Serving Learning

Cathy Berger Kaye is one of those people who, once met, is never forgotten. She is engaging and passionate and enthusiastic and walks the talk of service learning. She travels the world sharing best practices on education, teaching and learning methods, action planning and ties it all together beautifully. Last week ISKL was fortunate to have her visit with us for two days of direct support with our teachers and students followed by a two day EARCOS Weekend Workshop on service learning. 

During her visit she worked with the following groups:

• The ES service learning committee in expanding service learning in the curriculum
• The MS grade level core teams on their integrated units (grade 6 impact unit; grade 7 ecology unit; grade 8 climate adaptation unit)
• The HS service team leaders, CAS and Community Service Coordinators working on infusing the service learning framework in our out-of-class experiences
• The grade 5 students doing an activity called "four corners" which focused on crating guiding questions, determining skills and interests as well as identifying methods of investigation for topics that matter to students
• The HS Service team student leaders focusing on motivating and engaging others.
• 31 ISKL teachers and administrators (and 25 non-ISKL teachers) doing a two-day service learning workshop on teaching and learning.

Four days are rarely enough. One generates more questions than one has answered, as a reflection of what learning should be. 

The biggest take away from her visit was that teaching should reflect the real world, should give students "voice and choice", should be a true connection to community and/or global needs and focus on the learning. It was an inspiring end to the week and, considering the ever-growing number of people who are being touched by her work at ISKL, it's fills us with motivation to make learning even more authentic and engaging as we continue to build spirited, socially responsible global citizens".

Big Shifts. Big Hopes.

Earlier this month the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change announced its recommendation that humanity had 86 years to rid itself of fossil fuels altogether. I couldn't help but think about the enormity of that statement. Could an international organization of scientists really be asking the world to change everything it has done over the past 150 years so drastically?

When I saw the news on BBC I was sitting in a hotel room in Borneo. I had taken two taxis and a plane to get there. I would do the same to return home. If the statement was correct than these two modes of transport, for one, would need to be redesigned in order for someone in my shoes to be able to have a similar experience and result in zero carbon emissions. Is that even possible? The stress that could cause is already palpable to many - particularly in our global community - but humanity is already in a position to deliver.

Humanity's ability to create, to think divergently, to problem solve, and to deal with crisis is singular. It is the reason at ISKL we focus so heavily on our School wide Learning Results: Think Creatively; Learn Enthusiastically; Communicate Effectively; Reason Critically: Collaborate Effectively: Live Ethically.

The days in Borneo were crystal clear and brilliantly beautiful, a far cry from the haze we sometimes experience in Kuala Lumpur. It was looking up to that that I realised just how wonderful the vision of a carbon emission free world could be. How fantastic for all of us to think of new ways of being, living, doing. How wonderful to take the great minds that already collaborate but do so with a higher cause in mind: Humanity.

Optimism replace the initial dread.  My concern about how I might address it in this very post was replaced with a sense of faith and purpose for all of us, whether we work in schools or businesses or embassies or energy. Faith that, though there is much to be done, and our existence is bound to be shaped in ways that we cannot yet fathom, we have the tools to build a pretty awesome future.

And therein, I found a strange sense of calm and urgency both in one. Calm in that it can be done. Urgency in that, if we have 86 years to change the world we have to get started today. Education, though powerful, takes time to take shape, meaning that now is an apropos time to start. They say hope springs eternal. There is work to be done by us all. The future awaits. Our students have the power and skills to invent it. I find that - our students - the best reason for hope of all. 

Laurence Myers
Sustainability & Service Learning Coordinator

Planting for People & Planet Alike

"Never Doubt that A Small Group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it's the only thing that ever has."  The quote above by Margaret Meade is the perfect statement for the weekend that just passed. Seventeen members of our community - a group of "thoughtful, conscientious" students, parents and faculty, came together to plant some trees. It was the culmination of several months of coordination with a local NGO, The Global Environment Centre, focusing of its efforts on rejuvenation of peat forests in Malaysia. The funding for the event was graciously provided by the ISKL Annual Fund. 

This particular group head out at 7 am on Saturday, November 8 on a day that competition was high for perspective volunteers, with HS athletics and the Google Educators conference underway at Ampang and SATs going on simultaneously off campus. The morning rain gave way, just in time it seemed, to cloud cover that kept the heat at bay. The troop arrived shortly after 8:15 and walked 1.25 km down a rugged mud road to the location of the planting. There they changed into boots, were given gloves and ponchos and headed out - after a short briefing on the importance of planting and the species to be planted - to plant and plant some more.

By the end of the event (around 12:00 noon) the group had planted 210 trees that will benefit the peat forest ecosystem by providing food sources (small berries in this case), attracting birds and insects to the area in greater numbers. It was important for everyone to recognize not just the benefit of planting directly, but also how the planting fit into the big picture of the haze in SE Asia, the relationship between education of local communities versus typical slash and burn behaviors, the economic benefits of supporting local nurseries and involving locals in the planting process as well as their participation in the growth of peat swamps around Malaysia. In short, it was important to recognize how interconnected ecology, economy, society and politics are and how a systemic approach to solving global issues is necessary and already underway. 

The conversations were timely. The planting was a win-win for people and planet alike. 

Planting for the Planet: An Invitation

I am always amazed that, after all the time I spend in trying to work out best practices and appropriate behaviors for sustainability, arguably the best thing is to just add to nature and let it do it's thing. 

Students note that recycling is a helpful behavior, and it is. But the assumption is that one is helping because they are doing less damage that they might otherwise. 

Perhaps we should be turning everything on its head and start looking at things from a positive starting point. Let's not assume that our behaviors need to be detrimental to the environment. Why not actually add our share to the natural capital of the world?  A simple act of growing a plant will provide benefits that far outweigh the time and energy expended in planting it and provide a meaningful service to the planet and its inhabitants. 

On Saturday, November 8 from 7:00 am to around 1:00 pm or so, our HS Earth Club and Green Council are running a tree planting Plant-a-thon that will support the UN Plant for the Planet program. Open to the entire ISKL community (aged 10 and above) the idea is to head out with our partners, the Global Environment Centre, and plant 300 trees at the Raja Musa Forest Reserve (north of KL). Bussing will be provided from our Ampang campus and back.

Why not come out and help get some carbon out of the atmosphere, return some of the natural spaces and provide some of that ever-elusive clean air around these parts. Then, once we plant, just let nature take it's course.

If we're want our son's and daughters to exemplify global citizenship, we would be hard pressed to find a better example of humble yet positively impactful service to the world.

Building Global Citizens: GAP & BCP

In the past two weeks both students and teachers have been involved in a plethora of initiatives and learning aimed at building communities and developing global citizens. It's a sustainability and service learning dream come true!  

It would have been difficult to avoid getting sucked into the enthusiasm revolving around the high school Global Action Program (GAP). In large part GAP is about building bridges. Bridges between different people and places and systems and structures. Bridges between ecological, social, economic and political sustainability. Bridges of experiential learning for our students and those we meet. Every trip is integrated with a service program that is powerful and authentic.

In the case of Cambodia 9, which I was privileged to participate in, it was through the building of a home for a rural family whose daily income, on days when work is available, hovers around USD 3. Our students also taught English to children around Seam Reap for whom the language can, quite literally, be a one way street out of poverty. We also initiated the building of a library in a community school, using discarded plastic bottles and waste. The arrival of subsequent school groups, during the fall semester or school travel, should see the building completed by November. 

It was in conjunction with one of those GAP trips to Bali that our elementary librarian, Suji Dehart, was doing her bit for global citizenship as well. She has been integral in establishing a partnership between ISKL and a rural Balinese community to support literacy there. The Bali Children's Project has just begun by providing a library for the young children in the area with obvious benefits to literacy, education and beyond. It was particularly meaningful that a group of GAP students supported the establishment of the library and the reading to children there.

Extending it even further, Suji and David Herbert, our new Elementary School Service Learning Coordinators, are using the Bali Children’s Project as the focus of fundraising for Melawati, largely through our grade five Red Hats initiatives. These are the baby steps in long-term commitment to sustainable development in communities where need is highest.

These are but two examples of how, at ISKL, the pursuit of global citizenship is taking form.  One need only to look around to see ISKL’s community doing it’s bit in making the world a better place without fanfare or pomp or circumstance.

Tying ESD, Service Learning & Eco-Schools Together

Often in chats and meetings the concepts of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Service Learning seem to get blurred. Also confusing is the Eco Schools program which we are proud members of. Consider this article it an eco-education 101 for new and returning families.

Our ESD curricular framework was the first to be established at ISKL, four years ago. The idea behind it is that students who complete their studies at ISKL have a solid understanding of sustainable development, its dimensions and interconnections. To complement that, of course, are a host of skills that are essential for 21st century learning: Collaboration, multiple perspectives (what we call "lenses") systemic thinking, etc.  

Two years ago we took the extra step in making ESD more meaningful with the introduction of service learning. Service learning is a teaching approach that we utilize both in classroom and out-of-class learning. It complements ESD very well in terms of skills developed and understandings generated but can also be utilized independently, making it particularly effective. 

The use of service learning works very well in any capacity. Case in point: The Green Council which is largely the school-wide leadership group with regard to Eco-Schools initiatives. The Eco-Schools program has fit us "like a glove" in that it allows our students to work with local organizations, to form authentic links with the community and ensure that our internal programs go hand-in-hand with external ones. But it is also about focusing on community needs and addressing them in an authentic manner: Authentic learning by doing.  

For example, numerous IB CAS projects (which are sometimes counted as Eco-Schools projects) utilize the service learning approach. More times than not such projects also relate to the ESD curriculum either directly or indirectly, More importantly, they also increase the capacity for change making and community building, both pillars of molding global citizens. 

The versatility of these three elements - ESD, service learning and Eco-Schools - has created a win-win situation for student learning at ISKL. From gaining the knowledge of ESD to practicing authentic learning through service strategies, and extending themselves to out-of-school authentic collaboration the learning is quite exceptional.

Grade 6 Service Learning: The Gears are moving

ISKL is a dynamic place. In the classroom our students are exposed to hundreds of new concepts and ideas and theories and frameworks and discussions and, and, and... This 'buzz' however, continues even after they have gone home. It's the sound of a great school working on making education "exceptional". It was during those meetings that the idea of a service learning elective for grade six students was born.

16 students are taking service learning this trimester (and it's offered again next trimester as well).  I had the pleasure of joining the two classrooms last week as they deliberated what would be most appropriate fit for their interests, the needs of the community and the limitations given by the trimester. It needed to be authentic but also something that would allow them to have an impact. Conversations ebbed and flowed from issues of self esteem to waste to energy to respect for others to animal rights. Students had a number of questions for me - "where does our waste go?" or "why do we have so many plastic bottles?" - and the answers invariably led to more questions, slowly opening the door to the understanding of issues and their complexity. 

The power of conversation and analysis should not be lost here. Given time to deliberate, to discuss and to recognize the nature of addressing complex issues one can really see the learning clicking into high gear. The sixth graders have no lack of energy and they'll need it because they are ready to tackle the issues of nutrition, waste and energy use at Ampang!  Tall orders for 12 year olds but with such potential to be mini change makers.

I like to tell people that you can't build an NBA player by asking them to start playing basketball in college. Using the same logic, you can't expect kids to become change makers and future builders by asking them to understand theoretical constructs without also giving them the chance to put things into practice. I am not privy to the action plans of grade six yet, but given the depth of conversation and the interest of the students I am sure that they'll be great!