Teaching Academy - Service-Learning with a Career Focus

Last November I started my position as Learn and Serve America Coordinator for the state of Illinois. I work at the Illinois State Board of Education in Springfield every morning overseeing the federal grant, but in the afternoons I travel ten minutes to Lanphier High School where I teach a service-learning elective for seniors who would like to pursue a career in education. We call it the Teaching Academy. This service-learning class is a great opportunity for students to volunteer daily in their community as they discover whether or not a teaching career is right for them.

The students meet in the high school classroom one hour each day, and during that time they cover topics such as classroom management, curriculum development, motivation, classroom arrangement, children’s literature, etc. The text used for much of the teaching methods portion of the class is Tools for Teaching by Fred Jones. The students do not have individual copies of the book, but they take notes as the teacher discusses some of the most important topics from the text.

In addition to the teaching methods instruction, the class provides the opportunity for students to take field trips to schools, historic sites, museums, and parks located within their community. The purpose of the trips is to let the students experience other schools, to give them ideas for field trips that they can plan for their future students, and to teach them the proper way to conduct field trips, followed by reflection. The Teaching Academy students have visited places such as the zoo, Lincoln Memorial Garden, the Early Childhood Learning Center, the alternative high school, the Vachel Lindsay Home, the University of Illinois at Springfield pre-service teaching class, and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum. Last week’s field trip was to the theatre to see Waiting for Superman.

The students also welcome a variety of speakers to the classroom. Superintendents, principals, former teachers, student teachers, psychologists, professors, and teacher recruiters are just a few of the guests that have been invited to visit the academy. After reading A Child Called It, the students prepare questions that they have about child abuse and a teacher’s responsibility as a mandated reporter before the psychologist comes to discuss the questions with them. Another yearly guest is a former teacher who taught physical education until she was seventy-five years old. She has a unique perspective on the changes that took place in the world of education throughout her fifty-year career. All of the guests offer advice and experiences that can help the students as they decide on their future careers.

Service projects are an essential part of each year in the Teaching Academy. These opportunities involve the students in their community and teach them how to organize activities. The projects are based on community needs that present themselves at times throughout the year. During the Lincoln Bicentennial Celebration, the students participated in a Lincoln post-it-note project. An artist directed the students as they pasted 16,200 post-it-notes on two 7’ by 55’ grids; the images of the president were not clear until the banners were completed. Two years ago the students presented a play version of The Lorax by Dr. Seuss to elementary students who attended the Environmental Fair at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. Last year, Teaching Academy students sponsored a Morning of Poetry for district teachers and their children or grandchildren at the Vachel Lindsay Home. (Lindsay was the foremost poet in America in the 1920’s, and he is Springfield’s second most famous citizen). The future teachers performed Lindsay’s children’s poetry, including “The Little Turtle,” and then helped the young guests with a little turtle craft while they all snacked on turtle-shaped sugar cookies with green icing. In each of the three years of the Teaching Academy, the students have created colorful quote murals representing works they studied in the classroom: Freedom Writers’ Diary, The Lorax, and “The Little Turtle.”

Perhaps the most valuable Teaching Academy experience is the daily interaction that the high school students have with the students and teachers in elementary classrooms. The students leave the high school academy after sixth hour and go directly to the elementary classrooms for the last hour of the school day where they learn the real work of teaching. The academy students tutor individual students, read books and teach short lessons to the entire class, supervise recess, grade papers, organize folders, and perform the mundane tasks of sharpening pencils and photocopying papers. Their time at the elementary school is like a mini-student teaching experience through which the high school students learn what it is like to be a teacher, and the elementary teachers and students enjoy having the extra help in their classrooms.

Academic Learning, Community Service, Reflection, Career Planning--The Teaching Academy offers all of these service-learning elements…every day of the school year.

Submitted by:

Deborah T. Huffman

Learn & Serve America Coordinator

Illinois State Board of Education

Curriculum & Instruction

Building a Statewide Presence for Service-Learning

Since I began working with the Learn and Serve America program in 1995, I’ve often pondered how we can best meet the dual need of both building capacity for and implementing quality service-learning. In Texas we’ve tried to address this with a variety of strategies, but I believe that none has more promise for expanding our reach than strategic partnerships.

We’ve had some good experience with partnerships, but we’re still wrestling with some key questions:

· What are the attributes of an effective, reciprocal partnership for service-learning?

· Would we benefit from a working definition of a partnership to help guide and inform our organizational relationships?

· To what degree are we willing to compromise on some aspects of service-learning quality in exchange for partnerships that provide us with greater reach and exposure?

· What resources are required to maintain and nurture these partnerships?

· To what extent should we sustain our partnerships, or should we let some run their course?

Partnerships often start from a need, and our case is no different. Starting about 2003 we realized that we needed additional support for our Summer Institute in Service-Learning and that we had a natural ally in State Farm Insurance, which was beginning to promote service-learning not just nationally but also in Texas. We were delighted to spread the word among our subgrantees about Project Ignition, and in return State Farm Texas happily supported our Summer Institute with several small grants. Several years later, well before the recent recession, we received an invitation from our State Farm contact to create a Texas version of Project Ignition for middle and high school students. The result was $240,000 for two years of funding that involved young people in 29 schools across the state in social action projects designed to improve the driving habits of teens.

Likewise, in late 2005, when we were writing our Learn and Serve America grant for the 2006-2009 cycle, we realized that we had to secure more matching funds and also determine a pressing and relevant community need that we use for our Needs and Activities performance measure. One idea led to another, and before long I was calling one of our service-learning colleagues at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) and pitching the idea of working together on the grant. We decided to focus on environmental stewardship as our common need. We would encourage our subgrantees to partner with TPWD on environmental service-learning projects, and they would promote service-learning through their networks as well.

The plan worked fairly well. Most, but not all, of our subgrantees involved at least some students in environmental service-learning projects. We developed and distributed service-learning resources to Project WILD facilitators around the state. And we secured some much-needed matching funds in the first year of our grant.

Four years later we received some unexpected dividends in the form of a $255,000 grant from Encana Oil and Gas, which the TPWD Foundation solicited on our behalf. This funding enabled us to create the Texas Healthy Habitats grant, which, now in its second year of funding, engages students in grades 5 through 12 in environmental service-learning activities designed to address one or more of the goals in the state’s Conservation Action Plan. With the help of this grant and our partnership with TPWD, we’ve been able to work with new subgrantees including not just public schools but private nonprofit schools and nonprofit organizations as well.

We’re starting to think beyond grants, however, as the primary focus of our partnerships. This past summer one of our program coordinators suggested that we explore ways to partner with the state office of FCCLA (Future Career and Community Leaders of America). After much discussion, we agreed to staff an exhibit at the state conference of the Family and Consumer Sciences Teachers Association of Texas (FCSTAT). Our staff worked with two teacher advisors for FCCLA to develop a one-page handout linking our LEADERS model of service-learning to the FCCLA planning process. These teachers also graciously agreed to manage our exhibit with help from one of our staff members, and the result was that we provided nearly 225 FCSTAT teachers with helpful materials and information on service-learning as a strategy for Family and Consumer Sciences classes as well as for FCCLA. We’re now exploring potential next steps for this partnership, which we hope will create another ally for service-learning in Texas.

I welcome your thoughts and hope you’ll share examples of your experiences with service-learning partnerships at the state level. Although I doubt that we’ll ever have enough Learn and Serve America funding to reach all our school districts, I’m convinced that strategic partnerships with other organizations can substantially increase our efforts to make service-learning a common experience for all students.

John Spence, Director

Service Learning Texas

A Statewide Initiative of the Texas Education Agency

and Region 14 Education Service Center

2499 South Capitol of Texas Highway., Suite A-107

Austin, TX 78746-7757

phone, (512) 420-0214 x 101

fax, (512)420-0224

john@servicelearningtexas.org

www.servicelearningtexas.org

Program Alumni as a Source of Program Support and Expansion

Like most states, Michigan’s Learn and Serve programs are built on the efforts of individual educators. Program alumni represent a wealth of knowledge on service-learning as an instructional strategy, but because of their work to build programs that are sustained in their buildings and districts; they also understand how to create a supported and sustained service-learning movement. These individuals represent an often untapped force for deepening the practice and for expanding it’s reach across the state.

For nearly a decade the Michigan Community Service Commission has had a policy of funding Learn and Serve – Michigan subgrantees for a six-year period. Subgrantees follow a specific road map that emphasizes program implementation and sustainability. The six-year funding window allows school districts the time to continually improve the quality of service-learning practice in the classroom and it also allows them time to build systems and habits that will be necessary to sustain service-learning beyond the grant term. District service-learning coordinators are central to this approach and yet, we have failed to adequately tap them in Michigan.

Across the country, these service-learning coordinators take a dual approach to supporting the growth of service-learning. On a daily basis, they work to engage more teachers in service-learning. They assist new teachers in developing reciprocal partnerships with community organizations, help them identify curricular links, and assess the academic impacts of their experiences. They develop and regularly use their skills as mentors, cheerleaders, instructional coaches and community liaisons.

Successful service-learning coordinators also take a “2000 feet above sea level” view of their school districts. They work with key leaders to determine specific educational needs and the priorities established by their school board and administrators. Along with their leadership team, these coordinators find ways to leverage service-learning and Learn and Serve – Michigan resources to address district needs and priorities.

When approached from this multi-dimensional approach, we find that a great deal of the program elements become the norm in their schools once the funding period has ended. Teachers are habitually using service-learning in their classrooms; it is built into school policy, it is listed as strategies in school improvement plans, funds are identified to maintain projects, community partners continue their relationships with their partner classrooms, and service-learning strategies are regularly included on professional development calendars.

So then what do you do with these successful service-learning coordinators?

This loss of service-learning alumni talent has been a challenge for us in Michigan. Perhaps it has been a challenge for you as well. Over the last three years, we have been exploring methods for keeping service-learning alumni more vested in the service-learning network and for engaging them in growing the field Michigan. In a perfect world, we would be able to continue our financial investment in established service-learning school districts while still investing in emerging districts. In the absence of a growing funding allocation we are trying a few other strategies.

Intermediate School District Training and Outreach

In Michigan, the Intermediate School District System (ISD) has been an excellent source of ongoing training and program outreach. With a minimal training investment, our successful past grantees have continued to offer professional development that includes service-learning as a strategy. Ionia County Intermediate School District reacted to an emerging program need this summer and offered a multi-day training on instructional coaching for service-learning. This session helped the ISD maintain their involvement in service-learning and provided a critical service that was outside of the state professional development calendar.

This ISD commitment has also translated to enhanced outreach to potential Learn and Serve districts. Copper Country Intermediate School District has been instrumental in regionalized training and has been supportive to three local school districts who successfully applied for Learn and Serve – Michigan funds. These local approaches would have been impossible without the efforts of former service-learning coordinators who lend their local capacity to us. These two former grantees cultivated nearly ten new school districts for us over the last few years.

Conference Presenters

In order to share the success of our programs and to advocate for service-learning we need to saturate the agendas at educational events. Limited staff capacity and travel budgets make it impossible for state-level staff to be at all of the important conferences. Former grantees are perfectly equipped to be a service-learning presence on our behalf. Two grantees, one former and one current, presented sessions on service-learning at the Michigan Education Association annual meeting this fall. We assisted the presenters by providing materials for their sessions. By more intentionally investing in these efforts, by paying modest conference registration fees or mileage, we would greatly spread the prevalence of quality service-learning training beyond what is currently available.

New Grantee Coaches

One of the best things we’ve done lately is create a service-learning coaching corps. In order to provide more intensive on-site program support we contracted with two exceptional service-learning coordinators from Clarkston Community Schools and Lowell Community Schools. These former grantees are experts at instructional practice and at building systemic supports for service-learning. It became evident this year that a number of our newly selected subgrantees would need some additional guidance.

These former grantees had practical experience growing programs from scratch and had local connections that would benefit the less experienced grantee. For a modest fee, the contractors will provide several days of on-site coaching, professional development and ongoing remote support on things like financial reports and individual hand-holding on our friend LASSIE. The feedback from our new grantees has been very positive and already we are seeing that they are starting stronger than others have in the past.

Advocacy

Is anyone better equipped to advocate for service-learning than a successful former Learn and Serve grantee? The service-learning coordinator, and often their superintendents and school boards, know exactly why the Corporation for National and Community Service funding is critical to the growth of the field. We should all be tapping them for Learn and Serve Challenge and Hill Day Events. The limitations imposed on them as a grantee are lessened once they “graduate” from the program. It would be ideal to identify a source of private funding to send them to important advocacy events. We will certainly be exploring that option over the coming year.

All of these strategies can be very effective in keeping talented educators connected and committed to service-learning and the Learn and Serve program. Not every former grantee is cut out for these roles but if we can identify one every year or two, and engage them in a mutually beneficial arrangement that suits their skills and needs, the field will benefit tremendously.

How are you keeping your service-learning experts in the family? What incentives have you been able to offer? How have the service-learning coordinators expanded your capacity for outreach?

Submitted by Angelia Salas

Michigan Community Service Commission

Service-Learning Elective Courses

Veteran service-learning coordinators in Florida had for many years sought ways to ground courses across the curriculum solidly in service-learning, but had never had the course codes fully appropriate for this purpose. Coordinators had had to choose course from existing elective courses such as Voluntary Public Service or Leadership, since no service-learning options existed. These were not ideal solutions, and they also did not accurately describe or record in course records the work that the students were doing. In addition, such stand-in courses did not validate service-learning as a viable curricular methodology.

In 2009, in the third year of trying, the Florida Legislature passed its first service-learning bill. The legislation defined service learning in statute, encouraged districts to use this methodology, and required the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) to create elective courses that use service-learning as the core methodology in the Florida Course Code Directory. In response, the FDOE worked through Florida Learn & Serve to draft a series of sequential courses for middle and high school. Until the final draft stages, there were a total of seven year-long courses—three in middle schools (grades 6-8) and four in high school (grades 9-12). At the last minute, however, it was decided to restructure the courses as half-year in length to give teachers and school administrators more flexibility in scheduling. The following courses were reviewed by service-learning practitioners in Florida, were revised multiple times, and approved by the FDOE. Descriptions of Florida’s first-ever middle and senior high school service-learning based elective courses are listed below (links to the sites are in order below the table).

Course Title	Grade Levels	Course Length	Credit	Course Number
Engaged Citizenship through Service Learning, 1	6-8	Semester	0.5	2104010
Engaged Citizenship through Service Learning, 2	6-8	Semester	0.5	2104020
Engaged Citizenship through Service Learning, 1	9-12	Semester	0.5	2104350
Engaged Citizenship through Service Learning, 2	9-12	Semester	0.5	2104360

Students enrolled in one of the service-learning based elective courses must address all the standards listed for that course. This requirement might seem like a challenge if the teacher chooses to focus the course narrowly, on a single type of service-learning such as tutoring in reading or math. However, as noted in the course descriptions, integrating the components of well-designed service-learning (issue investigation, policy examination, project design and implementation, demonstration of learning, and reflection) lends itself to addressing the standards listed for the courses:

• Language Arts benchmarks are addressed as students read, write, create documents, and make public presentations about needs and activities to address them.
• Social Studies benchmarks include analyzing community issues, coming up with solutions, and interacting in a community to conduct service.
• Math benchmarks are met as students chart and graph data as part of issue investigation, project design, demonstration, evaluation of impacts, and/or reflection.
• Health and Physical Education are addressed as projects include discussion and learning related to safety, liability, interpersonal skills, conflict avoidance, appraising outcomes and impacts on others, maintaining appropriate behavior, etc., in the students’ interaction with others.

Here is basic information about the new courses:

• They are categorized under the subject of “Interdisciplinary and Applied Social Studies,” but are designed to be flexible so every subject/discipline can be addressed in them.
• In terms of who can teach the courses, the Course Code Directory notes that the instructor can be from “any field when certification reflects bachelor/higher;” e.g., any certified teacher.
• There is no set curriculum for the courses, which are designed to allow for a wide variety of service-learning projects.
• The courses are sequential within middle school, from middle school to high school, and within high school. Each successive course has additional standards that must be met, a higher number of required service-learning hours, and increased levels of student responsibility.
• The courses are designed so that a student could take a service-learning elective for either a half-year (one course), or a whole school year (two courses).
• As an option, a school could offer both sections of the course within a single class, with students at the 1-level and at the 2-level in the same class.
• All the courses use the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards. When the new national Common Core Standards are adopted in Florida, the standards for these service-learning courses will be revised to match Common Core Standards.

With these new course codes in the DOE Class Directory, teachers in Florida now have an option to structure classes around a 100% service-learning based curriculum structure. Florida Learn & Serve offers free consultation with teachers, schools, and school districts that are implementing the courses. You may consider seeking such course descriptions as additions in your state to the DOE Class Directory. In Florida the process required legislation. In Florida, nearly all new courses are actually submitted by school districts, and so this was an unusual procedure driven by the new legislation.

In addition to the creation of the course codes, the legislation also allowed for all service-learning hours to count toward the volunteer hour requirements for the popular Bright-Futures scholarship program, which uses state lottery money to provide college tuition scholarships. Some districts had policies inhibiting application of service-learning hours to this scholarship since they took place during school hours, but the legislation formally allows for their use. This component provides another avenue for recognition for the service-learning work the students complete.

Javier Betancourt

Program Officer

Florida Learn & Serve