Learning and Serving through CTE.

Learning and Serving through CTE. Winston Churchill once said, "We make a living by what we get;we make a life by what we give." Across our country, career andtechnical education (CTE) students are learning skills that will helpthem make a living, while also learning the meaning of giving that willhelp them, as Churchill put it, "make a life." It is calledservice-learning, and it goes on every day in CTE classes and career andtechnical student organizations (GTSOs). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Learn and Serve America (LSA) defines service-learning as "ateaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful communityservice with instruction and reflection to enrich the learningexperience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthencommunities." Citing common characteristics of service-learning, which mostlyalign with those cited by Janet Eyler and Dwight Giles, authors ofWhere's the Learning in Service-learning?, LSA says thatservice-learning experiences: * are positive, meaningful and real to the participants; * involve cooperative rather than competitive experiences; * address complex problems in complex settings rather thansimplified problems in isolation; * offer opportunities to engage in problem solving by requiringparticipants to gain knowledge of the specific context of theirservice-learning activity and community challenges; * promote deeper learning because the results are immediate anduncontrived; and * are more likely to be personally meaningful to participants andto generate emotional consequences, to challenge values as well asideas, and hence to support social, emotional and cognitive learning anddevelopment. As Scott Richardson with LSA wrote in a January 2006 Techniquesarticle, "Like CTE, service-learning puts coursework into context,mixes rigor with relevance, and builds concrete skills." Building Benefits There is research, such as the W. K. Kellogg FoundationRetrospective of K-12 Service-Learning Projects, 1990-2000, that hasdocumented the benefits of service-learning for students, teachers andtheir communities. The report looked at service-learning projects from1991 to 2000 and found that for the participating students,"Benefits accrued in the areas of personal and socialresponsibility, self-efficacy, motivation to learn, improved academicskills, leadership skills, avoidance of risk behavior, interpersonalskills and connection with heritage." For the participating teachers, the report cites benefits such asthe acquisition of additional skills and the shifting of instruction tobe more student-centered. The teachers also reported improved classroommanagement, a more positive view of students, and greater satisfactionin teaching and working with youth. The communities benefited becausethe projects met authentic community needs and fostered strongercollaborations between participants and their communities. When the National Commission on Service-Learning, chaired by JohnGlenn, issued its report on service-learning, it included four specificrecommendations to achieve what it called the broad goal of makingservice-learning a universal experience in all American schools. Thoserecommendations are: * Reclaim the public purpose of education. * Increase policy, program and financial supports forservice-learning in K-12 education. * Develop a comprehensive system of professional developmentregarding service-learning. * Provide meaningful leadership roles for youth in all aspects ofservice-learning. The report also includes this comment from Colin Powell:"Service-learning is a particularly fertile way of involving youngpeople in community service, because it ties helping others to what theyare learning in the classroom. In the process, it provides a compellinganswer to the perennial question: 'Why do I have to learn thisstuff?'" As the founding chairman of America's Promise,Powell has long been a proponent of keeping students engaged ineducation as a means of dropout prevention. He clearly understands thatconnecting their classroom experiences with future career possibilities,and providing meaningful community service projects can make a hugedifference in keeping students in school. Projects for Learning and Serving Career and technical educators understand the importance of makinglearning relevant for their students, and they often use serviceprojects to demonstrate how the skills and knowledge students areacquiring in their classrooms, labs and CTSOs can make a realdifference--both today and in the future. Family and consumer sciences (FACS) education classes--and theirCTSO, Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA)--havetackled issues such as obesity, pregnancy prevention and youth violencethat connect with what is being taught in the FACS classroom. They havemade quilts and blankets for babies in hospitals and home-less shelters.In a number of construction technology programs, students are applyingtheir classroom knowledge in service projects such as building housesfor Habitat for Humanity and repairing homes for the elderly citizens intheir communities. Health occupations students have engaged in projectsthat include dental clinics and blood drives. Serving and learning go hand-in-hand in CTE, as a look at some ofthe projects going on around the country clearly demonstrates. Forexample, at the Miami Valley Career Technology Center (MVCTC) the alliedhealth medical career class made "snoodles" for the babies inthe neonatal intensive care unit at Miami Valley Hospital. The studentslearned to sew by making the cloth dolls, which the mothers hold so thattheir scent is on the dolls before they are given to the babies. Throughthe project, the students not only learned how to sew, but they alsolearned about the importance of the bonding between mothers and theirbabies. At Monroe Community College in Rochester, New York, the Police andCitizens Together Against Crime (PAC-TAC) program enabled criminaljustice students to get involved in increasing safety in theirneighborhood. The faculty and police planned a community policingprogram that provided students with the training and equipment theyneeded to patrol the streets at night, spot criminal activity and summonpolice. The students also created a Safe Passages Program to ensureelementary students made it safely to and from school. At Eureka High School in Eureka, California, students in theHealth-Path program organize and run the school blood drives that takeplace twice during the school year--a one-day event in December and atwo-day event in May. (HealthPath is a four-year integrated academiccareer pathway for high school students.) The blood drive has been goingon for 15 years and has been run by the student "coordinators"the entire time. The coordinators are juniors, but their preparationbegins when they are sophomores. As sophomores, the students writeessays describing the reasons they feel they are qualified to take onthis task, and those chosen shadow the junior coordinators at the Mayevent to learn the job they will take on in December of the followingyear. Carol Dvorak is an instructor and chair of the Business TechnologyDepartment at Meridian Technology Center in Stillwater, Oklahoma, whosestudents participate in six to 10 service projects each year. For herefforts, Dvorak was recognized as the ACTE Outstanding Teacher inCommunity Service for 2008-2009. One of the projects is a blood drive,and as Dvorak notes, "The students take care of everything that hasto be done on the clerical side. They create the promotional flyer, dothe scheduling and appointment cards, and man the sign-in desk." The blood drive provides an opportunity for the nursing students atMeridian Tech as well, as they are also able to apply what they arelearning in the classroom in a real-world context through a communityservice project. Dvorak says another blood drive is scheduled for thespring, and the business technology students and the nursing studentswill be working closely again on that event. Already having such experience helps when emergency situationsarise. "When Hurricane Katrina hit, the Red Cross office inStillwater was inundated with donations," explains Dvorak."Then we had another emergency within our community, and the peoplewho would ordinarily have been in the Red Cross office had to be outhandling that. So our students helped out manning the phones andanswering questions." Her pride in the way her students helped out is evident when shespeaks about it, but she also recognizes how it benefits them as well."It's great," Dvorak says. "It gets them out intothe community, and they can make new contacts. It's a really gooddeal." The recent earthquake in Haiti has also inspired CTE students tohelp. Becky Cox, vice president of ACTE's Family and ConsumerSciences Education Division and a teacher at Lone Peak High School inHighland, Utah, says that her culinary arts students do a dessertshowcase at the end of each lab, and this year they donated the proceedsof the sale to the Red Cross Haitian relief fund. In FACS classes and inFCCLA such efforts are common. "I've seen and heard about sewing classes makingreceiving blankets for hospitals, winter hats for homeless shelters andbaby clothes for women's shelters," Cox says. "In ourchild development class, our students work with elementary schools onreading initiatives to help children improve their reading skills. Weeven had a local trainer come in and work with our students on that. Alot of community service is done in conjunction with FCCLA. At Christmastime there are events around the country in which FCCLA members prepareand donate food to be sold. Our local one is the Festival of Trees, andthe proceeds go to the Children's Hospital." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Role of CTSOs "A volunteer is a person who can see what others cannot see;who can feel what most do not feel. Often, such gifted persons do notthink of themselves as volunteers, but as citizens--citizens in thefullest sense: partners in civilization," President George HerbertWalker Bush once noted. For CTSOs, helping young people become good citizens is animportant part of what they do, and many have adopted service projectsand encourage their chapters to become involved in them. They ofteninclude ways to make those projects into service-learning. DECA/DeltaEpsilon Chi (www.deca.org), whose high school and college students arestudying marketing and entrepreneurship in business, finance andhospitality, has programs that are designed to take community servicebeyond simply volunteering to the learning and implementing of lifeskills. As the organization says on its Web site, it provides communityservice projects that "can have a significant effect on anymember's skill levels in organization, time management, decisionmaking, problem solving, communication, persistence and the ability tosynthesize information." In CTSO chapters across the country, students are learning to workas team members, applying the skills and knowledge gained in their CTEcourses to achieve specific goals that can be measured by meaningfuloutcomes. They are learning leadership, responsibility and other lifeskills that will enable them to be good citizens of their communities,their country and their world. * Business Professionals of America (www.bpa.org) encourages itsmembers to become involved in the organization's national serviceproject in support of the Special Olympics. * Family, Career and Community Leaders of America(www.fcclainc.org) has partnered with a number of organizations,including America's Promise, Connect America, Feed the Children,and Make a Difference Day. The FCCLA 2009-2010 National Outreach Projectis the Children's Miracle Network. * For nearly 40 years, Future Business Leaders of America-Phi BetaLambda (www.fbla-pbl.org) has been working with the March of Dimes andhas consistently ranked as one of the top fundraising organizations. * National service projects of Health Occupations Students ofAmerica (www.hosa.org) have included the American Cancer Society, theAlzheimer's Association, and Autism Speaks. * The National FFA Organization (www.ffa.org) has issued a MillionHour Challenge to its chapters across the United States to collectivelyreach 1 million hours by completing projects in their schools andcommunities in five service categories: environment, government,social/human service, healthy lifestyles and education. * The National Postsecondary Agricultural Student Organization(www.nationalpas.org) has selected the National Cancer Society as itsnational service project and encourages its members to participate inlocal Relay for Life events of the National Cancer Society. * Skills USA (www.skillsusa.org) encourages all of its chapters toplan a community service project during the Skills USA National Week ofService, May 2-8, 2010, and has a downloadable guide to assist chaptersin their efforts. * The national service project of the Technology StudentAssociation (www.tsaweb.org) is the American Cancer Society; itschapters raise funds throughout the year for research, advocacy,education and patient services. A Special Role for CTE Mark Sponaugle is an educator who has seen firsthand how CTE andparticipation in CTSOs can keep students engaged and in school. As avocational resource educator for the Carthage Technical Center inCarthage, Missouri, Sponaugle works with special populations and hasalso served as the lead adviser of the Carthage Skills USA chapter for23 years. His work in his school and community made him a 2007 nomineefor the ACTE Outstanding Teacher in Community Service. Sponaugle saysthat he took an active part in SkillsUSA so that his students could havea chance not only to blend in, but see what they could actually do andwhat they had to offer. "I have some really strong students,"he notes, "but for others, there have been times when Skills USAand its activities are what have kept them in school." Among the projects the students have participated in are thebeautification and cleanup of Kellogg Lake and making goodie boxes andcollecting toys for needy families; however the big project is theannual Christmas parade. It's the biggest Christmas parade in theCarthage area, and requires a lot of work, organization and planning.Sponaugle says that the teachers incorporate parts of the SkillsUSAcurriculum into their classrooms throughout the year, connecting theirstudents with lessons of leadership and service. A former agricultureteacher, Sponaugle has a special appreciation for CTE and CTSOs."CTE offers a variety of learning experiences and opportunities,and there are many students who like the hands-on learning style ofCTE," he explains. "The combination of that and our CTSOskeeps students motivated, engaged and in school." Becky Cox shares this story about the difference service-learningcan make. For several years Lone Peak High School had a special Downsyndrome unit integrated in the school. About 12 Down syndrome studentswere participating in her foods class with other students in the highschool, and the results were remarkable. "The kids workedone-on-one with the Down syndrome students and taught them basic cookingskills," she says. "After that experience, a number of mystudents came to me and said that because of this experience they wantedto major in special education. It was such a positive experience. It wasmore than just positive. It was actually life changing." That's a pretty strong testament to the power ofservice-learning. More on Learning and Serving For more exploration of service-learning resources, here are someWeb sites to visit. Learn and Serve America and the National Service-LearningClearinghouse www.servicelearning.org Report of the National Commission on Service-Learning http://nslp.convio.net/site/DocServer/executive_summary.pdf?doclD=1202 National Service-Learning Partnership www.service-learningpartnership.org W.R. Kellogg Foundation www.wkkf.org Retrospective of K-12 Service-learning Projects, 1990-2000 www.servicelearning.org/filemanager/download/18/k12sl_retro.pdf Susan Reese is a Techniques contributing write. She can becontacted of susan@printmanagementinc.com. ACTE interested in exploring this topic futher? Discuss with yourcollegues on the ACTE forums of www.acteonline.org/forum.aspx.