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April 2004 Newsletter |
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Dates to Remember Apr 22 – Pre2 seminar #4 - Pre1 checkpoint #1 Apr 24 – CEOE Tests - Pre2 Seminar #4 Apr 26 – Pre1 checkpoint #1 Apr 27 – Pre1 checkpoint #1 Apr 29 – Fall 2004 Full intern orientation seminar
- Pre1 checkpoint #1 May 3-7 – Finals Week!! May 4 – Full intern seminar #6 May 8 – Commencement May 10–Summer intersession May 13–Grades online May 21 – Registration deadline for June 26 CEOE Jun 26 – CEOE Tests
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Shannon White - Publicity/Newsletter Well this is the next to the last newsletter I will be doing. I know, I know but please hold back your tears. We will have a new and improved newsletter publicity officer. Steve Harshfield won our votes to take over the newsletter I am always late on. Maybe now they will get to you in a more timely fashion. We also have elected other new officers as you may have heard. I will be residing as the new President, Kimberly Lane is the new Vice-President and Jennifer Herndon will remain our trusty secretary treasurer. I hope to make this upcoming year a great one at NSU. The other officers and I have been talking about all of the great plans we have for next year’s meetings. We will try to get some good speakers and maybe try to go to the Tulsa Zoo or something fun like that. If anyone has a fun idea for a meeting let me know and we can work it out over the summer. We won’t be having a meeting for May because of finals, but we will hand out stress-relief bags again so be on the lookout for them. We still have a few t-shirts for sale in Dr. Adams’ office so be sure and get one before this summer. |
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Malappuram’s daredevil teacher and tribal reformer In Kerala’s Malappuram
district, 24-year-old Shajina P has mastered the art of multi-tasking.
She’s the only faculty member of a single-teacher alternative school
for tribal children. She is medical adviser to the local community. And
she’s a liaison between the tribals and local welfare department
officials. Shajina, who earns a
paltry Rs 2,000 a month for her efforts, has to trek 26 km every day
through the forests to the Ampumala tribal colony. Labourers from the
nearby Arayad rubber estate in Mooleppadam -- the last bus stop before
the colony -- call out to Shajina as she walks past, occasionally
warning her of elephant sightings in the vicinity. Shajina’s duties begin
with a visit to the homes of the Paniya tribal families where she
coaxes 22 students, between the ages of 5 and 14, to attend classes in
the thatched hut nearby. After singing their prayers, Shajina cooks the
children’s mid-day meal. She sometimes holds classes out of doors, at a
nearby stream. “The children are happiest in the midst of nature,” she
says. Shajina acts as medical
adviser to the colony’s 30 families. She stocks basic medicines
supplied to her by the Nilambur Government Hospital in the schoolroom,
which is where she also administers them. The young girl is also a link
between the illiterate tribals and the tribal welfare department. She
uses her contacts with social service organisations in Nilambur to get
extra supplies of rice, lentils and clothes for the children. Of late
she has been pushing hard for a sturdy school building. Source: The Week, February 22, 2004 - http://www.infochangeindia.org/EducationItop.jsp?section_idv=5 |
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Service-Learning Thrives Despite Less
Funding, Time More and more mandates fill the
school day, but U.S. principals still find time for students to engage
in service-learning projects that expand their studies and benefit
their communities. According to "Growing
to Greatness: The State of Service Learning Project" of the National Youth Leadership
Council (NYLC), the percentage of schools in the United States
offering service-learning programs held its own during the past five
years: 32 percent in 1999 versus 30 percent in 2004. The only sector
with a significant decline was middle schools, in which the percentage
of schools with programs dropped from 38 percent to 30 percent. Researchers surveyed about
2,000 K-12 principals for the report; results were announced March 25,
2004 during a phone press conference sponsored by the Civil Society
Institute's Results for America campaign. The NYLC survey results
were compared with statistics from a 1999 study done by the U.S.
Department of Education. About 23,000 public schools in
the United States now offer service-learning programs, in which 4.5
million students participate. LEARNING THAT HAS AN IMPACT According to NYLC,
service-learning is defined as student programs organized in relation
to a specific academic course or curriculum, with clearly stated
learning objectives that address real community needs in a sustained
manner over a period of time. Students taking samples from a lake or
stream, testing the content of the samples, and then reporting the
findings to the community is one example of a service-learning project. "The staying power of
service-learning can be seen in that it has survived and continued over
these past five years, despite considerable pressures, such as school
budget cuts, focus on meeting state mandates, and concerns with
implications of No Child Left Behind," said Ellen Tenenbaum, a
researcher at Westat,
the firm responsible for conducting the survey. "The survey suggests
that principals see a real value in service- learning's ability to
underscore and enhance such key things as students' civic engagement
and school-community relationships." MORE RESULTS Other findings from the study
include: 1)Nine of ten principals in schools that offer
service-learning say it has a positive impact on students' civic
engagement, personal and social development, and school-community
partnerships. 2)Eight of ten principals in schools that offer
service-learning say it has a positive impact on academic achievement,
teacher satisfaction, school climate, school engagement, and the
community's view of youth as resources. 3)Fewer schools serving
lower-income communities offer service-learning programs (29 percent
versus 36 percent), even though principals at lower-income schools
place a higher value on the benefits of service-learning projects. Sharon Buddin, principal at Ridge View High School
in Columbia, South Carolina, who participated in the press conference,
said service-learning has far-reaching benefits. "Principals support
service-learning as an educational tool because every day we see the
evidence that it works," she said. "It means students have a more
strongly-rooted sense of their civic duties. It means that the personal
and social development of our children is boosted in positive ways. And
there are other benefits, too. Teachers who are engaged in
service-learning tend to be more positive about the work they do, and
we also see a higher level of parental involvement, which is key to
academic achievement." NYLC president James Kielsmeier
said researchers from the current study still don't have a solid reason
for the drop off in serving-learning programs at the middle school
level. One researcher suggested that recent studies saying current
middle school programs focus more on developing a nurturing climate
than strong academics, and the emphasis on high-stakes tests in eighth
grade, may have spurred some principals to drop service-learning
programs, according to Kielsmeier. "Which is all the more sad,
because service-learning is the type of pedagogy middle school kids
benefit most from," he said. COMMUNITY SERVICE OUTLOOK GOOD
AS WELL The future for community
service programs also looks bright. The number of schools offering
those programs increased over the past five years, from 64 percent to
69 percent. Community service differs from service-learning in that
during community service, students engage in non-curriculum-based
projects to meet community needs. "The new numbers show that
community service and service-learning have become widespread practices
in American schools," said Kielsmeier. "We see a solid base of schools
and educators committed to using those important tools for improving
their students and the communities in which they live." ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Article by Ellen R. Delisio |
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2003-2004
Year Officers |