The School for Ethical Education's (SEE) organizational mission is to encourage learning experiences that foster positive ethics and character. SEE uses various strategies including college teaching, a state wide writing program and a service-learning program to further its mission. The service-learning strategy is delivered through a program called Youth: Ethics in Service (YES).
The Youth; Ethics in Service program works with teachers and after school providers to use service-learning as a teaching strategy to to engage students in learning through applying knowledge to completing a community service project. Service-learning is an evidence based teaching methodology proven to engage students in their learning while developing and providing practice using skills such as; reflection, project planning, ethical decision making and cooperative team work. Service-learning has eight teaching standards developed over 25 years. The staff at the School for Ethical Education has been teaching teachers and students the practice of service-learning for over 12 years. Since 1998, over 7,600 teachers and students have engaged in the Y.E.S. program. Participants have donated over 197,000 hours of service valued at approximately 1.4 million dollars at CT minimum wage.
http://www.ethicsed.org/
Submitted by: Agnes Quinones, Connecticut
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Hawaii Statewide Service Learning Conference, Ho`olale i ka `ai a ka u`i, “Show What Youth Can Do”
The Hawaii Service Learning Partnership1 held an exceptional “talk of the town” statewide conference at Kapiolani Community College (KCC) located at the foot of Diamond Head, overlooking Waialae Kahala and the Pacific Ocean, on Saturday, March 5, 2011 from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (It turned out to be a beautiful day starting with a blessing of a light shower and gorgeous rainbow…wish you could have seen this!)
The original idea of this conference was typical, having a keynote speaker followed by various breakout sessions and closing with award recognitions. However, two months before the conference (through planning calls with Cathy Berger Kaye), we decided to revolutionize our conference and have participants engaged and active in the service learning process instead of being recipients of information only. The biggest challenge was finding facilitators to guide the 5 stages of service learning in the various sections and miraculously we were lucky to find 15 willing souls. The format of the conference changed by having participants 1) learn and practice the 5 stages in the early morning, 2) do the investigation and planning stages before lunch, 3) engage in a service action after lunch 4) convene in demonstration groups (sharing of projects) and 5) write meaningful reflections.
The biggest attendance ever (330 participants2) squeezed into KCC cafeteria to learn the five stages of service learning from the energetic and inspirational Cathy Berger Kaye. 1) Cathy focused on water issues and used Going Blue as a resource as well as experts from the Board of Water Supply to provide background information. After the morning break, the attendees participated in one of 15 sections3. One section focused on removing food waste from the waste stream. 2) The lead facilitator, a retired environmental education teacher, led her group in investigating the issue of overflowing landfills in Hawaii. The co-facilitator and community partner, EM Hawaii, shared success stories of people using EM4 in homes to reduce the amount of waste going into the landfills and to encourage the recycling of organic waste. The participants also learned and planned the logistics to make bokashi5 as their service activity.
Delicious bento (lunch boxes) consisting of rice, mahimahi, teriyaki chicken, and bar-b-que meat were prepared by KCC’s culinary academy. Vegetarian bento was also prepared consisting of noodles and vegetables. During this lunch break, participants interacted with 45 community and school exhibitors in the exhibit hall. 3) After lunch, participants went back to their sections to complete their service activity. The food waste group made bokashi to be used as a tool to transform food waste into nutrient-rich compost that can be used for gardening and landscaping. 4) During the demonstration stage, this group shared what they learned with other participants at the conference and 5) the reflections gathered revealed the value this food waste group had to improving the fragile island environment and the personal commitment participants made to use bokashi in their homes.
The general mood at the conference was one of excitement and engagement. The participants were active – understood the connections of learning and service; used various resources to gather information/data for their investigation including the internet, the Youth Service Hawaii’s chat room, and agency experts at the conference; made decisions regarding the type of service to provide; engaged in meaningful service activities; and completed deep reflections. Now the challenge is to sustain the momentum started at the conference through networking, collaboration, and workshops.
*****************************************
1Hawaii Service Learning Partnership includes Hawaii State Department of Education, Youth Service Hawaii, Kamehameha Schools, Punahou Academy, Hawaii Pacific Islands Campus Compact (Higher Education SL Consortium), Kapiolani Community College, and State Farm Insurance.
2Participants include students and teachers from public and private schools and higher education institution, community agencies, retired educators, VISTA and AmeriCorps volunteers, administrators at all levels, parents, and students from Matsuyama University (Japan).
3Sections – needs/topic areas include Access to Health Resources; Dependence on Fossil Fuel; Conservation of Natural Habitats; Solid Waste Solution and Mitigation; Foster Children and Healthy Living; The Importance of Physical, Emotional and Psychological Safety; Developmental Skills for Adolescents; Literacy Education for Underserved Communities; Health Issues and Developing Advocacy Initiatives (AIDS, Obesity, Bullying), Global and Local Peace Initiatives.
4EM – Effective Microorganisms. Contains food-grade microbials such as those used to make cheese, bread, yogurt, miso, and other foods. The microbes in EM are not harmful, non-pathogenic, not genetically energized or modified, and not chemically synthesized. When the correct conditions are provided, EM sets in motion a fermentation process to transform food waste and other organic materials into nutrient-rich compost.
5Bokashi is a fermented compost starter made from wheat bran and EM (a mixed culture of naturally occurring beneficial microorganisms). Bokashi (Japanese word meaning fermented organic matter) can decompose food waste in less than half the time of conventional composting methods, without any unpleasant odors.
Submitted by:
Colleen Murakami
Hawaii State Department of Education
The original idea of this conference was typical, having a keynote speaker followed by various breakout sessions and closing with award recognitions. However, two months before the conference (through planning calls with Cathy Berger Kaye), we decided to revolutionize our conference and have participants engaged and active in the service learning process instead of being recipients of information only. The biggest challenge was finding facilitators to guide the 5 stages of service learning in the various sections and miraculously we were lucky to find 15 willing souls. The format of the conference changed by having participants 1) learn and practice the 5 stages in the early morning, 2) do the investigation and planning stages before lunch, 3) engage in a service action after lunch 4) convene in demonstration groups (sharing of projects) and 5) write meaningful reflections.
The biggest attendance ever (330 participants2) squeezed into KCC cafeteria to learn the five stages of service learning from the energetic and inspirational Cathy Berger Kaye. 1) Cathy focused on water issues and used Going Blue as a resource as well as experts from the Board of Water Supply to provide background information. After the morning break, the attendees participated in one of 15 sections3. One section focused on removing food waste from the waste stream. 2) The lead facilitator, a retired environmental education teacher, led her group in investigating the issue of overflowing landfills in Hawaii. The co-facilitator and community partner, EM Hawaii, shared success stories of people using EM4 in homes to reduce the amount of waste going into the landfills and to encourage the recycling of organic waste. The participants also learned and planned the logistics to make bokashi5 as their service activity.
Delicious bento (lunch boxes) consisting of rice, mahimahi, teriyaki chicken, and bar-b-que meat were prepared by KCC’s culinary academy. Vegetarian bento was also prepared consisting of noodles and vegetables. During this lunch break, participants interacted with 45 community and school exhibitors in the exhibit hall. 3) After lunch, participants went back to their sections to complete their service activity. The food waste group made bokashi to be used as a tool to transform food waste into nutrient-rich compost that can be used for gardening and landscaping. 4) During the demonstration stage, this group shared what they learned with other participants at the conference and 5) the reflections gathered revealed the value this food waste group had to improving the fragile island environment and the personal commitment participants made to use bokashi in their homes.
The general mood at the conference was one of excitement and engagement. The participants were active – understood the connections of learning and service; used various resources to gather information/data for their investigation including the internet, the Youth Service Hawaii’s chat room, and agency experts at the conference; made decisions regarding the type of service to provide; engaged in meaningful service activities; and completed deep reflections. Now the challenge is to sustain the momentum started at the conference through networking, collaboration, and workshops.
*****************************************
1Hawaii Service Learning Partnership includes Hawaii State Department of Education, Youth Service Hawaii, Kamehameha Schools, Punahou Academy, Hawaii Pacific Islands Campus Compact (Higher Education SL Consortium), Kapiolani Community College, and State Farm Insurance.
2Participants include students and teachers from public and private schools and higher education institution, community agencies, retired educators, VISTA and AmeriCorps volunteers, administrators at all levels, parents, and students from Matsuyama University (Japan).
3Sections – needs/topic areas include Access to Health Resources; Dependence on Fossil Fuel; Conservation of Natural Habitats; Solid Waste Solution and Mitigation; Foster Children and Healthy Living; The Importance of Physical, Emotional and Psychological Safety; Developmental Skills for Adolescents; Literacy Education for Underserved Communities; Health Issues and Developing Advocacy Initiatives (AIDS, Obesity, Bullying), Global and Local Peace Initiatives.
4EM – Effective Microorganisms. Contains food-grade microbials such as those used to make cheese, bread, yogurt, miso, and other foods. The microbes in EM are not harmful, non-pathogenic, not genetically energized or modified, and not chemically synthesized. When the correct conditions are provided, EM sets in motion a fermentation process to transform food waste and other organic materials into nutrient-rich compost.
5Bokashi is a fermented compost starter made from wheat bran and EM (a mixed culture of naturally occurring beneficial microorganisms). Bokashi (Japanese word meaning fermented organic matter) can decompose food waste in less than half the time of conventional composting methods, without any unpleasant odors.
Submitted by:
Colleen Murakami
Hawaii State Department of Education
Friday, April 1, 2011
Developing Exemplar Models
I frequently get requests for sample curricular units that incorporate high quality service-learning. In response to this request, Mike Mangan and I decided to join forces with Shelley Billig this year to host a “curriculum” writing event, which is happening as I write. We brought a group of practitioners together representing K-12 and higher education, all with an interest in helping to deepen the field by developing example unit plans that illustrate how to weave a service-learning experience into mastery of core academic standards.
The teachers that gathered from Wisconsin were hand selected as practitioners who have a strong understanding of both best instructional practices and high quality service-learning. The task before these educators for the past two days has been to develop a set of exemplar models that can be used not as a replication tool, but as an illustration, providing a vision for other practitioners of what high quality service-learning looks like. In observing the discussions and sequence of tasks that have been posed by Shelley, it strikes me once again how difficult the reflective process is for practitioners in trying to deepen practice.
Shelley began this institute with asking participants to conduct an analysis of the intersections between best instructional practices in general, best practices in their specific content area, and best practices in service-learning. These discussions revealed how little attention is generally given to best practices in education, but also highlighted how critical it is to provide teachers with professional development that challenges them to do so. For me, it underscored the importance for every one of my professional development experiences to ensure that we build in reflection of practice and work to help educators seek continuous improvement. Part of this is for selfish reasons, as when we move teachers to higher levels of practice, we will have an ever increasing set of exemplar models to help us create a vision for high quality service-learning in our state. The other part goes far beyond my own corner of the world. Unless each of us within our individual states is intentionally working to deepen and replicate practice throughout the field, service-learning will never achieve its potential as a pedagogy that can be used to transform education systemically.
My questions for all of you are: What do you do in your states to drive continuous improvement in practice? And for SEANet, how are all of us collectively driving continuous improvement at the programmatic level, developing exemplar models, and pushing ourselves and each other to advance our practice?
Submitted by Teri Dary, Wisconsin
The teachers that gathered from Wisconsin were hand selected as practitioners who have a strong understanding of both best instructional practices and high quality service-learning. The task before these educators for the past two days has been to develop a set of exemplar models that can be used not as a replication tool, but as an illustration, providing a vision for other practitioners of what high quality service-learning looks like. In observing the discussions and sequence of tasks that have been posed by Shelley, it strikes me once again how difficult the reflective process is for practitioners in trying to deepen practice.
Shelley began this institute with asking participants to conduct an analysis of the intersections between best instructional practices in general, best practices in their specific content area, and best practices in service-learning. These discussions revealed how little attention is generally given to best practices in education, but also highlighted how critical it is to provide teachers with professional development that challenges them to do so. For me, it underscored the importance for every one of my professional development experiences to ensure that we build in reflection of practice and work to help educators seek continuous improvement. Part of this is for selfish reasons, as when we move teachers to higher levels of practice, we will have an ever increasing set of exemplar models to help us create a vision for high quality service-learning in our state. The other part goes far beyond my own corner of the world. Unless each of us within our individual states is intentionally working to deepen and replicate practice throughout the field, service-learning will never achieve its potential as a pedagogy that can be used to transform education systemically.
My questions for all of you are: What do you do in your states to drive continuous improvement in practice? And for SEANet, how are all of us collectively driving continuous improvement at the programmatic level, developing exemplar models, and pushing ourselves and each other to advance our practice?
Submitted by Teri Dary, Wisconsin
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