Service Learning Creates a Positive Relationship Between Teachers and Students

Abstract

The current pedagogy in creating a positive school climate is building personal relationships with students. Teachers and students work together to create a safe environment where students engage in the academic pursuit of knowledge. Service-learning projects that create this close bond and offer a collective pursuit of helping others give students a greater sense of confidence and self-respect as they explore topics that have meaning for them. An added benefit was that when students went home excited about what they were doing in school, the parents were pulled into the dialog. I work with students at a diverse global magnet public school in Greensboro, NC, and we are a 2016 National School of Character designated by Character.org. In 2016, our demographics consisted of 50% Black (African American and African), 22% White, 12% Hispanic, 8% Asian and 7% Multiracial. There were 40% male and 60% female, although this is atypical since we usually have a less than 5% gender difference. Our students are described in the 2016 Schools of Character Magazine as “exceptionally high-minded” in their desires to help others. Getting to this point has been a process.I have been an educator for 25 years in the public school system, and I do believe service-learning projects have brought me better relationships with my students and their parents. One memorable project from early in my teaching career was when my students grew concerned about children at the local women’s shelter. I asked a parent to build bookcases with slanted “roof” tops. Students created dollhouses by wallpapering and putting in details. Each dollhouse was a different architectural period like Victorian or modern. We learned about architecture, design, and measurement. Students researched the time period and wrote stories about the people who lived in their dollhouse. Then the dollhouses were auctioned off, and the money went to the shelter. After that project I knew I was hooked on what would become known as service learning. I distinctly remember every child in that fourth-grade class, and we had a collective relationship of doing good things. We cared about each other and our community.In 2010, I became the academically gifted teacher at Brooks Global Studies. That first year I could not help notice the number of service projects in which each grade level participated. The halls were lined with results of their projects. I knew this was a place where character was valued. I loved walking into the building because students called me by name and I felt welcomed. I cannot stress how important this is to a teacher. Positive behaviors are more able to be developed when student and teacher develop relationships over time.Students were involved, but they did not understand that all of these caring projects constituted service learning. I was surprised when on the Fourth Grade Perception Survey students said they did not participate in service learning. On yearly surveys they had difficulty identifying character trait words. A larger percentage of students marked that sometimes adults in the school did not listen to their worries. This concerned our global committee. How could we show that service learning creates better, positive relationships between teachers and students if the data did not show those results? We decided to be more proactive.Guilford County offers a calendar of character trait words that map out the school year (see Table 1). We asked teachers to plan to incorporate these traits intentionally into curriculum lessons. The global committee provided resources and support. We hoped if we used the language of character it would become part of our school climate. We purchased a bulletin board that was prominently displayed with character words and school wide activities. Every day, students absorbed the messages as they entered the cafeteria.Teachers began to plan lessons in the classroom, and students participated in schoolwide as well as classroom projects that w