Service Learning Slideshow

The semester is just about over, but there’s still a TON of work to be done. I have no idea how this seems to happen every year, but it does. No matter how prepared I try to be or how much I plan, Christmas seems to hit me like a Mack Truck. It doesn’t help that I’ve picked up one of the kids’ bugs and have been sick all week. BUT… we’re almost there, that’s the good news.

To finish the semester strong, we decided to create a slideshow to showcase all of the work that we’ve done this semester for service learning. It was a great way to look back on all of our hard work, and feel good about how much we’ve helped the community. AND, we got to learn how to use some new technology in the computer lab. We used imovie to create this one, but you could also use MS Movie Maker to make something similar.

The teachers haven’t decided if we’d like to continue with the service learning program in the spring, but I have a feeling the kids won’t give us a choice. They really enjoyed it and learned a lot ( I think) from it. Here’s our finished slideshow:

 

Happy Christmas, everyone!
 

Field Tripping

Field trips are something that every student looks forward to each year. In fact, when I did a questionnaire at the beginning of the school year, field trips was the number one answer for the question “What are you most excited about for 6^th grade?” I remember feeling the same excitement about field trips when I was growing up. Actually, it’s probably still one of my favorite school days of the year.

Picking a location for a field trip here is a bit more challenging than it would be in America because certain things simply aren’t an option. There are no science museums, no aquariums, no nature centers. There is a very sad zoo, a few big parks, and a variety of war-related museums, but all leave a lot to be desired, especially for kids. Last year, we did a Master-Chef-meets-Amazing-Race at the biggest market in town during our Health and Nutrition unit, but this year, I had a better idea; visit the charities we chose for Service Learning.

One of the organizations that we’ve been fundraising for is Wildlife At Risk. This amazing non-profit organization is helping threatened and endangered species and their habitats throughout Vietnam with conservation and education/community outreach. One of the representatives of W.A.R. came out to give a presentation to our students about biodiversity and what is happening to the rainforests here. The students were so excited to help that we decided we’d visit the wildlife rescue center just north of the city in Cu Chi.

Visiting the rescue center was the perfect idea for a field trip because our theme right now is Life Science. We’ve been studying biomes, habitats, and food webs and the impacts that humans have had on them. Plus, it was an opportunity for the service learning group to see where their fundraising donations are going.

So Friday was the big day. It was quite a long haul on the bus with 50 first and second graders, but it was well worth the visit. Here’s a little slideshow I made of our trip.

 

What unique field trips have you taken?

Service learning update

As you may remember, our grade 5 & 6 students have started a service learning program this year and boy, oh boy have we made some progress. Once we completed a needs assessment of our community, chose our charities and set our semester goals, we hit the ground running with recess fundraisers and a school-wide book drive (more on that later). I was a little worried if they’d be able to pull it off, but they threw any doubts I had right out the window. They ROCKED IT! (I'm so proud)

The great thing about service learning is that it has all kinds of great curriculum tie-ins. The kids sent out surveys in google drive to learn what kind of fundraiser to do, created flyers to advertise, wrote and delivered announcements to every class, and that all happened before the actual fundraisers!

In preparation for the actual events, we learned some basic principles of economics and weighed the costs and profits that we could expect from each fundraising idea that was proposed. Finally, the date had been set and each group had decided on their snack. One group was insistent on making smoothies and could not be dissuaded by logic. I tried to warn them at the amount of work that would be involved, but they were too excited and I figured that letting them make the decisions (good or bad) would ultimately benefit them. So- smoothies it wasJ. The other group chose popcorn which was much more manageable and logistically sound.

Our first fundraiser was scheduled during a Friday recess and each group was given only 45 minutes to prepare their booth and product. Once recess let out, it was non-stop action. I loved how well they all worked together to make it happen. They assigned each person on their team a job; line control, cashier, packaging, order taker. I mean to tell you, it was amazing.

By the end of recess, we were sweaty and exhausted, but EVERYONE had a smile on their face. We counted the money we made and came out ahead by more than $150! Not too bad for our first-ever fundraiser, huh? Here are a few shots from the big day:

Announcing the fundraiser

Slingin' popcorn

Check out this line!!!

That's what teamwork looks like:)

If teaching doesn't pan out, I can always work at Jamba Juice... hehehe

 

 

 

Service Learning Project

Wow… sorry I’ve been AWOL for a couple of weeks. You wouldn’t believe how busy I’ve been. Unless of course you are a teacher, then I guess you would. Anyway, the year is in full swing now and we’ve hit the ground running with some scary exciting new projects. One of these projects is a Service Learning Program. If you’re not familiar with service learning, basically it’s a student-run community service club that aims to tie in curriculum while helping those in need. When I was first approached by the Grade 5 teacher with this idea, I was more than on board and excited, given my background in non-profit and my love for volunteer work. As it turns out, this takes quite a bit of time, planning, organization and WORK. I know, I know, I should have guessed that, but you know, I’m delusional at times.

Luckily, the current theme of “Citizenship & Government” was the perfect launching pad for something like this because there are so many teaching opportunities and concepts that overlap. Our group of 5^th and 6^th graders started by doing a needs assessment of the community to choose two separate “causes” that they’d like to fundraise for. This is where living in a place like Vietnam is so completely different than America. Because Vietnam is a developing nation, there are a lot of newly wealthy people here but it still looks like a 3^rd world country in many ways. As you know, we started the year by reading Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes about a young girl who develops Leukemia as a result of the atomic bomb dropped on her city by the Americans. This hits close to home here because the aftermath of Agent Orange is still all visible… even 4 generations later. So one of the needs we came up with was to help the child victims suffering from the effects of this deadly chemical at a local hospital. The other charity we chose is a wonderful non-profit group here called Wildlife At Risk who help endangered and injured wildlife in and around Vietnam. Both are worthy causes and both are in need of our support.

Once that decision was made, the real fun started with brainstorming about fundraising activities, setting goals, discussing budgets/profit margins, and marketing. We formed committees and assigned jobs to each student to make the experience more meaningful. Each committee is in charge of everything from contacting the organization, to making flyers, writing and translating letters to the parents, organizing the fundraising events, collecting data, and working together to problem solve. That is not an easy task list for most 10-12 year olds. I am so proud of the students for rising to the challenges presented to them. Our first fundraiser is scheduled for next week during recess where the groups will be selling smoothies and popcorn. I will keep you posted on our progress and later about our field trip to deliver our donations to the kids at the Peace Hospital. Very exciting stuff. Have a great day, everyone!