YouthLearn NewsBlog

Applications Available for AAUW Community Action Grants

"The AAUW Community Action Grants Program provides funds to individuals, AAUW branches, and AAUW state organizations as well as local community-based nonprofit organizations for innovative programs or non-degree research projects that promote education and equity for women and girls.

The program's one-year grants ($2,000 to $7,000 each over one year) provide seed money for new projects. Two-year grants ($5,000 to $10,000 each over two years) provide start-up funds for longer-term programs that address the particular needs of the community and develop girls' sense of efficacy through leadership or advocacy opportunities. Topic areas are unrestricted but should include a clearly defined activity that promotes education and equity for women and girls. Special consideration will be given to projects focused on K-12 and community college girls' and women's achievements in science, technology, engineering or math."

]]> AAUW (formerly known as the American Association of University Women), a leader in advancing education for women, annually offers fellowship and grant programs designed to help women gain greater access to educational and economic opportunities.

The AAUW Community Action Grants Program provides funds to individuals, AAUW branches, and AAUW state organizations as well as local community-based nonprofit organizations for innovative programs or non-degree research projects that promote education and equity for women and girls.

To be eligible, applicants must be women who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Nonprofit organizations must be based in the United States. Grant projects must have direct public impact, be nonpartisan, and take place within the United States or its territories.

Lights On Afterschool - October 22

"The 10th annual nationwide celebration of afterschool programs will take place October 22, 2009 in more than 7,500 communities. Join the 1 million Americans who take part in Lights On Afterschool to help call attention to the afterschool programs that keep our kids safe, inspire them to learn and help working families.

Register... for Lights On Afterschool to receive email updates and 10 free posters, and to make sure your event is promoted to the media. Use our on-line Event Planning Kit to help you build a timeline, get ideas for your event, get tips for engaging local leaders and media, and download artwork and sample materials."

]]> "The 10th annual nationwide celebration of afterschool programs will take place October 22, 2009 in more than 7,500 communities. Join the 1 million Americans who take part in Lights On Afterschool to help call attention to the afterschool programs that keep our kids safe, inspire them to learn and help working families.

I Am What I Learn Video Contest

"How can education help you fulfill your dreams? On September 8, the President challenged students like you to take advantage of your education and imagine greater possibilities in your lives. Create a video about why education is important to fulfilling your dreams and the steps you will take to make your dreams a reality." Submissions accepted through November 2.

]]> "How can education help you fulfill your dreams? On September 8, the President challenged students like you to take advantage of your education and imagine greater possibilities in your lives. Create a video about why education is important to fulfilling your dreams and the steps you will take to make your dreams a reality." Submissions accepted through November 2.

Youth Engagement in High Schools

"How can high schools be more effective in engaging their students? Why not ask the students? Researchers who have conducted multiple inquiry groups with students conclude that students are an excellent source of information about what's working and what's not in their school."

]]> "How can high schools be more effective in engaging their students? Why not ask the students? Researchers who have conducted multiple inquiry groups with students conclude that students are an excellent source of information about what's working and what's not in their school."

Time for School PBS Series

"WIDE ANGLE�s unprecedented, award-winning 12-year documentary project, Time for School, returns in 2009 with visits to seven classrooms in seven countries to offer a glimpse into the lives of seven extraordinary children who are struggling to get what nearly all American kids take for granted: a basic education. We started filming in 2002, watching as kids first entered school in Afghanistan, Benin, Brazil, India, Japan, Kenya and Romania, many despite great odds. Several years later, in 2006, we returned to film an update � and now, three years later, we travel to check in on our young teenagers who are making the precarious transition to middle school....

While each child in Time for School 3 has a unique story, taken together their lives tell an epic tale, shedding light on one of the most urgent and under-reported stories of our time."

]]> "WIDE ANGLE�s unprecedented, award-winning 12-year documentary project, Time for School, returns in 2009 with visits to seven classrooms in seven countries to offer a glimpse into the lives of seven extraordinary children who are struggling to get what nearly all American kids take for granted: a basic education. We started filming in 2002, watching as kids first entered school in Afghanistan, Benin, Brazil, India, Japan, Kenya and Romania, many despite great odds. Several years later, in 2006, we returned to film an update � and now, three years later, we travel to check in on our young teenagers who are making the precarious transition to middle school. Among the highlights: in Afghanistan we reunite with 16-year-old Shugufa, who resolutely remains in school despite the Taliban�s recent acid attacks on young women her age. �If they continue attacking schools, our country won�t progress. Without an education you can�t get anywhere,� says Shufuga, whose own education was delayed when her family lived in a refugee camp in Pakistan during years when the Taliban ruled her country. We also visit the biggest slum in Nairobi, Kenya, where 15-year-old Joab�s mother has died and his father has abandoned the family. We watch as, incredibly, Joab manages to stay at the top of his class while also raising and feeding his two younger siblings. And in the blazing desert of Rajasthan, India, we encounter Neeraj, 15, only to learn that she has been unable to realize her dream of making it to 10th grade: since our last visit her night school has closed, and she now helps support her family by grazing the livestock full-time while her brothers continue their education.

These children�s stories put a human face on the shocking fact that more than 75 million children are currently out of school; of these, two thirds are girls. One in four children in developing countries does not complete five years of basic education, and there are nearly one billion illiterate adults � one-sixth of the world�s people. WIDE ANGLE plans to continue revisiting all the children, and their peers and families, through 2015, the year they should graduate � and, not coincidentally, the U.N.�s target date for achieving universal education, a Millennium Development goal endorsed by all 191 members of the United Nations.

While each child in Time for School 3 has a unique story, taken together their lives tell an epic tale, shedding light on one of the most urgent and under-reported stories of our time."

State Farm's Youth Advisory Board Service-Learning Grants Program

"The State Farm Youth Advisory Board is a group of thirty diverse youth that helps create and oversee a State Farm-funded grantmaking initiative for student-led service learning projects in the United States as well as Alberta, New Brunswick, and Ontario, Canada.

Grants are available for projects that address the issues of environmental responsibility, natural and societal disaster preparedness, driver safety, financial education, and accessing higher education/closing the achievement gap.

All nonprofit 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organizations as well as Canadian charitable organizations, educational institutions, and governmental entities are eligible to receive grant funding. The primary applicant should be either an educator who currently teaches in a public K-12, public charter, or higher education institution; or a school-based service-learning coordinator whose primary role is to coordinate service-learning projects in a public, charter, or higher education institution. Nonprofit organizations are eligible if they are able to demonstrate how they plan to actively interact with students in public K-12 schools.

Grants will range from $25,000 to $100,000 each." Deadline is October 2.

]]> "The State Farm Youth Advisory Board is a group of thirty diverse youth that helps create and oversee a State Farm-funded grantmaking initiative for student-led service learning projects in the United States as well as Alberta, New Brunswick, and Ontario, Canada.

Grants will range from $25,000 to $100,000 each." Deadline is October 2.

Young People Invited to Submit After-School Projects for Do Something Grants

"Do Something and JCPenney have teamed up to support youth-led afterschool programs and projects across the United States.

The program partners will award ten grants of $500 each and five grand-prize grants of $1,000 each to young people who have started afterschool activities that help youth in their community.

Visit the Do Something Web site for complete program information and project posting guidelines."

]]> "Do Something and JCPenney have teamed up to support youth-led afterschool programs and projects across the United States.

The program partners will award ten grants of $500 each and five grand-prize grants of $1,000 each to young people who have started afterschool activities that help youth in their community.

Visit the Do Something Web site for complete program information and project posting guidelines."

Integrating Web 2.0 into Youth Programming

By Anthony Brunner, Peter Kirschmann, Mary Pumphrey and Oanh Vu

"If you work with youth, you know that they are interacting online. They are creating and posting content and remixing, commenting on, and mashing up content created by others. New Web 2.0 tools, which encompass sites allowing for collaborative, dynamic, user generated content, are quickly becoming ubiquitous in everyday life.

Our interest in these tools came about through reflection on our own programs and those of our peers, which include varied views and uses of Web 2.0 tools at different youth serving organizations in the Twin Cities. Many sites are using Web 2.0 tools for outreach and marketing; however, we found that many of our Americorps co-workers were utilizing Web 2.0 tools within their organizations in ways beyond general program outreach.

Contributors to this article are members of a newly emerging generation of youth workers, who have grown up with these technologies and are aware of the possibilities surrounding them. To better inform our colleagues in the field, we interviewed a few of our peers as we identify the field's unique position to integrate Web 2.0 as a critical component in the process of youth-produced media."

]]> By Anthony Brunner, Peter Kirschmann, Mary Pumphrey and Oanh Vu

"Building Blocks of Peace" Teaching Resources

"The Institute for Economics and Peace recently released the third annual Global Peace Index. The 'Building Blocks of Peace' is a downloadable lesson plan for educators offering teaching material which surrounds global peace. The materials are available free of charge at www.economicsandpeace.org.

Unlike traditional peace education materials, these modules go beyond conflict resolution to explore the broader meaning of global peace and its impact on our daily lives. By working through each module and the extensive supporting information provided, students will learn how to define peace for themselves and gain an understanding of the key factors that encourage peaceful society."

]]> "The Institute for Economics and Peace recently released the third annual Global Peace Index. The 'Building Blocks of Peace' is a downloadable lesson plan for educators offering teaching material which surrounds global peace. The materials are available free of charge at .

Unlike traditional peace education materials, these modules go beyond conflict resolution to explore the broader meaning of global peace and its impact on our daily lives. By working through each module and the extensive supporting information provided, students will learn how to define peace for themselves and gain an understanding of the key factors that encourage peaceful society."

Go Healthy Month 2009

"Each September the Alliance for a Healthier Generation's empowerME Movement engages, educates and activates kids across the nation to motivate themselves, their families, and friends to eat better and move more.

Here are a few simple ways you and youth you know can get involved and make your community a healthier place.

5 Simple Ways Adult Allies Can Encourage Youth to Get Involved:

JOIN the Movement!
ONE:
Put an empowerME web banner on your site, blog or social networking page. If your organization has a Facebook group page, newsletter or website, send your network a message about Go Healthy Month.

INSPIRE with Your Story
TWO:
Encourage youth to share their own story at empowerme2b.org.

ORGANIZE or ATTEND a Go Healthy Month Event in Your Community
THREE:
Work in partnership with youth to organize a Youth-Hosted Forum or Recess ROCKS! Event � download Playbooks for ideas and support.

FOUR:
Distribute empowerME materials at schools, community centers or events.

FIVE:
Add your local Go Healthy Month event to the empowerme2b.org event list so we can spread the news - contact us at empowerme@healthiergeneration.org to tell us the details."

See the empowerME website for ideas on how youth can get involved.

]]> "Each September the Alliance for a Healthier Generation's empowerME Movement engages, educates and activates kids across the nation to motivate themselves, their families, and friends to eat better and move more.

A nation of diverse talents or of test-takers?

"National standards will 'cause irreversible damage to an education system already suffering from No Child Left Behind,' writes Professor Yong Zhao of Michigan State University in The Detroit Free Press. No evidence shows centralized standards lead to higher achievement, he contends, and plenty indicates the opposite. 'A child who does not read or do math at the level and time point stipulated is deemed at risk, regardless of other strengths, which may actually be more valuable in future life.' This child is then put in remedial classes, and deprived of opportunities to develop her strengths 'to have a dream.' National standards also discourage innovation by forcing educators to focus exclusively on standards. As a parent and educator, Zhao writes that he wants his children 'to have an education, not preparation to take tests. I want my children to be able to have dreams even if they did not meet the state standards. I want my children's teachers to be educators, not implementers of government mandates. [President] Obama and the nation's governors should preserve the legacy of our Founding Fathers and build a nation of diverse talents and creative entrepreneurs rather than a nation of standardized test-takers.'"

]]> "National standards will 'cause irreversible damage to an education system already suffering from No Child Left Behind,' writes Professor Yong Zhao of Michigan State University in The Detroit Free Press. No evidence shows centralized standards lead to higher achievement, he contends, and plenty indicates the opposite. 'A child who does not read or do math at the level and time point stipulated is deemed at risk, regardless of other strengths, which may actually be more valuable in future life.' This child is then put in remedial classes, and deprived of opportunities to develop her strengths 'to have a dream.' National standards also discourage innovation by forcing educators to focus exclusively on standards. As a parent and educator, Zhao writes that he wants his children 'to have an education, not preparation to take tests. I want my children to be able to have dreams even if they did not meet the state standards. I want my children's teachers to be educators, not implementers of government mandates. [President] Obama and the nation's governors should preserve the legacy of our Founding Fathers and build a nation of diverse talents and creative entrepreneurs rather than a nation of standardized test-takers.'"

Media Multitaskers Pay Mental Price, Study Shows

"People who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information do not pay attention, control their memory or switch from one job to another as well as those who prefer to complete one task at a time, a group of Stanford researchers has found.

High-tech jugglers are everywhere � keeping up several e-mail and instant message conversations at once, text messaging while watching television and jumping from one website to another while plowing through homework assignments.

But after putting about 100 students through a series of three tests, the researchers realized those heavy media multitaskers are paying a big mental price.
'They're suckers for irrelevancy,' said communication Professor Clifford Nass, one of the researchers whose findings are published in the Aug. 24 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 'Everything distracts them.'

]]> "People who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information do not pay attention, control their memory or switch from one job to another as well as those who prefer to complete one task at a time, a group of Stanford researchers has found.

Having a Say: Youth and Educational Activism

"Ever since school was made compulsory for American children in the early 20th century, efforts at reform rarely included input from youth. But that is changing, as U.S. institutions are beginning to value the opinions of youth, and as youth themselves have realized their collective power through new networking media.

'Ten years ago, it was hard for young people, or adults even, to know whom to lobby, to find which elected officials, let alone to figure out how to contact them. And with all that information readily available online, I think the bar is lowering on how difficult it is to do lobbying at the same time that interest is rising among young people to do lobbying,' said Thaddeus Ferber, manager of the Youth Policy Action Center an online youth empowerment site organized by a collection of youth and advocacy organizations around the country.

Youth activism on educational issues takes many forms. It includes volunteering within the school to help staff or students. It also includes fundraising for various school projects and programs and lobbying administration officials for changes in policy or curriculum.

Other forms of activism happen outside of school. Youth write letters or launch rallies to press elected officials and administrators for changes they believe in. They also attend board meetings and city council meetings to present their cases for reform."

]]> "Ever since school was made compulsory for American children in the early 20th century, efforts at reform rarely included input from youth. But that is changing, as U.S. institutions are beginning to value the opinions of youth, and as youth themselves have realized their collective power through new networking media.

Momentum building on STEM education

"As part of the Obama administration's emphasis on bringing education into the 21st century, it comes as no surprise that policy makers have trained their focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education as a way to give more students, especially girls and minorities, stronger global skills. And with this increased focus, some education experts say momentum is building for more recognition of the 'T' and 'E' in STEM--technology and engineering, two subjects often overlooked.

In fact, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), part of the National Research Council, recently completed a report that surveys the extent and nature of efforts to teach engineering to K-12 students in the United States. The report is set to be released Sept. 8....

'One of the findings is that discussions of STEM tend to be focused on science, sometimes math, rarely both together--usually they're siloed, and the T and especially the E are really just left out of the discussion in policy, education, and classroom practice,' Pearson said."

]]> "As part of the Obama administration's emphasis on bringing education into the 21st century, it comes as no surprise that policy makers have trained their focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education as a way to give more students, especially girls and minorities, stronger global skills. And with this increased focus, some education experts say momentum is building for more recognition of the 'T' and 'E' in STEM--technology and engineering, two subjects often overlooked.

The report, 'Engineering in K-12 Education: Understanding the Status and Improving the Prospects,' defines what engineering is, because many people don't understand much about the career, and also discusses research and evidence on the impact of engineering education on areas such as improved science and math learning and improved technological literacy, said Greg Pearson, an NAE program officer and the study's leader.

Also covered in the report are what engineering concepts children are able to understand, and at what age, along with a detailed analysis of about 15 curriculum projects identified by the study team, which also examined how those different curricula treat engineering.

Film series profiles visionaries in 21st-century education

"The nonprofit Pearson Foundation hopes to start conversations and get people thinking about educational innovation with a new film series that profiles remarkable people and their accomplishments in school reform....

The film series, called 'A 21st Century Education,' highlights a dozen innovative and compelling school-reform leaders from around the world. The series was produced by the Mobile Learning Institute (MLI), a co-funded effort by Nokia and the Pearson Foundation.

MLI helps students in the United States and internationally use computers and digital-arts technologies to tell stories about themselves and their communities. The initiative also conducts professional development workshops and hosts leadership summits for school administrators."

]]> "The nonprofit Pearson Foundation hopes to start conversations and get people thinking about educational innovation with a new film series that profiles remarkable people and their accomplishments in school reform.

'We know we aren't going to change minds entirely, but we want minds to be changed a little bit,' said Stephen Brown, a contractor who manages and produces all the films created by the foundation....