Sizzle of service learning: helping students shine
and extend their reach
I didn’t wake up one day and say, “I’m
going to do a Service Learning (SL) project with students.” The neighborhood
of my school is recognized as the poorest area in the state, most students
don’t speak English as the primary language at home. Over 80% of
students take advantage of the free lunch program and just a small percentage
will get to college; even fewer will graduate with a degree. When I first
considered sponsoring an after school club to do recycling, I thought
a few students might be interested. I had to gear myself up to deal with
the overwhelming student participation, which was all volunteer on their
part.
I’ve seen it, magic, with my own eyes: students
motivating themselves when they’re doing something they see as positive
for their world. Organizing the introductory club meetings, in year one,
was the most difficult part because our school had split lunch periods.
Once we conquered that piece, we began holding weekly meetings after school.
It became a regular rhythm of doing the recycling work and then having
a business meeting. Each year, sometimes twice a year, students elected
officers. Students organized and executed the work and business sessions.
My role was that of being an advisor, offering suggestions on how to streamline
processes or answering the who, what, when and why of campus procedures.
From the start, I had two goals in sponsoring this
after school club. One was providing an opportunity for students to do
something to help the environment while also learning some life skills.
The second was making sure students identified the importance of measuring
success in what they were doing and being. I never considered my role
to be one where I was micro-managing the officers. Plus, I was always
very clear with students that they were responsible for discovering the
solutions. The first two months were the most confusing since students
are programmed to go to the teachers for answers, but as I consistently
redirected issues to the officers and the club members I saw more and
more student ownership: discussions to find solutions and sharing of ideas.
Don’t get me wrong, it would have been easier for me to instruct
the students on the “doing” of the club. It was a much bigger
challenge to be an advisor and keep my mouth shut with my good ideas.
Club activity gave students an opportunity to openly
make a positive contribution and plenty of situations to grow social skills
and use some academic learning too. Club members generously volunteered
their time, which was made more complex due to the violence in the neighborhood.
When going home after club, around 5:00 on a school day, we made sure
no one walked alone or, better yet, someone was arriving to pick them
up. Even at that hour, there was significant risk of gang activity or
being harassed by drivers or passerby’s. During one school year,
two students working at a restaurant down the street from campus were
murdered during a botched robbery.
Social issues come in all shapes and sizes. The actual
student recycle work was organizing teachers and administrators to leave
containers of paper to recycle in their rooms/offices. They also created
and made an Earth Day presentation using slides and distributed it to
teachers. The club had a couple of committees to explore projects and
to keep the club organized. I was surprised about the stature club members
naturally grew into. On one hand, the student population referred to them
as the campus “environmental freaks” and on the other hand they
were the go-to resource in classes for environmental questions. This made
me ecstatic, which I kept hidden, since I’m a believer that building
social skills in high school is a major key to success in academic work
and in being a lifelong learner.
The main bump with club members was absenteeism. No
doubt, the number one cause was family issues: having to pick up a brother
or sister at school, have to babysit for a sibling, and of course the
dentist or doctor appointment. The second big reason was students who
had too much on their plate after school and we did have a policy that
making up academic work always took a front seat to being at the club.
Club officers struggled with this each year which produced creating and
enforcing procedures, creating and maintaining club records on spreadsheets,
along with exploring the art of communication.
As I talked to the students in the club over four
years I found three main reasons they participated in the club:
- Community service on college application
- Personal desire to make the neighborhood a better place
- Publicly demonstrate a positive contribution and hopefully influence
others to do the same
Community service on college application. In reality, few club members
would be attending college. The level of heart and hope displayed by the
students inspired me to be a better person.
Personal desire to make the neighborhood a better
place. This was the reason I heard most often from club members. When
I reflect on it, there are not many avenues for students in this community
to do good. Having the club available to them, where they have to make
and extra effort to participate, proved to be a worthwhile program gauged
by the number of students who contributed.
Publicly demonstrate a positive contribution and hopefully
influence others to do the same. In the neighborhood there are scant positive
role models. Club members aren’t dumb, they realized what was missing:
seeing some good. Club members opted to fill the gap themselves instead
of waiting for someone or some group to do it for them.
Honestly, I didn’t jump into sponsoring this
club because I wanted to do SL. I did it because I think there is more
to molding students into leaders than just learning academics or being
good test takers. Students need to comprehend social responsibility while
also learning loads of content they won’t use or need in their life.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a believer in necessary academics and
I’m a bigger fan of teaching critical thinking skills. As I began
working on my Master’s, about two years after I began sponsoring
the club, I was exposed to SL and that is when I started to learn about
it. I originally saw the framework of the club as a place students could
learn expanded social skills, practice critical thinking, and help the
environment.
After studying SL, I discovered the club work was
already weaving SL characteristics. The students were getting educated
about what it took to work in groups to achieve results, they learned
about recycling and its impact on the environment, and in the words of
the students, “we are being a positive role model for other students.”
The most remarkable part that I admired was they volunteered tons of time,
including some weekends for special projects.
The local zoo had a barrel project they sponsored
annually. After the painted barrels, which area high schools completed,
were judged for best design, they were distributed around the zoo and
used as receptacles for recyclable materials by zoo visitors. One year
the club decided to take on doing two barrels. They produced the designs,
got materials to decorate the barrel, worked in teams to paint ‘em,
and then did the project management stuff to complete them on time and
get them over to the zoo. This project involved serious weekend time since
after school there wasn’t time.
In year two we opened a new door: taking field trips.
At the time, the District had a policy that no school days could be missed
for any field trips, so the time we opted to do our trip was spring break.
This meant having fun too since it was vacation time. The students brainstormed
and came up with the San Diego Zoo and Sea World. The academic part was
built around examining their recycle programs; we met with people at each
park to discuss and get the specifics about how and what is recycled.
The students also did journaling during the visits on prompts that I provided
to around examining ecosystem characteristics and life in captivity. We
also had lots of fun at the beach, eating out, and enjoying the great
weather.
There were two requirements to participate in the
field trips. One was doing community service. The last year this consisted
of spending a Saturday morning at the local food bank and helping out.
The second, obviously, was having the money to pay trip expenses, which
proved to be most demanding. Most students were too young to have jobs
and families in general didn’t have extra cash to contribute. Club
members decided on an aggressive campus snack selling program that lasted
many months. It was so successful that in the following years other clubs
copied our campaign ideas to raise money for field trips too.
Club members practiced a different set of life skills
doing the snack sales. We had to get permission from the principal and
student council which gave ‘em a taste of dealing with politics and
bureaucracy. We only were able to sell “healthy” snacks as detailed
by a District list of products. Then there was the order of purchasing
snacks, which required parent participation. Next, there had to be a system
of packing the snacks and tracking what member sold how many snacks since
there was a sales quota to go on the trip. The fund raising efforts took
a lot of serious attention by club officers and daily oversight on my
part.
Teaching high school biology is the best job in the
world. Integrating opportunities for students to volunteer their time
to support the environment and practice critical thinking while helping
the campus environment made my life more meaningful. I know for a fact
that the students who participate are better citizens because I saw it
in their smiles and behaviors. Yes, the students and I preformed a SL
program together. But, it happened because we all had a genuine interest
in doing something positive for the school and the community.
Here are my top six SL resources. If you’re curious about or what
to expand your skills then I urge you to look these over:
Engaged
For Success; Service-Learning as a Tool for High School Dropout Prevention
A 2008 study that has some impressive stats about students participating
in SL.
Ten
Environmental Service Projects
A decent list of ideas, provided by the Youth
Service America Toolbox and Environmental
Protection Agency for SL programs.
Learning
in Deed – The Power of Service Learning in America Schools
Filled with useful context of SL and includes actual project information
along with feedback from K12 teachers.
K-12
Service-Learning Project Planning Toolkit provided by RMC
Research Corporation for Learn
and Serve America's National Service-Learning Clearinghouse
A comprehensive document that lays out “how to” organize
and execute a SL project that also provides examples and resource organizations.
Giving
Back - Introducing Community Service Learning
I like situational learning where I can teach by questioning and reflection.
This book, even though it’s targeted to juvenile offenders, has some
exercises that got my creative juices flowing when I need support in the
directing club officers.
Service
Learning Beyond the Classroom
The title is misleading, there are some great projects in this one
being done or completed by K12 classes.
Steu Mann, M. Ed. is an education journalist. He owns Education
Reporting™ and works with teachers to implement experiential
education curriculum. You can reach him at educationrebel@gmail dot com
(.com).
(c) Copyright protected 2009
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