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Curriculum Grants of up to
$1,500 available to VRP Schools!

VRP members! Your site is entitled to apply for a mini grant for the current school year. Grants may be up to $1,500. All teachers who document and publish their project on VRP's web site will receive a personal check for $250 upon publication. We have $5,000 in stipends available. more



Our Curriculum Library contains teacher created examples from the classroom and community, along with many Vermont History units. more



Reflections contributed by VRP students, educators, and community members. more

VRP's Web site is made possible in large part through the generous support of the Bay and Paul Foundations.





VRP Resource Partner

Rural School and Community Trust
www.ruraltrust.edu


VRP Resource Partner


VRP Resource Partner



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VRP Website development
support provided by
Community Works Institute (CWI)
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Service-Learning

Why Service-Learning?
Vermont's Rural Partnership schools join many educators across the country and around the world in the belief that service-learning opportunities can promote connected, purposeful and positive school experiences for students.

Such experiences contribute directly to the development of young people as caring, informed, and active citizens. Student voice and leadership, reflection, and a strongconnection to place are all important components of high quality service-learning.
At left: Students from a VRP School participate in cemetery preservation.


Vermont Rural Partnership students are involved in many service-learning activities and curriculum projects that benefit their local schools and communities.


"A service-learning project is very valuable because it’s not something that only lasts for one year or something short but it’s a long-term, maybe even a life-long change.Which is also really beneficial to our school
in the long run."
A Thetford student reflecting on the value of service-learning to the school


A Simple Definition of Service-Learning:
Service-learning combines service to the community with student academic learning
in a way that improves both the student and the community.
National and Community Service Trust Act

VRP Curriculum Exemplar
“I want you to design a product that will make life at school easier for Amy and Theresa,” Marc Chabot told his twelfth-grade physics students. Students were instructed to develop a prototype of a new device or product that would solve an educational or physical problem experienced by two special needs students. Their tasks included identifying a problem, determining what was known about the problem, searching the US patent database for existing solutions to the problem, generating possible solutions and creating and testing a prototype device. The students then had to present and defend their designs and models in front of a panel of experts from the local community. more

Service-Learning Resources: Learning In Deed: The Power of Service-Learning in American Schools Executive summary, and companion video of the same name. obtain a copy

Learn and Serve America's National Service-Learning Clearinghouse (NSLC) America's most comprehensive service-learning resource. The Clearinghouse supports the service-learning community in higher education, kindergarten through grade twelve, community-based organizations, tribal programs, and all others interested in strengthening schools and communities using service-learning techniques and methodologies. NSLC offers the following: website with information and resources to support service-learning programs, practitioners, and researchers; Email discussion lists for K-12, community-based, tribes and territories, and higher education service-learning; Library collection available to Learn and Serve America grantees and subgrantees

Connecting Service-Learning to the Curriculum: A Workbook for Teachers and Administrators Revised and Expanded Third Edition, 2011 A planning and evaluation manual, created by teachers for teachers. The Workbook contains a solid overview of service-learning, planning guides (at both the classroom and site level), curriculum exemplars drawn from the field. Now in use by teachers in more than 45 U.S. states, the Workbook includes and extensive new section on education for sustainability. more information

The Youth and Adults Transforming Schools Together Youth and Adults Transforming Schools Together (YATST) gives students and adults the tools they need to make changes in their schools. The focus is on “what is possible” in schools, not “what is wrong” with schools. more

Vital Results Through Service-Learning: Linking Students and Schools in Vermont Communities. Featuring contributions from VRP schools, this publication contains an engaging compendium of research based on Vermont schools deeply involved in service-learning, includes research done by researchers at the University of Vermont, in partnership with Community Works Institute. The publication provides hands on examples of service-learning along with a summary valuable to anyone concerned with deepening the role and impact of service-learning. more information

CWI's Institute on Service-Learning at Shelburne Farms, Vermont Registration is limited • 3 Graduate Credits With hundreds of alumni from across the U.S. and abroad, CWI's Institute on Service-Learning is now in it's second decade of providing K-16 educators and administrators with training and models, resources, and strategies for developing service-learning. The Institute uses an open registration process via regional and national teachers' networks. Vermont teachers should register early. For information call: 909-480-3966 • email • Download Brochure/Registration Form (PDF)