User:Chaus004

Service Learning By: Chara Hausler

What is Service learning?
Service learning is a way of learning that connects education with heartfelt community service. The goal of service learning is that students learn their course material, strengthen their skills, while developing ethics and values as they help out their community. Children learn to apply critical thinking and problem-solving skills to concerns such as hunger, pollution, and diversity, by experiencing a commitment to doing meaningful and authentic work. This is a great way for children to learn because it gives the children a sense of empowerment in doing work that needs to be done and a getting a feel of the real world by providing help to others. The students get a feel of empowerment by taking charge and learning leadership and are given choices on what to do to solve the issues of the community. This not only teaches students to solve problems, but it boosts their confidence in their role as leaders and their ability to change the world. Service-learning is education in action." — Sen. John Glenn

Why do we use Service Learning, and how does it benefit the students?
By committing students to projects of the community they feel "they are useful members of the community who can identify problems, propose solutions, and act independently in implementing solutions."(Berman xxiii) Students gain self respect as they develop the real-life skills of being at the job on time, having good attendance, and the doing the work that they have promised to do. As students stumble upon mistakes, they discover that these are opportunities for problem solving and the students will generally apply the golden rule as they stick together through their work. Also, because service projects are done together and with others in a community, students improve their communication and cooperation skills with each other.Because the learning is done in a real-world environment, the student's brains construct meaning from the learning that they engage in and remember it because they have experienced the issues. According to "Service Learning" by Sally Berman "the brain learns best when feelings are in balance and students feel happy, trusted, included, empowered, independent and capable as they do the service learning projects." These emotions trigger a part of the brain to produce a variety of hormones that researchers believe to stimulate memory, so that positive emotions that the students feel result in more learning and is remembered longer. Therefore, service learning is a good way to come about teaching students because it gives the students some control over what projects they choose helping them to become motivated to learn.

When is it best to start service learning?
Service learning is a K-12 educational system, but is best to start students in service learning in elementary school so they can start gaining a sense of responsility young. As students get older statistically more them drop out by the age sixteen, but researchers have seen less students dropping out when service learning is involved in their education. Kate Thomsen says in her book "Service Learning K-8", that kids begin "dropping out because of boredom, academic failure, and some because of little support from their families," but teachers have seen less of a drop out rate by starting the children in community service when they are in elementary school because they understand that they are needed to help others.

How does Service Learning Work?
There is no set way to structure a succesful service learning project, but there are a few elements to keep in mind. The first element is selecting the need for service. Before doing any planning the teachers and the students should take into consideration a community that needs assitance, the approprite projects that need to be done and the interest that students have in the projects. Next students and teachers should find a community partner. "When students are involved in contacting potential partners, participating in interviews, setting up schedules and agendas, and discussing responsibilities, they learn more about decision making, problem solving and cooperative action." (Thomsen 9) The third element the teacher should take into consideration is how is this project educational? What lesson can I teach my students? The last elements are managing the project by planning together and documenting their actions and learning through reflections, possibly in journals.

Some examples of Service Learning Projects
A few projects that children have participated in are operation smile. This is where children simply donate money to the school to send to hospitals or even other countries to help children who have a funny lip. Another project that children can help out the community is The Hygiene Tree. Children buy the supplies to make the tree, buy the products to put in the tree and then send the tree to the proper agency. Going out into the community is not uncommon either. For example soup kitchens for the homeless, cleaning up trash in a neighborhood, visiting the elderly in a nursing home, or even setting up like a play event for kids of a community for a day. A big community project that teachers like to give their students is tutoring. According to Robert Schoenfeld, "Peer-to-peer mentoring and tutoring; once a week have older students meet one-on-one with younger students to help them with reading, writing, mathematics, and other subjects," is a good way to get students working with each other.

Essay question
Do you think Service Learning is good for children to stay active and healthy? Depending on what type of community service project, I think that service learning is a great way for children nowadays to stay active. It is a good way to get children out of their house and away from technology for a day. It keeps them active because there are community service projects that are specifically designed for health. For example a walk-a-thon for breast cancer or a march of dimes…etc. Service Learning is good for kids to stay healthy mentally as well. They get to know the feeling of being selfless and humble by giving up a day or more of their lives to help other people. Instead of staring at a video game all day or just sitting in a classroom, getting the students outdoors and helping the environment and other people benefits them health-wise rather than hurts them.

Application questions
1. What does service learning teach students? a. leadership b. cooperation skills c. problem-solving skills d. all of the above 2. What grade is best to start service learning? a. 12 b. 1 c. 6 d. 9 3. Why do most kids "drop out" of school? a. academic failure b. lack of support from parents c. boredom d. all of the above 4. What should teachers do first before planning a project? a. select a need for service b. find a community c. set students up in groups d. none of the above 5. Why does Service Learning benefit students? a. it helps motivate the students to learn b. they can interact with other students c. they gain self respect d. only a and b e. a,b and c

Application Answers 1.d 2.b 3.d 4.a 5.e

Conclusion
Overall, I believe that service learning benefits students more than hurts them. They get the chance to learn new activities that could familiarize them with the real world. It prepares them for their future and they learn to support themselves and each other. It teaches children to cooperate with each other and motivates them to learn. This is one example of how teachers can be hands on with their students and not have them staring at a computer screen all day, which is also good because it can get them outside and staying active while helping others.