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“Before you Engage your Students, Engage Yourself.” |
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The goal of this nine-day curriculum is to provide grounding in service-learning, civic engagement and logistics -- and an awareness of the issues and potential problems -- to allow educators to successfully develop and run a service-learning program at their school. Participants will gain the tools to provide both a high educational benefit to their students and a commensurate benefit to the communities they visit.
This course teaches both theoretical and practical approaches, within the context of a service-learning project with one of LiveLearning's community partners. It is applicable to both domestic and international programs, with a special emphasis on intensive service-learning experiences.
You will take part in best practices in service-learning combined with seminars, discussions and coursework designed to advance your knowledge of service-learning theory and facilitation skills. |
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Course/Workshop Structure |
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We believe that the best way to learn how to teach or facilitate in a service-learning context is to have experienced it for yourself. As such, this course is housed within a service-learning experience. You will learn about service-learning while you are participating in service-learning.
The 9-day on-the-ground portion of the workshop begins with the group gathering in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. From there, we will travel to visit our host community and engage in community interactions and projects. The trip will close with some additional travel in the country, including time in a beach town. This last brief segment serves the multiple purposes of providing time for rest and reflection on the experience, modeling re-entry, and illustrates the bittersweet difficulties of engaging in traditional/responsible tourism, which is often a desired or unavoidable part of a school travel program.
Pre-trip readings and writing lay the groundwork for in-trip seminars, writing and exercises, and post-trip reflective writing. This course requires a level of reflective engagement from participants that will, at times, feel demanding, yet will achieve the greatest level of understanding as theory and application will be combined.
Download the course syllabus here. |
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Professional Development or Graduate Credit: |
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Graduate Credit is available as an option through the University of Vermont. Visit the course listing on UVM's website for more information. |
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We are in the process of obtaining the necessary certification for granting Professional Development credits for this course. |
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Learning Goals of the workshop: |
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To teach service-learning through the use of best practices, workshops, facilitated and personal reflection, and intercultural activities and discussion. |
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To generate excitement about and understanding of service-learning and social tourism amongst teachers and other leaders in the educational community. |
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To support - financially, morally, and with service and understanding - local organizations and communities that are engaged in transformational change. |
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To open the minds of participants and hosts alike and create understanding between cultures. |
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Learning Objectives - by the end of this experience, participants will be able to: |
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Explain to other educators and students the key components of an effective service-learning experience, conveying the considerations that must be taken into account in an intensive or international setting; |
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Apply their understanding of the key steps in implementing an intensive service-learning experience (preparation, action, reflection, and evaluation) to a situation in their own professional realm; |
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Feel confidence in their ability to navigate community partnerships for service-learning, with a focus on reciprocity, mutuality, and equity. |
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Understand the implications of cross-cultural service-learning for participants and communities in which participants work; and have a grasp of approaches to working with students around these questions and topics; |
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Identify ideas, inspiration, and next steps toward implementing service-learning at their institution or with their organization. |
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Previous participants said: |
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"This was one of the most well-organized, thoughtful, and psychologically challenging development opportunities I have experienced... be prepared to work mentally a little bit more than physically and to learn how to balance the needs and questions of both the teacher and the student in all of us." |
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"This program helps you peel the numerous layers of what is service-learning...I was very impressed with the organization of the program... Moreover, I appreciated the high focus on partnerships and what exactly that means." |
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"The DR Trip with LiveLearning offers a hands-on opportunity to interact with, live with, dance with, and bond with some of the warmest people I've ever met. You will develop an appreciation of travel, a heightened sense of responsibility and interaction, above all things DR and the best food ever!" |
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"This is a great model of how to run an effective and meaningful service-learning program that can't be replaced by classroom learning or reading a book on the topic." |
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Download the 2008 workshop application here.
For more information: e-mail info@livelearning.org. |
