When their yearly park clean-up was cancelled, students instead wrote appreciation cards to essential workers and nursing home residents.
WHO: City View Charter School students in grades K-8.
WHAT: Students collaborated from their homes in a project where each student wrote two cards and mailed them to different essential businesses and nursing homes in Hillsboro. In past years for Better World Day, the entire school has volunteered to help maintain community parks which has been a very fulfilling experience for the students. This year when we realized that we would not be able to do our regular park clean-up, we thought this project would help the community in a different way and students would all be able to contribute from home. This project is one of nearly 100 projects across the country that commemorates the third annual EL Education’s “Better World Day,” a day of student service and civic action to create positive change in their communities.
WHY: City View Charter School fosters a sense of service and civic action. We believe that students and teachers are strengthened by acts of consequential service to others, and one of our school’s primary functions is to prepare students with the attitudes and skills to learn from and be of service. Our students recognize that many people in our community are risking their health in order for the rest of us to be safe. Students also wanted to send cards to older people in nursing home facilities that might not be able to see their family members at this time.
QUOTES: “We are proud to participate in Better World Day just like many other EL Education schools across the country. Providing opportunities to contribute to students’ communities through projects like this is really at the heart of our school’s approach to learning,” said Nicole Kopacz, City View’s executive director.
“It’s important to encourage our students to show their gratitude to everyone who is working in our community right now, especially essential workers at grocery stores, first responders, hospital staff and many others. The students produced beautiful and heartfelt cards that they were proud to share.” Stefanie Baker, City View’s Instructional Coach
WHEN: May 2020
WHERE: Better World Day Video Link
About City View Charter School
City View is a small public charter school in the Hillsboro School District. We follow the EL Education learning model in order to fulfill our mission: to inspire academic excellence, build character and create high-quality work while contributing to a better world. We create a “whole learning environment” where students not only learn academically but are nurtured and respected as individual members of a community. City View Charter students are encouraged to be active learners and are provided the support and guidance to challenge themselves to achieve higher levels of learning. Lessons are taught across subject disciplines, through project-based curriculums called “learning expeditions”. Students conduct sustained, in-depth investigations of a topic that lead to authentic projects, fieldwork, and service. Expeditions bring experts into the classroom and take students out into the community to conduct research and fieldwork – providing authentic learning experiences both inside and outside of the school. All curriculum and learning expeditions’ designs are directly aligned to the Oregon State Standards. Character development, self-esteem building and community service are inherent to our entire program, most notably when the student’s final products are taken back out into the community and seen as valuable in a real-world context. www.cityviewcharter.org
About EL Education
The learning model called EL Education (formerly Expeditionary Learning) creates great public schools where they are needed most, inspiring teachers and students to achieve more than they thought possible. Created over 25 years ago through the collaboration of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Outward Bound, EL Education's research-based approach challenges and empowers teachers and students. The model focuses on ensuring that all students master rigorous content, develop positive character, and produce high-quality work.
EL Education transforms classrooms in thousands of schools and districts across the country through a unique combination of challenge and joy in learning. Students' impressive results encompass high academic achievement and college readiness, pride in the mastery of complex, authentic work, and a passion and capacity to contribute to a better world.
EL Education works with all kinds of public schools: district and charter, from pre-K through 12th grade, serving populations that reflect the diversity of our country. It creates powerful resources--including its open-access literacy curriculum--provides masterful coaching and professional development, and shares a portfolio of award-winning, educator-developed materials. One reason for its success: its work is informed by decades of learning in its national network of over 150 high-achieving public schools. www.ELeducation.org.