The Dean of the College of Education at Grand Valley State University holds a Professional Advisory Council (PAC) meeting every two years, inviting superintendants and principals from the tri-county area to help the College of Education with feedback about pre-service teachers. This year’s focus was on service-learning, and as an added bonus, all who participated were able to be a part of a workshop/presentation by international service-learning consultant Cathryn Berger Kaye.

As soon as she introduced herself the room was engaged. Participants were up and moving around, thinking of new ideas and networking. 

Her very first activity involved quotes. Kaye had her business card with a unique quote on the back of each for the 70 in attendance. Participants were then asked to meet others and read their quotes. If they liked someone else’s quote they were allowed to ask for a trade. Immediately following this exercise she asked each participant to think of at least one way that they could take that quote back to their school and use it for students. These quotes were available online as well

“Do you see that?” she asked the audience half-joking, “How many new ideas do you think we have in this room? Some people can go a whole conference and leave with not one new idea.”

The great thing about a great service-learning presentation? It models what good service-learning does.

Over the 2 + hour presentation Cathryn worked through the concept of service-learning and how it must be connected to the curriculum. Participants worked in groups and in teams learning how personal inventories utilize students’ strengths for a project, how one theme such as homelessness can be connected to every content area, and how service-learning can be used as a powerful teaching tool.

By the end, each participant had something tangible and realistic to take back to their school and use to help foster service-learning and student achievement. 

Cathryn was kind enough to stay around for the afternoon for an environmental service-learning grant in Kent County. That blog will be coming soon.

In the meantime, check out Cathryn Berger Kaye’s website and resources:

http://www.abcdbooks.org/

If you were at the conference, what were your reactions to Cathryn's presentation?