The University of Toledo and Graytown Elementary in the Benton-Carroll-Salem School District have teamed up on a Make-A-Wish Foundation “Kids for Wish Kids” service project to benefit Jenna, a 17-year-old with leukemia, whose dream is to meet country superstar Carrie Underwood.

Graytown Elementary fifth-graders, from left, Tyler Bowlick, Donovan Damron and Holden Pelz, helped raise funds at the Oak Harbor-Genoa High School football game last month for Jenna, a 17-year-old with leukemia, for the Make-A-Wish Foundation “Kids for Wish Kids” service project.

UT alumnus Kyle O’Neill and his Graytown Elementary fifth-graders are collaborating with Dr. Judy Lambert, UT assistant professor of curriculum and instruction, and her students, as well as honor students and members of Kappa Delta Pi, the International Honor Society in Education. This is the second year that UT and Graytown have collaborated on a service project.

The elementary students have written letters to solicit donations for this year’s Make-A-Wish project. They also decorated collection bins, signs and posters as well as collected and charted their donations. The University students edited the letters on a collaborative Web site. Lambert also has visited Graytown to offer O’Neill’s students instruction on using spreadsheets to record and graph funds raised in the event.

Lambert’s purposes for her students are to:

• Collaborate with a local school to make learning in the college classroom more meaningful for pre-service teachers;

• Show pre-service teachers how a project such as Make-A-Wish can be used to teach the school curriculum;

• Provide pre-service teachers with an authentic example of how a local teacher and students use technology in the actual classroom; and

• Integrate service learning into a college course.

The Graytown students kicked off their service project at the Oak Harbor-Genoa High School football game Sept. 4 and continued their efforts when they set up a booth at the Oak Harbor Apple Festival last weekend. Their finale will be a slide show presentation assembly at Graytown later this month.

Additionally, Lambert’s class and O’Neill’s class are connecting via videoconferencing.

The fifth-graders working on this service project gain a meaningful learning experience that covers curriculum in language arts, math, social studies and technology, according to O’Neill, who received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from UT in 2001 and 2005, respectively.

“This project goes far beyond just state standards and academic content, even though I can come up with no less than 50 fifth-grade standards that I can cover during this project,” O’Neill said. “The real benefit comes with showing the students the meaning of helping others and seeing, and hopefully meeting, who they are helping in the process.

“The collaboration with The University of Toledo is beneficial to both parties involved,” O’Neill continued. “My students are able to use technology to communicate with students at UT and use them as a resource for their various assignments. On the other end, the UT education students are seeing technology used in the classroom and are able to be active participants in a project that is meaningful and differs from the typical classroom experience.”

Lambert added, “By extending learning experiences outside the classroom walls, we are making education more meaningful for pre-service teachers and students of Kappa Delta Pi International Honor Society in Education. Through participation in this project, UT students connect with a local area classroom teacher and fifth-grade students and, as a result, they get a firsthand look at how curriculum standards can be achieved in a unique way — raising money for a worthy cause, the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

“As technology is used in the K-12 classroom as part of this project, pre-service teachers are given a context for their own learning in an educational technology course and are able to witness how technology can make student learning more exciting in the 21st century,” Lambert said.

Melissa Kimball, special event coordinator at Make-A-Wish of Northwest Ohio, said that they have granted nearly 1,200 wishes in 25 years. Additionally, a wish is granted every 40 minutes worldwide. The foundation’s mission is to “grant wishes for children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy.”

Kappa Delta Pi students will place collection bins around Gillham Hall on Main Campus. The project’s goal is to exceed last year’s fundraising total of more than $3,200. As of Wednesday, Oct. 7, the students have raised $2,125.

To learn more or to contribute, contact O’Neill at koneill@bcs.k12.oh.us or Lambert at judy.lambert@utoledo.edu.

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