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Loyola students present service projects on homelessness, sick children and food drives
Summary
Students and teachers from Loyola Elementary presented two months of deeper-learning, student-led service projects — including a food drive, awareness campaigns and TED-style talks — and described classroom practices used to design and assess the work.
Kelly Raffney, principal of Loyola, told the Los Altos School District Board of Trustees that Loyola teachers framed student work around deeper-learning moves and a single driving question: “How can we help our community?” Raffney described a two-month process in which students surveyed peers, chose service topics, created action plans, carried out projects and practiced public speaking for a TED-style culmination event.
Teachers Maria Bridal and Heather Rubenstein and classroom teams grouped students by interest and supported them through design, critique and revision, Raffney said. Projects included a student-organized food drive (the presenters reported collecting about 61 items for donation to Second Harvest), classroom presentations to raise awareness, student-built websites and fundraising events. The class also practiced presentation skills in class-level “TED Talk” rehearsals before a schoolwide conference with families.
Student presenters described their work. One student said, “Our topic is called helping the homeless. It’s a really important topic because people are starving to death all around the world,” and urged peers to donate or volunteer. Other student teams presented projects focused on supporting sick children and on raising awareness of pediatric illnesses; presenters referenced Make-A-Wish and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital as organizations they studied and supported.
Teachers said the project emphasized student voice, responsibility and peer feedback. Raffney and classroom staff credited cross-classroom collaboration and early peer critique with expanding students’ ideas and strengthening project plans. Board members praised the presentations; one called the student TED-style talks “some of the best” they had heard.
The Loyola presenters said they will reflect on the project’s next steps and whether similar student-led service work will be offered in the same form next year, noting the teachers intend to retain the deeper-learning approach while adapting to the interests of future classes.
