The Y4Y Insider - June 2022 |
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Summer Symposium:
Strong You, Strong Me, Strong Community
The U.S. Department of Education (the Department) is pleased to announce that registration for the Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) 2022 Summer Symposium is now open!
This three-day event provides State education agencies (SEAs) and their grantees with plenary sessions and workshops on successful strategies for implementing and managing all components of the program. It also offers an opportunity for the Department to provide important updates regarding the 21st CCLC program. The Symposium’s sessions are a combination of large-group presentations with nationally recognized speakers and smaller interactive workshops where attendees have the chance to work closely with education experts. This year’s Symposium will be held virtually on July 19-21.
Feel free to forward this link to your colleagues.
We look forward to seeing you at the 2022 Summer Symposium!
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Make Hay While the Sun Shines |
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Remember all those times during the school year when you said, “If we had more time, we could…?” Well, here it is! Summer is a great time to:
Explore Y4Y resources in each of these areas so you can make hay while the sun shines. Also, check out June’s Voices From the Field Podcast with Katherine Manley, an author and retired teacher who knows, based on her own experience, how to support resilience in students from poverty.
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Webinars
Knowing Growing Kids: Child Development in Your 21st CCLC
June 16 at 1 p.m. Eastern Time
To better serve our students, we need to understand their developmental needs. In this edition of LIVE With Y4Y! we’ll dive into child and adolescent development — a topic that aligns with our newly launched course on y4y.ed.gov. We’ll explore the theoretical foundations of child and adolescent development and how developmental theories directly apply to practice in out-of-school time. We’ll then use this information to identify instructional practices that support healthy child development and student learning.
Implementing Project-Based Learning With Y4Y
June 21 & 23, 2022, 1 – 3 p.m. Eastern Time
Student-led projects are the perfect way to tap into students' interests, develop cooperative learning skills, and make learning relevant and fun for students of all ages! Join the U.S. Department of Education's You for Youth (Y4Y) Technical Assistance Team in this two-part series as we explore how to help students craft a driving question, facilitate research, and work towards a culminating event, all while building students' knowledge and 21st century skills. No matter your knowledge or experience, you’ll hear about exciting project ideas and learn best practices for facilitating student-led experiences!
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Gathering STEAM
Powering Your STEM/STEAM Initiatives
You clicked. We listened. Y4Y’s “Gathering STEAM” is a popular resource for high-quality STEM/STEAM resources, so keep watching here for even more great links! Have you discovered one you’d like to share? Let us know!
U.S. Department of Defense
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Blog
Recycle City
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sponsors an interactive children’s website, Recycle City. Check out games, activities, and resources (including downloadable and printable goodies) for helping students become responsible citizens of planet Earth.
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
The Smithsonian is sharing great STEM learning with middle school students through its Emmy-nominated webcast series, STEM in 30. Check out the latest episode, Unexpected Careers in STEM, as well as past events like Searching for Amelia, From Hubble to Web: Observatories in Space, and At Home Astronomy: How You Can Observe the Night Sky. Did someone just find a new favorite bookmark to create?
How can astronauts communicate with each other if their communications channels go down? NASA astronauts Kayla Barron and Raja Chari demonstrate a few nonverbal signals they can use to convey messages in emergencies. See if you can guess what they’re trying to say — and be sure to watch for more great content on this channel.
PBL Simplified
Pioneering Women in Aerospace
The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum curated Pioneering Women in Aerospace, a rich online exhibit of women in history, the present, and the future of aviation and space. With hundreds or stories and artifacts, everyone will be inspired by these women of flight.
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Family Resources
Family engagement is a legislated component of 21st CCLC programs. Y4Y wants to help you build your library of national resources to better serve your families.
Are some of your high school students wanting to get a jump on college applications but don’t know where to start? Remind them to check in with their school guidance counselor. They can also check out free nonprofit college guidance resources such as Get Schooled and College Possible. Some free essay writing resources are also available from businesses, like story2 and College Essay Guy.
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Y4Y navigation offers "breadcrumbs" to help you trace your steps as you move through resources. |
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State Coordinators Corner
Post of the Month
Are you looking to share Y4Y content with your state’s grantees? Feel free to share the below Post of the Month on your social media accounts:
From child development to career readiness and everything in between, take a Y4Y online course today and share highlights with your 21st CCLC colleagues by the pool.
Partners in State Training
Feedback is probably flying in from your subgrantees on the kind of year they’ve had. You’re likely assessing your role in continuing to ensure their success at a time when uncertainty is swirling around 21st CCLC students and families.
- How can we close the learning gap that has only grown in two years?
- What does a changing economic landscape mean for students and families?
- Does social-emotional wellness need to be front and center?
- Is staff burnout and turnover threatening those crucial relationships?
- Is essential safety a concern?
As end-of-year reporting informs your strategic plan for training in the coming year, remember that Y4Y is here to offer virtual or in-person assistance on dozens of topics. Maybe you’ve got the academic piece down, or your state office is famous for its STEM initiative, but rounding out your trainings on the “softer side” of 21st CCLC programming, such as strengthening family engagement efforts, could use a little help so that you can continue to focus on academics. Or maybe the reverse is true — you’ve anticipated and enriched your trainings on setting the right program culture, but you’re unclear on how to help grantees make better academic headway. To answer the questions above, here are training topics Y4Y offers:
How can we close the learning gap that has only grown in two years? Y4Y offers trainings in:
- Citizen Science
- Continuous Education (Aligning With the School Day)
- Literacy
- Project-Based Learning
- Recruiting and Retaining High School Students
What does a changing economic landscape mean for students and families? Y4Y offers trainings in:
- Career Pathways for Students
- Civic Learning and Engagement
- Financial Literacy
Does social-emotional wellness need to be front and center? Y4Y offers trainings in:
- Stages of Child and Adolescent Development
- Creating a Positive Learning Environment
- Health and Wellness: Partnering With the School Day
- Social and Emotional Learning
- Trauma-Informed Care
Is staff burnout and turnover threatening those crucial relationships? Y4Y offers trainings in:
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An Introduction to 21st CCLC
- Family Engagement
- Organizational Culture
Is essential safety a concern? Y4Y offers trainings in:
- Digital Literacy
- Drug and Alcohol Prevention
- Including Students With Disabilities
- Safety Planning
If 21st CCLC leadership and program design is what’s needed most, Y4Y offers trainings in:
- Fiscal Management
- Human Resources
- Implementing Activities With Fidelity
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Managing Your 21st CCLC Program
- Planning for Continuous Improvement
Here’s what some recent Y4Y training attendees and state leaders are saying:
“The training was creative, fun, helpful & not overwhelming in time or content length. I really enjoyed it! Keep up the good work!”
“The whole flow, conversation, participation was relatable, reliable, and real-world.”
“Your trainings are always incredible!”
“All the resources shared were amazing! I am ready to hit the ground running to implement some of these strategies in our classroom.”
“Y4Y has GREAT information and resources as always :)”
“Always love Y4Y and this particular course [Including Students With Disabilities]. I want to ask all of our grantees to take this course for 22-23.”
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Voices From the Field
Supporting Resilience in Students From Poverty
Katherine P. Manley is a retired teacher from West Virginia with 35 years of teaching experience in grades K-12 and 12 years of experience as an adjunct professor for remedial reading and writing classes at her local community college. Mrs. Manley’s life experience of growing up in significant poverty inspired her to write Don’t Tell ’em You’re Cold: A Memoir of Poverty and Resilience and informed her practice as a profoundly compassionate and engaging educator.
Y4Y: Kathy, our team was deeply touched by the story of your early life, as told in Don’t Tell ’em You’re Cold. Your family’s resourcefulness and your own focus on education were, no doubt, central to the resilience you developed. Can you please share a little with our listeners about those formative years?
KM: Yes! Don’t Tell ’em You’re Cold is my memoir of survival of abject poverty set in the hills and coal camps of southern West Virginia. Our family faced extreme challenges and struggles with ingenuity and traditional Appalachian stoicism.
For example, although my father had one leg and one hand, he always found a way for us to survive. When I was barely six years old, I climbed through a garbage dump to help find wood for him to make a wooden peg leg. Often, I helped him gather berries and lumps of coal to sell to help feed the family. I also stood alongside of him when he begged on the streets or sold pencils in front of the dime store. When he was desperate to keep my baby brother alive, he sold our two-room shack for 30 cans of evaporated milk and moved us to another county, where we continued to struggle with poverty.
Adding to the mountain of struggles, my mother decided she couldn’t handle poverty anymore and ran away, leaving me to care for my disabled father and my siblings.
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Katherine Manley, author of Don’t Tell ’em You’re Cold, grew up in abject poverty in southern West Virginia. She is a retired award-winning educator with over 30 years’ experience who now spends her time educating students and adults about the culture of poverty.
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July 1 is ZIP Code Day. The U.S. Post Office mailed 72 million postcards in the 1960s to encourage citizens to use the five-digit code to improve mail efficiency. The “ZIP + 4” was introduced in 1983. Poll your students to see how many know their “plus four” number!
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July 12 is Paper Bag Day. Although plastic bags were introduced as a way to spare trees, paper bags turn out to be far more environmentally kind and renewable than plastic. This is a great example of the importance of flexible thinking. It’s OK to change your mind when new information is available!
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July 28 marks 90 years since the Bonus March Eviction. During the Great Depression, World War I veterans camped in Washington, DC to protest their unpaid wages and were driven out forcibly by the military. This shameful moment in history inspired Martin Luther King, Jr.’s peaceful protesting strategies and led to legislation to better ensure opportunities for veterans such as tuition and mortgage benefits. In age-appropriate conversation, explore ways that ordinary citizens can speak up against injustice.
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“In the summer, the days were long, stretching into each other. Out of school, everything was on pause and yet happening at the same time, this collection of weeks when anything was possible.”
Sarah Dessen, Along for the Ride
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Topical Tool Kit
Topical tool kits cut across Y4Y courses to provide carefully selected tools on a given topic. As June is National Safety Month, this curated tool kit focuses on an expanded meaning to include physical, social, and emotional safety.
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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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