One thing I have been feeling is defensive about my approach to service learning, since there is this emphasis on community partners, and in my class the emphasis is more on the topic, the issue, the goals of the class:
1. teaching students to integrate service learning into their own teaching strategies in the future as classroom teachers
2. to be an active participating citizens.
and part of this is USING STUDENT VOICE to find an issue and explore it and then do service around that topic and then reflect.
I do want to enhance my relationship with the community partner, don't get me wrong, but i think in some ways there is a continuum on this and the goals of the class differ from person to person.
so for me: my class is a methods class.
and among the various teaching strategies, service learning is ONE.
One analogy that came up today was on line teaching. That we all have taught a course and then started teaching it on line and when we taught it on line, we had a BIG learning curve, realizing we could no longer teach it the same way but rather a NEW way on line, but meeting the same outcomes and objectives.
service learning is another way to do this...
we can use it as a pedagogy, only I am using so many pedagogy's that this is not able to emerge as the only one.
But for me the emphasis has been on the value of STUDENT VOICE and that doing a project around something you are passionate about naturally is very important, and important for when they teach.
but I could put more emphasis on COMMUNITY PARTNERS. but not sure how to go about that.
Thought on my own class, and the evolution of it all as I began embarking on the whole MA compact grant on service learning. I started with 1.5 days dedicated...realizing that did not work, and it has evolved over time to really become integrated...more so each semester.
Like this semester including more about CITIZENSHIP AND GOVERNMENT and action...then critical attributes and procedural and informational knowledge.
Then making letter writing not service learning but a requirement in general for folks to get involved and take some political action...(that has to be cinched up and more clear).
Now, I would like to have them focus on sharing their community partner somehow...and create some kind of questionnaire to ask their community partner how it went...as a participant, but also if they were teaching, what would that partner want...I think if THEY ask these questions, this might actually get them more engaged in that process? I don't know.
the idea that emerged last week was CHOICE and letting students choose between the service learning and another project. I like this idea but also am not sure how it would pan out...what would the other choice be?
One thing that I think would be good to say to them, and Ann said this tonight "teachers should remain teachable" . This came up the other day when a student said to me "yea i like our class but i would like more resources and we have focused a lot on social justice but she would like to see more topics covered and so forth...and resources...which gets me thinking, i should.
I had that whole idea of teaching, but lesson planning is taking over. Hopefully after tomorrow we can start working more on resources and that sort of thing.
The last thought from today was changing my course...getting art OUT of it, regardless of NCATE since it DOES NOT HAPPEN there and increasing the notion of civic duty and citizenship. I would like to propose this change.
LAST thing, is the possibility of having them all watch food inc in the beginning and all of us doing the same project and all of us going to the food farm green whatever to do their project and eat their food etc.
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