Now Open for Registration!   

Childhood Conversations
8th Annual Conference

Interactive Literacy and Music
Afternoon Keynote: Michael Levine
Co-founder of The Learning Groove (TLG), and music
producer of the first four New York Times bestselling
“Pete The Cat” books by Eric Litwin and James Dean

Friday, March 28 &
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Hartford/Windsor Marriott, Windsor


Learn more at www.childhoodconversations.com

Rethinking the Traditional School Day

Michelle (my boss) asked who would like to contribute to a blog on community schools. She provided some educational links and suggestions. I took this as a learning opportunity and volunteered. Suddenly I was reading about Expanded Learning Opportunities (ELOs) and Community Schools. Imagine that, ELOs are in businesses also! Our productivity is garnered no differently than our children’s are. Learning is lifelong and is accomplished when the community, businesses, schools, and government start understanding that we are all in the same life boat. We don’t succeed unless all of us do.

The world HAS changed since I was in grade school and yet many schools still teach the same way they did when I was 6 years old. How sad is that? Meanwhile the educational gap increases between what is left of the middle class children and children born into poverty (see links provided below).

I work with a group of well-educated and experienced people who are chomping at the bit to get going but they know that it takes slow and steady to create change, it doesn’t happen overnight. Reading through the Baltimore case study in the below links showed some of the strategies that devoted groups have to go through to get a program up and running. These are typical: transparent governance, the full enlistment of public sector partners, sustaining and growing available funding to reach scale, deepening the quality of available programs, successfully reaching and engaging older youth, and capturing and expressing a fuller range of anticipated youth outcomes. This is building the community school and ELO infrastructure.

When you prepare properly with the combined assistance of engaged community partners you are able to offer learning opportunities that were not as fully available as before. When parents see that they too can have opportunities to learn and engage with their children, it benefits everyone in society. We have programs here in Connecticut such as New Haven’s Community Schools BOOST! program and Hartford’s Community Schools that expand learning opportunities into the weekends for families and students. This is a good start.

There are many positive studies available. The Coalition of Community Schools has published a new report on Community Schools and Expanded Learning Opportunities at their website. You can download a copy and check out their blogs and case studies. As always if any of us at the Network can assist you please let us know.

The Growing Convergence of Community Schools and Expanded Learning Opportunities
http://www.communityschools.org/elo/

The After-School Needs and Resources of a Low-Income Urban Community: Surveying Youth and Parents for Community Change - email me for this document at rdugas@ctafterschoolnetwork.org

Director's Seminar Series 2014

Coming this January and March .......

Allowing yourself to Lead:  Voices from the Field

Date: January 24, 2014
Time: 10:00 - 12:00 p.m.
Location: Middletown, CT
Panelists:Michele Rulnick, CEO Northern Middlesex YMCA; Tracey Lay, Director, School Age Programs & Development Services, EDUCATION CONNECTION; Carol James, Childcare Director, West Haven Community House

The field of after school is rapidly changing as the academic, social, and emotional well-being of children and youth has become central in the education and health sectors. Adaptive leadership is a core competency Directors and Site Supervisors need in order for your program to thrive and contribute to these conversations at the local level. This interactive panel session will feature leaders from the field that have seen change and professionalization of the field over time. They will share examples of their leadership journey in the field of after school and expanded learning and how they have adapted to changing programmatic demands, rose to challenges, and were able to see failures as opportunities

For registration information, click here.

Stress Management and Improving Relationships


Date: March 28, 2014
Time: 9:00 - 1:15 p.m.
Location: Windsor, CT
Presenter: Michele Stewart Copes, MS, M.S.W. Consultant for The Connecticut After School Network


Morning Workshop: Stress Management and Improving Relationships In this workshop participants will learn to identify common signs of stress in themselves, co-workers and family members. They will become familiar with the causes of stress and learn skills and strategies to reduce personal stress and be better able to help others and themselves navigate the needed relationships that create low-turnover, high-quality after school and expanded learning programs. This process will prompt a dialogue and a brainstorm of options to be able to improve relationships that may be impacted by stress.

Followed by Lunch Seminar: Strengths-Based Planning This lunch seminar will discuss the use of the Holistic Strengths Model to conduct strengths based planning for youth and their families. Participants will learn how to utilize the Theory of Change for a continuous quality improvement process and will develop awareness and skills in the following areas:

• Identification of Strengths, Needs and Culture.
• The Development of a Strengths, Needs & Culture Discovery within the Wraparound Process.
• Reframing Problems & Challenges into Needs.
• Basic Steps in Developing a Strengths Based Plan
• The Eight Youth Developmental Needs

For registration information, click here.

Afterschool is a REAL Solution Linked to Closing the Achievement Gap

We recently received a box of printed materials that excited Michelle and Ken.  Inside the box were copies of an unpublished research study by Deborah Vandell.  What she found was that when children attend quality after school programs consistently there is NO gap between low income and high income children's math achievement. No wonder they were excited; proof positive for what they have devoted themselves to.

I did a little research on Deborah Vandell and found her a well published, passionate researcher on after school studies.  I look forward to reading some of the studies I found online.  If you are interested in what was in the box we received you can find a .pdf at this link:

http://www.statewideafterschoolnetworks.net/system/files/resources1/The%20Achievement%20Gap%20is%20Real_0.pdf

If you have any problems drop me a line and I can forward it to you.

A commencement speech that warms your heart and tickles your mind...

Philosopher Judith Butler on the Value of Reading & the Humanities: McGill University (Montreal) Commencement Address

Linda Chave from the Child Guidance Center of Mid-Fairfield County sent me this link on a 6 minute speech that will make you shiver.  She talks about learning, empathy, and critical thinking.  Her words are eloquent and thoughtful.  This is one speech you will remember.  Take 6 minutes to hear it through.

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/06/07/judith-butler-mcgill-2013-commencement-address/

 Here's a hint of one small part of the speech:

"You will need all of those skills to move forward, affirming this earth, our ethical obligations to live among those who are invariably different from ourselves, to demand recognition for our histories and our struggles at the same time that we lend that to others, to live our passions without causing harm to others, and to know the difference between raw prejudice and distortion, and sound critical judgment.

The first step towards nonviolence, which is surely an absolute obligation we all bear, is to begin to think critically, and to ask others to do the same."

 

 

Bus Transportation to NAA in New York 2014

You CAN send your employees to the
National AfterSchool Association Annual Convention in New York!

Farmington Extended Care & Learning is sponsoring bus transportation for participants attending the National After School 2014 Convention in New York City February 27 – March 3, 2014.

There will be motorcoach shuttle bus service to/from Connecticut to the National AfterSchool Association 2014 Convention to be held at the New York Hilton Midtown, 1335 Avenue of the Americas in New York City starting on Thursday, February 27, 2014 - Monday, March 3, 2014.

Register for one way or round trip on the same or different days. Cost one way is $25; round trip is $50.

Bus pick up/drop off locations are Manchester, Farmington Town Hall, Education Connection (Litchfield), New Britain and Newtown. For bus routes and times please click here.

For more details and to register online visit our website at www.fpsct.org/fce or call 860.404.0112

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Connecticut After School Network
12 Melrose Avenue, Branford, CT 06405 

phone: 203-483-9757 fax: 203-481-7160 email: info@ctafterschoolnetwork.org
Visit our Web site at: www.ctafterschoolnetwork.org