Service Learning......What's That ??

“Everybody can be great…......because anybody can serve.You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve.You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.”

~Martin Luther King Jr.

Our world’s future depends on how we learn to treat one another. Reading the newspaper or watching the nightly news today is disheartening, bleak, and depressing.

The three T’s of philanthropy (time, talent, and treasure) are just as essential as the three R’s in academics (reading, writing, and arithmetic).

Schools are the perfect place to engage young people in service both locally and globally, by incorporating the teaching method of service learning (meaningful service with curriculum-based learning).  Rocky River Elementary has added Service Learning to prove that young people can be a powerful force for positive change. Throughout the school year, students, along with their teachers and Ms. Benstead, will choose service projects they would like to implement (that corresponds to curriculum they are learning).                    

Service Learning

is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities.

Example of Service Learning

• Picking up trash on a river bank is SERVICE
• Studying water samples under a microscope is LEARNING
• When science students collect/analyze water samples, document their results, present findings to a local pollution control agency, come up with an action plan, and reflect  – SERVICE-LEARNING