In the Service of What?

In the Service of What?
The Politics of Service Learning
By:  Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer

Extended Comments

For this week,  I have decide to do an extended comment blog on Kelsey Woods Blog.  I feel like she did a great job by pointing out two big impacted quotes.  I completely agree with Kelsey that it relates to Kristof's article and when Kristof talks about Rick Goff.

"... Educators and legislators alike maintain that service learning can improve the community and invigorate the classroom, providing educational experiences for students at all levels of schooling." 

 Students participating in a Service Learning Project can benefit from this experience tremendously.  Students that participate in this opportunity can benefit from it because these students are opening their eyes to different aspects that that probably never have.  Such as, "Mr. Johnson's class was able to pick where they wanted to do their service learning and be able to explore the different lifestyles than they are accustomed to" (Kelsey).  I can relate to this because especially during this class, FNED, I was able to experience teaching in a lower poverty school, which I never thought I would.

"... Promote students' self-esteem,...develop higher-order thinking skills, ... make use of multiple abilities, and ... provide authentic learning experiences."

I agree 100% with with this quote.  I feel like Service Learning Projects should be done in high schools, and also in colleges. I feel like these Service Learning Projects are a great opportunity for students to experience different areas that they have never done before.  For me especially, even though I have already worked in a school system and have put myself in front of other peers and have taught.  I still feel like the Service Learning Project that I am doing, I am opening my eyes to a new opportunity on how to teach different students that have a different life style than me.  A Service Learning Project should help students gain confidence and make sure that the student knows exactly what they want to do. 

When I was in high school, I had the opportunity to student teach for 2 hours every day.  During that experience, I knew that I wanted to be a Special Education Teacher, ABA, BCBA in an elementary school.  If I had never been able to do that experience, I would still be a freshman in school, not knowing what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.  

Points to Share:

There should be a way for students in high schools and colleges to be able to experience this opportunity.  It is a great way for students to get engaged with their community.  Even though it may be a pain to add another task to your to-do list, it is an amazing opportunity to help open your eyes and to help a student understand what they want to do in the future.