Model Practitioners

Overview
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Middle School
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Service-Learning Model Practitioners

Service-Learning Model Practitioners are educators experienced in implementing high quality service-learning projects with students. This section highlights Model Practioners from a variety of grade spans and content areas. Model Practitioners profiled here may be contacted to provide modest levels of advice. For more in depth support, please contact a Training and Technical Assistance Provider. Click here to nominate a service-learning model practitioner.

Elementary School Model Practitioners
Linda Anderson Fremont Unified School District lindaanderson@fremont.k12.ca.us	Linda Anderson serves as the Elementary Service-Learning Coordinator for Fremont's 28 elementary schools. In 2008, she coordinated district-wide participation in Pennies for Peace and helped organize service-learning opportunities related to Greg Mortenson's book Three Cups of Tea. Students raised nearly $35,000 for schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan while studying history, math, and language arts. (http://aauwfremontbranch.org/threecups.html) In the 08-09 school year over 15,000 Fremont elementary students participated in service-learning projects. As a 3rd grade teacher, Linda organized a service-leanring project combining Open Court reading, Character Education, Fremont's 50th anniversary and a study of geometry. Students created quilts featuring scenes of good things for children to do in Fremont for donation to a local shelter.

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Middle Grade Model Practitioners
Jeannette Frechou	Jeannette Frechou is a science teacher at Will C. Wood middle school in Alameda. Jeannette has a deep background in service-learning, both as a service-learning coordinator and practitioner. Jeannette believes strongly in providing authentic, rigorous and meaningful opportunities for students to learn. Jeannette currently leads the Service-Learning Waste Reduction Project at Will C. Wood, engaging her students in a quest to establish Wood as the greenest school in Alameda.
Laura Heston	Laura Heston serves as the CalServe Service-Learning District Partnership Grant Coordinator for the Pleasanton Unified School District. As a middle school leadership teacher, Laura has worked hard to develop multiple opportunities for student leadership in service-learning projects and in the district's service-learning program.

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High School Model Practitioners
Lauretta Aldridge Kennedy High School 39999 Blacow Rd Fremont, CA 94538 http://www.fremont.k12.ca.us/ kennedy/site/default.asp	Lauretta Aldridge teaches EL at Kennedy High School in Fremont. In 2007, Lauretta developed a service-learning project to build student's academic English vocabulary and skills. Students learned root words associated with environmental issues, spoke with their parents in their native language to gain context on world environmental issues, then researched different strategies for reducing waste in the school's new cafeteria. The project culminated with students writing advocacy letters to the district's nutrition director, resulting in a focus group meeting with students to learn more about their proposals. Lauretta also coordinates the school's participation in the Service-Learning Waste Reduction Project and participated in developing the Green Technology Pathway at the school.
Ari Dolid San Leandro High School 2200 Bancroft Avenue San Leandro, Ca 94577 510-618-4600 ext. 2200 http://www.slhs.net/~socialjustice/ adolid@sanleandro.k12.ca.us	"I use service learning because it allows my students to engage as active participants in authentic learning experiences, and allows them to contextualize the ideas we discuss in literature and in their history classes. The skills they build through these experiences are skills they will use on a daily basis in their future educational and professional endeavors." Ari Dolid coordinates the Social Justice Academy at San Leandro High School and works to include service-leanring as a key teaching strategy for engaging students while addressing social justice issues. While studying icons of non-violent social justice movements, students in the academy organized a peace conference on campus in response to community violence. Students have produced a "Survival Guide" to San Leandro High School to provide all students with a fair chance to understand the school's systems and proceedures.The Social Justice Academy has supported environmental justice work in the community and worked to provide emergency kits to homebound senior citizens after Hurricane Katrina highlighted the need in vulnerable populations. Ari also served as editor for the Service-Learning Curriculum Guide for the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Alameda County. This is an excellent guide to teaching young people about hunger and poverty in our communities.
Scott Lewis Irvington High School 41800 Blacow Rd Fremont, CA 94538 http://irvington.org	Scott Lewis serves as Irvington High School's service-learning coordinator and the Fremont Unified School District's High School Service-Learning lead. Scott led a multi-year environmental restoration of Stiver's Lagoon by engaging at-risk students in high-quality service-learning projects in a variety of disciplines. In science, students partnered with the Math/Science Nucleus to identify and remove non-native plants and built environmental science stations for younger students. In geography, students partnered with the City of Fremont to use Geographic Information Systems and GPS tools to map the area. In history, students interviewed descendents of the Stiver Family to record the history of the area. Scott's strong interdisciplinary approach recently led him to develop a revised Model UN program at Irvington High School: country teams must develop service-learning projects to address each year's resolutions.

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Administrative Model Practitioners
Parvin Ahmadi Assistant Superintendent Fremont Unified School District 4210 Technology Dr. Fremont, CA 94530 http://www.fremont.k12.ca.us	Parvin Ahmadi, Assistant Superintendent for Instructional Services in Fremont Unified School District, has helped guide the district’s implementation of a K-12 CalServe service-learning grant. Fremont Unified School District serves over 32,000 students and plans to provide at least one high quality service-learning experience for every student during each grade span. The district has worked to tie service-learning to other high profile initiatives like character education, BTSA/Induction, leadership, and small learning communities. Parvin believes that, “service-learning gives students the opportunity to see their impact on the real world. Students always learn better when they see the relevance of what they are learning to their own experiences. The value of service-learning is in the reflection that students engage in before, during, and after the project. We need our students to grow up to become compassionate adults who care about their impact on others.” Parvin has experince implementing service-learning projects as a teacher, principal and district administrator.
Charlotte Aldrich	Charlotte Aldrich serves as the BTSA induction specialist for the Fremont Unified School District. Under Charlotte's leadership FUSD began offering service-learning training to all new teachers as part of the BTSA induction process. Charlotte worked with service-learning coordinators in the district to identify induction standards that can best be taught through service-learning training. In the first two years of the program, nearly 200 new teachers have been trained. New teacher satisfaction is very high, one participant reported, "I am proud to work in a district that values service-learning."
Pete Murchison Principal Irvington High School 41800 Blacow Rd Fremont, CA 94538 http://irvington.org	Pete Murchison is the principal of Irvington High School, a National Service-Learning Leader School and pilot school for the Generator Schools Network. According to Pete, "service-learning helps to eliminate the phrase, 'Why do I have to learn this?' from a student's vocabulary. You'll rarely hear 11th and 12th graders asking about relevance because they see real world connections in their work." Under Pete's leadership, Irvington adopted four schoolwide outcomes: Communication, Critical Thinking, Personal Responsibility, and Social Responsibility. Service-learning is a key teaching strategy to address all four outcomes. Irvington has grade level projects at 9th, 10th and 12th grades that engage all students in service-learning.

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Service-Learning Model Practitioners

Elementary School Model Practitioners

Middle Grade Model Practitioners

High School Model Practitioners

Administrative Model Practitioners