Afterschool for All Challenge 2008

The Afterschool Alliance announces the 2008 Afterschool for All Challenge, bringing together "advocates from across the country in Washington D.C. on May 13th and 14th to help grow support for afterschool programs. This year's Afterschool for All Challenge will feature two days of activities, including a youth advocacy track, training and networking sessions, meetings with members of Congress and their aides, and a 'Breakfast of Champions' honoring congressional, state and local leaders.

This year, the Afterschool Alliance will partner with the National League of Cities and its National City Afterschool Summit for the event." See the Alliance website for news about how, recently, afterschool programs and funding have been a "hot topic in Capitol Hill," as the huge public response to President Bush's 21st CCLC budget cuts "helped convince key congressional committees to hold hearings."

Earth Day Activities

Today is Earth Day! "It’s a special day to learn about our planet and how to take care of it! Be sure to visit our Earth Day crafts, coloring pages, and activities," at the Kaboose website. Of course, hands-on learning and lessons that promote environmental awareness are topical any of the 365 days of the year. Go green!

More Time for Teens—Frequency, Intensity and Duration—In Boys & Girls Clubs

"Mounting evidence suggests that sustained participation in structured out-of-school-time activities is key to healthy development and positive outcomes for youth. Thus, strategies for promoting and maintaining youth engagement, particularly as youth gain independence during the middle and high school years, are of increasing interest to program operators and funders. P/PV explores what it takes to involve teens in positive out-of-school-time activities in a new report, More Time for Teens, written midway through a three-year longitudinal evaluation of the role Boys & Girls Clubs play in the lives of the youth they serve."

Multimodal Learning Shown to Increase Achievement

"New research indicates that multimodal learning (using many modes and strategies that cater to individual learners' needs and capacities) is more effective than traditional, unimodal learning, reports Meris Stansbury for eSchool News. According to recent research, adding visuals to verbal instruction can result in significant gains in basic or higher-order learning. In addition, it has been proven that students taking part in a well-designed combination of visuals and text learn more than students who experience only text-based learning. This poses a direct challenge for schools, as they must figure out how to leverage learning environments, teaching practices, curricula and resources that conform to what is known about the limitations and capacity of human physiology."

World of Children 2008 Founder's Award for Youth

"World of Children 2008 Founder's Award for Youth recognizes youth that are making extraordinary contributions to the lives of other children. Maximum Award: $25,000. Eligibility: Nominees must be under the age of 21 and have an existing non-profit organization in good standing that can receive grant funds if awarded. Deadline: April 30, 2008."

New Issue Brief Urges Leaders to Promote Equitable Technology Access and Innovative Applications

"The Children's Partnership released Information Technology Making a Difference in Children’s Lives: An Issue Brief for Leaders for Children. The report provides research and case studies demonstrating how digital tools and applications can improve children’s education, health, and opportunities for empoyment and civic engagement.

The report encourages groups working on children’s issues to include technology planks in their platforms and policy agendas. It also prompts children's leaders to work to ensure underserved children have equal access to digital tools and to promote the use of information and communications technology to increase the efficiency and accessibility of public programs."

Using Storyboards: A YouthLearn Guide to Thinking through Visual Storytelling

A storyboard is simply a planning device used to visually "sketch out" the actions of a story that will be told in a visual medium like animation, multimedia, a Web page or video.

Some storyboards are very simple; for example, a simple animation project, such as a flip book of a dot moving across a page, can actually be the storyboard for later creating an animated GIF on the computer. On the other extreme, storyboards for a video need to include not just the action of characters in a scene but placement of lights and camera as well. Long before you get to those sophisticated storyboards, however, you should introduce the basic storytelling concept with an activity.

Teaching with Passion: Advice for Young Educators

"For more than forty years, Jonathan Kozol has taught in, worked with, and written about America's inner city public schools. His straight talk in best-selling books such as Savage Inequalities and Amazing Grace has made him a hero of many teachers, and he fiercely opposes government policies he believes perpetuate educational inequities.... He also seized the opportunity to opine on what he considers two of the biggest problems facing public schools today: staggering attrition rates among new teachers and the rigid instructional methods many schools employ because of federal No Child Left Behind legislation. Passionate, committed educators can attack inequity, he said, and he offered his audience of nearly 1,100 teachers, mentors, school leaders, and researchers advice for building relationships, fostering creativity, and standing up for their students."

Even Without Technology Youth Media Thrives

"In the growing pantheon of youth media scholarship fine distinctions exist, but at its core, youth media is a process of engaging young people in an artistic enterprise that is based in young people's experience and exploration of the world. Young people endeavor to carve a space for real participation in the public sphere, and forge more balanced meaningful relationships with the larger community—skills necessary for successful participation in civil society.

No young person exists in isolation. Regardless of the means of transmission, youth media practitioners create an infrastructure of support, bringing layered expertise and insight to the practice of educating youth media producers."

Entertainment Software Association Foundation Funding

"Entertainment Software Association Foundation offers funding for Youth Programs (DEADLINE: April 15, 2008 ). Grants will be awarded to nonprofit organizations providing programs in personal development, health awareness, risk behavior prevention, education, and media arts to youth between the ages of 7 and 18. The foundation seeks to harness the collective power of the interactive entertainment industry to create positive social impact in America's communities. The interactive entertainment industry supports geographically diverse projects and programs that benefit American youth of all races and denominations and both genders."

Free text reader to help print-disabled students

"Students with print or reading disabilities will have a new resource to help them access thousands of books, magazines, and other texts electronically: Bookshare, a nonprofit online community, and Don Johnston Incorporated, a supplemental instruction provider, recently announced a partnership that will give print-disabled students a free text reader to access electronic books from the Bookshare.org library."

Afterschools Investments Project Offers New Resources

"Afterschool Investments, a technical assistance provider for Child Care and Development Fund grantees, among other state and local leaders, has announced four new resources to assist in afterschool programming development. In support of these efforts, Afterschool Investments released the following reports: 'Using Quality Rating Systems to Promote Quality in Afterschool Programs'; 'School-Age Children in Regulated Family Child Care Settings'; 'Building Professional Development Systems for the Afterschool Field'; and 'State Child Care Subsidy Administration Policies for School-Age Children.'"

Staples Foundation Education Programs for Disadvantaged Youth

"This fund supports programs that provide job skills and/or education for all people, with a special emphasis on disadvantaged youth. Deadline: June 16."