Calling Our Students to Action…

"An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory." ~ Friedrich Engels

"You don't have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great." ~ Les Brown
"Success will never be a big step in the future, success is a small step taken just now. " ~ Jonatan Martensson
“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” - Albert Einstein

As educators, it is crucial for our students to encounter a learning experience where they all begin on an equal stepping stone, but then have the opportunity to branch off and excel at their own equitable rate.  By incorporating such techniques as differentiation, students are not learning through a single mode, but rather are being challenged at a level slightly above where they are currently studying.  The same objective is being addressed but in a way that is unique to every learner.  Once all learners in your classroom – including the educator - have been provided with a means to achieve personal success, then the next phase is to bring that success into the local and global communities, to make learners realize that the knowledge obtained in the classroom has applicable purpose in the “real” world.

Education is not one-dimensional.  What is learned within the parameters of our schools cannot and should not remain there.  We take our knowledge into the real world every day whether we realize it or not.  So how do we as educators encourage our students to become agents for change?  How do we create effective plans of action in order to motivate a call of action in our students?  An interdisciplinary approach to teaching that can begin to guide our students and more importantly our schools towards active change is Service Learning.  When approaching a particular unit in English, the sciences, history, foreign languages, even mathematics, it is important to incorporate meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities.  As a means of social justice in practice in the classroom and society, service learning takes what is being learned in schools to solve real-life problems.  Students not only study the content knowledge of a particular subject, but they utilize such knowledge to become actively contributing citizens and community members through the various services that they perform.  The changes and actions that are being made by the students do not have to be large-scale projects, but can involve issues they encounter on a day-to-day basis such as bullying, pollution, recycling, environmental issues, natural disasters, the value of proper exercise and nutrition, poverty, hunger, homelessness, etc.  Service learning then is an effective plan of action to calling our students into ACTION.

If students begin to recognize that they have the knowledge and power at their disposal to make a difference in the world, then real, genuine CHANGE can come about in the world today and in the future to come. (JS)