Learning, especially when multiple subjects can be used together. As a physical education teacher there are many opportunities to help out in the community that involve physical labor. Some of the advantages of incorporating service learning are community involvement and getting students more interested in what they are learning in the classroom by putting their knowledge to use. Some limitations would include some students doing more than others, and the interest level of those students that would not participate as much. This would also be a lesson that would not be able to be completed in one class period so as a teacher I would either have to schedule multiple days to work on a service learning project or talk with other teachers about incorporating all their classes together for a day or two. At either the middle or high school level I think a service learning project would benefit the students. I think the students would be more able to do the physical labor at the high school setting, but there are community needs that middle school students could perform as well as part of a physical education curriculum.
ReplyDeleteRe: Amanda S.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with the students being willing to do this and it being more on the adults of putting something like this aside because of other involvements and class projects. I think involving young students, even second and third graders would be great for character building, and for them to understand what is going on in their community all around them. I definitely agree that this would be a great tool to help build well-rounded members of society out of our students.
I definitely think that service learning is important to all grades. Being able to help out in the community and teach students that it is important from an early age is key. I always enjoyed getting to help in my community when it came to school because it gave me a great feeling of accomplishment. I hope to teach in the primary grades or special education. Either way I feel that it is imperative that students have some service learning. One way that I plan to do service learning is to have the students make crafts and artwork to take to nursing homes. I used to love doing this and it was an even greater experience when we got to deliver them. Watching their faces light up was amazing. I think that any student can participate in arts and crafts and even the littlest of abilities would be appreciated by residents. I would also like to do a trash pick-up. With the younger grades and special education you could just pick up trash on the school playground, you wouldn't have to leave and you could incorporate a recycling unit to it.
ReplyDeleteReply to Brandon:
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you have some great ideas that you got from your leadership classes. I love the idea of a block party to raise money. Who would have thought to have fun and games for kids be a fundraiser for the community. I also think it would be neat to try and host some sort of walk-a-thon that could take place during recesses and such. Students could collect money to pledge so many laps around the playground or blacktop.
Including service learning in the curriculum can provide many opportunities that otherwise wouldn’t be present. It also allows the teachers to integrate it into different areas of study allowing them to broaden the students’ knowledge and understanding. By using service learning students are becoming more aware of their surroundings and creating their own moral development. It places them in situations they may be unfamiliar with, and allows for new ideas and new relationships. Even more importantly, I feel that service learning teaches students to become more tolerant of those who may be different than them, or who may not live the way they do. The downfall to this, however, is that students may be apprehensive to the idea of being put in unfamiliar environments. They might also lack the motivation and enthusiasm to participate which may create more work for others. Besides the few limitations to service learning I would find it beneficial to include it in my lessons. However, since I would like to teach kindergarten I don’t think as many opportunities would be available as they are in higher grades. There are still activities we could do, such as having a food drive at Christmas to help Genesis or adopting a family to help in many different ways throughout the year. You could create lessons that tie into the activity you are performing at that time. Overall I feel that regardless of the grade level service learning would benefit the students.
ReplyDeleteBrandon P.,
ReplyDeleteI also feel that kids today feel more entitled and concerned about themselves rather than others. Service learning would give them a greater appreciation for others and a broader perspective on life. They also learn how it feels to provide something for someone else. The service learning projects you have been involved with seem very helpful and beneficial for others. They also were very creative.
I think that service learning projects are important for children to learn and understand. I think it is great to teach the "hidden curriculum". Students can learn team work and develop leadership skills in service learning projects. They can also learn empathy,compassion, community and global pride while working on certain projects. The disadvantage to these projects is that are time consuming and take a deep commitment from the students, teachers, and community. Many times people are not responsive to some student projects and look at them as a burden instead of a good teaching lesson. Some students may also not like to participate, but that is the teachers jobs to find ways to activley engage them and show them that community service can be fun and beneficial to all.
ReplyDeleteI plan to teach upper elementary and junior high. I think that a service learning project that I would do would be to adopt a grandparent at a local nursing home. We could our incorporate English lessons while writing letters to our grandparents. We could also visit them and play games with them some afternoons. This teaches social skills and respect for the elderly. I would also ask the residents to teach history lessons to our students. We could speak to them and interview them about certain aspects of history that we are learning about. I think that this would be fun for the elderly as well as the students. This is a project that students can still learn and use in the classroom. We could also incorporate art by making cards for them.
RE: Sarah Rhodes
I do think it is our job as teachers to teach social skills. It is sad to say but many parents do not teach these skills at home. It may not be our job specifically, but if we do not do it then many students will not get it at all. Many parents are not actively engaged in teaching their children these skills and I feel it is our job to teach them.
RE: Jessica T
I also feel that finding the time to do service projects could be difficult for some students. It seems that students are into everything from FCA to KAY club and all the sports. I think it is important for a school to find the time and for students to learn to budget their time wisely. My dad is a basketball coach in Salina, Kansas and every year his team helps take down the Christmas light in downtown Salina. It is demanding to find the time, but for most projects if they are well planned in advance people will undertand the time it takes. Students must learn to budget thier time to do good deeds. It is a life lesson I think is important to learn.
Mallory Lammers
ReplyDeleteI am a huge fan of service learning. There are just some lessons that students cannot learn in the classroom. For as long as I can remember I have been volunteering for my local community. I love giving back to my community and I want my students to understand how rewarding volunteering can be.
I would defiantly include service learning in my lessons. It is a great topic for social studies. Currently I am in a second grade internship and my students are learning about community. What better way to learn about community then through a service learning event. When the different components of the community come together, the students can learn first hand who creates a community.
There are many advantages to service learning. First service learning helps students to think of others. Second giving back to the community can help introduce the students to new experiences. For example if students from Kansas were to volunteer to help rebuild Greensburg, they might be able to empathize with the students who lost their belongings. I have a difficult time finding anything negative with service learning other than a lack of community support. If the community has a negative attitude about service learning then the students will develop negative attitudes. This can be avoided with the proper public relations.
Elizabeth Krause
ReplyDeleteService Learning Blog
Service learning integrated in the school curriculum is very important in my eyes. Service learning allows students to be social with other groups that they might not naturally socialize with and it also allows them to do something for their community. This allows students to take their textbook learnings and apply them hands on to real life situations. Service learning allows students to take their education up a notch.
The only disadvantages of service learning that I can really think of are students not being willing to open up and participate and advance their learnings. If a student doesn't allow themselves to be of service to their community and tie that service to their school learnings, the service learning curriculum will not meet the objectives of the project. There has to be a purpose to the service learning project in order for it to be integrated with the textbook curriculum.
If appropriate, I will definately consider including service learning into my lessons. By participating in a service learning project, the students are learning how to socially interract with different groups in school and in the community. Students get to put the information they have been learning from a textbook into a hands on situation. Service learning can also give students a connection to their community that they may or may not get to opportunity to do otherwise. This could be tied to lessons for 4th graders dealing with social skills, social studies when discussing communities. As discussed by others in the class, the school that I went to also used to have a community service day where all of the students were split up into teams and then businesses in teh community came up with projects that could be done to better to appearance of their business thus bettering the appearance of our community. Students were grouped with several adults whom they worked with all day.
Tricia,
ReplyDeleteI agree that it's hard to come up with quality service learning projects for the young students. I think that teaching the students about donating items and time to better those in your community is the most important step. Starting early will only make this more natural to students. Having young students bring in toys, clothing, food etc. and then letting them go as a group to deliver these things to the designated drop off zone, or even having someone from there come in and talk to the students about how the things they bring in benefit others is a wonderful service learning project.
Brandon,
ReplyDeleteIt's sad to thing that kids these days are more centered on themselves than those around them. I see this so often in the schools today where I work. I wonder where the big turn started? Hopefully by starting students young with service learning projects where they are helping others will turn children into people who care about those around them versus just themselves.
In response to Sarah Rhodes…
ReplyDeleteYou do not sound mean, uncaring, or lazy! You make a good point. As teachers we do take on more and more. It can be over whelming. I never thought about if a group of students were to give a fellow student soup at a soup kitchen. That would be horrible. You made many creative points. Way to think outside the box!
I am very much a proponent for service learning in the school systems. First of all this teaches our students the responsibility that everyone carries to make this world revolve. Students who engage in service activities have a sense of pride for their community and neighbors and are less likely to engage in destructive behaviors. Students learn the properties of teamwork. These advantages is why service learning will continue to be a part of our curriculum.
ReplyDeleteThere are disadvantages to service learning. First, service projects may take a lot of time away from reading, math, and arithmatic. Also, it is difficult to include everyone in service projects, especially those who have disabilities. In larger school districts, it may be difficult to transport all students. Materials may become expensive.
I plan on teaching upper elementary levels and do anticipate service learning projects. I may choose to use several short-term projects, though. Some projects I can think of include: city cleanup, planting a community garden, collecting food for food banks, and singing in nursing homes. I would like to tie these service projects to the classroom material that is being studied. For instance, if were were learing about plant nutrition, my students could plant trees around the community. If we were singing to the elderly, we could discuss the death and dying process and how cultures vary.
SarahR,
ReplyDeleteYou have made some great points in your blog regarding the topic at hand. However, I think that each community has it's own boundaries when it comes to service projects, and right now it is kinda hard to determine if I will incorporate these projects without knowing the demographics of the community. Obviously in my hometown of 200 residents, we do not have soup kitchens, so more than likely I will never cross that bridge of serving my own student. But what a dilema if I did!! I am in agreence with you in that the project should fit the curriculum and what is being studied. In a fourth grade class, I have envisioned lessons on plant growth while planting a community garden. My final advice to you Sarah is to please do not completly block this idea out without first knowing your demographics.
I feel that service learning is important for every age of students. Not only does it show students real life experiences, but it also shares a valuable opportunity in the curriculum. It also teaches students to get involved in the community, and learn the value of “giving back”
ReplyDeleteI plan to teach elementary, and would prefer a younger grade. It I was working with emergent readers, we would practice our reading skills to younger students, perhaps in a preschool/nursery school. The elementary students would be giving back to the community by taking time to read with kids. This would also benefit the elementary students by practicing reading skills, learning to read fluently, and gain comprehension. Another idea would be to read to adults in a nursing home. The adults would benefit from the company, and enjoy seeing the students. Again, the students would benefit from reading aloud. Before taking the students out of the classroom, I would make sure that there were plenty of adults to help monitor the students while reading. After returning to the classroom, the emerging readers/writers could also reflect upon their service learning experience, and write about their trip.
Liz: I agree that a problem would be that students are not willing to open up and participate. I think it would also be a problem for students who are not willing to participate to get into trouble while on a group outing or service learning project (especially in the upper elementary school level). However, I think it is important for students to learn the idea of helping others, and feel the sense of accomplishment.
ReplyDeleteResponding to Christine G and Amanda S.
ReplyDeleteI NEVER said that I am not for teaching social skills, because I think we should. However, I do not think that service learning is the way to go about it. Whatever happened to old fashioned modeling of the behavior on a daily basis. I have kids at my house whose parents "jump from bed to bed" and act irresponsibly. However, I can make an impact in their lives by just being me and opening up my home. I have many kids like that in my youth group as well that take themselves to our group. They take themselves and the parents have zero involvement. THIS is what I mean about it not necessarily being the school's responsibility. It is one of a moral responsibility of the entire community. Students that I have worked with before and those that I interact with on a daily basis see how I interact with others on a daily basis and use me as a model for how they should be as well. An addition into the curriculum is not needed for this. It is an automatic. We can squeeze in service learning types of things everyday into our lives without attaching a name to it. It's called teaching compassion and love towards our neighbor by EXAMPLE. I am NOT against teaching social skills. Adding it to an already jammed packed curriculum is what I think is unrealistic.
Amanda..how dare you incinuate that I am lazy or choosing education as an easy way out. you were way out of line with that comment and unprofessional. I was very offended.
Lacey K
ReplyDeleteI like your idea regarding the garden and think that is great! I can see doing THIS kind of "service learning" because you can tie it into science etc... and you can do it during school hours. My point was that where do we find the time for all of these extra responsibilities? My plan is to teach love and compassion in every way possible that I can think of. Surely our students are lacking in this when you consider the violence in our schools. However, I just don't agree that service learning to the extent that the text mentioned where you actually serve soup (in the evenings I presume) on a regular basis to others is being realistic. I think this need should be filled by church youth groups (which I lead), or other community organizations. I plan on giving my students 110% but at some point there has to be a line. That was all I was saying.
RE: Kirby;
ReplyDeleteGood job of thinking outside the box on the Service Learning concept of the mural. I have actually set up to do an interim project during spring break at one of my schools to paint a mural of the planets on a hallway wall. I wonder now if maybe having my students paint a mural on the hallway wall of a citizens center might not be a better idea. Perhaps if we did a mural about the historical buildings/locations in our town we could do a service learning and history project at the same time.
Thanks for getting me thinking in new directions!
Lyn
RE: LaceyK
ReplyDeleteYou made a good point by bringing up transportation costs. My school districts have all cut back drastically on their field trips (I am going to personally fund one for my son’s class so that they can get that experience). I hadn’t realized before that the cost of gas and driver is usually half of what a field trip costs. Service learning would run into the same expenses in that respect.
Materials may be a different story. I imagine you might be able to get local businesses to sponsor your service learning project and provide supplies.
Lyn
RE: Ember
ReplyDeleteI am going to teach high school biology. Eventually I would like to teach college level courses.
I think service learning is a great opportunity for students to be involved in the community. It allows my business students to get experience with those in the workforce and get hands on training. The students get to work on community projects and get full credit for their work. Our students get to use their talents to design, maintain and update the city website. We have had students work as a group to help with the campaign of city officials. We have also had students work in groups to develop a plan and budget for a new playground for the city park.
ReplyDeleteThe students get lots of experience with real world projects and enhance their social skills.
Service learning may not work for every teacher. If you find a way to include everyone and be able to implement reading, writing and math into these projects, you will have great success.
Re: Sarah Rhodes
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, I wasn't meaning to offend you, or say that you are lazy in any way. At that time I was thinking of those people who think that teaching is the easiest job and those "teachers" are just there for the benefits and not for the kids which really irritates me. I tried to take the post off but I can't so I'm sorry that I worded it wrong.
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