Teachers and College Mentors Prepare for Summer of Service and Leadership

Teachers from 15 CPS high schools along with college mentors from universities across the country gathered for two days of professional development on June 1-2 in preparation for the 5th Summer of Service and Leadership (SOSL) program.  Beginning with a day of community building and experiential problem-solving experiences at Irons Oaks Outdoor Adventure Center, teachers and college mentors enjoyed a day of activities designed to build teamwork, communication, and problem-solving skills. 

Originally funded through a federal grant in 2008, the Summer of Service and Leadership has grown each year to serve rising 9th graders as they prepare for high school.  Summer of Service and Leadership encourages students to learn about and be active in their communities, to develop leadership skills, to examine pressing social issues, to become oriented to their new school, and to begin to think about college opportunities.

Excellent CPS teachers and motivated college mentors work together to facilitate a dynamic curriculum where students are rarely in their seats working independently.  Through a wide range of hands-on and experience-based learning opportunities, students work together to learn about, understand, and solve problems.  During the summer of 2012 students will be asked to engage the issues of aging, food distribution, and the environment.

Through a first-time collaboration with the CPS Office of STEM, students will also have an opportunity to learn and apply science and math skills to environmental problems.  During the fourth week of the program, students will visit local colleges in order to begin the process of college preparation.

Reports from teachers over the years indicate that SOSL students are most likely to continue to serve, lead, and participate more actively in the life of the school than other students in the building.  Indeed, several groups have continued to work together over the course of the school year and have emerged as real school leaders. 

Summer of Service and Leadership is coming to a high school near you beginning on Monday, June 25 and continues through Friday, July 20 with a culminating event at the UIC Forum.

Global Citizenship Initiative Launches in Chicago

Thirty teachers from 15 high schools came together to launch the Global Citizenship Initiative (GCI) on May 18-19, a project designed to building the civic mission of schools in Chicago. With funding support from the McCormick Foundation, Spencer Foundation, and Macarthur Foundation, high schools will work together for the next three years to strengthen civic skills and participation among students.  This work recalls the founding principles of public education in the United States - to prepare young people for the important participatory work of democracy.

Each GCI school will work in three areas during the first pilot year:  1) Strengthen service-learning and civic action; 2) Implement a year-long course in civics and financial literacy; and 3) Facilitate student leadership and governance work in their schools. 

Each of these strategies has been identified by the civic education community in the United States as an effective proven practice of civic education.  By re-focusing on building civic skills, the aim of the initiative is to reverse the decades long decline in civic participation in the country.  Unfortunately more and more people are retreating from public life into private spheres to the detriment of a healthy and functioning democracy.  As Alexis DeTocqueville admired the skills of Americans to associate and thereby bring more equity to public life in the mid-19th century, Professor Robert Putnam acknowledged more recently that Americans are more often "bowling alone", a sign of retreat into the private.  The more we tend exclusively to our private lives, the more government and corporations make decisions for us that adversely impact our communities.

GCI teachers will continue to gather for professional development in civic practices over the course of the year highlighted by a week-long civics boot camp at the end of July designed to prepare teachers to facilitate a very hands-on, project-based civics course beginning in the fall.  Together with teachers, civic partners, and universities, GCI is charting a new course for civic education in Chicago. 

Evergreen Middle School Opens New School and Community Garden

It all started as 6^th and 7^th graders at Evergreen Middle School conducted a carbon audit at their building as part of a service-learning project.  Students attempted to measure how much carbon their school emitted into the environment on an annual basis.  As students looked at the data, they began to brainstorm ideas to lessen their carbon footprint. 

Three years later, Evergreen opened an amazing new garden, which replaces an asphalt parking lot.  The new garden serves as a carbon sink, home to native grasses and flowers, as welll as vegetables and fruits, and a creates a learning, reflection, relaxation and play space for students and community members.  What began as a question – what can we do to lessen our impact on the environment?  – resulted in a $315,000 investment in a new community space that adds value to the neighborhood and creates a space that is simply much better for students than an asphalt parking lot. 

Student speakers at the event recounted how they have become environmental activists through the project, have gone on to participate in and lead environmental efforts at their new schools, and have made a real impact on their world.  One student leader stated:  “You don’t often get to work on a project at school where you can leave a positive impact on the world.” 

Led by two extraordinary teachers, Ron Hall and Michael Youngberg, at Evergreen and supported by countless other students, teachers and community partners and artists, the garden will stand for ages and provide students with countless opportunities to engage their new world in new and life-giving ways.

For a brief news story on this project, go to http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=206683.

CIMBY Completes 12th Year at Science Summit

Calumet Is My Back Yard, the longest-running service-learning project in the nation, completed its 12th successful year with a Science Summit at the Field Museum on Friday, May 25, 2012.  More than 200 students and teachers attend the culminating summit that featured behind-the-scenes scientific tours, student presentations of their stewardship over the year, and visits to stunning museum exhibits. 

During the 2011-12 academic year, more than 800 students participated in 40+ stewardship days at natural areas throughout the Lake Calumet region on the city's south side.  Fifteen high schools engaged classrooms in hands-on science activities enabling students to learning about ecosystems, biodiversity, and the threats that non-native invasive species pose to our ecology. 

This year student groups were asked to present their stewardship work over the course of the year.  Students created presentation boards, videos, slide shows, games, and field guides of the plants and animals at their adopted ecosystem.  Students did a great job building and presenting their materials.

As one student said at the end of the day:  CIMBY is a great opportunity and it can change your life.  The goal of CIMBY is to raise the next generation of environmental leaders and activists.  CIMBY students are lucky enough to move beyond the textbook into our natural areas to gain a deeper understanding of the threats to our environment and how they, together, can work toward solutions. 

Many, many thanks to the amazing teachers and CIMBY staff who gave countless hours to helping make these exciting opportunities available.

CPS Recognizes Service-Learning Coaches

Isaac Castelaz from Chicago Academy receives
SL Administator of the Year Award

100 CPS teachers, SL Coaches, students, parents, and community partners gathered at The Phoenix Restaurant on Wednesday, May 23, to celebrate a year of amazing accomplishments and to recognize the staggeringly good work of the District's Service-Learning Coaches.  Our Service-Learning Coaches put in countless hours doing wonderful work connecting students, teachers, and curriculum to opportunities to contribute to the greater good in their communities.  The results can be stunning as students recognize, many for the first time, that they can be world changers. 

In addition to recognizing the work of our excellent SL Coaches, awards were also given to outstanding leaders in service-learning:

SL Coach of the Year
Deborah Hawes, Morgan Park High School

Teachers of the Year
Adam Heenan, Curie
Eddie Marie Gonzalzes, Morgan Park
Jeschelyn Pilar, Hancock

Administrator of the Year
Isaac Castelaz, Chicago Academy High School

Students of the Year
Adonis Hill, Hope College Prep
Stephanie Navarette, Kelly High School
Kaylan Elder, Al Raby High School
Emmanuel Cherry, Hubbard High School
Tasanee Durrett, Morgan Park High School
Erika Castillo, Curie High School

Community Partner of the Year
Alliance for Climate Education (ACE)

Congratulations to this year's winners.  Their accomplishments are truly astonishing. But our thanks go to all of the nominees who were recognized for their contributions and to all coaches who have served so faithfully this year.

Belmont-Cragin Students Race Against Hunger

Students from Belmont-Cragin Elementary School partnered with Prosser High School for a Race Against Hunger on Friday afternoon, May 11.

With support from international hunger relief organization Action Against Hunger, the entire Belmont-Cragin faculty, administration, and student body learned about hunger around the world then went into action by participating in a race against hunger.  Students learned about hunger utilizing inter-disciplinary curriculum then planned and implemented their race. 

On a gorgeous Friday afternoon, Belmont-Cragin students rode the bus or, in the case of the middle school students, marched with banners from their school to Prosser's Hanson Park stadium where they were greeted and hosted by Prosser High School students.

After opening presentations by Principals Stewart and Hunter and Belmont-Cragin students, each grade level took to the track and ran at least one lap around the quarter-mile track.  Students sought pledges for their laps and students proudly shouted out the amounts they had raised...$3, $4.  The amounts were not important; the fact that students brought so much enthusiasm and energy to address the problem of world-wide hunger was important.

Action Against Hunger is establishing a strong presence in Chicago and enables students to connect academic learning in science, math, english, social science, physical education, the arts, and health to an important social issue, in this case hunger in Zimbabwe.  For more information about how your school can be involved, please contact jjschmidt@cps.k12.il.us. 

Thanks to Belmont-Cragin teachers and Principal Stewart for providing leadership for this amazing event.  Belmont-Cragin is one of 10 elementary schools currently participating in a District-wide initiative to connect the STEM disciplines to service-learning. 

Eric Solorio HS Students "Cook" with Peers with Severe and Profound Disabilities

As students walk through the halls at Solorio, a cluster of students walk by and some might be in wheelchairs, others might be humming and making noises, but most are smiling. They are stared at, whispered about, and many have questions but do not know how to approach the four or so adults who are walking with them.

This was the typical scenario in the hallways of Solorio until the teachers in the SPH room start to invite teachers from the “regular” divisions on Fridays to “cook” with the students in the Severe and Profound cluster. Teachers were to prepare the students the week prior in a discussion on the different labels of disabilities. They were to write down any questions of behaviors that they might have witnessed in the halls, cafeteria or non content classes that they might share with the SPH kids.

During the assigned day, the division would come down and be exposed to the students, ask their questions, and be educated about the students with severe and profound disabilities. After that portion of the SLC class was complete, the “regular” students would be placed with one of the kids and help them cook. Helping them cook would include helping them identify the different ingredients by pointing or helping them hand over hand pick up the ingredients.

The menu the students have made included: pizza bagels, tostadas, smoothies, fruit salads, and quesadillas. The lesson for the “regular” students is to be exposed, understand, and be aware of what the different behaviors of the students represent.

The experience for the students in the SPH cluster is having “friends” come to the room and help them how to make something good to eat. The week after, division teachers speak with their students about the experience and what did they learn about the kids, their feelings about it, their easy or uneasiness with being with the students.

Various divisions loved the experience enough to inquire how to enhance awareness about disabilities. They have started their own project to come up with stations that mimic disabilities and the trial and tribulations that people with disabilities have to overcome. This will be offered for other divisions to attend during next school years Fridays SLC time.