Service Learning Academy

by Bérengère Cortade

Judy Huynh, a teacher who has been greatly involved with RESPECT and its work, invited Marc Schaeffer, International Coordinator of RESPECT, to come and present the organisation at the Service Learning Academy (SLA) held in Ionia County, Michigan, on February 11th, 2004.

"The conference […] was to provide professional development for teachers in the use of service learning as a teaching methodology. Service learning is a teaching methodology that utilizes community service as a means of helping students gain a deeper understanding of curriculum objectives, acquire new knowledge, and engage in civic activities. This teaching methodology consists of these essential components," explained Judy.

With the above in mind, the relevance of RESPECT in such a conference becomes obvious, as the organisation represents a great opportunity for a service learning project, as demonstrated by the partnership with Mohomou Refugee School. "[This specific project] links to the academic curriculum in my 6th grade classroom in many ways. We write letters, which is part of my language arts curriculum. Learning about the lives of refugees links nicely with my social studies curriculum, which involves learning about the history, geography, and culture of the continents of Africa, Asia, and Australia. Doing the fund-raising for the soccer balls and the school supplies linked to our language arts curriculum (doing presentations), math curriculum (bookkeeping, money activities) and technology (creating PowerPoints, flyers). There are all sorts of connections to the state standards and benchmarks that I'm expected to teach in 6th grade," Judy tells us.

Judy is very keen on promoting the organisation, hence her invitation to Marc. She herself is also involved with iEARN, through which she became involved with RESPECT. Initially planning to present RESPECT herself, she thought Marc would be more knowledgeable on the subject.

In addition to having the great benefit for Marc and Judy to actually meet face-to-face for the first time, the presentation itself was a success. "The workshop that Judy and I facilitated was filled to capacity. Attendees were quite interested in the topics, impressed with all of the resources available through UNHCR, Red Cross and so forth, and were touched by all the photographs of refugee communities that we were able to bring to the workshop," comments Marc.

Such a conference is an important step for the promotion of RESPECT. The organisation "has a wonderful website originally designed by the Artistic Director Kae Sasaki and is constantly being renovated by our Webmaster Will Wallace. This website does a great deal of our PR. This E-zine is another source of PR for RESPECT. Otherwise, the word about RESPECT has spread through participant teachers spreading the word about RESPECT at workshops in the USA and Canada," explains Marc. He would definitely welcomes any other similar opportunity to present RESPECT.

Marc goes on to stay "This was really the first opportunity for me to put on a workshop about RESPECT in another city. I was able to meet some wonderful teachers and people. Not only was I able to share about RESPECT, but I learned a great deal myself. I'm fantasizing about a RESPECT road trip sometime in the future!"

"I would like to take this opportunity to thank Judy Huynh for inviting me to present at the service learning conference. I was a real thrill to meet Judy and Han, Mike and Mary and the staff, teachers and students in Michigan. I very much hope to have the opportunity to meet them all again!"