How might we create something that teachers can use to facilitate meaningful service projects with junior school students in order to build community connections and opportunities for student leadership?

My daughter travelled to a nearby community last term with her class to pick up garbage and do some gardening. The teacher asked the class to come up with a name and logo for their community service team and the class settled on “Dynamic Soles”. My daughter spent a lot of time creating a logo for this name and was very disappointed when it wasn’t chosen. This is what we talked about over the dinner table. It wasn’t the social studies test that she had written or the book she was reading or the math problems that she had worked on. When students are given a chance to help out, we see empathy, passion, and motivation. When given a chance to have autonomy, share their talents and make a difference, students become engaged. They want to feel like they have played a part and made a difference. 

I have been a science teacher for 20 years and there are lots of reasons why I love teaching science. I love giving the kids the chance to experiment and learn in a hands-on way. I love watching students make observations and wonder about things. Sometimes these are the things that students will go home and talk about with their families. But is learning great skills as a scientist a stepping stone for becoming a better person? Does writing lab reports make kids more thoughtful citizens? 

While these are skills to prepare students for careers or jobs in the field of science, we need to ensure our school programs offer opportunities to develop the ability to empathize, understand, accept and support others.  As educators, we have a goal of nurturing great human beings. What is the best approach to prepare them to be contributing members of society but also honest, courageous and kind humans? I applaud the integration of community service hours as a compulsory part of the OSSD. At the elementary level, the curriculum taught by teachers makes many things such as reading, writing and mathematics mandatory. I think we need to be more intentional about the teaching and practice of softer skills as these skills are the universal ones that turn kids into good citizens.

My side gig at school is working with the student leaders.  This is where I feel I have the greatest impact on character development. I get to work with leaders as they develop their abilities to be great team players and role models, effective communicators and collaborative community builders. 

In my role as student leadership coordinator, it is my job to create as many opportunities as possible for student leadership. Service projects seem to be a great answer. Our students have always participated in various fundraisers such as bringing in items for the food bank or donating used snowsuits for the Ottawa Snowsuit Fund. What is lacking is student ownership and input into these projects  as well as ubiquitous participation. I’d like to set up a program where each homeform class chooses a cause that they are passionate about. As students create an action plan to carry out their service project, this will lead to diverse opportunities for student leadership in each class.

I need to talk to other people who have seen projects like this in action or developed projects like this at their schools. In creating a new program like this, I am nervous about the reaction of my colleagues as my enthusiasm for this project means dumping more work and responsibility in their laps. I need to find a way to break this down into manageable pieces to avoid creating extra stress for homeroom teachers. 

I need to find local articles showing young students making a difference. I need to talk to kids to make a list of possible organizations (local, national and global) that would be of interest. I need to create a committee of teacher colleagues to look at how to scaffold the program differently for different age groups (grade 4-8). Would it make sense to start this program by only running it for one grade as an interdisciplinary project that could be run during teaching hours or should I rely on homeform time to do it? The first year will be a pilot for this program so it makes sense to run it with one grade and the most willing teachers to iron out the kinks before impacting all teachers.

I found a wonderful video made by the UN. The ideas motivate and empower people to recognize the sustainable development goals and make a difference to our world. I want to show this video to our students at the beginning of the project. The messages from Desmond Tutu, Malala and many others are powerful and beautiful (https://youtu.be/xVWHuJOmaEk). As our world returns to the new normal, it would be my goal to bring in some speakers to kick off this service project with students. The energy that human beings share in person is much more powerful than what can be done over a screen.  It would be wonderful to allow some face to face connection to happen between our students and someone who has made a difference with respect to service learning. 

In my mind, it is all about relationships. Service learning can strengthen relationships between peers as they work together for a common goal. It can build relationships within the community as students come to have an understanding and acceptance of the needs of others living close by. It is about the relationships with other people from various walks of life, that lay ahead of us, waiting to be built.