Service Learning Project!!!

Name: Mrs. Jallick's 3rd and 4th grade class
Number of Students to Participate: 8

Topic/Area to be addressed: While working with the regular classroom teacher in the areas of science and environmental issues I would like my students to clean up the walking trail located on our property and the property we share with the high school students.  My students needs to have a good understanding of how important it is to keep the environment neat and clean and participate in helping keep our school grounds looking nice.  I will also communicate with some high school students and have them come over and do a presentation to my students on the importance of leadership and keeping our environment clean and safe.  I think having my students hear this information from older students who may have already experienced some of these activities will be helpful.  

What do I want students to learn through this: I want the students to learn how to communicate and relate to other students and understand that the impact of keeping our environment clean will benefit them in the long run and they will learn skills that will help them  become better individuals and make a difference in not only their lives, but all the lives of the students who attend our school. The students also need to know the impact of how keeping the environment clean will change the way the animals live within the environment and how they will be safe and healthy.  Having an extension of this activity would also be helpful to the younger students and maybe even having them participate in the clean up. Each year our 4th grade students are paired with 1st grade students and while learning through science about the environment and service projects we could read with the 1st grades about cleanliness and recycling and share our knowledge that we learn as we develop the project.

Who will we service: We will service our school district and the individuals who work with us on a daily basis. This will also affect the animals in nature and the population that lives around the school because it will affect their property and how they keep it clean. When individuals care about their environment and share it with others the needs stretch far.  

What service will be provided: The service provided with be to build on communication and teaching skills within different classrooms and between difference students and build on personalities and share and learn new things with students we have never met.

PLAN TIME!!!!

How long???
Start Date: September 2011-May 2012 (We will have several clean up dates throughout the school year depending on the weather and how it may impact the walking trail and how often other individuals within the school need and use the common sharing area)

How will classroom activities and learning be connected to the service: This project will be an extension of Language Arts as well as writing and technology. We will be able to incorporate all aspects into the introduction of the activity as well as learning throughout the whole year.  Students can use their experiences to connect this with journal writing and even making a classroom book that we can make through pictures and items that we have collected as part of the clean up process.  We will also incorporate science and the environment and how important it is to protect and keep things clean and healthy for our surroundings.

How will I engage the students in the project?:  This project is going to be very hands on and I'm going to allow the students to make most of the decisions. My role in this project is going to be to support them with advice and technical support, but they are going to be the leaders and make most of the decisions.  As an introduction we will review environmental information through some websites listed below and share with the students the impact of making a small change within the environment and how it affects all individuals around us. I think incorporating these websites and others that the kids may find on their own will be a great way to get them excited about the upcoming events. It would also be fun to make our own website and kids and administrators and other teachers can track our progress throughout each season because I definitely think this is something that can be completed more than once a year based on the seasons.  Doing this will allow for more use of the walking trail and it will be open to all age groups.


Websites to be used for introduction and process of activities:

• LIVESTRONG.COM (This website has activities students can do at home as well as activities that have already been done based on recycling, there are videos to watch and hands-on activities kids can make)
• http://www.partselect.com/JustForFun/Reduce-Reuse-Recycle.aspx (This website is more informational and shows the importance of taking care of the environment and what you can do to make a difference. There are activities and games that can be used to supplement in the elementary grades, which would be a good way to incorporate our 1st graders if they would like to get involved.
• http://www.dailyecotalk.com/Recycling-For-Kids-7-Quick-Tips.html (This is a great website that has 7 quick simple tips for kids in making recycling easy and fun.)

Action Steps!!!
What steps will we take to perform the task?


REFLECTION ACTIVITIES:

1. What did you learn from this service project and how will you use this in the future when you get older?

2.  What was the most effective way of communication when working with a group of individuals and what where the strengths of using this type of communication?

3.  What is the most important thing or idea you will take away from completing this activity?How has it impacted you as a student attending this school?

CELEBRATION

For our celebration we can put together a scrapbook or journal of all the communication and information we learned and shared throughout our clean up process. We will also make a slide show of all the pictures captured while doing this and present it to other classrooms around the building.  We can also create a website and have the slide show posted so family members and others in the community can see the changes we made throughout the school year and how much fun the kids had while doing so.

Resources or outside assistance will I need?

I will use the online resources for assistance listed above and maybe communicate with some outside environmentalists for connections and important things that may also benefit the environment and simple things we can do to keep things consistent.

Online Resources- Rubistar

•      Rubistar is an online program that teachers can use to create rubrics with their students.  You can go to rubistar.4teachers.org and create rubrics based on the type of activities or assignments that you are using in your classroom.  Students can work along side of you as you are creating rubrics for oral presentations, classroom projects, group projects, math assignments or any other academic assignments given throughout the year.
• I will use this program with my students because I feel like it will suit their needs and be a great visual tool to help them grasp what is being asked of them, and with them having the opportunity to develop the rubric with me it will make them more successful on the project or task because they will have a good understanding of what to do.
• The visual aspect of how to create the rubric will be positive for them because most of my students are visual learners and they really enjoy knowing the process of something and how to do it.
• This tool will be a great positive to developing a good relationship with my students also because of having the opportunity to work together and making decisions that will affect them in the future. It will prepare them for other projects they may be assigned in different classes as well as mine.

First Blog!

I have really enjoyed teaching and I'm always looking for new ways to engage students.  I'm glad to be taking this course because teachnology is one way that I love to engage students.  We have a smartboard in our classroom which is one way I engage students.  When teaching mathematics I download lessons that pertain to what I'm teaching and the students can interactive with the lesson.  Another way I engage students is to use visual supports and incorporate that with partner interaction. My students love to work with partners and I allow it when I can.  The last way I like to engage students is to use movement. My kids need a lot of movement and kinesthetics to maintain their attention so we incorporate a lot of movement into our daily work.