Michael Lang Fifth Grade Teacher Kirk L. Adams Elementary School February 13, 2009
Student-teachers will be required to blog extensively while during the service learning project, as well as keeping copies of any correspondence between themselves and agencies or individuals. In addition, student-teachers will keep photographic/video evidence of their diligence. Student-teachers have been instructed in the use of Photo Story 3, Audacity, Microsoft Power Point, Publisher, Word, and many online databases. They have the ability to manipulate any or all of these programs in order to craft presentations. Student-teachers will also present their findings via poster board/project board to the school and their parents during an evening event.
Lesson planning has been completed for the entire service learning project. Though ambitious, it is a plausible plan of action that will need constant adjustments to remain viable. Student-teachers have been studying food chains and the interdependence of animals on their own species, other species, and plant life. It is the hope of the teacherstudent that an analogy can be made between this science concept and the civic standards that are embedded in service learning. Lessons are in place to scaffold the development of the analogy in the minds of the student-teachers, bridging the concept of a food chain and the actors in the movements of change. Student-teachers seem to be making good progress toward this goal, despite this being the difficult time immediately preceding the CRT tests. They will be assessed on their knowledge of the food chain and its actors on Friday, 2/20 and on Monday 2/23, the ground work for the service learning project will begin to be laid. The lesson plans have been crafted in a very deliberate manner so that studentteacher learning is not perfunctory and that connections can be made across concepts. It is the intention of the teacher-student that student-teachers understand the interconnectivity of the concepts they learn in school. To assist student-teachers, the teacherstudent has instructed them in the use of various forms of technology and communication as well as recruiting aid from Las Vegas High School students in order to aid in the proper facilitation of the project.
Student-teachers were also taken to the Springs Preserve in order to observe the natural balance of things if they are disturbed, examples of disturbances in the natural order of things, and how these disturbances can be reconciled. (This seems to be analogy that is easily digestible for the student-teachers and will be explored further during the unit.) Notes were taken of their experiences as well and these will be used to further the analogy between the ‘natural’ world and ‘human’ world. In terms of an action plan, student-teachers will work in groups of four to brainstorm, choose a topic, and then create the action plan, all under supervision of the teacher-student. For sake of simplicity, the ‘umbrella’ which all service learning project will remain under will be the environment as to maintain the analogy that will be crafted. Again, the lessons will be paced slowly and down in a deliberate manner so that student-teachers can more thoroughly and boldly begin down this path.
To this point, student-teachers have studied historical Nevada and how things come to be and cease to be over time, another concept that can be applied to the Civil Rights era. They also examined the idea of cause and effect , which permeates all areas of learning. Being versed in these concepts will undoubtedly aid them in the acquisition of the basics of service learning in the next few weeks and will allow them to better marry the scientific concepts that have been presented to the social studies issues we will examine. It has been extremely entertaining to have had to craft lessons that will scaffold a service learning project effectively and the student-teachers have been receptive to the ideas that have been presented to this point. I am quite excited to see where this process leads and if the receptiveness that has been expressed at the outset by student-teachers will remain throughout the entire project. I am also very interested to see how my school administration will react to this. To my knowledge, there is no other grade level which is instructing in this manner and our school, though giving the appearance that it is progressive, is quite conservative at the end of the day.