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Being A Change Agent
In the world of after-school you have an opportunity every day to change the life of a young person. You can do that while applying the 3 R’s of after-school: Relationships, Relevance, and Rigor. You can do this in a variety of ways—all of which sound easy but require that you are thoughtful and intentional. …
Read MoreWhy e-Learning
e-Learning is the broad term describing the learning done while on a computer that is usually connected to a network. This type of learning has several advantages, (check out Eric Dent, University of Maryland Top 10 Reasons for Online Learning), perhaps the biggest is that you can connect anytime, anywhere that you have a signal…
Read MoreThe Outdoor Club
One of the intelligences identified by Howard Gardner is that of the naturalist. Multiple intelligences research has been able to identify connections made in the brain based on the reception of certain stimuli. As different parts of the brain are stimulated, they “light up” because of the activity that is happening in that place in…
Read MoreBook Review: The Tipping Point—Malcolm Gladwell
I first read the book Tipping Point when it was published in 2000. It was interesting reading and I applied it to my current situation as an administrator for an after-school program in a school district. The premise is that things need to reach a critical mass, and at that moment, the shift begins. I…
Read MoreHaving A Successful Poetry Club
There are several things that you can do to have a successful poetry club on Fridays or as a club offering in middle or high school. This genre has a variety of different forms and although we sometimes act if poetry is squishy and mushy, we can find some great examples of poetry used in…
Read MoreEquity and Access
Equity and access—two words that are often seen together in reading about diversity, but what do these words really mean. Do they mean that everybody has to be treated exactly the same and that square pegs must be driven into round holes? Does it mean that everybody has to do everything, even if they would…
Read MoreBook Review: Outliers, The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
Outliers, The Story of Success, is a great read by Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell takes a look at successful people and asks the questions of why. One of my favorite chapters is number 2, “10,000 Hours “In Hamburg we had to play for eight hours.” In this chapter Gladwell gives example after example of the overnight…
Read MoreDeveloping Capable Young People—The Skills Needed—The Work of Stephen Glenn
Taking a look at the second part of Glenn’s work, he identifies four skills that youth need to acquire to be successful in life. He identifies these as intrapersonal skills, interpersonal skills, system skills, and judgment skills. The importance of developing intrapersonal skill—liking and respecting yourself and having the ability to strengthen positive self-control and…
Read MoreDeveloping Capable Young People—The Three Perceptions—Work of Stephen Glenn
H. Stephen Glenn’s course, Developing Capable Young People, can be found on the website, http://www.capabilitiesinc.com/ , and when I look at the drawings of kids across the top, I so remember those childlike pictures. The lead on the website reads, “This powerful training program developed by H. Stephen Glenn prepares adults who work with young…
Read MoreDeveloping Capable Young People—The Work of Stephen Glenn
It’s been over ten years ago that I had the opportunity to participate in a life-changing workshop entitled Developing Capable Young People. [1] I read the description of the course in County Office of Education pamphlet and thought it sounded exactly like training that I needed as we started out after-school program. I was interested…
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