Shinnyo-en Retreat: July 23

Traveled with Emily and Sarah. We had a good flight, but getting the assigned complementary taxi from the airport took too much time.

It was nice to see the recycling programs at airports.


We will not stay at the Ramada Inn at the airport anymore. Jeanie arrived early and took a tour of Alcatraz.

Saturday June 27: Final Day of Conference

From Andy Furco's Presentation
Critical reality of service-learning
a. Marginalized practice
b. Poorly understood among teachers and educators
c. Confusion with community service and volunteerism

Community Service/Volunteerism focuses on service and the intended
beneficiary is the recipient of service.

Service-Learning: The primary intended recipient of the service is the
provider of service. It is a win/win reciprocal opportunity When classroom
learning with community based learning = soft service learning

d. Service learning is only indirectly connected to teacher certification.
It has to be direct!

e. Teachers do not use s-l once they are in the field of their content work.

f. Improvements on academic achievement are mixed at best. It does create
the conditions for higher academic achievement. The goal is not to talk
service-learning but how service-learning is the vehicle to academic
achievement. There is a need for greater service-learning leadership in
secondary and elementary grades because there is a global dissatisfaction
with education. Students are bored with schools because classes are
irrelevant to real life. Do not do service learning, help people see service
learning as the vehicle for the "big issues: building an engaged university,
student involvement and participation in community, how service learning is
a vehicle to achieve those goals how it is tied to the bigger issues, the
bigger agenda

Developing leaders for School and Community: The presentation was for their
own reality in developing a leadership component through service learning,
but the practical application of it is how this presentation could change
the structure of YAC. Yac members could assume a role of faculty liaison,
look for community partnerships, resources, be reflectors, logistics and
transportation. Each YAC member for an area of the school they enjoy the
most.


The Villanoba experience with Understanding Diversity is one I would recommend Zainab to explore in combination with a Video contest. Here YAC projects need to develop partnerships with university students to explore a "big issue together." The example was a sucess story with great presentations from the students from Villanoba. Resource: University of PA, Netter Center, conference in June had a model from an Oklahoma University noreen.cameron@villanova.edu

Get Enganged: Bruger Kaye Presenter

Talk does not cook rice!!! When spiders webbs are tied together, they can trap a lion!!!

Words----Idea-----Action Teachin is political---Create models of change!

In 5-10 words described your service-learning program goal! Empower youth to lead for peace. Then move to another table and circle one word in the person's statement and create a new perspective that helps the first statement. Enable students to ACT in ways that make a difference. Make a difference by helping your neighbor. Was an example


5 minute think tank: Turns all kids into question askers!!!

s (heart) + L(crown) == Peace (world)

Assessment of needs
Use the 4 ways to research

1. Read (any library or internet source)
2. Observe-visit the place, experience the partner
3. Interview: Experts in the community, the need, the goal
4. Survey

Tools:
Share your quote with a friend
b. One minute think tank
c. Build a theory
d. Define this with a bumper sticker

Friday, June 26

Opening Plenary: Anne Sliwaka was unable to attend. Jake and I heard a panel of speakers that covered IB requirements and the training of the teacher of the future. The messages were to interrogate what we do, how we do it and why we do it. One question was the underlining resut of the panel presentations: How can we produce teachers as agents of change.

Regarding research the questions were: How can the gap between academia and schooling could be bridged? Teachers must read their own work site, instead of having interpretations done entirely by researchers. Schools (teachers, students, parents) should be involved in the research. Schools should not be treated as laboratories. We need to learn from the journey, build resilliance. It is hard work and we must have the disposition to stick to it because it is good for the kids. We must not be afraid of failure. Failure is a learning experience too, the real failure is not having a learning experience.

Casady Presentation Children's Land: The kids did a fantastic job reflecting and presenting their experience. As a consequence of the presentation and networking during the conference, we have connected to a reflection researcher in Galway who recommended to read Reflections on the Courage to Teach.

Mac had to change clothing and we missed lunch with the conference. We went to the Spud Town and had lunch there. Then we returned to the conference.

Does Service-Learning Aid retention? Look at the experiential learning process. It is important to have structure: 3 people building reciprocal relationships. Questions: What is going to be the potential problem? How can it be overcome with collaboration, ownership and a minimum of three people who will be working on the project. What is the need that has to be filled in the community, the students, and the other collaborating parters.

Affinity group: Research: Learned about the research that is being done in service-learning

Conference Dinner at the Radisson Hotel: lovely!

June 25: Second International Service-Learning Conference in Teacher Education

Mac went with the Halls sightseeing. They will be gone after the presentation tomorrow. I left messages at Jake's hotel, but he is not in Galway yet.

Conference Registration: At registration, it seemed like less than 50 people would attend. By 3:00 p.m. we had about 60, others would be arriving the next day. The conference had about 100 participants, mostly researchers and teacher trainers representing 6 continents. The new home of the conference next year, possibly the USA-Duke University!!!

Welcome: Galway and the CKI (Community Knowledge Interactive) 10 year plan: All students at the National University of Ireland, Galway will be involved in social solidarity. Service-Learning is part of their strategic plan. Value of service learning: Development of social skills, problem solving, ability to ask the right questions: Development of soft skills!!!

World Cafe: Hosting guidelines at http://www.theworldcafe.com/hosting.htm. The trainers were Don Hill and Cathy Burger Kaye. The directions were very simple. Answer a question given by the facilitators. Share time so everyone talks. Draw, write, doodle, etc on the paper provided. Members of the table will rotate to another table. One member stays to explain discussion to the new group and start another conversation that matter. 15 minutes per topic area.
How does service-learning contribute to Global Citizenship? How can it be expanded from awareness to action? What is the future of service-learning.

During the debriefing of the World Cafe process and how it could be applicable to our environments, we were broken into pairs to bring about a final questions to be posed at a World Cafe in our environments. We were allow 1 minute to come up with that question. My partner and I decided: How can we move people-students, teachers, parents, administration from the idealogogy of "having to do service" to wanting to do it?.


Personal debriefing: I think we could use this technique to teach people how to ask good questions, how to listen and give them pointers on how to summarize different people's point of view.

Opening Plenary: Tom Collins The University and the community, an evolving relationship> It was the most imspirational speaker of the conference. Dr. Collins said that we are living a moment of transformation where the teachers do not share the nanosecond mentally of the students. He questioned how do we live with each other now? How do we agree to share the Island of Galway, OUR PLANET?.

He said people are basically good and quoted Cale Rogers work as teacher's task being to enable people to become their capabilities. The knowledge society is not driven by content. He mentioned emotional intelligence and building capacity in the individual and the community.

How do we view community
1. Unimportant: All learning happens in the classroom
2. Laboratory: a testing site
3. Benefitiary: Student teachers make a contribution
4. Client: We go and fix things
5. Skeptic: University an intruder, irrelevant: manipulative, paternalistic, secretive
6. Resource: Valuable are of learning
7. Partner: Resolving issues together and from each others' perspective and need. TRUST is what is needed most!

Three types of teachers:
1. Loves the subject
2. Loves kids
3. Loves himself or herself

Children must have opportunity to learn outside the subject, test the knowledge of the subject. The challenge is to be child center and reflect and help them acquire the critical skills needed in this new society.

Carmen Clay's Home Groups: Katherine Bates and I have a hard time remembering names. I would like the group to know I am trying to become a better listener. K. Firece is enthusiastic. G.M Moses was enhancing critiques of his practice, Ken Symonds loves teaching and learning, Suzanne Rocheham is curious and Jean Strait has written a book about the future of service learning. My group's burning questions were:
1. How can we build the research capacity in the international community?
2. How can we make service-learning lesson planning more useful in the classroom?
3. How can be make service-learning acroos three level disciplines more focused on students developing a political consciousness- and wanting to change the world?
4. How can teacher education as a discipline more effectively integrate service-learning as a pedagogy?
5. How does higher education strenghten partnerships with k-12 in service-learning?
6. How can service-learning become an intrinsic value for students and faculty?

Barbeque: Kendall and Mac attended the barbeque after having spent the day sightseeing. Jake was not in Galway yet.

Second International Service-Learning Conference in Teacher Education

June 22-24: After a long flight we arrived to the Corrib Village, school housing. It is clean, students work during the summer turning the school into an international learning center. There are students from all over the world studying from 2-6 weeks.

The rooms are stoic and clean. Bathrooms are shared by three rooms. The location of ours is convenient. Sometimes the rooms are hot, but the weather has been so nice that we cannot complain. Locals tell us that we brought good weather with us. This is not typical. It is supposed to be good until we leave.

The breakfast is continental. The registration office is in the hands oollege students working during the summer months.

Even without phone service, I was able to connect with parents via registration office. We purchased Internet for E10 for a whole week. Mac really liked having the computer at the room. I could not get into the Casady Website for a couple of days and my communication home after the arrived never got home.

Today is the 24th. After recuperating from 72 hours without sleep, Mack was feeling better today. The Halls picked her up in the morning and she went to Ashford Castle, the most expensive hotel in Ireland. I had to meet with the conference organizers so I met them for dinner. Mr. and Mrs. Hall took us to dinner to McDonaugh's. Great seafood, the best I have had in a long time.

I met the conference team after I met Patricia Walsh and Kym O'Reilly (conference@nuigalway.ie) They gave me the conference program and asked me to consider having summer school in their campus. The arrange location of classes, but our own teachers come to teach the courses. There are sports and recreation instructors available for soccer, rowing, fishing, hiking. Photography, art, European History might be options. I will bring this request to the attention of the summer school organizers.

Sunday, March 22: Return Home

We left the hotel at 5:20 a.m. We were being nicer and more considerate of each other. At the airport, Cassidy asked the group to reflect through the arts. We will share drawings at Casady.

I read the books Emily asked to buy on board of plane. The books are very difficult because there is a lot of pain in the post cards. According to the author the release has helped many people. I am emotionally drained by them and I think this needs to be handled in collaboration with Dr. Moore and Father Blizzard. I gave the books to Dr. Moore. Emily needs to talk to Dr. Moore also. As a result of reading the books, I want to be a better listener. Work harder in my personal relationships and make sure no one feels unwanted or isolated around me. Using the analogy given during the conference by Shinnyoen, I want people to be in the green zone and to reduce stress.

Nasville 2009 was a great group. It is ironic but we were kinder and more considerate of each other because of the painful books.

We decided that change is needed to improve our facilitation of information and to make YAC's work become RELEVANT, ENGAGING, AND WITH more CHOICES. A way of introducing information like what in elementary grades is called "an emerging curriculum." If each one of the kids who went to Nashville trains a volunteer youth, I think we are ready to empower change to become peace with insightful, capable and caring people.

I look forward to the reflection drawings and the final reflections, one led by me during the YAC meeting with a small amount of time because Kaija has to update everyone on National Volunteer Week (She does not want chapel presentations then because she wants community organizations where we have worked with pictures in the background of the presentation) She is doing a wonderful job creating a celebratory atmosphere for the week without much funding and great ideas. And the last one in front of Mr. Bright led by Rose.

On Friday, March 27, Rose will reflect us in front of Mr. Bright, Dr. Moore, and Mr. Pena.

Saturday, March 21: Last Day of the Conference

HOPE WALKS: Emily and Rose slept late. Cassidy, Sasha and I participated in the Hope Walk. As we walked to raise awareness of the AIDS Epidemic, I realized how well organized and how simple this walk was. I will suggest the Walk the World leaders this year to follow the format and process given by this walk.

The plenary was amazing. Haru started with a speech about the Paths to Peace. Another speaker of note for me was Richard Love who called to save children from Nature Deficit Disorder, but the greatest highlight was the Drum Cafe. They had 1,000 drums there and they taught us how to beat as one. It was energizing and fun.

The whole group supported Mary Rogers and the Pennsylvania kids. We attended Water Flowing Across the Curriculum. They were very well prepared and made a clear demonstration of curricular connections with this growing global need. Dave Milton had told the kids that his presentation would be boring and not to attend. I attended the Climate Change presentation and it was wonderful. My group would not have had any problem understanding it. Since everyone was tired, they spent time building relationships and resting to be fresh for the Gathering of the Elders. Robert wants to bring that format to school for students to get to know teachers at the retreat and maybe have a special assembly with a gathering of the elders.

Emily reflected us at the Pizza restaurant and then she showed us a brief video of the Post Secrets. After an emotional discussion, we went to bed.