04/03/2006
Coventry schools showcase fruits of their service learning grants
By: Jessica Selby , Kent County Daily Times

The Coventry High School library was transformed Tuesday evening from a quiet place of study to a vibrant place of presentation.
Teachers from each of the Coventry elementary schools, both middle schools and the high school as well as students, parents, administrators and members of the school committee gathered to hear about this year's Service Learning Projects.

Three years ago, the Coventry School district received a $10,000 grant from the Kids Consortium to develop service learning projects.
Service learning, according to Dolores O'Rourke, the co-chair of the Kids Consortium Committee for Coventry, is a teaching strategy that connects classroom learning with real life.

Teachers at any level in the Coventry school district can propose a service learning project idea to the Kids Consortium committee in hopes of obtaining funds to develop their idea. There are three criteria in the fund application process that, O'Rourke said, must be met for the committee to consider the application.
"We get so many applicants, each one with such good ideas, it is not an easy task for us to choose," O'Rourke said. "The first thing that we look for during eliminations is that the applicants have met the three main criteria."

The three criteria are academic integrity, student ownership and apprentice citizenship.

"Academic integrity really focuses on the different strategies used in the development of the project so as to incorporate the multiple learning styles of different students," O'Rourke said. "There really has to be student ownership of the project, too, for us to consider it. I mean it has to be their idea and student-driven. The final part that we look for when considering applications is if there is a real community need."

All the projects that received funding through the Kids Consortium grant were presented on Tuesday evening so spectators could get a grasp of how the money from the grant was being used.

Blackrock Elementary School presented its project on instituting foreign languages instruction at the elementary school level. Western Coventry School talked about its career day project and Flat River Middle School discussed its anti-vandalism campaign.

The woodworking class from Coventry High School presented its efforts to improve the conditions at local elderly housing facilities by replacing wooden ramps and installing railings, and the child development class explained how it was hoping to discourage teenage pregnancy through the "Think It Over" program.

Kimberly Fortin, a 10th-grader at Coventry High, approached the podium at the front of the room filled with people with a life-like baby in her arms. She explained how her classroom teacher, Kathy Hudson, applied for funding through the Kids Consortium to purchase the life-like dolls for the class's proposed service learning project.

"We take the dolls with us and we go into the middle schools to talk with girls age 11 to 13 on the dangers of teen pregnancy," Fortin said. "The occurrence is steadily increasing and we felt that we should do something about it."

"We have the girls keep the baby dolls in their care for a certain period of time to teach them that having a child, especially at this age, is not fun," she said. "There are different keys that they have to use for feeding, burping, panicking and upset stomach. It is not easy to get used to and our research shows that programs like this, using these dolls, have been proven to help."

The dolls cost an estimated $300 apiece, which is an amount that O'Rourke said the school budget just cannot allocate.
With this being the last year in the three-year, $10,000 grant from Kids Consortium, O'Rourke said that her committee, as well as the entire school district, is hopeful that the grant will be awarded again.

'There are definitely no guarantees, but the district as a whole would love to see it reinstated for another three years," she said.