Project+Share

Please post your service learning project descriptions here!



"What Can We Do With Our Hands" Eric Schmitz - Taft Elementary Kindergarten teacher (Boise Schools)

I designed this to act as an overarching theme to our learning for the year rather than a specific unit of study. I teach two half day classes and the most successful component of this service learning theme for all my students has been our work with American Sign Language. It complemented our work with letters and letter sounds so well and everyone has been very successful in learning to sign the alphabet. We have also been learning words for the school and classroom as well as fruits and vegetables. I see a benefit for using ASL in future classrooms as it enhances learning and provides benefit beyond the classroom making real world and relevant connections. We have done a tremendous amount of art with our hands, as well as work in our school/community garden. For Earth Day we collected over six pounds of trash from around our school's campus with our hands (gloved hands) and have decided to continue this service learning and beautification plan for the rest of the year. "Empowering Assignment" Jami Cureton - Meridian Schools It was difficult for me to try and figure out how to really wrap my mind around service learning, as I'm an absolute newby to the field. However, as an American History teacher, I was able to co-conduct a service learning unit with one of our Government teachers, Crystal Gunderson, who also attended the institute. My students, after learning about who holds the power in the US, had to research those in our immediate area who have lost their power. I am forwarding a copy of that assignment. Once they did their research, they presented to the Senior Class, who then used that information to launch into their service learning projects. Once the Seniors were done, they came and presented back to us the results of their projects. It was a good bit of collaborative learning, and I think both my Junior classes and Gunderson's Senior classes really enjoyed the experiences.