Wednesday, October 1, 2014

GenerationOn challenges you!


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News from generationOn
Welcome
Dear Friends of generationOn Schools, 

We hope that the first weeks of school have set you off to continue developing a culture of service at your school. 
As you plan your academic year, look for opportunities that will allow you to tie together academics with real world service experiences. One of the goals of service learning is to facilitate academic learning through meaningful service experiences, which allows students to feel more connected to their local and global community. As an educator, you can help students determine their passions by planning hands-on experiences with diverse issues, from the environment to animal welfare. 

This newsletter highlights resources and opportunities in our generationOn Schools program. 

Please contact us with questions and comments at schools@generationon.org 

In service,  

The generationOn Schools Team 

Moments of Service
Moments of Service are real-world teachable moments that are the perfect entry point to combine academic content and service. This fall, challenge students to find creative ways to give and serve others, get creative ways to that promote peace and engage students in making a difference. Find lesson plans, teaching ideas and more related to these themes here.

International Day of Non-Violence (October 2)
This day of peace and non-violence provides an opportunity for individuals, organizations and nations to create practical acts of peace on a shared date. This is a great time to explore themes of anti-bullying and community building. 
Check out the generationOn "Actions of Peace" Curriculum for a set of activities.

Make a Difference Day: (October 25) 
"Make your Mark on the World." Engage youth in selecting issues of interest in their community, and doing small acts or service projects that add up to making a big difference. Find 65 fun project ideas here.

Family Volunteer Day: (November 22)
Family Volunteer Day is a day of service that demonWe hope that the first weeks of school have set you off to continue developing a culture of service at your school.

Additional resources: 

Featured Lesson Plans and Resources

Learning to Give educates students as philanthropists with knowledge, skills, and action to make a better world. The lessons give a meaningful start to the service-learning process by infusing civic purpose into academic subjects, and promoting autonomy and purpose for student learning. Learning to give lessons have been shown to promote caring attitudes and compassion in the school and community. All lessons are aligned with common core standards. 

Good Citizenship and Philanthropy: Students analyze the relationship between "community need" and "private action". They will also identify a need that exists in his or her home, school or community and identify at least one act they would like to undertake to make the world a better place. 

Kids Can Make a Difference:  In this unit, the students develop a pen-pal relationship with a classroom in a community that is supposedly very different from their own. As they communicate about their community, interests and other issues, they learn that they have much in common. The two groups work cooperatively to collect canned goods for their local communities. Then they each plan and implement a service-learning project. The students reflect on the role of long distance and communication through writing on the success of their project.

Stories From the Field
This story is from Silvana Morgan a fifth grade teacher of advanced students at Hal E. Clark Middle School in St. John, Indiana. She has been teaching for twenty-one years. 
"Inspired by the lessons they learned, students wrote an original play called So Close Yet So Far. The play highlighted the fact that while we take a few steps to a water faucet, many people walk at least five miles to obtain purified water." 
This project began after learning about Dots in Blue Water, a science lab project that helped develop and test sustainable ways to purify local water and make it drinkable. 

Other Ways to Get Involved 
 
generationOn Clubs provide kids and teens with the knowledge, access to resources, adult support, project ideas, and opportunities for action that they need in order to discover their power to make a difference.

The generationOn Kids Care Clubs program provides resources for adult facilitators to conduct service clubs for elementary school-age children (ages 5-10). As an adult facilitator, you will work with kids in your club to do service projects in your community. You could even be recognized as our Club of the Month!


The generationOn Service Clubs program provides the tools for middle and high school youth (ages 11-18) to start, lead or join their own service clubs, supported by an adult advisor.
You can help a student start a club with friends, at your school. generationOn Clubs provide members with the opportunity to build life and leadership skills and to implement meaningful hands-on service projects, locally, nationally and globally. Learn more about generationOn Service Clubs here.
Empower Young People to Become Community Changemakers and Leaders with the generationOn goLEAD Program! 

The goLEAD(generationOn Leadership, Education, and Development) program inspires young people to engage in meaningful service-learning and leadership skill building to effect real community change. Originally developed by the Center for Creative Leadership and recently revised by leaders in the youth development field, this program provides the caliber of leadership training typically available only to corporate executives and government leaders. goLEAD equips youth to become stronger leaders, conscientious communicators, and community-minded citizens through a series of hands on activities, interactive modules, and ongoing service project planning. goLEAD incorporates elements of STEM and is in line with many 21st Century competencies.

Using a train-the-trainer model, adults who wish to engage youth in the goLEAD program MUST attend a two day goLEAD Facilitator Training to receive the goLEAD Program Guide and learn how to implement a goLEAD Institute. 
After completing the Facilitator Training, you will receive a copy of the goLEAD Program Guide and will be required to host at least one goLEAD Institute for youth per year to maintain your certification. 

Adults who become certified goLEAD Facilitators:  

•             Join a growing network of hundreds of dedicated adults with nearly two decades of successful youth development. 
•             Inspire youth to take action that changes the world and themselves through service.
•             Equip youth with critical leadership and communication skills.
•             Mobilize youth to plan a capstone service project to benefit the community.
•             Develop young leaders who are prepared to continue making positive change in their local and global communities after the goLEAD Institute is complete.   
•             Generate organizational income through attendance fees and grant opportunities. 

Youth who complete a goLEAD Institute hosted by a goLEAD Facilitator: 

•             Attend a 30 hour goLEAD Institute during which they complete leadership development activities, team building exercises, and practice self- and group-reflection. 
•             Develop 21st Century competencies, gain a global perspective and engage with elements of STEM. 
•             Engage in creative service work with your organization for the benefit of the community using the steps of service-learning and the goLEAD program. 
•             Become a service-learning ambassador in their region by playing a leadership role in engaging youth in service and service-learning.   

Discounts and scholarships are available! Email goLEAD@generationOn.org with questions.

Is your School a generationOn School?

A generationOn School is a place where academic learning comes alive through real-world service experience to guide students in becoming engaged, responsible global citizens. Don't forget to join the member community of service-learning schools for the 2014-2015 school year.

It's free and easy to register your school for the generationOn Schools program. Plus, registering your school will ensure that you and your colleagues continue to receive the great benefits of being part of generationOn, including information concerning mini-grants, e-newsletters, professional development and more. 
Click here to learn more and register your school today!


Submitted by:
Leighann S. Forbes, Ed.D., Associate Professor
Program Coordinator, Middle Level and Secondary Education
Gannon University
109 University Square
Erie, PA 16541