Adventures in After School Learning Blog

-By Mike DeBritz on Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Best selling author and world class speaker Seth Godin recently published a 30,000 word manifesto designed to start a discussion on the future of education.  The idea came from one question frequently asked by his readers, “What do you think we ought to do about education?”  

His answer is a fascinating read and a theme Seth has touched on before in his other books, most notably Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?   He’s taken a different approach this time; instead of publishing a book, his manifesto is totally free and available in every conceivable electronic format to enable maximum sharing.

Click the graphic below to read or download and share …it’s interesting and written without malice.

Enjoy!

-By Mike DeBritz on Wednesday, January 19, 2011

From all indications the “Common Core Standards” movement is coming fast and furious to a school near you. I’ve heard a little about this initiative briefly at last years 21st Community Learning Centers (CCLC) Summer Institute in Washington, DC. 

States on Board

Recently a survey was released by the Center on Education Policy detailing the progress of each state in adopting the Common Core Standards.  At the time of the survey, between October and November 2010, 32 have adopted the standards.  Of these, 30 states conceded that they felt adopting the core standards would improve their chance of winning the Race to the Top funding. 

The report also went to say that most states will have until 2013 or later to implement the more complex challenges associated with the initiative. 

Preparing for the Future

Many school districts will continue to prepare students for the existing state assessments with an eye toward the new assessments associated with the core standards. 

“For now, customers will probably need materials from publishers that help students do well on existing state tests as well as helping them transition to the new assessments,” stated the Educational Publishing Blog which is the official blog of the Association of Educational Publishers. 

With school publishers starting to plan the transition to core standards, after school providers should probably follow their clue to be in a good position to support school partners and their curriculum goals.

Where Do You Stand?

To see were your state is in with the adoption of these standards; click over to the Common Core State Standards Initiative, state adoption page. 

If this area really intrigues you, consider subscribing to their newsletter because this initiative is sure to take many twists and turns on the way to being completely implemented.  Best to to be prepared.

Good luck!

-By Mike DeBritz on Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Welcome to Community Learning’s first blog post!  Wow, going first is never easy but here we go.  The title “Adventures in After School Learning” is meant to touch on the wide variety of issues and elements that encompass after school learning today.  To start out, I’ll just work from memory. My company has focused on this unique area over the last 5 years.

Recurring Themes 

I’ve attended a lot of conferences.  When you’ve got a new product (like the “Cookie Jar Case”), conferences are a great way to talk to many people all at once.

One theme I hear repeatedly, “these sessions, strands or topics at this or that conference don’t really apply to me.”  It really doesn’t matter if it’s a national conference, state or regional organization. You generally see a strong focus in after school training covering big items like administration and financial aspects of running a successful after school program.  That makes sense of course, you need funding to get to square one and if you don’t have a management team in place, how can you possible expect to run the day-to-day operations smoothly?

This may be a hold over from the infancy of after school, where everyone had to learn the rules in complying with grant requirements, reporting and other absolutes.  But after school funding, at the national level, is not new…. the larger national focus and funding started in 1998 with the advent of the 21^st Century Community Learning Centers (21^st CLCC). 

What I’m Hearing

Many times when I’m out in the field and get a chance to sit down with administrators of after school programs I like to ask, what are your top three challenges in running an after school program?

The first response is usually, “getting funded.”

And almost without fail I hear this order:

1. Getting funded
2. Staffing
3. Getting and keeping kids

I often wonder if I can observe this just talking to people, why don’t conference organizers align their training strands accordingly. It seems that many site administrators are very familiar and adept at #1, “Getting funded” because they are often in their third or fourth or fifth round of funding by now.

So maybe the focus should move or expand a little further to encompass #2 (staffing) and #3 (getting and keeping kids)? 

Time to Start Digging

This question has baffled me for some time and I think now with the inauguration of our blog, this is an excellent topic to pursue in this forum. 

I read somewhere that the best place to start something is in your own backyard.  Our company is located outside Albany, the capital of New York.  So that will be my first stop for information.

I’m guessing that our new Governor is a little tied up, so I’ll see who his new after school person is these days and get back with you. I know this will be an interesting discussion for me and I hope I can bring some items of interest to the forefront for you also.

Many of the leaders I’ve met in statewide afterschool conferences are very interested in what people need in the field and are always looking for new ways to support their efforts. So if we can help them in any way get attuned to what interests the field---all the better!

Weekly Posts

On the frequency side of postings, we are starting with weekly on Wednesdays.  I know how busy people are in the field and want to keep it manageable for everyone (this of course includes me)!   

We have a number of interesting ideas in mind including topics related to helping teachers be successful teaching after school, student centered learning and community involvement.  

So again welcome to our blog and I look forward to posting more about “Adventures in After School Learning” down the road!

-Mike