Encouraging Transformational Intellectualism – Medium.com
I am a Spanish teacher and I am drawn to service-learning because I feel that it is essential for children to learn empathy and tolerance while immersed in the act of serving.
This can take many forms, and can foster a sense of greater community and purpose. As a teacher that has worked in independent schools for more than ten years, service-learning is often the only way that privileged students interact with issues that impact the wider world.
This year, I had the honor of attending Community Works Institute’s Summer East Institute in Vermont. I went with the intention of learning how to build the foundations of a service-learning program at my school, but I ended up leaving with so much more.
A journey to empathy and self-awareness – NAIS Magazine
I was the only child of hardworking immigrants who were grateful for my independent school education. But when I was a fifth-grader back in 1989, I recall my whole class teasing a new girl named Jessica* relentlessly. There was no culture of advisory courses, and I was much more concerned with watching Voltron than sharing my feelings.
Some years later, Jessica and I reconciled. A decade later, when she got married, I learned that Jessica’s father had been abusive to both her and her mother. I felt a heavy sense of shame and regret for the part I played in her early middle school struggles.
Today, educators have far more awareness of social-emotional health. As teachers, we pride ourselves on welcoming all students and the unique personalities, skills, and passions they bring, and we encourage self-expression and gradual independence. It is a journey students and teachers take together.
Reflections on First Speyer Day of Service – LinkedIn
“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth.” Muhammad Ali
On Friday, April 20th, more than 133 students and 18 Speyer faculty gathered to celebrate our first Day of Service. The day began at 8:30 and ended by noon, providing both students and faculty with a rich variety of experiences that were meant to inspire and encourage community engagement. A huge driving force behind the success of the day was the leadership of students in the InSpeyered elective, as well as the members of Student Government. It all began almost a year ago, after I received a Speyer grant to attend a week-long conference in Burlington Vermont run by the Community Works Institute. It was an incredibly rewarding experience and my takeaway was this: the Speyer community is ready to make change in a more direct and impactful way. I’ve had the great fortune of inheriting a healthy relationship with another school in our community, PS 111.
Students in my service learning elective, eight in all, spent the better part of the spring semester building literacy and math programs for one of the Kindergarten classes there. In teams and with a great attention to detail, those students taught them new words, adding and subtracting, and built their math facts. These students in particular helped me imagine how great it could be if we could bring a similar experience with PS 111 to the Speyer campus. After each visit to the school, which took place between once and twice a month, I asked them to reflect on the experience. They noted the stark contrast between the students at PS 111 and our own Speyer KA and KB. They began to understand how access and equity play out in schools and society at large. They mentioned too that they enjoyed teaching the little ones and how they saw that teaching effectively took time, good preparation and most importantly, practice.