Service Learning Projects

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Are there ways to contest these?

Mine is 8 hours of service somewhere, that has to approved by teacher. I'll probably fail without it, but I don't have a way to do it. I had something in mind and the teacher approved but they never called back to set anything up.

A teacher cannot fail you if you try hard. If the organization did not call back that is not your fault. You should call the organization and say hey look I offered t o volunteer for 8 hours at your organization and you never called back to let me know. Say how the semester is almost over and you need to pass the class.

I would talk with a counselor because not doing a service project should not fail you. Try using your IEP and say that due to your disability it can be hard to work at an outside organization. See if you can volunteer in the school office 1-2 hours M-F for a week+a few days the next week.

You may ask your teacher if you could volunteer in her classroom or work at the tech lab helpin g them with their equipment

It should not be about the quantity of time but the quality of the work. If you volunteered for 4 out of the 8 hours per your IEP then its reasonable you are still doing the assignment but its modified to your needs. No one will know you only volunteered 4 hours and you filled the requirement.. If you could volunteer just 2 hours 2 days you would be done.

Good luck and I hope it works out.

My experience with service learning was during a university course last year. Successful completion of one's "volunteer" hours was required to both pass the course and complete one of the course papers. (Transportation issues, costs, lack of time, etc. were not accepted reasons for failure to complete the requirement by either the department or the office of service learning.) Our "volunteer" opportunities were limited to a specific list we had to choose off of. In my instance, I ended up tutoring a high school student in Geometry. I had issues obtaining information from and communicating with the high school. When I was there, I documented all my time both with and away from the student. For instance, I received credit for being there even if they couldn't locate my student.

You need to keep in touch with your instructor and make sure he understands what is going on. As difficult as it may be, you must be proactive and make follow-up contact with the place you've chosen. If you can't get anywhere with them, meet with your instructor to discuss other opportunities. Document everything and don't put the phone calls, e-mails, and such off.

If you're in high school, discuss it with your teacher then perhaps your guidance counselor. At that point, if it's still not working out it's time to involve the parental units (assuming they weren't involved before).