Collaboration w/ Educators on Curriculum Development
School-Based
Description
Such collaboration can involve a continuum of strategies -- from helping an educator find a guest speaker or curriculum resource to co-designing and -implementing a semester-long learning-and-action project.
History
While Kevin was service-learning coordinator at CHS/J23 (1989-2001), he provided assistance to faculty in a wide range of curricular areas. In 2000, he supported an 8th grade art teacher in a mural project for the new Caritas Food Shelf, and a 12th grade Sociology teacher in developing a learning-and-action project related to homelessness and affordable housing.
In the spring of 2001, he was utilized as a consultant by District 742 in its efforts to integrate social justice education into the K-12 social studies curriculum. In 2002, he collaborated with John Wertz (9th grade Civics teacher) at Apollo in integrating semester-long learning-and-action projects into that course (32 students; four different project areas).
In 2001-2, and every year since then, he has been hired as a Peer Consultant on service-learning by the MN Dept of Children, Families and Learning (now the MN Dept of Education) -- to provide 25 hours worth of consultant-support for educators in schools in central MN schools.
In 2002, he was hired by a high school in Indianapolis to observe and give recommendations about its service-learning programming.
In the summer of 2004, he met with three educators in the St Cloud Adult Basic Ed program (Colette Neron, Deb McAlister, and Lissa Hultgren). They were interested in designing a social justice learning-and-action segment to their curriculum. He compiled a folder of activities that would be helpful, and invited them to contact me with any other questions. They implemented the curriculum beginning in January, and informed us later - first, in the spring of 2005, and again in the fall of 2006 - that they had implemented the program, and how well it had gone.
Beginning in April, 2005, Kevin began to collaborate with Roxane Molinari, a teacher at Cathedral High School, on several units in her courses. Strategies included providing information about learning activities and community resource people and organizations (e.g. sexual assault unit; racism unit), guest-teaching (e.g. units on service, peace/war, economic justice), and support of students' in-depth research projects.
Cost
Schools are asked to pay a stipend that they can afford; the Center seeks other funding sources to supplement these stipends.