October 2019
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Breaking the Ice With Student-Made Videos
By: Marcos Cortez
Combining the six-word memoir with a film containing six shots gives students a way to introduce themselves at the beginning of the year.

I came upon the work of Don Goble, a multimedia instructor from St. Louis, Missouri, and his Six-Word Story, Six Unique Shots project when I was struggling with how to begin a new year in a new way. Letters from students and poster board montages bored me. The feel of a glue stick gave me hives. Don’s project gave me pause. At that time, I had never made a film and my phone’s camera challenged me. However, I took a breath and ditched the traditional. The results amazed me.

Six-Word Story, Six Unique Shots is a spin on the popular six-word memoir activity. Students begin by writing a six-word memoir, typically exploring their identity. They then create a 30-second film using only the six words of the memoir and six different types of film shots.

The structure offers students an opportunity to deeply dive into their own interiority—or not. Students share stories of addiction, body image issues, and anxiety. They also create films hailing their love of coffee. The degree of vulnerability is truly up to the individual.

You don’t need to be tech savvy or possess fancy equipment to pull off this project. All you really need is a desire to do something different. I recommend detailing the schedule; I use with a 90-minute block period.

New Mental Health Resources in Philly!
Trapdoor Inc. expands the awareness of its scholars in order to change the thinking from inside to form unlimited possibilities outside.
TRAPDOOR INC. NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION
CONCENTRATION IN EXPOSURE TO NON-TRADITIONAL WAYS OF THINKING

Trapdoor Inc. is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that focuses primarily on prevention or reversal of negative habitual behaviors, that tend to lead to negative decisions with unfavorable outcomes. Trapdoor Inc. has a commitment to the youth to keep belief, love, imagination and self-worthiness alive. They believe that additional educational resources, exposure to various professionals, and committed mentor-ship they can effectively prepare and build up our youth to be equipped to face to the unforeseeable.

The Forge - The Forge is a program that focuses on our young men. Ages range from 7-17 where they meet once a week with the goal of forming a peer to peer mentoring and networking group for life. These young men are taught and shown leadership skills, why discipline and attitude matters and the power of peer discussion groups

Youth Public Speaking Academy- Toast Masters International Competent Communicator Achiever Dennis Davis and Clarence Harris leads age groups from 6-12 and 13-19 years of age In the Art of Public Speaking. In these sessions, the goal is to go through a series of speeches, involving different topics to bring about a diverse set of skills to speak effectively.

Youth Business Academy - Focuses on the strengths of our scholars to help direct them into a business sector they love and desire to be a part of. Trapdoor then, does a step by step walk then through the process of becoming a business owner and key competencies that will aid in their success.

Birth of Trapdoor Inc. - Trapdoor Inc. was established in 2016 by Mr. Dennis Davis and Clarence Harris who shared a common interest in changing the thinking of our scholars. Both, whom have the desire to protect the youth from the traps that lie in their path, and to give them the keys to the doors that lead to prosperity.

CHILDHOODSLOST FOUNDATION AN ORGANIZATION FOCUSED ON INTERVENTION AND PREVENTION FOR YOUTH
Childhoodslost Foundation is committed to using art with a purpose to inspire youth to heal and succeed.
Philadelphia PA, September 13, 2019 - Childhoodslost Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, serving the population of youth dealing with significant traumas and challenges in their childhood. Through various community engaged programming, such as instructional chess, mentorship, and most recently, informed trauma workshops. Childhoodslost Foundation mission is to reach youth by focusing on and addressing sensitive and controversial social issues that contribute to the loss of a youth's childhood.

Chess Chat – Chess Chat is a Childhoodslost Foundation signature program for youth ages 8 - 17 in the community, with an interest in learning how to play. Chess Chat serves youth all over the city and has partnered with the city agency’s for juvenile offenders.

Theater – Original stage productions written and produced by Childhoodslost, and performed by youth of all ages. A publication of all CHL productions is available free to the pubic by written request.

The Black Boy Experience - is a lived experience based workshop designed to provide formally incarcerated men with the opportunity to share their experiences through story telling and through the active engagement of participants.The workshops provide illumination for the often hidden societal and systematic gateways to mass incarceration, and to support youth to challenge systems and negative expectations via self and societal awareness and advocacy.

Childhoodslost Foundation has integrated two trauma informed workshops Royal Reflections (male specific; and coed ) and Authentic Gems (female specific) to promote and introduce mental health awareness within a holistic and therapeutic context, to youth who may be dealing with negative behaviors attributed to poor emotional health.

Childhoodslost has worked with programs servicing youth in foster care, and the most vulnerable such as the Villa, the F.I.G.H.T program and Carson Valley Children’s Aid, several other community organization, and has had maintained a supportive relationship with many city and state officials.

In February of 2017, Co- Founder Kaliek Hayes was recognized and honored with the KWY 160 Game Changers Award for his dedication and outstanding work in serving youth in the community through Childhoodslost. In the summer of 2017 Childhoodslost Foundation won the inaugural Philly Youth Festival for an ensemble of its original play Legacy.

Most recently in 2018 Kaliek was nominated for the Community Impact award from the Philly Independent film festival.

About Childhoodslost Foundation
Childhoodslost was first established in 2012 by brothers Kaliek Hayes and Stephen Gardener, as Childhoodslost Entertainment group, and then Childhoodslost Foundation in 2016. The vision for Childhoodslost Foundation is to inspire and support youth to live authentically, by recognizing their incredible strength, power, talents, ability and intelligence. Childhoodslost Foundation hope is to change the narrative for youth, help them to see their value and lead them into their purpose.

October Is National DYSLEXIA Month
Dyslexia Awareness Month was Created by The International Dyslexia Association and takes place over the entire course of October each year.

Dyslexia was first identified in German physician Oswald Berkhan in 1881 and officially named “dyslexia” by ophthalmologist Rudolph Berlin 6 years later. Berkhan discovered the existence of the developmental reading disorder later named dyslexia while studying the case of a young boy who had severe problems learning to read and write properly, despite being overall bright and intellectually and physically capable.

Since dyslexia was discovered, physicians the world over have been working on different ways to help the dyslexic manage their disorder, and a special dyslexia font has been invented to help those afflicted to read more easily. Dyslexia Awareness Month was Created by The International Dyslexia Association and takes place over the entire course of October each year.

How to Celebrate Dyslexia Awareness Month
The best way to celebrate Dyslexia Awareness Month would be to do your best to see for yourself what being dyslexic means, and just how much it can impair your abilities to do different things you usually never think twice about, like reading your favorite magazine or billboards. Many images and videos have been made to help people understand how dyslexia works, so take the time to go through some of them in order to understand the extent of dyslexic people’s hardships.

Another thing you could do is take part in the various Dyslexia Awareness events organized worldwide to help people become more aware of the disorder. These include exhibitions of art created by the dyslexic that are visual representations of how they see the world. There are also dances organized in various places that anyone wishing to support the cause may attend and encourage others to attend as well.

There are also numerous workshops you can attend that will teach you what you can do to make the lives of those with dyslexia around you a bit easier—even something as small as a bit more patience and understanding can go a long way. You will also learn how to recognize the signs that your child may be dyslexic in order to prevent him or her from experiencing the embarrassment and frustration that accompanies not being able to read properly.

Early detection of dyslexia can work miracles for a child’s self-esteem by helping the child understand he or she is not worse or less intelligent than other children, and that steps can be taken to reduce their problems at school. And if you do not have enough time to do any of these things, you can also donate a bit of money to The International Dyslexia Association, that has been working tirelessly for years to make sure dyslexic children, teens and adults don’t fall behind and miss out on all of the benefits a good education has to offer.
A Poem About DYSLEXIA

I am stupid.
Nobody would ever say
I have a talent for words
I was meant to be great.
That is wrong.
I am a failure.
Nobody could ever convince me to think that
I can make it in life.
NOW READ UP ↑↑ 😁
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MileStone Academy is looking for an educator who wants to make a difference in the lives of students who have learning differences and have not gotten the services they need to flourish in other educational settings.

Entering our 5th year MileStone Academy, we are looking for an educator who has worked with high-school students and believes that all students can learn in the right environment and support.

This position is perfect for an educator who has recently retired or continuing their education and is looking to stay engaged. MileStone Academy is in Jenkintown PA will start the school year with 20 students from 9th -12 grade.

If you are looking for a position where you can be creative, innovative and positively impact the lives of young people this is the job for you.