Service Learning Program: It's All About Vision!
Live... Serve... TEACH!
The Elementary Education Service Learning Program at Appalachian State University strives to prepare teachers to be active participants in the life of their school and community. Our program seeks to empower future teachers to work toward social justice through an ethic of caring, commitment and conscience.
About the Program
The Reich College of Education's Elementary Education program requires that students complete forty hours of service learning/community service activities as part of the curriculum designed to prepare future teachers. This component was designed with two fundamental values in mind. First, we believe that it is necessary for a teacher to be a contributor to his or her community--both inside the classroom and out. Secondly, this requirement reflects our own commitment to the community in which Appalachian State University is located.
Over the course of your time in the elementary education program, you will be asked to consider your own core values and what characteristics you hope will define you as a teacher. It is our aim that that the Service Learning Program will provide you with opportunities to refine these beliefs and to then put them into practice. We believe that teaching is a moral endeavor as well as an intellectual one. We look forward to working with you toward building a more hopeful tomorrow for North Carolina's children.
How Does the Service Learning Program Work?
The first twenty hours of your forty hour commitment should be completed prior to your junior year. While we prefer that you complete these hours by committing ten hours to two different sites or organizations, you may also in some cases spend all twenty hours in one setting. You may also fulfill this requirement through an Alternative Spring Break (see the Events page for information on RCOE's Tsalagi Spring Break opportunity).
The final twenty hours are directly tied to your Elementary Education curriculum and are completed in Block One and Two through CI 3000 (Learner Diversity) and CI 3110 (Social Studies in the Elementary School).
|
Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations. -President Barack Obama |