We are proud to be sending BCC Spanish students into Crosby and Conte Elementary Schools, in Pittsfield Shools again, this year! Beginning Spanish students, Jonathan Dick, Bethany Fedell, Matthew Griffin and Tanya Record, will be teaching local children Spanish through games, songs, mini-plays and art projects.
Ian Piazza is an Intermediate Spanish student who signed up for a second year of Service Learning in Pittsfield Schools. When he signed up for this year’s Service Learning, he exclaimed: “I’m ADDICTED to this stuff!” All Service Learning students keep “Reflective Journals” on their experience in the classroom. They are encouraged to think about how Service Learning helped THEM learn and about how it changed their notions of community, of service, of tolerance of otherness, of their place in the wider world. Ian’s journals last year are testament to the seriousness with which he approached his experience and serve as a model to other Service Learning students. He will mentor new Service Learning students by helping them brainstorm about their lesson plans; he will share his thoughts on which activities worked and which were less successful with his students.
Michael “Jota Jota” Van Deusen is serving as a Service Learning Fellow, assisting Mary Parkman, Service Learning Coordinator, by serving as liaison between Mary’s office and prospective and current Service Learning students. “Jota” is a pro at curriculum development. He understands the importance of engaging all the students’ senses to help them learn best. He was a co-presenter at the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (NECTFL), in March 2010, where he spoke to high school and college teachers of languages from all over the country on his experiences in the classroom and on what he concluded about teaching, growing, learning. He is already mentoring first year Service Learning students and will continue to do so all this year. Read, below, what “Jota” wrote about his Service Learning experience on BCC’s Service Learning blog:
This is what Michael "Jota Jota" Van Deusen wrote about his Service Learning experience on BCC's Service Learning Blog.
This year’s Service Learning students will brainstorm activities they would like to use in their classrooms via voicethread. See this space very soon!
Coming soon:
- Service Learning students’ voicethreads;
- Pictures from last year’s students’ experiences;
- Service Learning PowerPoint.