Community Works Journal

	FEATURED ARTICLE Digging a Hole: Clinical Teaching and the Journey of Learning By Dr. STUART GRAUER As educators and students, what gets us ready to commit to an endeavor, to a class or study, to a purpose, rather than grazing half-heartedly through another class? What makes us tap in to something larger? What causes us to cast off our timid shadows and engage fully in life and the largest purposes we can find for it? At some point, we believe that probably all the best lessons really are journeys; we hope our students can somehow experience new worlds and that a great lesson is like an expedition. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE Green Club: A Reflection on Partnership By AUSTIN F. SCHWARTZ Partnership emerged as a foundational component of green club programming. Partnerships share the responsibilities of home, school, and community settings. The self-generating aspect of green club programming was set in motion and service requests emerged. The club became a container for environmental dialogue and opportunities. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE Nursing Center Without Walls Provides Health Care to Vulnerable Populations By SUSAN SIMS-GIDDENS, EdD, RN Many of our students are unfamiliar with the vulnerable residents in our community. Students who worked with us mentor the new students. Students teach residents about the medications they are taking. The clinical supervisor oversees student activities, discusses resources, and assists students to collaborate with community partners. Student placement in this project is dependent upon student interest in working with the vulnerable population. read more
	Making Sustainability and Service-Learning Mesh in the Classroom By NATALIE LAROSE One way in which my classroom is going to improve the quality of life for all is through a service-learning project that I have designed that aligns with the first history unit I will be delivering, “North Street Then and Now.” Over the course of the unit students will learn about the history of the street on which their school is located, an area with rich cultural diversity and history but also traditionally an economically challenged area of the city. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE The Ideal Engaged Citizen? By JAKE GROHS Sometimes the fork in the road also serves as a necessary slap in the face. There I was—an over-caffeinated Master’s student in Engineering Mechanics at Virginia Tech, dutifully working on my thesis in preparation for a May 2009 graduation. Decent grades. A four-year veteran on a project sponsored by General Motors. Supportive advisors happy to recommend me to potential employers. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE Taking a Real Road into the Community By ANNEMARIE FRANCZYK, Ed.D. It can be an uncomfortable leap for them to consider the bigger issues in the world around them. But if they become professional journalists, it’s that world around them in which they will be working. There’s no time like school time to get budding journalists to think beyond their realm and provide a valuable service to others. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE A Wild Experience: The Transformative Power of Nature By KELSEY STAMM What happens when you take a group of inner-city kids from Philadelphia, most of who have never traveled outside the state, and plop them on a remote Costa Rican beach with no electricity? The answer? Magic. Eleanor Boli, a Spanish teacher at Germantown High School in Philadelphia, spent the last year raising money to take six of her students on a field science and cultural exchange program. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE The Grief Outreach Initiative: University Students Help Grieving Children in the Community By TRICIA MCCLAM, Ph.D. and MARY ALICE VARGA, M.Ed. She told him that her mother had died on Valentine’s Day. She still wanted to read the book, but Dean Rider could not forget the memory and how the child’s grief affected her—she was held back in school because she could not adjust socially and academically. “Right then and there, sitting outside Mrs. McCoy’s room at the school on a carpeted staircase, I was lost for words,” said Rider. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE A Nursing Program Comes Together with Community Supported Agriculture By NANCY LaPLANTE PhD, RN What better way to address human needs than through the food we eat and organic farming. I have always found being in a garden a place where I can pause to literally smell the roses, appreciate the wonders of nature, and reflect on life. My hope in planning this experience was that my students would have a similar response to working at the farm, and I am happy to say, this has happened. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE The Roots of Activism By CHELSEA ROOD-EMMICK, MSW, LSW We had a student who in his interview told us, to prove he was experienced with travel, that he had been to Iowa for two weeks. Two months later, that student who had been elaborating on how difficult it had been to be in Iowa was in a shanty town in Mexico beating a poisonous snake to death with a hoe. For me, as an instructor, this was about pulling back the veil for our students, many of whom had never traveled or thought about the international community. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE Digging Deeper: Charting a Path to Change Through Service-Learning and Sustainability By RICK COTA The experiences of an educator from Mississippi gave me unique perspective that I would not otherwise have ever had an opportunity for. Another educator from Hawaii gave me insight on the challenges that one has on an island paradise...that I later found out were the same as I had in California. What the Institute did for me was allow me the opportunity to share with individuals from different parts of the United States and abroad and realize that we all had unique experiences that we could all relate to. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE The Park That Kids Built By LINDA JASSIM In 1982 I came across a story in the Los Angeles Times that intrigued me. As a documentary filmmaker I was always on the lookout for a meaningful story that could effect change in people’s lives. This one was compelling. It was about a group of 5th and 6th graders who lived in an impoverished South Los Angeles neighborhood and their two green and idealistic teachers who thought they could change their world. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE Kids Making Change On Salt Spring Island By JANINE FERNANDES-HAYDEN, MA, BSc Welcome to Salt Spring Island, Canada, one of the Gulf Islands in the Strait of Georgia between mainland British Columbia and Vancouver Island. As an educator, I knew that, in developing this campaign, success was dependent on a design that would not be viewed as burdensome, or as a time-consuming add-on to the curriculum. It needed to complement the on-going work of administrators and teachers. Alignment was key. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE Something to Smile About By DR. MARY LASHLEY “I came in as an emergency patient from the Helping Up Mission for a tooth pain. I had been taking antibiotics (3) three times this year for the problem but it kept resurfacing. Your students explained that since the tooth was infected inside the antibiotic was only a temporary relief never fixing the problem. Knowing that I have not been at the…Mission very long, I knew that the only thing that the school was going to do was yank the tooth out. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE Voting at an Election: Students as Poll Workers By RUTH CHARLES The goal of the project was two fold. First we wanted to bring students from the classrooms to the polls to learn about democracy. Based on the previous experience we wanted to see if when expanding to a larger sample it would be successful. The second goal was to create habit-forming civic engagement Key to many city or county auditors who hire poll workers is whether the younger workers would ever return and continue working in the polls. We also wanted to encourage students that participation is key to democracy. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired: Food Activism at Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School By ANDREW WOLF I walked into my first food justice class in New York City last year. After writing “food justice” on the board, I waited for the class to arrive. As the students made their way into the room, it didn’t seem like many of them were taking notice of either the visitor (me) or the chalkboard. I was introduced by the students’ advisory teacher, Luz. A little nervous about getting the students interested in how food gets to our tables, I began by telling the class who I was and asking a starter question. “Who here knows what food justice is?” I asked. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE My Year in the Sisterhood Project A Story of Community Building By NANETTE TUMMERS, Ed. D. Many of our college students come from advantaged home environments and have misperceptions of our urban centers and the students in these urban schools. Eastern Connecticut State University is located in one of the poorest districts in the state: Willimantic, CT. Willimantic is an old mill city hit hard by decades of recessions and faces issues of poverty, low graduation rates, and immigration. Students “at- risk’ for stress include a broad range of situations read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE Quail Ridge Schoolhouse: A Window on What Kids Need By NANCY HUMPHREY CASE A once-in-a-lifetime experience may hold clues for every educator. The setting had a lot to do with the magic, along with the calm atmosphere, closeness to nature, and the interaction with living creatures that depended on them. The small size of the school was a huge factor, too. Everyone was integral. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE A Place You Can Walk To By KRISTINA KENEGOS SULLIVAN I’ve learned there is a great importance in finding nature close to home. A creek has patterns of light and variation in its course as the water makes its way over the rocks. There are deep pools that barely move where water spiders skate across the surface just above a branch of braided stones that tumble down and curve this way and that. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE Saving Daniel’s Farm By AMY E. STEIN On a sunny day in late September just as the leaves revealed faint hints of amber and crimson red, I drove over to the farm after school. I swapped my clogs for a pair of worn hiking boots and walked over to the sunken front porch. A thin, elderly man with a long, gray beard and sunken cheeks sat in a rickety wooden chair. I extended my hand and introduced myself. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE Evaluation as a Learning Experience at Howard University By RODNEY D. GREEN, and ARVILLA PAYNE-JACKSON, with SUSAN BONTHRON A unique partnership with a Washington, DC based Even Start program is helping Economics, Sociology, and Anthropology students at Howard University gain real world experience with program evaluation using ethnographic methods. Personal relationships with community members forms a crucial part of that experience. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE Shaping the Young Leaders of Tomorrow: The Story of South Carolina Service-Learning Literacy Champions By JASON M. BIRD, with DR. BRADLEY H. SMITH As an undergraduate student, I entered my first leadership role with a slight nervous shake running through my hands. I couldn’t help but feel, for a moment, overwhelmed by 35 sixth graders staring back at me. Their curiosity and excitement to have college students come visit their classroom and work with them on new approaches to reading and writing shined brightly through their eyes. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE The Purpose of Inclusion: Setting or Vision? By SARA BAKER I still believe in the concept of inclusion. Not because I want to prepare students for the world as it is, but because I want to influence the kind of world that it will be—for all of us. Inclusion is about honoring diversity, not ignoring it. It is about responding to the needs of individual children within the context of their families, their classrooms and their schools. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE Service-Learning In A Community School: AmeriCorps VISTA and The University By LEE N. MITCHELL with ROBERT F. KRONICK Ph.D Longtime children’s television show host Fred Rogers once said, “we live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem. Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes” Working with cohorts aged K-5 has reminded me how important it is to be optimistic as well as to have an open heart. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE Connecting, Listening, and Learning to Teach By ROBIN GRIFFITH, NANCY ZELLER, and GUILI ZHANG The preservice teachers were also very interested in getting to know their students as individuals. Linda noted that the little boy she worked with, Adam, “didn’t have any books” and “had never been to a bookstore.” She said, “He basically watches the dogs and horror movies with his dad,” and added “I think that we have a lot in common[because we both struggled with reading!” read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE Dispelling the Myths of Reflection By CARRIE WILLIAMS HOWE Body language changes; instead of leaning in eager and excited, colleagues, or students in my class, lean back and squirm. We’ve hit uncharted territory; preconceptions that surround the word “reflection” are tainting the conversation. Reflection is perhaps one of the most examined and written about aspects of service-learning pedagogy. And yet, it is also one of the most misunderstood. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE University Students and Children in a Homework Program Write Poems Together By CLAUDIA M. REDER The project began with the question: What would happen if prospective teachers, who were mostly unfamiliar with poetry, created poems with children? Would these students accept the possibility that poetry can be a journey of discovery, and would it enable them to become teachers who are not fearful of poetry? read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE Nature Journals: An Enduring Marriage of Art and Literature By DEB CROWDER The creation of the nature journal has proven to be one of the most enduring forms of the marriage of art and literature throughout the journey of mankind. It is also one of the most accessible forms of art in that it requires only a few simple materials. The act of observation can foster a love of place and inspire positive actions to protect and preserve the natural environment. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE City Hearts: Reaching Inner City Youth through the Arts By SUSAN BONTHRON An in depth profile of the acclaimed Arts enrichment program in the Los Angeles County area where teachers from LA Arts community teach dance, acting, circus arts, musical theatre, Shakespeare, singing, crafts, and photography free to the community's most impoverished children. City Hearts connects thousands of underprivileged students with professionals to inspire learning and integrate disaffected youth back into the community through the Arts. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE Family History Writing: A Prototype for Local Service Learning By SUZANNE KELSER RUMSEY The themes of collaboration, reflection, and reciprocity, while certainly familiar to service learning researchers, are themes which I have found also articulate the correlation between service learning and family history writing as well as shed light on what family history is and how service learning can be used in other historical, family based, and localized research projects. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE Dynamic Landscapes, Dynamic Learning By SHARYL GREEN A Standard based study for third graders that includes hiking, technology, journaling, mapping, listening to guest speakers, experimenting, noting change and proof of human disturbance on the land—all with the aim of helping community members feel a sense of place by using a local resource. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE The Garden of Knowledge: A Collaborative Learning Experience By JENNIFER BALDWIN and SHEILA BALDWIN Working in the garden became an antidote for his noncompliance. His teacher often noticed that even though he was smaller than most of his classmates, he was the first to roll up his sleeves and grab a hoe to help till the hard soil. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE Documenting an Important Encounter: Fostering Sustainable Intercultural Exchange By REBECCA KENNERLY, TYSON DAVIS, and LYNDELL NELSON Educators and students at Georgia Southern University embark on a collaborative service-learning project to understand the issues facing their region's increasing ly large immigrant population. Students in Intercultural Communication and Advanced Video Production courses, along the Southeast Georgia Communities Project documented and share their work. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE Building Community Through Teen Led Public Forums By SHELLEY MURDOCK and CAROLE PATERSON Those working in the youth development field have known for many years that young people have the talent and energy to understand, analyze and create positive change in their communities. The authors share the exciting results from a University of California 4-H affiliated program where youth reported that they acquired confidence and skills that they were able to use in other facets of their lives. Adults increased their awareness of and appreciation for youth’s capabilities. Youth connected with their communities. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE “If These Walls Could Talk…” An Inside Look at Children’s Learning By CAROL BERNER His audience was familiar with concepts of talking walls and architectural problem solving. The children, teachers and community members listening attentively on this sunny June morning had spent the past year researching and building models of historic buildings. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE Mental Health Service-Learning Projects on a College Campus By DEBORAH L. MAY and CYNTHIA THOMAS Two university educators in Indiana introduce their students to real world problem solving. Identifying that students on college campuses are at risk regarding mental health issues. In collaboration with the National Alliance on Mental Illness student nurses planned and implemented projects to highlight and reduce the incidence of depression on their campus. read more
	FEATURED ARTICLE Empowering Students in a Second Language By KRISTA ZIELINSKI It was hours before the performance, and I was already nervous for my students. Did they bring in the items they said they would? Are they ready to be productive? Luckily, when my students arrived at school, they were prepared in ways I didn’t think were possible. read more