Service Learning
Service Learning is the heart of our school. It allows our entire school community to service the area we live in and beyond. The program is a catalyst for change concerning issues that affect our lives and the lives of those around us. As members of the community, our students have the responsibility to live the core values of wisdom, justice, integrity, love, compassion, respect and courage. Service Learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities.
DSLA partners with numerous companies and organizations such as Meijer, Greater Grace Church, COTS, WJLB, Barns and Nobles, Ronald McDonald House, DMC, and others. These partnerships help ensure that our service learning program is meaningful and engaging. We have worked diligently to ensure curriculum alignment and embedding techniques that allow our teachers to focus on the academic standards while including the service learning strand. The academic, service learning component allows the classroom teacher to teach the state standards and benchmarks of the Michigan curriculum, while also giving the students real life, real world experiences. It is through this process, our students learn the value of their voice and the power of service.
2012 SERVICE LEARNING PROJECTS
School Wide Urban Garden
It is our goal as a school to recognize and bring change to any issue that can negatively affect our students, parents, staff, and community. One of the issues that our students have identified is improper nutrition. Inadequate access to fresh fruit and vegetables in urban areas has been an issue nationwide, and a lack of having access to these items can affect your health in a number of different ways. Also, many of our parents do not have access to transportation and use their local gas station as a way to purchase groceries.
To combat this problem the students, staff, and parents of DSLA have decided to create a school wide urban garden as our service learning project for the 2011-2012 school year. We have 6 locations throughout our campus that will support our garden:
Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade- traditional vegetable garden
3rd grade- butterfly garden
4th and 5th grade- herb garden
6th grade- vegetable and sunflower garden
7th grade- vine garden
8th grade- Serenity Garden next to our patio
The DSLA will welcome the community with a butterfly releasing ceremony at the end of May when we will also host a Farmer's Market where students will be able to sell and raffle off flower and garden plants to take home and transplant. Items may be donated and take from the community. Any items we harvest will be donated to local food pantries and families in need.
If you are interested in assisting with our garden, supporting other gardening events, or if you are interested in supporting the garden throughout the summer, please contact Luvenia Perkins at 313.541.7619 ext. 4401 or Kristin Phillips at ext. 4424.
1st and 3rd Grade Service Learning 2011