Greetings SEANet Members:
Early Saturday morning (February 19, 2011), the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1, legislation that would make deep cuts in government spending for the rest of this fiscal year. The measure terminates the Corporation for National and Community Service and its programs, and passed on a vote of 235-189. Go to http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2011/roll147.xml to see how your representative voted.
The bill would immediately eliminate the Corporation for National and Community Service and the programs it funds: Learn & Serve America, AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, VISTA, NCCC, the Volunteer Generation Fund, the Social Innovation Fund, etc.
But this is not the final say in the federal budget process. The House bill has been sent to the Senate for consideration, and the Senate and the President will have opportunities to shape and influence the final spending package. We are all believers in the Learn & Serve program and the impacts it has on students, schools, and communities, so each of us must take this opportunity now to help inform members of Congress about the program in each state.
Currently, members of Congress have left Washington and returned home for a week-long recess. They will be in their states and districts talking to constituents, and this presents the opportunity for program participants and partners to educate key elected officials about the value of the Corporation for National and Community Service and its Learn & Serve America program. You can take advantage of this Congressional break by taking part in the "SEANet Support Service Learning Day" on Friday, February 25th. On this day, we encourage you to visit your local Congressman/woman’s office or call them while they are in the local office and to encourage your sub-grantees to do the same. If you miss this day, don’t worry: the Senate and the House will be working on this budget reconciliation process over the next two weeks so any messages over the next week will still be timely.
If members of Congress do not learn about the value of your efforts, it is likely that the program will be reduced or discontinued.
Who to Call:
• Your State’s U.S. Senators
• Your State’s U.S. House of Representatives members
• President Barack Obama
A this critical moment, direct calls are the most likely to make an impact on the decisions being made. Faxes, letters and e-mail may take too long to reach the appropriate person. If you are unable to call, e-mails are the next best method. Contact information is provided below. Follow-up is important too, so send the letters from your program, just don’t count on them as your only outreach strategy.
Tell your U.S. Senators and the President that Learn & Serve America provides service to millions of Americans and addresses critical needs in education, including decreasing dropouts, increasing academic achievement, narrowing the achievement gap, improving school climate, and increasing teacher quality. Do not tell them how to vote on the bill, as that is considered lobbying if you do it on time paid for by Learn & Serve.
Regarding your messages to Congress remember that through service-learning participation, K-12 students meet real needs, have improved academic outcomes, are more prepared for careers, have enhanced social skills, are more civically engaged, and help foster thriving communities and a more participatory democracy. Service-Learning programs also show substantial return-on-investment by leveraging strong contributions on match from the community. This is not about a government program; it is about real beneficial outcomes for students and communities which can stimulate economic growth and better prepare citizens for careers.
We also suggest you encourage your sub-grantees to send letters to your local papers, attend town hall meetings, and use every available opportunity to talk about what will be lost if there is no longer a Learn & Serve America program to support schools in the implementation of service-learning. H.R. 1 - as it passed the House - will not be the final funding package. But Congress must reach a compromise before March 4, 2011, or the government will shut down. Tough choices on funding priorities will have to be made, to include support for the Corporation for National and Community Service.
EMAIL
The link below will take you to the “Write Your Representative website. Enter in the information for the Legislator you are attempting to reach and you will be provided an email form: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
Please follow-up with us at SEANet to let us know of any progress you have made on the calls with your sub-grantees and who you reached.
Thanks for all that you do for creating positive change for students and communities through service-learning!
Javier Betancourt - Program Officer - Florida Learn & Serve
Friday, February 25, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
EASTCONN Service-Learning Connecticut: The Thames River Watershed Project
A watershed is:
"that area of land, a bounded hydrologic system, within which all living things are inextricably linked by their common watercourse and where, as humans settled, simple logic demanded that they become part of a community."
~John Wesley Powell, scientist geographer
Our watershed service-learning project centers on the study of the Thames River Watershed. Through a series of field studies and science labs, students are learning about the importance of their watershed to their lives and the lives of other living things. Students from three areas of the watershed, Chaplin (upstream), Norwich (middle), and New London (downstream), are looking at their local water resources and the roll that humans play on the quality and quantity of potable water. Lessons, activities and field experiences are aligned to the Connecticut Science Frameworks and include connections in math, reading, writing, geography and social studies.
Students in the project will be contributing their experiences and responding to each other on their Thames River Watershed wiki. This wiki resource will be accessible to anyone with an internet connection and can be used to raise awareness and help educate the local citizenship. Chaplin students have been collecting data from the local streams and rivers and will be sharing it with their school partners from Norwich and New London.
The watershed project includes several field studies funded by our Learn & Serve grant, including a trip to the Natchaug River in October by Chaplin 6th graders. They conducted a rapid bio assessment collecting and counting macro invertebrates from the riffles in the stream in the morning, and they spend the afternoon in the science lab, identifying and graphing. Their data will be sent to DEP for the State database on water quality. Chaplin students will be visiting the Connecticut Science Center on March 1st, and trips to the fish hatchery in Plainfield, the fish ladder at the Greenville Dam and the water and waste treatment plants in Willimantic are planned for the spring. They will also participate in the biological species (fish count) at Mohegan Park, Norwich with selected students from the Thames River Academy.
Chaplin 6th graders are also participating in the Trout in the Classroom program. The reason they are raising trout in the classroom is to help raise the population of brown trout in the Natchaug River. The trout is an important food source for other animals. The goal of Trout in the Classroom is to teach about the importance of water quality and how to preserve the population of trout.
In May, Chaplin students will go to Rocky Neck to collect data for a longitudinal study on invasive species, led by environmental education consultant, Juan Sanchez. Students will compile what they have learned themselves and from their partners in Norwich and New London, and current data about Long Island Sound to determine the impact of siltification, run-off and pollution from their own backyard, way upstream in Chaplin.
Their culminating project will be a Thames River Watershed calendar that will include student photographs, illustrations, and researched facts and conservation tips for every month. The calendar will simulate a journey along the watershed starting with January as the headwaters and ending with December as the Long Island Sound. Chaplin students are responsible for the first four months, Norwich the next four, and New London, the final four. The different months will help educate the public about the watershed, its wildlife, people, non-source point pollution and the Long Island Sound.
Submitted by Agnes Quinones, Connecticut State Department of Education
"that area of land, a bounded hydrologic system, within which all living things are inextricably linked by their common watercourse and where, as humans settled, simple logic demanded that they become part of a community."
~John Wesley Powell, scientist geographer
Our watershed service-learning project centers on the study of the Thames River Watershed. Through a series of field studies and science labs, students are learning about the importance of their watershed to their lives and the lives of other living things. Students from three areas of the watershed, Chaplin (upstream), Norwich (middle), and New London (downstream), are looking at their local water resources and the roll that humans play on the quality and quantity of potable water. Lessons, activities and field experiences are aligned to the Connecticut Science Frameworks and include connections in math, reading, writing, geography and social studies.
Students in the project will be contributing their experiences and responding to each other on their Thames River Watershed wiki. This wiki resource will be accessible to anyone with an internet connection and can be used to raise awareness and help educate the local citizenship. Chaplin students have been collecting data from the local streams and rivers and will be sharing it with their school partners from Norwich and New London.
The watershed project includes several field studies funded by our Learn & Serve grant, including a trip to the Natchaug River in October by Chaplin 6th graders. They conducted a rapid bio assessment collecting and counting macro invertebrates from the riffles in the stream in the morning, and they spend the afternoon in the science lab, identifying and graphing. Their data will be sent to DEP for the State database on water quality. Chaplin students will be visiting the Connecticut Science Center on March 1st, and trips to the fish hatchery in Plainfield, the fish ladder at the Greenville Dam and the water and waste treatment plants in Willimantic are planned for the spring. They will also participate in the biological species (fish count) at Mohegan Park, Norwich with selected students from the Thames River Academy.
Chaplin 6th graders are also participating in the Trout in the Classroom program. The reason they are raising trout in the classroom is to help raise the population of brown trout in the Natchaug River. The trout is an important food source for other animals. The goal of Trout in the Classroom is to teach about the importance of water quality and how to preserve the population of trout.
In May, Chaplin students will go to Rocky Neck to collect data for a longitudinal study on invasive species, led by environmental education consultant, Juan Sanchez. Students will compile what they have learned themselves and from their partners in Norwich and New London, and current data about Long Island Sound to determine the impact of siltification, run-off and pollution from their own backyard, way upstream in Chaplin.
Their culminating project will be a Thames River Watershed calendar that will include student photographs, illustrations, and researched facts and conservation tips for every month. The calendar will simulate a journey along the watershed starting with January as the headwaters and ending with December as the Long Island Sound. Chaplin students are responsible for the first four months, Norwich the next four, and New London, the final four. The different months will help educate the public about the watershed, its wildlife, people, non-source point pollution and the Long Island Sound.
Submitted by Agnes Quinones, Connecticut State Department of Education
Monday, February 7, 2011
CTE and Service-Learning
Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs are a great place to utilize the service-learning (SL) teaching strategy. Being the manager of the Learn and Serve America K-12 SL grant for Arizona and the state supervisor for the Early Childhood Education and Education Professions CTE programs has given me the opportunity to explore the connections between CTE and SL. I’m excited to share my discoveries with you!
Some of the similarities between the CTE and SL teaching methods are as follows:
- Both address academic and program specific standards
- Both require students to work and learn outside of the classroom by doing
- Both allow students to utilize the skills they’re learning in class in a real world setting
- Both rely on the students to take an active role in their learning and the teachers to act as facilitators of student learning
- Participation in a CTE or SL class helps students develop workplace readiness skills
Some of the differences between the CTE and SL teaching methods are as follows:
- SL focuses on student’s working to solve and/or address unmet community needs through service activities embedded into the curriculum while CTE programs may or may not include community service in the curriculum.
- The CTE work based learning experience may or may not be paid work and SL always utilizes community service as the avenue for practicing student skills and knowledge gained through the curriculum
- CTE programs have program specific standards for each program and SL programs have SL specific standards
- CTE programs are for students in 7th-12th grades while SL can be incorporated into any classroom grades K-12 and beyond
Some of the ways CTE programs may benefit by utilizing SL as a teaching strategy are:
- Students have the opportunity to utilize their newly learned skills to plan and carryout community service projects and meet unmet community needs as opposed to just practicing their skills in a work setting. This allows them another avenue to practice and build their skills
- Students have the opportunity to increase their civic engagement
- Students may get the opportunity to see how their skills can be used outside of the workplace to impact the community they live in
- Students have the opportunity to learn more about their community
- Offers students the opportunity to show their communities the value they bring
Although this is not a comprehensive comparison of the two valuable teaching methods, I think it does justice in showing how easily SL can further connect the CTE students’ learning to the curriculum and community, offer them another chance to practice their skills, and improve the community they live in. It would be great to hear your feedback regarding CTE and SL. Do you think they marry well? Do you think CTE classes are too restrictive for SL? What else do you know about CTE and SL? I’m anxious to hear your feedback!
Stephanie Hahn, Arizona Department of Education
Some of the similarities between the CTE and SL teaching methods are as follows:
- Both address academic and program specific standards
- Both require students to work and learn outside of the classroom by doing
- Both allow students to utilize the skills they’re learning in class in a real world setting
- Both rely on the students to take an active role in their learning and the teachers to act as facilitators of student learning
- Participation in a CTE or SL class helps students develop workplace readiness skills
Some of the differences between the CTE and SL teaching methods are as follows:
- SL focuses on student’s working to solve and/or address unmet community needs through service activities embedded into the curriculum while CTE programs may or may not include community service in the curriculum.
- The CTE work based learning experience may or may not be paid work and SL always utilizes community service as the avenue for practicing student skills and knowledge gained through the curriculum
- CTE programs have program specific standards for each program and SL programs have SL specific standards
- CTE programs are for students in 7th-12th grades while SL can be incorporated into any classroom grades K-12 and beyond
Some of the ways CTE programs may benefit by utilizing SL as a teaching strategy are:
- Students have the opportunity to utilize their newly learned skills to plan and carryout community service projects and meet unmet community needs as opposed to just practicing their skills in a work setting. This allows them another avenue to practice and build their skills
- Students have the opportunity to increase their civic engagement
- Students may get the opportunity to see how their skills can be used outside of the workplace to impact the community they live in
- Students have the opportunity to learn more about their community
- Offers students the opportunity to show their communities the value they bring
Although this is not a comprehensive comparison of the two valuable teaching methods, I think it does justice in showing how easily SL can further connect the CTE students’ learning to the curriculum and community, offer them another chance to practice their skills, and improve the community they live in. It would be great to hear your feedback regarding CTE and SL. Do you think they marry well? Do you think CTE classes are too restrictive for SL? What else do you know about CTE and SL? I’m anxious to hear your feedback!
Stephanie Hahn, Arizona Department of Education
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