Archive for May, 2009
« Previous EntriesMENTOR Releases Toolkit on Mentoring Immigrant Youth
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | Saturday, May 30th, 2009
MENTOR is offering a new, free resource titled Mentoring Immigrant Youth: A Toolkit for Program Coordinators to help mentoring organizations better understand and serve America’s growing immigrant and refugee youth population.
A projected 30 percent of all U.S. children will be immigrants or children of immigrants by 2015. And, according to mentoring expert Dr. Jean Rhodes, these youth are more likely to face stress related to exclusion, poverty and separation from family. Strain is placed on the parent-child relationship during assimilation, as well - creating an important need for caring adults and mentors to advocate for and foster resiliency in this population.
Developed with funding from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the toolkit has 10 modules addressing topics such as population characteristics, an immigrant youth needs assessment, recommendations for working with these populations, defining program parameters, cultural competence tips and matching mentors with immigrant youth. The kit should be used as part of the larger How to Build a Successful Mentoring Program Using the Elements of Effective Practice.
To download this free resource, go to mentoring.org/immigrantyouth/.
This article from Oregon Campus Compact - a statewide membership organization connecting community engaged colleges and universities with resources, convening the state for collaborative work and advocating for the civic mission of higher education.
Topics: Resources for Mentor | No Comments »
Why kids drop out of school
By tbraun09 | Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
I refer back to Absenteeism as being a major contributing factor for kids dropping out of school. Based on The Silent Epidemic article that I had read there was a higher percentage of students dropping out their last year of middle school compared to the year before. Taking longer lunches and delinquent behavior were some of the factors recognized as contributing to truancy issues based on their survey. I also found it interesting to understand how poverty plays such a large role in kids dropping out of school.
A person represented in this socio-economic class may not have access to all of the needed resources to improve oneself. It was noted in the article that one who grows up in poverty has a much higher chance of living in poverty as an adult. The lack of parental support, possibly due to their own low education level also plays a major role on whether a child drops out.
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Peer Influence: The Good and the Bad
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
Peer influences, this week’s topic, can be the most powerful determinants of success or failure for adolescents. Educators, mentors and parents need to be constantly aware of the impact of other kids on the kids they work with (and sometimes, these influences are way beyond our sight). Its not always easy, but these ideas are from Emma B - former Making Connections Student and teacher, can help:
Peers influence each other all day long. I see a lot of positive influence, even in competition. Students want the attention from others, and the teachers, for doing good work. That causes them to put in more effort. I see kids wanting to be “the best” - the best reader, the best writer, or the best at math. They are trying to impress their peers. The fact that this makes them work harder is a positive in my mind.
They also influence each other positively when they keep each other from doing things that would get them in trouble. For instance, there was a great deal of stealing during our school book fair last year. There were a group of kids who influenced each other negetively by giving them the idea to steal and making it “cool”. On the other hand, there were some students who influenced their peers not to steal. They told their friends, “You don’t want to get in trouble, so you shouldn’t steal.” They did not tell on the kids who stole, but they infuenced their friends not to.
Of course, it was negative influence that made stealing from the book fair seem cool. When kids saw that other kids were stealing and getting away with it, they tried it too. That was peer influence in action. Students didn’t even need to say anything; just by doing it and not getting caught, other students were influenced to try it also.
Peer relationships affect everything in school. As teachers and mentors, we need to remember that other students have just as much, if not more, impact on students. than we (and their family members) do.
I think we realize this and use it in terms of teaching when we use cooperative group learning. But, we dont always use that in the social and emotional areas of school.
To encourage positive peer relationships, I use Tribes and cooperative learning. These help the kids learn to work together and they often end up teaching each other. The kids learn who is an expert in what area and can ask that student for help. Just by arranging the classroom so that students sit in groups, instead of isolation, fosters peer relationships.
I think that positive relationships among students begins by the example that the teachers set. When the students see that the teacher likes and respects all of the students, they follow the model and treat each other with respect. They also do not need to compete with each other for teacher attention if the teacher is already genuinely respecting and liking all the students.
Another way the teacher can promote positive peer relationships is with classroom meetings. Starting at the beginning of the year, classroom meetings help create community and let the students get to know each other. It also tells them that the classroom is a safe place for them to share their thoughts, feelings, and ideas. This can also be a way to help them stay away from negetive peer influences.
One other key is helping kids find common interests: When children are allowed to decide topics of discussion during class meetings they usually bring up any issues that they need or want to discuss.
You can also set the tone for this by differentiating instruction and letting students pick projects by interest, by topic or final product - as long as it encourages students to work with students who have like interests. This is a great way for kids to interact positively … and learn.
Topics: Peer Relationships | 1 Comment »
Responsibilities Give Kids a Sense of Meaning and Importance
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
One of the course assignments is about creating a list of jobs for kids. There are many great ideas generated here because my students, and the kids they work with, are so diverse. In addition to sharing their ideas though, students all describe the advantages of giving kids jobs.
For example:
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Describing a kid recovering from surgery, “jobs help him feel like he is participating even if he cannot do any of the games the other kids.”
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In a description of a very active kid: “Having a job gives her a purpose and makes her feel special without acting out. I give her little jobs to make her feel responsible.”
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Working with students in the garden, I … “create jobs for them to do together. I try to give a few instructions, and assign initial jobs, then step back and watch as they work together to accomplish a task. …working together to solve a problem, kids learn a transferable skill they will need in the future.”
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“It is always interesting to see the social dynamics at work when kids set upon a task, and how they modify their actions to best do the work.
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“Jobs can be exciting, and get kids moving around, getting some of that energy out in constructive ways. Kids with jobs feel like they have a responsibility which is important I think for them. This then makes them feel motivated, and gives them a feeling of wanting to please.”
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Lately, I have been reading about what it was like growing up during the Great Depression. One of the things that strike me about descriptions of these very hard times is that because families and the community depended on all their members, people felt a sense of purpose and connection. Each of them was important for the good of the whole. My students’ comments this week reinforce this idea. Give kids responsibilities; help them find ways to help others, in the classroom, at home and in the community. It makes a positive difference (in these very difficult times too) – and, as I like to say, everybody benefits.
What are the jobs that you assign in your classrooms or programs? How do you involve the kids you work with in the community, classroom and program? What jobs work? What did you like to do that made you feel important, or capable or happy?
Submit your comments below. Thanks
Topics: How to Help, Questions, Relationship Strategy | No Comments »
How to engage families in their child’s education
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | Sunday, May 17th, 2009
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This is a great topic to open up for this group. It is a question we as educators ask ourselves every day, “How do we engage our families so that they become an integral part of their child’s educational success?” We have found that regardless of culture, language barriers, socioeconomic status, having minimal/maximum or no education at all, students will not have academic success unless their families are involved in their children’s academic process. Many of our families feel like they are unable to help their children due to either one or more of the following: not finishing school themselves (sometimes the 3rd grade is the highest they have attended); unable to read the language of the books; not understanding how the work is to be completed; and /or needing to work several jobs to keep the family “afloat” and not being home to help out with class work. So how do we engage our families? Through school-to-home correspondence, teacher/parent conferences, emails/phone calls, after school activities, and in-school volunteer opportunities. We work with families to teach them on how to set up an environment in their own home that creates centers for learning. It may be just as simple as showing parents how a short break of play and snacks right after their child gets home from school, then setting up a quiet place in the home that is where all home work is completed, that sets up a routine for daily learning. For parents who work many hours and are not home to help with class work? Their children can stay after for homework club, or individual-group tutoring during their recess or lunch time during the school day. After school activities, after 5:00 p.m., that engages families and their children to the learning process. Activities such as reading nights, math nights, bingo games, etc… These activities allow teachers to engage with their student’s families to help them understand the process of working together and how that leads to academic successes. We have also made home visits in the evening to help engage families, or to make calls home later on in the evening to talk with parents personally. When students know that their parents/guardians are working closely with their teachers, students will work harder to be successful when the school and home have the same expectations of them. |
Topics: BACK TO SCHOOL, Family Involvement | 1 Comment »
Get Involved: How Parents and Community can Help Teachers and Mentors
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | Wednesday, May 13th, 2009
Teachers need all the help they can get. The other day I posted some ways that teachers can involve parents in their classrooms to enrich the environment for everyone. Today, some ideas for how parents and volunteers can help teachers and the mentors too, who work with and support their kids.
Parents and Community Volunteers Can:
· Teach what you know. Offer a workshop on personal finance, watercolor painting, organic gardening or Russian folktales. Your perspective and knowledge can enrich any lesson or project. Design a presentation, or some activities and materials around your area of expertise so that even when you have left the building, your knowledge stays behind.
· Volunteer in after-school workshops, classroom enrichment, or tutoring to small groups of interested participants
· Teach the teacher or mentor. Are you an educator, a technology professional, a therapist? In what ways can your professional skills be used to help the people who work one on one with your kids? Be creative, be willing to help. Do not push!
· Spend some money, (if you can). Sponsor a class or building membership in an organization (such as one for gifted learners.) Sponsor an Artist in the School, or provide art supplies, educational software, books (used can be great) or a subscription to a publication that either kids or teachers can use and enjoy.
· Spend your time. Assist teachers by making or locating materials they need for special (and regular) activities. Update the website, edit a parent newsletter, ask … how can I help? Ask again. Even one hour a month can make a difference.
· Connect with the community. Help busy teachers by taking the time to locate mentors for kids with special needs, resources for families, and other community people who have skills and knowledge that will enrich the classroom and fill the needs you see.
· Communicate with other parents and community members. (See update the website above). Encourage them to participate in parent groups, classroom and building activities, and to chose from the items on this list so that they too can help to enrich the school environment. Translate information, or be willing to communicate with families in whatever way is needed.
· Who do you know? Do you someone with an interesting career? Someone whose experiences would be of interest and value to kids? Is there someone who can bring music, or art, or culture into the classroom? Arrange for guest speakers. TIP: Also, ask people with special knowledge or expertise to recommend (or provide) resources, websites, books or magazines so that kids will be able to continue their learning.
· Collaborate with teachers, other parents and students to coordinate and participate in special events. You might: Invite an author for a literary evening, a story teller, direct a play, publish and distribute a collections of resources, run a Family Math or Science Night, design and plant a garden, host a dinner, organize a cultural fair.
· Show YOUR love of learning. Support what you believe in. Model the behaviors you value. Get involved.
Topics: Creating a Positive, How to Help, Things to do | 1 Comment »
Drop Out Rate
By tbraun09 | Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
Other factors contributing to a child dropping out of school would include absenteeism. This may be due to not enough family/caregiver interest in what the child is doing. The child may feel like they have too much freedom and are not being challenged enough. As a result, the child may adopt a pessimistic outlook on their future feeling too far behind in their classes to catch up with their cohort.
Safety at school as well as at home are important in a child’s educational development. Physical or mental abuse or disfunctional communication at home may prevent a child from focusing on their homework. They may even be told by a parent/caregiver that they will fail in life. The same goes at school where bullying and peer pressure from friends can distract students and keep them away from their studies; unable to realize their own potential.
Poverty is another factor. This can lead to more health problems at an earlier onset in life. More children may be born out of wedlock and, statistically, someone raised in poverty has a higher probability of living in poverty as an adult.
Topics: Drop Out Rate | No Comments »
How Teachers, Parents and Community Members Can Work Together to Enrich our Classrooms
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | Monday, May 11th, 2009
In these tough times, parents and community can help … in fact, they must help. And this is a good thing, because the benefits they can bring to our kids are limited only by time, imagination and our willingness to work together.
School/family/community collaborations can take endless forms. Here are some suggestions (suited perfectly to Lesson 6) for ways that schools and community can combine talents and energy so that everybody benefits. This is the list for teachers. Tomorrow I will post a list of ways that parents and community can get involved.
Teachers can:
· Get to know parents and community members. Interview or survey them about their interests, activities, cultural background, languages, careers, skills and accomplishments.
· Enlist parents/community members to work with kids to develop volunteer, mentor and/or community resource files or databases. Make sure to include talents, skills, occupations, etc as categories.
· Schedule regular times for ‘mini-seminars,’ demonstrations or activities run by parents or community volunteers. These can be designed to offer kids a taste of new subjects, cultures or activities. Try to include many interest areas and learning styles. Ideas include: a poetry workshop, gardening, a day of math challenges related to real life, computer graphics demonstrations, a day devoted to a language and culture, an invention convention, a day of service.
· Look to your classroom for talents and skills. Brainstorm ways to provide in-depth and/or one-on-one study opportunities for kids who demonstrate special interests (we sometimes forget that kids with special needs and risks may have intense interests too.) Consider ways in which all the talents, knowledge, resources and abilities in your classroom and community can be used to enrich all its members.
· Organize a career day. Invite parents and community members to meet with students and discuss their work, their methods, their tools, and their challenges. Of course, the more diverse the jobs and the people who do them, the more interesting the day.
· Work with parents, colleagues, after-school programs, senior centers, community volunteers etc., to establish before or after-school clubs, Saturday enrichment opportunities, language programs, computer workshops, gardening clinics, sports clinics, art studios, bands, etc.
· Encourage parents and community members to help you organize internships, mentorships, and other opportunities for students to spend time working with businesses, artisans, craftspeople or professionals, in their special interest areas. Involve parents as liaisons, transporters, supporters and networkers.
Please post you ideas and success stories here … what works for you?
Topics: Community Service, Creating a Positive, How to Help | 1 Comment »
Using Cross Cultural Communication to Improve Relationships
By Danielle Miles | Sunday, May 10th, 2009
-When I hear students use the phrase “common sense” or “it’s just good manners” (code words for the dominant group’s values and norms) I can ask them “Whose common sense?” or “Whose idea of manners?”
-Explain the concept of ethnocentrism with colorful historical examples. Then have kids share differences they’ve noticed between the way their family does things and the way other families do things. Have discussion about how we are often more comfortable with certain ways because we are more familiar with them, and tend to believe those ways are better simply because we are more familiar with them.
-Have discussions about what stereotyping is, ask the kids about their experiences being stereotyped and to try to identify what lasting effects those stereotypes had on them, their situation, the people around them, etc. Talk about the dangers of stereotyping, and the effects it has on society, opportunities, and even self-concepts.
- An EXCELLENT RESOURCE:
“Nonviolent Communication: A language of Life” By Dr. Marshall B. Rosenberg. Breaks communicating through conflict down to it’s roots and shows how we can address and find creative ways to meet our own needs and learn to hear what others are feeling and needing as well.
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Art and Culture: A Natural Connection that Builds Understanding
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | Monday, May 4th, 2009
This week students are turning their focus to Cultural Competence. What better way to learn about and appreciate the values, skills and practices of another culture than to look at the art produced by its people? So, I am reposting this blog to make it easy to find these great resources.
Art has always played an important role in shaping and recording cultural history and lifestyles. Art also plays an important role in making kids happy and comfortable in school. I know that for lots of kids, the opportunity to create art can help engage him or her in school, and open a door to learning across disciplines.
Recent visits to some schools in Portland make it clear that art is happening in the schools, but for some kids (kids like I used to be) there is never enough art in a day.
Here are some ideas for strategies that teachers and mentors (especially in after school programs) can use to stimulate interest in other cultures, while also providing opportunities for students to see and experience many forms of art.
Bring samples of art into your space. Bring objects, slides, photos, posters, fabrics. You get the idea. For example, a unit on African art might include masks, wood carvings, beadwork, jewelry, fabrics and more. Any of these can become a starting point to open a conversation about both the art, and its uses in its culture.
Talk about what you see, ask:
- What are these things used for?
- What materials are they made of? Where do these materials come from?
- Are they part of every day life or are they meant to be displayed in a museum or a temple?
Teachers may want to pose some questions as research. Invite kids to visit the library, explore books and art sites on the internet, and talk to family and community members to find out what they know about African art. Then, encourage them to share what they’ve learned - in words, or by creating a piece of art.
Mentors (and of course, teachers too) may want to take advantage of parents or other community members to take part in the conversation, and share some of their favorite art as well. :
In the course of a conversation about African art, kids may learn that in most African cultures art is used to express religious beliefs, to teach behavior, to communicate history and to proclaim an individual’s status in the community. What about art in other cultures?
RESOURCES
There are so many wonderful resources to help you bring Art and Culture into your classroom or program; you may find your biggest challenge deciding where to begin. Here are two reall good ones:
Global & Multicultural Resource Center
The centerpiece of the World Affairs Council’s statewide K-12 program is the Global & Multicultural Resource Center. Housed at Portland State University, the Center enhances international and multicultural education in both schools and the community. Our resources and programs are available to teachers, students, parents and organizations in both Oregon and SW Washington.
Be sure to check out the Culture Boxes provided by this program http://www.worldoregon.org/more/education/resources.php
“Our Culture Boxes on over 90 countries are brimming with maps, lessons, and hands-on treasures from musical instruments and traditional clothes to toys, games and easily transportable props. A typical box or set of boxes contains:
Books, lesson plans, maps, audio/video tapes, posters, CultureGrams, files, newspaper clippings, AND hands on items in the following categories: food, shelter, daily life, arts & crafts, dress, beliefs, toys & games, music & dance, language, and more…”
For more information on our Culture Boxes, Reference Library and programs, please see our website: www.worldoregon.org/more/education/index.php
Donations to the boxes from your travels are more than welcome!
Multicultural Lesson Plans
Art based lesson plans written by teachers. These are great recipes for success.
TELL US:
What do you do in your classroom or program? Share your ideas for projects and resources on this blog?
Topics: Culturally Competent, Resources for Mentor, Resources for Teacher, Things to do | 1 Comment »
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