Legion Child Welfare Foundation Announces Grant Applications

"The American Legion Child Welfare Foundation accepts funding proposals from nonprofit organizations for projects that meet one of the foundation’s two basic purposes: 1) to contribute to the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual welfare of children through the dissemination of knowledge about new and innovative organizations and/or their programs designed to benefit youth; and 2) to contribute to the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual welfare of children through the dissemination of knowledge already possessed by well-established organizations, to the end that such information can be more adequately used by society.

Grants must have the potential of helping American children in a large geographic area... grants have ranged from $1,500 to $70,000, and have averaged about $32,000."

Video Streaming to Enhance Lessons and Engage Students

"Recognizing the need to engage a new generation of students who are visual learners... Baltimore County Public Schools--the nation's 25th-largest school system--has installed video servers and a video-on-demand system in all of its 169 schools. Although the use of video on demand is nothing new for schools, what distinguishes Baltimore County's effort is that the district has formed teams of teachers in each school to brainstorm ways of using the videos to their fullest potential across each subject area."

PBS Media Literacy Activities

"How do you help your students succeed in a media-filled world? Do they know how media is created? Can they analyze the messages that inform, entertain, and sell to us everyday? Have they created their own media messages?...

Try out these ideas for integrating media education into the arts, reading & language arts, social studies, math, science & technology, health & fitness, and early childhood education."

Quality Time After School: What Instructors Can Do to Enhance Learning

"Funded by The William Penn Foundation, Quality Time After School identifies characteristics of after-school activities that are linked to youth engagement and learning across a rich diversity of out-of-school-time activity areas.

Drawing from surveys and interviews with more than 400 participants and instructors from five Philadelphia-based Beacon Centers, the report's findings highlight the importance of two features of high-quality activities: good group management and positive adult support of learning. Building on analyses of over 50 detailed activity observations, as well as key lessons from past research, the report also suggests a road map for program operators and policymakers to create engaging learning environments in after-school programs."

Youth Media Expert Joins YouthLearn Team

YouthLearn is thrilled to share the news that Deidre Searcy, youth media educator and expert on arts integration, has joined our team as a new Senior Associate for Curriculum and Program Development. Deidre will be working on a range of projects that help educators promote youth media making and integrate technology tools.

Youth Leadership Online Panel - from the Archives

Before blogs, there were email exchanges, sometimes organized around a particular topic, like the online panels once hosted by the America Connects Consortium at EDC. In light of the horrific events at Virginia Tech, I was compelled to look back at the Panel on Youth Leadership that I facilitated - the online dialogue commenced on September 10, 2001. Because this panel coincided with 9/11, the youth panelists were thrown into a public forum at an extraordinarily difficult time, a time just like the WireTap Blog (above) notes about today, for "mourning and reflection." It may be of interest to review the thoughts this group of teens shared at that time, and to consider how much more - dramatically more since then - young people use online spaces to come together, to talk, to explore issues, and to create media and their own messages.

WireTap Blog: Mourning and Reflection

As one of many active youth media outlets, WireTap is a prime example of how young people are using technology tools, such as Blogs, to discuss and reflect on current issues of the day. A new post on the WireTap Blog links to information sources and student responses, and addresses the tragic events at Virginia Tech: "As more details of what happened become available, WireTap is working on a series of features on the rise of youth violence on our campuses and our neighborhoods. From Blacksburg, Virginia to the streets of Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Oakland, our country loses more youth to violent deaths than any other industrialized nation."

Earth Day Toolkit

In this TechSoup Wiki, "Learn more about how you can make greener choices through your everyday technology practices and purchases - and share some tips of your own - in this toolkit, which anyone can add to." Topics covered include Eco-Friendly Office Practices, Responsible Computer Use, E-Waste and Its Impact, etc.

Using Community-Building Activities: Getting Kids to Work Together

Community builders are short activities that help break up the day. They can be used as follows:

To get kids to feel more like they are part of a community by interacting with each other,
To transition between larger activities,
To gain control or focus in a class that is starting to stray or act out.

This resource page on the YouthLearn website describes a few community builders you can try; many great ideas are available elsewhere as well. Collect them from colleagues and write them on index cards to add them to your repertoire.

New Publications on After-School Program Quality

"The William T. Grant Foundation announces two important new publications by one of its grantees, the Forum for Youth Investment.

'Measuring Youth Program Quality: A Guide to Assessment Tools' discusses and compares nine tools for assessing the quality of youth programs. This compendium will provide valuable information to practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and evaluators about the content, ease of use, and technical properties of these instruments. The report was written by Nicole Yohalem and Alicia Wilson-Ahlstrom of the Forum for Youth Investment with Sean Fischer and Marybeth Shinn of New York University... 'Building Quality Improvement Systems: Lessons from Three Emerging Efforts in the Youth-Serving Sector,' the second publication, provides three case studies from after-school networks around the country that are working to improve after-school programs. The report, written by Alicia Wilson-Ahlstrom and Nicole Yohalem, uses the case studies to illustrate important choices that must be made in any quality improvement effort."

History Channel Save Our History Grant Program

"The History Channel Save Our History Grant Program inspires youth to become the preservationists in their communities. Museums, historic sites, historical societies, preservation organizations, libraries, and archives are invited to partner with a local school or youth group and apply for funding to help preserve the history of their communities. Maximum Award: $10,000. Eligibility: 501(c)(3) history organizations. Deadline: June 1, 2007."

Youth Service Day Resources

"National and Global Youth Service Day will be held on April 20-22, 2007. It's not too late to get involved! Here are some tools.

National & Global Youth Service Day Materials
Find toolkits, tips for getting involved or getting something started locally, and curriculum guides online.

Leveling the Path to Participation: Volunteering and Civic Engagement among Youth from Disadvantaged Circumstances
... A new Corporation for National and Community Service study finds that low-income youth volunteer at a rate of 43 percent, compared to 59 percent for other youth. For all young people, volunteering brings benefits... The report recommends ways to engage young people from disadvantaged communities using schools, faith-based groups, and youth corps."

Mattel Offers Grants for Programs Serving Children in Need

"Mattel and the Mattel Children's Foundation have announced the third year of the company's Domestic Grantmaking Program. Through the program, U.S. charitable organizations that can demonstrate they directly serve children in need may be eligible for one-year grants of $5,000 to $20,000 each.... Two types of grants will be considered: 1) program-specific grants for the launch of new programs or the expansion of existing programs; and 2) core operating support." Deadline: June 15.

Kinetic City: Mission to Vearth

Looking for engaging activities and games that integrate rich content? Check out "Kinetic City: Mission to Vearth, the after-school standards-based science program in which kids complete activities in conjunction with a dynamic website. The Kinetic City Super Crew needs your kids' help to save their virtual world of Vearth from the science-distorting computer virus, Deep Delete." This program was produced by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and funded by the National Science Foundation.

Young Social Entrepreneurs Invited to Apply for YouthActionNet Awards

"The YouthActionNet Awards offer grants of $500 each to help fund the social change projects of young social entrepreneurs around the world. The awards are supported by a global youth development initiative of the International Youth Foundation and Nokia.

Each year twenty exceptional young social entrepreneurs are selected as YouthActionNet Fellows through a competitive application process. In addition to receiving a $500 grant, YouthActionNet Fellows participate in a week-long capacity building workshop in Washington, D.C.... The contest is open to all young people between the ages of 18 and 29. Applicants should be founders of existing projects/organizations or leading a project within an organization..." Deadline: May 15.

Jordan Fundamentals Announces Restructured Educational Grant Program

"The Jordan Fundamentals Grant Program was established with proceeds from the Jordan Brand, a division of Nike, Inc., to recognize outstanding teaching and instructional creativity in U.S. public schools that serve economically disadvantaged students.

As part of the program's restructuring, grants will be targeted at selected geographic areas and grade levels, and will be made at multi-tier funding levels.... Applicants must be public school teachers or paraprofessionals working with students in grades one through 12. At least 50 percent of the school's student population must be eligible for the free or reduced school lunch program."

EDC Tools and Resources to Support Afterschool

The YouthLearn team has recently joined forces with our colleagues across divisions and disciplines at Education Development Center (EDC) to better share information about ways that we as an organization are supporting afterschool. In a newly published section of the EDC website, you can check out a recent Mosaic on Afterschool Time, an EDC journal which features a roundtable conversation including YouthLearn Director Tony Streit; learn about EDC's pedagogical philosophy and our combined tools and resources; and link to EDC projects relevant to the afterschool space. Please be in touch if you have any questions about EDC’s work on behalf of the afterschool field.

Students, Parents and Teachers Speak Up on Educational Technology

"The findings of the fourth annual Speak Up survey, recently released at a Congressional briefing in Washington, D.C., collected ideas and views from more than 270,000 K-12 students and 21,000 teachers from all 50 states. For the first time, the survey also included parents, and some 15,000 parents took part... According to Justin Appel, reporting in eSchool News, the study shows that students want to learn math and science through real-world problem solving, visiting places where they can view science in action, and talking with professionals in the fields. Teachers also believe that teaching these subjects within the context of real-world problems is the most effective method, but a key challenge is that there is not enough instructional time to teach science, they say."

Looking Back and Ahead After a Decade of Upheaval in Educational Technology

"The tenth edition of Technology Counts from Education Week is now online. Technology Counts 2007 grades states on leadership in educational technology, and finds wide variation among them in the core areas of access, use, and capacity. Also included is an interactive timeline that examines key educational technology trends over the past 10 years. The use that students and educators are making of digital technology has moved in new directions. Students are taking more tests on computers. And educators are making ever-greater use of digital data on student achievement -- principally standardized-test scores, but also other student work organized in digital portfolios -- to make decisions about instruction."

Children's Art Promotes Peace

"Anissa Paulsen, RPCV Bulgaria, has produced two collections of children’s art, from Bulgaria and more recently from Indonesia. The Indonesian exhibit, entitled 'Islam Berwarna-warni!—The Many Colors of Islam,' has been shown in several museums in the San Francisco Bay area. Pdf files showing the artwork and inspiring words of the children, can be found at http://www.katw.org/pages/sitepage.cfm?id=172. See [the Global TeachNet Newsletter] for a recent interview with Anissa."