I certainly enjoyed our speaker today. My definition of service learning was more along the lines of volunteering. It seems there is an understandable division between the two. I was glad to hear that it was important that students needed to have a clear reason why they were doing a service learning project, how it related to class goals, perhaps some pre and post activities.
Service learning seems to be perfect for certain curricular areas such as the sciences. As Mr. Wurr spoke I was busy thinking of what types of projects different areas could have. Shawn’s example of counting camas is the perfect project. My head was swirling with math and science learning experiences this must create. What kind of service learning could a government, keyboarding or psychology class do? I think it would be difficult to come up with some good ideas for projects. What do you think?
The biggest problem with service learning is transportation. Idaho has cut back on many types of activities that use buses. I thought that was a clever solution Mera suggested today: to walk one way and use the bus on the return. The city bus system is another terrific idea. I’m not as driven as Shawn is though. I have no desire to drive a bus. I think that part of the problem is that Idaho doesn’t have a great transit system and it is rural.
Service learning is becoming quite popular these days. Isn’t it nice to know that something so positive can go “viral.” I agree that as we connect with nature and others in a work environment, we discover something about ourselves. Maybe we realize that crickets make a funny sound or snakes really aren’t wet. Perhaps we find out that putting others before ourselves is more rewarding than putting ourselves first.
I really had no idea that it was service learning when I started doing it with the kids. I always considered it volunteering even though I constantly struggled with what "volunteering" was. These last two days have really cleared up a lot in my mind and I am excited to approach this ongoing project from a slightly different angle next year. (And driving a bus is really fun!)
ReplyDeleteMerry,
ReplyDeleteYou really hit it on the head when you pointed out that there seemed to be a lot of ideas for service learning in math and science, but the ideas kind of dried up when it came to government, keyboarding, or psychology classes. I was thinking the same thing. How do you sell this idea to teachers of these subjects? Maybe service learning doesn't have to be related to your subject. There is a common, consistent theme in many school philosophy statements that says the goal of the school is to help develop a socially conscious student who becomes a positive member of society. Well, no matter what subject you teach, I can't think of a better way to do that than through service learning.
But you can do service learning for many other subjects. I do it with my disability studies and philosophy (ethics) classes. Maybe I'll share some of that tomorrow...
ReplyDeleteI can think of opportunities for all kind sof classes (well, keyboarding might be a stretch!) and it makes me drool to think about the potential!
ReplyDeleteMerry-
ReplyDeleteIt probably is easier to think of service learning projects for certain subjects, with creativity anything is possible. I think that the idea of creating a service learning project that helps to develop the student in becoming a productive/useful/engaged/mindful citizen is also a great use for service learning. Yes, we do given the knowledge, but help to develop the overall student is a great benefit as well.