Mainely Middle
Journal of the Maine Association for Middle
Level Education
|
|
|
|
2000/2001 |
Finding Meaningful Roots in Your Community
Community seems to be a big buzz-word in education today. Everyone is talking about it; everyone is trying to find ways to involve community in their classrooms, but some are missing the boat! What I mean is, it isn't enough to simply get the community to enter the front doors, although that may be a good place to start. More needs to be done to truly connect the community to its schools and to connect the school to its community in a meaningful way. There needs to be deep meaning behind the ways educators attempt to connect to their communities. The school can not keep asking the community to come in and do things to help support the schools unless the schools try to do something to help the community. It is much like the lesson learned by giving a gift and receiving a gift. The person receiving the gift doesn't feel half as good as the person giving one. Schools need to give more gifts to their communities. My local school district is in the process of learning this tough lesson right now. For years, our district has passed the school budgets and for years we have not given anything back, not even information about what might be going on in our schools through a newspaper article or bulk mailings. Recently, money has been much tighter, and politics in our district is becoming an issue. Community members are starting to feel the money pinch with taxes in some towns going up around 50% in one year! The community is looking for things to cut, to try to ease the pain. They are not informed, and therefore, are not making informed decisions about what things should or should not be cut. So, what is the moral to this story? Well, it is simple: Involve the community in as many meaningful ways as possible. Meaningful is the key. The community has to be involved in a way that allows students, teachers and staff to learn right along side the community members themselves. Activities need to be meaningful and do some service for the community. What are some fruitful ways to involve your community in education? Well, there are many. Teachers and administrators need to make it is a priority to see the ideas through to implementation. Many times I have seen wonderful ideas come up, yet go nowhere. These ideas must go somewhere! Because our district has recently had to make this a priority, we have come up with several interesting activities, some of which I'd like to share with you. First is our district-wide Veterans Day Celebration. Each school in our district (four) begins by inviting all its area veterans to a celebration day at that individual school. I have been at two schools and both times it has been the eighth graders who draft and send off letters to the veterans (lists can be provided by the town office). Even if things stopped there, this would be a beneficial project. Correspondence, which begins here, has spmetimes lasted for years! Many veterans write back and apologize for not being able to come to our celebration. But then they write a wonderful personal letter to the student, telling them about themselves, and their experiences. Many times, students have returned these letters and have corresponded for years with veterans they have never seen! The project does not end there, however. Veterans are invited to come into school, share some stories, and bring in memorabilia and artifacts to share with the kids. The turnout is always wonderful! The veterans come in; wander in and out of classes, speaking, and joking with each other. The camaraderie that students see is sometimes awesome. Veterans stay for lunch with the children, and the little children sometimes sing songs for them. Essays and posters by the older students are posted so that visitors can stop and look around. Overall, it is a wonderful day for all involved. This is only the individual school celebrations, however. The whole district then throws a big benefit supper for all area veterans of the four towns. Veterans get in for free, the district band plays songs from different branches, and different eras in time. Students help serve dinner and there are raffles and all the other things that make public suppers so social. The turnout has been incredible! It has become a tradition after only three years. In their correspondence with students, veterans often ask about next year's dinner. Another wonderful idea is the development of a web page for your community. This involves students going out into the community, interviewing, and finding stories and pictures. It also involves community members coming in and sharing their stories, skills, and thoughts. This gives students a sense of belonging to their community, knowing that what they produce will have a positive impact. Yet another great idea revolves around Christmas. In past years, we have found that it is difficult to get the middle level students to fully participate in those old fashioned Christmas concerts, so we've changed things a little. The school holds a Christmas concert for grades K to five, but instead of doing the same for six to eight, we have now begun a tradition of Christmas caroling for the community. Each year we get a list of about a dozen people who, for various reasons, are unable get out of their houses easily. We split the list up between two buses, and bring Christmas to them! Both the middle level students and the people we sing for love it! We all return to the school for hot chocolate and cookies provided by the PTO. The last idea I'd like to share with you is meant specifically for parents. Each month we have a student dress up day. On this day all students dress up to the hilt. There is a special lunch and parents are invited to attend. Older students serve the younger students and parents. There are actual plates, forks, knives, cups, napkins, the whole nine yards. The little kids love it, and it gives them a chance to work on their table manners. The older kids love it too, and it gives them a chance to work on their responsibility. All in all, it is a great learning experience, and the number of parents who participate continues to grow. In conclusion, I hope the message has been received that it is imperative to involve the community in your school. The key is that it must be a meaningful experience for both the community members and the students. |