2002 Tomorrow's Teachers: Pay It Forward

Could Community Outreach Be Your Best Teacher?

Teacher education in its traditional form focuses primarily on methods and materials, lesson plans, human behavior, and student teaching. Education reform analysts are now singing the praises of service-learning through community outreach. Another flavor-of-the-month in education reform? Or have researchers hit on the lesson of a lifetime for teachers and students alike?

When Tessa Brown, a senior at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, learned that 40 million adults in America were functionally illiterate, she knew she had to do something to help.

"I was shocked to learn that more than 20 percent of the population can't read," says Brown, an avid reader herself. "I knew if I could do something to instill a love of reading in young children, I could help curb that figure in years to come."

So Brown, former president of the Illinois Education Association Student Program at John A. Logan College, developed "Reading Connection," a program that has been bringing books to low-income children and their parents for three years.

Funded through an NEA CLASS grant, Brown takes a classroom of children--many who have never seen the inside of a bookstore or been read to out loud--to a local Barnes & Noble every year to choose two books: one for their classroom library and one to take home. Parents and family members also participate.

The program has taught her a powerful lesson about community: "One simple act for others can transform the lives of countless people," she says. "These children have been affected for life. It's a pay-it-forward concept," says Brown, referring to the movie Pay It Forward, which revolves around the concept of passing on good deeds. "I've experienced the benefits of being involved and now there's nothing I want more than to share that with my own students one day. It's about hands reaching out and connecting with one another to form a chain of service."

Like Tessa, Student members across the country--from California to Connecticut--are helping themselves become better teachers by rolling up their sleeves and addressing real community needs through hands-on engagement.

"Participating in outreach activities during college truly taught me what it means to be going into a profession of service and compassion," says Stefanie Shumaker, a first-year teacher in Mitchell, South Dakota. "This realization and personal growth isn't something you can learn by sitting in a classroom behind a desk all day."

In 2001, Shumaker recruited more than 150 education students from across the state to help rebuild rural Plankinton Public School that had been destroyed by a propane fire. Using a CLASS grant from the NEA Student Program to help fund the efforts of the event--dubbed "Pitching in at Plankinton"--the future teachers installed bookshelves in classrooms, built a walkway to the playground and moved equipment to a new play area.

"We kept getting praise from the Plankinton teachers and community, but little did they know that we received much more of a gift than what we gave to them," says the former president of the South Dakota Education Association-Student Program. "Our lives were touched and changed forever that day. We pulled together and made a difference, which is what teaching is really about."

Education experts agree. According to research, preservice teachers who complete community service projects develop a greater commitment to teaching than those who don't. Experts have also found that education students who take time for community projects have a great deal of success in their own teaching experience, especially in planning activities and communicating with parents.

Shumaker agrees: "When I walked into my own classroom to start teaching, I felt very prepared," she says. "I knew that if I could plan a statewide event, I could do just about anything."

More than 225 teacher education programs across the country use service learning as an integral part of their curriculum in order to create a curriculum that is relevant to the "real world." Research also suggests that beginning teachers who participate in service learning during college use community outreach as a pedagogy with their own students.

Melissa Skinner, chair of the Illinois Education Association-Student Program, believes even simple outreach gestures can make an impact. Recently she and other Student members sent letters of support to teachers in New York City and Washington, D.C., who were affected by the tragedies of September 11.

"Even if only one person is touched by our act, it's one person more than before," says Skinner, an Illinois State University junior. "And we're better people because of it. There's nothing like that warm fuzzy feeling of knowing you've done something good for someone else."

Shumaker adds: "By reaching out beyond my own classroom door, I've gained new insights into my students and my community. Now, instead of just saying that I care, my students and their parents know I do."

Fast Facts

A Quick Study At the California State University, more than 135,000 students performed a total of 33.6 million hours of community service in 2000. Of those who have taken service-learning courses, 65 percent indicated the courses helped them master the subject matter more than traditional courses. Also, 70 percent said service-learning courses developed civic awareness and responsibility better. Finally, 69 percent reported that service-learning helps them explore career options more than they would normally be able to. To accommodate all those interested in service learning, the university has added an additional 220 service-learning courses across the campuses for the 2001-02 academic year.

Experiential Teaching Builds Bonds Project Genesis, a community service collaboration between the California State University in San Bernardino and the Ontario-Montclair School District, reported that 99 percent of undergraduates recruited to teach at local schools for undergraduate credit and assigned mentors for their first two years are still teaching--of which 97 percent are at their original school.

Community/Service Learning on the Rise A 1999 National Student Service Learning and Community Service Survey found that 64 percent of public schools, including 83 percent of high schools, had students participating in community service activities recognized or arranged by the school and 83 percent of schools with service learning offered some type of support to teachers interested in integrating service learning into the curriculum, with most providing support for service-learning training.

Civic Responsibility While examining the impact of service learning among preservice teachers, a SUNY-Oeneota College study done in 2001 found that when a psychology course was split, with 27 students having to write two papers for the course and the other 16 doing a service-learning project at a local elementary school, the group that did the service-learning project had a higher mean course grade and greater civic responsibility.

Outreach Tips

Don't know where to start? These tips can get you going.

Apply for an NEA Student Program "CLASS Grant" (See box on previous page for more information).

Work with children in need in community agencies such as Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Neighborhood Centers, or Head Start.

Approach a local English as Second Language teacher about tutoring her students and their parents before or after school.

Offer to provide "day care" during parent-teacher conferences at a local elementary school.

Start small: Coordinate a letter-writing campaign to soldiers, plant a school garden, help coordinate a high school literacy corps.

For more ideas: www.nea.org/futureteachers/outreachideas.html and www.ehhs.cmich.edu/ins/serv/enrich

What's an NEA Class Grant?

CLASS--Community Learning for America's SchoolS--is The NEA Student Program's answer to two of today's most vital needs: the need to build community support for public education and the need to deal with critical educational and social problems facing our communities. The NEA Student Program will provide up to $1,000 to chapters who help launch a CLASS project in their community. For more information, call Malcolm Staples at (202) 822-7123 or e-mail him at mstaples@nea.org.

A Lesson in Service

Student Wisconsin Education Association Council members provide after-school care for community's "latchkey" children

Students at the University of Wisconsin in Stevens Point (UWSP) wanted to do something special for the community, but they weren't sure what. So they reached out to a local school and realized they had the power to do something big.

"The education students at that time discovered that many elementary students were 'latchkey kids' who would go home to an empty house everyday after school," says senior Katie Krebsbach. "So our Student Association took the lead in tackling the problem by starting an after-school program for them."

More than 1,600 children from Jefferson Elementary School have benefited from the Student Wisconsin Education Association-Stevens Point "Latchkey Program" since it was founded 10 years ago.

Free to K-4 students who are on free and reduced lunch, the program offers a structured environment for Jefferson students who would otherwise have nowhere to go or be left alone at home after school.

Latchkey--which received the NEA outstanding CLASS Project this year from NEA's Student Program--is run completely by Student Association members on a volunteer basis. These "teachers" plan lessons, age-appropriate games, playground activities, art projects, and learning opportunities for more than 40 children per semester.

They also work directly with Jefferson's principal and teachers to offer extra help and tutoring to the students who need it most. "We teach the students from 3:30 to 5:15 every day," says Krebsbach, this year's co-coordinator for the Latchkey program. "It's extremely hands-on and educational for us to know that we're responsible for making sure these children have a safe place to hang out and learn after school."

In addition, she says, Latchkey is providing "real-world" experience for her and other future teachers because more than half of the children involved are English as Second Language students.

"Through Latchkey, we're able to put the lessons we're learning in school about diversity into practice right away," she says. "It's invaluable experience that will enable us to reach more students once we have our own classrooms after graduation."

Krebsbach says the program is also providing a priceless service to parents and the community.

"Parents know their children are in safe hands," she says of the program, which has a waiting list to get in. "It's also exposing the kids to a lot of things in our community they wouldn't be a part of otherwise."

Just this year, Krebsbach and the other Latchkey teachers invited a humane society employee to teach the young students about pet care, an elderly resident to talk about the history of their town, and local high school cheerleaders to teach them how to dance.

The Student members have also spent time reaching out to local businesses and civic organizations, which have provided Latchkey with art and educational supplies, a computer, and small grants to keep the funding adequate.

The program attracted many politicians, and in 2000 the state recognized it as a "model" site for an after-school program pilot. "We're providing a safe haven for Jefferson students, peace of mind for the parents, and a reason for local businesses to be involved with the school," says Krebsbach. "It also gives us a place to learn how to teach, which is ultimately the best teacher." For more: E-mail swea@uwsp.edu.

Ask the Experts

Malcolm Staples

Malcolm Staples has worked as an organizational specialist for the NEA Student Program for more than four years. But his involvement with student issues extends back more than 15 years, to time spent as an UniServ Director for the Virginia Education Association. Below, Staples explains why both Student members and new teachers should seek out opportunities to become engaged in community activities. (To contact, see box on page two.)

Why are community partnerships so important?
As educators, we can't see teaching in isolation of community issues. Being involved with your school's community is a main ingredient to successful education. I've talked with many new teachers who tell me that it feels like they are doing well in their new teaching jobs, but perhaps not "well enough." Nine times out of ten, the missing link turns out to be the fact that they haven't taken the time to establish relationships with anyone outside of the school. When teachers understand and are part of a child's community, they can fully understand where that child comes from. A teacher's role is to educate, but in order to do that to the highest level, he must understand where a child starts and where she ends. That understanding doesn't come from a teacher college or classroom setting. It comes from hands-on involvement outside the classroom door.

So it's okay if education students wait until they start teaching to get involved with community service?
It's a personal choice, but my best advice to any future teacher is to start now. Most professors in teacher education programs talk about simulated experiences and use history and data to talk about community service activities. But that doesn't help future teachers grasp the actual practice. When they can get involved in community activities at the college level, they have a better appreciation for what it means to be community-service oriented when they start teaching. Prospective teachers may not understand fully what it means to work in schools that have minimal resources or a challenged environment. But when they reach out to such schools while in college, they will have a better understanding for what it means to educate kids in communities other than their own.

What is NEA doing to help foster community partnerships?
Over the last few years, community service has become part of the Association's core and is now being integrated into professional issues like classroom management and testing. Even our professional conferences are being retooled to integrate community service components into the issues discussed. At the Student member level, education students have the opportunity to be part of our "Outreach to Teach" event, which occurs every summer during the NEA Representative Assembly. They can also apply for CLASS grants, which provide up to $1,000 to fund community projects at the local level.

Can you give advice to students who want to participate in meaningful community outreach experiences through their local chapters?
Consider doing more than just a one-shot event if possible. That means starting with something small and establishing relationships with a school, a district, or local community organizations to grow it into something bigger. Experience has taught us that if a chapter approaches a local school without a specific plan and says 'what can we do to help?,' not much gets done. But if a chapter does some work identifying a void that needs to be filled before approaching a school, and then offers specific ways to help, the work becomes about the needs of the school rather than the needs of the chapter. This is also when the chapter will want to seek out community partners to support their efforts and make it sustainable. There are so many community-based organizations that care about their local schools. Future teachers should involve them whenever possible. Finally, student leaders should apply for NEA grants to help fund their efforts.

In the Real World

"There's nothing more true than that old saying, 'It takes a village to raise a child.' In most communities, it's the parents and grandparents, the places of worship, and the businesses that want more than anything for their children to succeed. As teachers, we have a personal obligation to do everything in our power to partner with these people who care most for our students. You don't close your door and walk away when the school day is done. For a teacher, it's never done."

Books to Use

Service-Learning in Teacher Education: Enhancing the Growth of New Teachers, Their Students, and Communities
Jeffrey Anderson, Ed.; Kevin Swick, Ed., (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education), $20
This book provides teacher educators, administrators, practicing teachers who work with preservice teachers, policymakers, and researchers with information on the conceptual, research, and application areas of service learning in preservice teacher education. The collection of papers offers teacher educators' thoughts about ways to enhance the usefulness of service learning in preservice teacher preparation.

Service Learning and Character Education: Walking the Talk. Linking Learning with Life
Kevin Swick, Larry Winecoff, Ben Nesbit, Richard Kemper, Michael Rowls, Nancy Freeman, Nena Creech, Laura Brinker Kent (The National Dropout Prevention Center), $6
This guidebook is designed to provide teachers, schools, parents, and other community leaders with the needed ideas, strategies, and resources to combine service learning and character education in meaningful educational activities for children and young people.

Learning With the Community: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Teacher Education
Edward Zlotkowski, Series Editor; Joseph A. Erickson and Jeffrey B. Anderson, Ed. (Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction), $28.50
Leading practitioners and scholars of service learning and teacher education explore theoretical and empirical support for the use of service learning as an approach to instruction. Fourteen teacher education models from a variety of institution types are offered, plus an annotated bibliography of readings for instructors and students.

Tales That Teach: Children's Literature and Service Learning. Linking Learning with Life
Carol G. Weatherford (The National Dropout Prevention Center), $6
This guide takes illustrated children's literature into the world of service learning and suggests how teachers can enhance students' service learning experiences with children's literature. Weatherford describes the power of children's literature, from womb to tomb--how stories affect readers or listeners at various ages.

Books to Peruse

A School of Our Own; Parents, Power, and Community at the East Harlem Block Schools
Tom Roderick (Teachers College Press), $21.95
Described as essential reading for educators, parents, and community organizers, A School of Our Own tells the story of a group of Puerto Rican women who created strong block schools and became key players in daycare reform. Activist Tom Roderick gives a dramatic account of how "housewives" empowered themselves to provide a first-rate learning experience for their children and build a community that enabled many adults to transform their lives.

The Community Teacher; A Framework for Effective Urban Teaching
Peter C. Murrell, Jr. (Teachers College Press), $23.95
Associate Professor Peter Murrell presents a new system of practice for urban teacher preparation. Through case studies, Murrell illustrates how professional development of urban teachers can foster new communities of learning, embrace diversity, and prepare teachers for collaborative and community partnerships. His model of the "community teacher" goes beyond subjects taught to embrace the communities where the youth live.

Writing To Make a Difference: Classroom Projects for Community Change
Chris Benson, Scott Christian, Dixie Goswami, and Walter H. Gooch, Editors (Teachers College Press), $21.95
Writing To Make a Difference provides teachers with intriguing ideas to help students become truly engaged in their writing, and at the same time strengthen ties between the school and the community. The "process-model" of writing instruction gets students involved in action research and writing about issues that are important to them and their communities.

Learning from Experience: A Collection of Service-Learning Projects Linking Academic Standards to Curriculum
Barbara Babcock, Ed. (Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction), $30
Babcock details how service-learning projects that combine community service with student learning in a practical way enhance academic knowledge and improve community environments. Students connect learning to their world and achieve better grades.

Resources

Outreach to Teach
This NEA Student program event brings together educators, support professionals, and preservice teachers from across the country to "clean up" a local school in the host city for NEA's annual Representative Assembly. Past sites were Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Orlando, Chicago, and Dallas in 2002. For more: www.nea.org/futureteachers/outreachideas.html

U.S. Department of Education - Expanding Federal Work-Study and Community Service Opportunities
This site outlines how campuses benefit from community service, what is required in the federal work-study program, how to make service learning part of a work study program, and how to implement and market a service-learning program on campus. For more: www.ed.gov/offices/OPE/pubs/WorkStudy

The Rural Clearinghouse for Lifelong Education and Development
Provides links to online service learning articles and related resources. For more: http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~rcled/ publications/sl/sl.html

Communications for a Sustainable Future
University of Colorado, Boulder
Includes searchable higher education service-learning listserv discussions; definitions and descriptions; job opportunities; conference calendar; guide to university programs, courses, and syllabi; organizations, publications, and other resources; and benefits of service learning. For more: http://csf.Colorado.edu/sl/main.html

Campus Outreach Opportunity League (COOL)
COOL aims to educate and mobilize college students to strengthen the nation through community service, and foster civic and social responsibility for a just society. Site includes information on conferences, projects, FAQs, and links to related organizations. For more: www.cool2serve.org

Corporation for National and Community Service
A national group that matches talented, motivated people with opportunities to serve their community and the nation. For more: www.cns.gov/joining/index.html

National Service-Learning Clearinghouse (NSLC), ETR Associates
The Clearinghouse collects and disseminates information and materials related to service learning for Learn and Serve America grantees and other programs involved in service learning. The Clearinghouse also operates a variety of listservs for discussion and information on service learning, a Web site and information database, a toll-free information phone line, and maintains a collection of publications on service learning. For more: www.servicelearning.org/index.html

Ask ERIC
A personalized Internet-based service providing education information to teachers, librarians, counselors, administrators, parents, and others throughout the United States and the world. Ask ERIC's main components are a question and answer service, an online virtual library, and access to search the ERIC database. For more: http://ericir.syr.edu and www.ericsp.org/pages/digests/slate.htm and www.ericsp.org/pages/digests/services_learning_97-1.html

DailyApples.com
A new Web site designed specifically to motivate teachers with inspirational quotes, freebies, humor and an interactive bulletin board. For more: www.dailyapples.com

American Association of University Women Educational Foundation
School and Community Projects for Women and Girls ShareNet Database lists projects, Eleanor Roosevelt Teacher Fellowships, and Community Action Grants. Designed by teachers, community activists, AAUW members, schools, and community groups, the fellowships and grants advance education and equity for women and girls. Many projects focus on improving girls' interest and achievement in math, science, and technology. For more: www.aauw.org/5000/commun.html

Campus Compact National Center for Community College
The organization serves as a national advocate for community colleges in service learning and assists organizations with the promotion and implementation of community service. The Web site provides staff information, announcements of award winners, links to related organizations and schools, full text and ordering information of its publications, and information on its conferences and projects. For more: www.mc.maricopa.edu/academic/compact

The National Service-Learning Exchange
This Web site supports high-quality service-learning programs in schools, colleges and universities, and community organizations. The Exchange provides the "people connection" while the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse gathers and disseminates information and materials. For more: www.nslexchange.org

Organizations

Council of Chief State School Officers
The Council works with state education agencies to help produce a network of peer consultants to improve and expand the quality of service learning. Through local technical assistance to teachers and school administrators, service learning is incorporated into education reform efforts. The Council also sponsors a corps of youth peer consultants who encourage other youths to engage in service learning and to provide adults with a youth perspective about the function of service in education.

National Dropout Prevention Center
E-mail: ndpc@clemson.edu The National Dropout Prevention Center has been involved in service learning--researching and promoting it as an effective strategy--for almost ten years. The Center is currently involved with five service-learning projects as partners in collaboratives throughout the United States.

The American Association for Higher Education
E-mail: info@aahe.org
The AAHE Service Learning Project is dedicated to the integration of service learning across the disciplines. The project offers a resource series for faculty wishing to explore community based learning. Through its monograph series and coalition-building meetings, AAHE aims to ultimately strengthen the educational infrastructure supporting service learning in higher education.

Close Up Foundation
The Close Up Foundation houses the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse. The Foundation coordinates information with six national organizations, such as Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, and connects the Clearinghouse with national social studies and civic organizations.

National Society for Experiential Education (NSEE)
NSEE is a national resource center that promotes experienced-based approaches to teaching and learning. The Web site includes background information on the organization, membership information, and ordering options for its publications.

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
ASCD is an education organization that focuses on learning and complex problem solving and influences practice and policy through services and professional development. ASCD accomplishes these goals through affiliate activities, networks, student chapters, alliances, and strategic partnerships.

University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is responsible for conducting needs assessments of higher education programs and for producing studies, monographs, and symposia on important issues dealing with service learning and higher education.

University of Massachusetts Office of Community Service Learning
E-mail: servelearn@acad.umass.edu
The University of Massachusetts, Amherst serves as the Regional Information Center for the northeast section of the country, providing information about service-learning programs in that area. The Center also provides teacher education and service-learning information.

Teach for America
Teach for America is a national teacher corps of outstanding recent college graduates of all academic majors and cultural backgrounds who commit two years to teach in under-resourced urban and rural public schools.

Vanderbilt University
The Office of Volunteer Activities Community Partnership House
The Office develops campus-community partnerships to benefit the community while leading students toward lifelong civic involvement and commitment. Staff advise volunteer organizations that actively promote social awareness and continuing engagement. The Office draws on both academic and community resources to promote the knowledge and values of social awareness, personal respect, justice, freedom, and equality. The University is conducting a search of literature dealing with service learning and higher education.

Association for Experiential Education
The Association develops and promotes experiential education through professional development, theoretical advancement, and evaluation of experiential education worldwide.

Institute for Global Education and Service Learning
The Institute creates service-learning programs and initiates activity-based education in collaboration with schools and organizations around the world. I*EARN, the International Education and Resource Network is a global community of youth, teachers, and youth service leaders committed to using telecommunications to make a meaningful difference in the world as part of the educational process.

National Youth Leadership Council
The Council's mission is to engage young people in their communities and schools through innovation in learning, service, leadership, and public policy through service learning. The Council seeks to build vital, just communities with young people. A prominent advocate of service learning and youth service, the Center is at the forefront of efforts to reform education and guide youth-oriented public policy.