The Y4Y Insider - July 2021 |
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Life isn’t as simple as old or new, keep or discard, but keeping these themes in mind as you plan for the new school year might be a good idea. Funny how some things take extra effort to hold onto, while others are hard to let go of. You might start by ditching “learning loss” – not the idea that your program has some work to do to help with students’ academic recovery; rather, ditch your focus on the negative and home in on the positives, like new flexibility and resilience, that can help you get the work done! Make no mistake about inclusion: It’s all about addition. When it’s done right, you won’t be subtracting anything from your program. Health and wellness demand your tightest grip, and mindfulness may be the key to the health recovery of your students. But when it comes to managing your excellent staff, just remember how empowered they’ll feel when you strike the right balance between support and accountability.
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See You at the Virtual Summer Symposium |
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Sign up today for the Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learning Centers Grant Program 2021 Summer Symposium! Y4Y hopes to see you at these virtual sessions:
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Practices and Procedures for Including Students With Disabilities, Tuesday, July 20, 12:30 - 1:45 p.m. ET
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Creating a Positive Afterschool Learning Environment, Wednesday, July 21, 11:15 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. ET
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Health and Wellness With Y4Y, Thursday, July 22, 11:30 a.m. - 12:45 p.m. ET
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SEA Coordinators: You for Youth (Y4Y) Needs Your Input!, Thursday, July 22, 1:20 - 2:35 p.m. ET
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Webinars
August 10, 11, 17 and 18, 1-2:30 p.m. ET
Calling all new 21st CCLC leaders or anyone seeking a refresher on successful program elements! In this four-part series, the U.S. Department of Education's Y4Y Technical Assistance Team will share a logical process for structuring your program from the ground up. We’ll start by examining the purpose and goals of the 21st CCLC initiative. Next, we’ll show how leaders should use their grant application to inform program design and explore strategies and resources for intentionally designing activities. We’ll wrap up the series with hiring and onboarding staff. Participants will have opportunities throughout to interact with facilitators in real time to ask their most burning questions and share their own successful strategies with the class.
LIVE With Y4Y!
Tutoring and Homework Time
September 9, 1-2:30 p.m. ET
It’s all about academic support in this edition of LIVE With Y4Y! Join the U.S. Department of Education’s Y4Y Technical Assistance Team to dive deep into tutoring and homework time. We’ll build your understanding of the differences between supports, and how best to leverage each session’s strength and purpose to achieve your academic program goals. Additionally, you will hear real examples and best practices from the field. After this session, you’ll be ready to make homework and tutoring time in your 21st CCLC program more effective and engaging. The new school year is a great time for a refresh of program structure and we’re here to help!
Do you have questions about Y4Y webinar registration, sign-in, participation or certificates? Send your queries to this email address for the quickest response: Y4YWebinars@seiservices.com.
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Gathering STEAM
Powering Your STEM/STEAM Initiatives
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Funding Opportunity
NASA is seeking proposals from U.S. nonprofit science museums, planetariums, youth-serving organizations and libraries interested in offering inquiry- or experiential-based opportunities that include NASA education and research. New amendments have been posted. Application deadline is July 19.
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NASA STEM: Explore the Sun’s Energy and Sun Protection, July 20, 4:30 – 5:30 p.m. ET
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NASA STEM: The Unseen and Extreme World of Microbes, July 22, 4:30 – 5:30 p.m. ET
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Explore Space Tech: Flying Green With GPIM Using the Engineering Design Process, July 27, 4:30 – 5:30 p.m. ET
Celebrating Watersheds and Wildlife: Bringing Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences to Youth Creatively During COVID-19
The North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) has published its June Watershed Chronicles, highlighting a Florida program’s virtual learning efforts.
Join the Mission to Mars Challenge
Learn directly from Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists and engineers discussing their STEM careers during these live webinars:
National Summer Learning & Enrichment Collaborative
The Summer Learning & Enrichment Collaborative serves as a professional learning community to help states use more than $1.2 billion of the American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding to build evidence-based summer programs, including STEM-based programs. Catch recorded previous sessions and register for upcoming sessions slated for July 22 and August 12, 3 – 5 p.m. ET.
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Archived Webinars
Please note: A certificate of attendance is available only to those who participate in the live events. Certificates will not be issued to those who view the recordings.
Expand your offerings, increase adult-to-student ratios, increase student access to experts and more by bringing volunteers into your program. No matter your geographic location, catch the recording of Y4Y’s series on how to maximize the power of volunteers in your program.
This archived LIVE With Y4Y webinar highlights the great work out-of-school time programs have achieved through partnerships with state agencies and community organizations. With the University of Michigan’s Pollinator Initiative, 21st CCLC programs are delivering citizen science activities across the state for incredible STEM enrichment.
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Tech Tip
The Tools tab is an often overlooked resource on the Y4Y site. Sure, you’ve probably clicked on “All Tools” to search by course, but don’t forget to check out the Best Practice Kits and the Y4Y Tool Starter Set, for example, when you’re looking for more resources for your program.
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State Coordinators Corner
How will you advise grantees to make the most of the Summer Symposium? Here are some thoughts from Y4Y.
Plan ahead. Read up on all the sessions so you can map out your days and not feel pressured during the event.
Divide and conquer. SEAs and grantees can take in more information, then plan internal events around sharing what each representative learned in their respective session. The benefit of this practice is that it prompts discussion with colleagues who know your particular state/region/program and how a given topic is likely to impact it.
Set your own priorities. No matter how hot a topic is, it may or may not be something requiring particular focus in your region or program.
There’s always the recording. Barring any technical difficulties, all sessions will be recorded and posted to Y4Y once captioning is complete. Even recordings can be split up between colleagues to share out in a group setting to promote discussions.
It bears noting that recently Secretary Cardona proposed the Department’s priorities for the coming year:
- Addressing the Impact of COVID-19 on Students, Educators, and Faculty.
- Promoting Equity in Student Access to Educational Resources, Opportunities, and Welcoming Environments.
- Supporting a Diverse Educator Workforce and Professional Growth to Strengthen Student Learning.
- Meeting Student Social, Emotional, and Academic Needs.
- Increasing Postsecondary Education Access, Affordability, Completion, and Post-Enrollment Success.
- Strengthening Cross-Agency Coordination and Community Engagement to Advance Systemic Change.
These track closely with the Symposium strands:
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Learning Recovery Through 21st CCLC. Remote schooling and uncertain schedules are causing students to fall behind grade level. Learn about ways to help students and families reverse the COVID slide.
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Engaging Families and Partners in 21st CCLC Programs. Presenters from across the nation share ways to assess the needs of families, map assets to provide support, and design a program that engages families and community partners.
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Career Pathways. Prepare students for postsecondary success by developing their employability skills and providing career awareness, exploration and planning opportunities. Learn how!
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The Fundamentals of Flexibility – The Wide World of Creative Thinking. Who says science and creativity don’t mix? Strategies like STEAM (science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics), design thinking, enrichment labs and technology integration can prepare students for jobs that require creative thinking.
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Building Equity and Unity. Do you want your program to be part of a strong support system for students with fewer resources and opportunities than their more affluent peers? Are you looking for ways to empower students to address social and civic divisions? This strand is for you.
SEAs, we want to hear from you! Please plan to join Y4Y’s listening sessions on Thursday, July 22, at 1:20 p.m. or 2:35 p.m. ET. Help Y4Y be the best resource it can be to your state by sharing your greatest needs and best ideas about future professional training content.
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Voices From the Field
Using Community Partnerships to Deliver Engaging STEAM Learning and Career Pathways Support
Y4Y recently had a great conversation with Simone Miranda, Community Learning Center Project Manager for the Schenectady City School District (SCSD) in New York, where she manages the 21st Century Program. The district’s one high school, all three middle schools and one of its 11 elementary buildings are involved in their 21st CCLC program. Schenectady exceeded its target enrollment of 750 for the 2019-20 school year, reaching an unprecedented 900 students because of the flexibility that remote learning allowed. Ms. Miranda was kind enough to chat with us about the amazing community partnerships that allow their program to deliver incredible STEAM learning and career pathways support.
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Simone Miranda is the Community Learning Center Project Manager at Schenectady City School District (SCSD), where she manages the 21st Century Program. Ms. Miranda began working for SCSD more than seven years ago and enjoys working with the diverse students and families in the district. She oversees programs in five school buildings/sites that serve grade levels 3-12 for afterschool and summer programs. Her passion is helping students develop their social and intellectual skills so they are able to transition into adulthood and the workforce.
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Aug. 4 marks the 120th birthday of jazz great Louis Armstrong. Take a virtual trip to the museum in his honor, listen to his most recognized tunes, or talk about innovation and how jazz was born in the U.S., thanks to Mr. Armstrong and others like him. Coincidentally, it’s the 60th birthday of former President Barack Obama.
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Aug. 7 is National Sandcastle Day. Not everyone is lucky enough to live where they can let a handful of sand slip through their fingers, but this activity with nano sand from the National Informal STEM Education Network makes a nice alternative.
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Aug. 14 is National Garage Sale Day. What a great opportunity to explore the themes of reflecting on what we have and what we really need, reusing and good ol’ community commerce.
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Aug. 31 is We Love a Memoir Day. What’s the difference between an autobiography and a memoir? This is a great topic to research in your program. Then choose a memoir to read together!
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Wisdom on the benefits of being well-rounded, from late author, Kurt Vonnegut:
“When I was 15, I spent a month working on an archeological dig. I was talking to one of the archeologists one day during our lunch break and he asked those kinds of ‘getting to know you’ questions you ask young people: Do you play sports? What’s your favorite subject? And I told him, no I don’t play any sports. I do theater, I’m in choir, I play the violin and piano, I used to take art classes.
“And he went wow. That’s amazing! And I said, ‘Oh no, but I’m not any good at any of them.’
“And he said something then that I will never forget and which absolutely blew my mind because no one had ever said anything like it to me before: ‘I don’t think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you’ve got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them.’
“And that honestly changed my life. Because I went from a failure, someone who hadn’t been talented enough at anything to excel, to someone who did things because I enjoyed them. I had been raised in such an achievement-oriented environment, so inundated with the myth of Talent, that I thought it was only worth doing things if you could ‘win’ at them.”
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It’s that time of year! If you never use another Y4Y tool, the Project/Program Planner is by far the most fundamental. Download it today!
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Disclaimer: This newsletter may contain links to information created and maintained by other public and private organizations. These links and pointers are provided for the user’s convenience. The U.S. Department of Education does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness or completeness of this outside information. Further, the inclusion of links or pointers to particular items is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse any views expressed, donation solicitations or products or services offered, on these outside sites, nor any organizations sponsoring the sites, whether financially or by website hosting.
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