Recommended Resources
« Previous EntriesSolutions to the Dropout Crisis radio webcast Tuesday, June 16
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | Tuesday, June 9th, 2009
Solutions to the Dropout Crisis radio webcast, to be broadcast live on Tuesday, June 16, at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. (12:30 PDT)
Mentoring is one of the most effective and certainly the most economical dropout prevention strategies. But in order to have positive effects, mentoring needs to incorporate the right elements, i.e., The Elements of Effective Practice.
Kate Schineller, VP of MENTOR, will present a full program about mentoring, including who needs mentors; what the research says; and program design and planning. She will then introduce listeners to a successful mentoring program for children of prisoners, the Caregiver’s Choice Project, a demonstration project of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and administrated by her organization, MENTOR.
Materials including the slide show/PowerPoint are available online now! On the day of the broadcast, go to http://www.dropoutprevention.org/webcast and select this program. You may participate live and call in questions of our guest. If you are unable to join us on the 16th, listen to the archived version or subscribe to our program on Itunes.
Any questions, contact ndpc@clemson.edu.
Topics: Dropouts, Recommended Resources, Resources for Mentor, Upcoming Events | No Comments »
Boys Advocacy and Mentoring: A day of training for people who work with boys
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
I have written several times in this blog about the special challenges of educating and working with boys.
This workshop, offered by Lewis and Clark College, is quuite relevant to the work that so many of you are doing these days, so, though it is through another school, I felt it was well worth listing here. If you attend, please share what you learned.
Also, be sure to visit the website for ideas, resources and more information.
Helping Boys Connect Through Physical Challenge and Strategic Storytelling
Friday, June 26, 2009
9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Lewis & Clark
Albany Quadrangle - Smith Hall
How can we see boys as something other than as problems? How can we effectively help boys resolve the difficulties they face? This workshop will challenge you to see boys in new ways and provide you with the means to mentor young men to be more interpersonally engaged. Participants will learn about the research that underlies the BAM! approach as well as practice the adventure based activities and strategic storytelling methods used in BAM! groups.
Having worked independently for many years as advocates for boys, three Portland professionals teamed up to support boys and the adults who care about them. Peter Mortola, professor at Lewis & Clark and school psychologist; Howard Hiton, professional counselor in private practice; and Stephen Grant, social worker and school counselor, share a passion for boy’s issues. The result of their collaboration is a curriculum entitled BAM! Boys Advocacy and Mentoring, A Guidebook for Leading Strength-Based Boys Groups. (Routledge, 2008) BAM! groups encourage school-aged boys to accept broader perspectives on what it means to be male and helps them build the relational skills they need to become healthy men.
This workshop will give participants all that they need to effectively lead a BAM! group as well as ideas and strategies for working with boys in educational and counseling contexts.
This day of training is for:
- counselors,
- parents,
- mentors,
- coaches, and
- others who want to gain insights and skills for working with boys.
Instructors: Peter Mortola, Howard Hiton and Stephen Grant
Noncredit or PDU/CEU: 7 hours, $195
Optional continuing education credit: CEED 866, .5 semester hour, $235 Cost includes a copy of the BAM! Guidebook and lunch.
For more information on BAM!, refer to the BAM! website.
Team discount: $180 per person for three or more individuals registering at the same time for non-credit/PDU/CEU only. All registrations must be received together.
Registration Information
For more registration information
Topics: Boy Friendly Schools, Recommended Resources | No Comments »
Engaging the Whole Child: Free eBook available NOW
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | Thursday, April 30th, 2009
“Do students really want to learn? Can schools and classrooms become joyful? Are there natural links between standard curriculum and what motivates students to learn? Explore these and other questions in this e-book collection of articles from Educational Leadership by renowned authors such as Carol Ann Tomlinson, Richard Sagor, Nel Noddings, Thomas R. Guskey, and Allison Zmuda.”
For the last several years the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ACSD) has led a national call to awareness and action.
Blogger Adam Fletcher http://www.bicyclingfish.com/ , who writes about “youth development and engagement, as well as the roles of young people throughout society,” is introducing “an awesome new publication” available FREE for a limited time.
Engaging the Whole Child is the first in a series of Whole Child ebooks from ASCD. According to a recent phone meeting, Fletcher had with ASCD, it’s a limited-time only offering good from April 15 to May 6.
The publication gives “educators and administrators, community workers and parents practical tools designed to engaged the whole community in a whole conversation about young people throughout society.”
Fletcher points out that “this is a huge file, and registering to receive it is a little cumbersome - but its worth it.
Download it here free, let me know what you think, and share this link with your friends. Remember to do it now, because the link is only good until May 6.
Topics: RESOURCES, Recommended Resources, Recommended reading | No Comments »
Great Resource Guide for Multnomah County
By Danielle Miles | Friday, April 24th, 2009
The best compilation of resources our team of 12 Social Workers & Skills Trainers could find…
Resource Guide (everything from food to counseling) for Mid and East Multnomah County (East Portland, Gresham, Fairview, Troutdale, etc)
“Where to Turn” 2008-2009, put out by Mt Hood Community College
http://www.mhcc.edu/docs/docsHeadStart/WheretoTurn.pdf
Topics: RESOURCES, Recommended Resources, Resources for Mentor, Resources for Teacher | No Comments »
Save the Date REMINDER: National Association for Multicultural Education Conference
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | Tuesday, March 10th, 2009
There is still time to register for The 2009 Oregon Chapter of NAME (National Association for Multicultural Education) Conference on May 1, 2009, at Western Oregon University in Monmouth.
For those who are not familiar with this wonderful resource for information AND inspiration, this organization describes itself as Advocates for Educational Equity and Social Justice.
The title of this year’s conference is Lies & Truths in Our History: Teaching What Happened — And What We Can Do About It Now. The conference will feature James Loewen as Keynoter, author of Lies My Teacher Told Me and Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism.
Concurrent sessions throughout the day will focus on what works in preK-20 classrooms and the community. I attended last year’s conference. It was a full day opportunity to learn from people who are passionate about their work with kids and schools, about how to enrich our relationships, and strengthen our communities. In addition, the resources I collected have greatly enhanced my library. Many of the handouts and lots of great information from last year’s conference is available on their website at http://oregonname.org/2008handouts.htm
This conference is also an opportunity to share what YOU know, and what works in your classroom, program or community. A request for proposals will be forthcoming, and will also be posted on the website: http://oregonname.org.
“We are especially interested in proposals from educators that work with diverse populations who would like to showcase their successful strategies.”
Topics: Recommended Resources, Things to do, Upcoming Events | No Comments »
Recommended Resource: Student Engagement
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | Monday, February 9th, 2009
Thank you to KL (a current student) for this recommendation:
“I am a psychology major and enjoy using this class as another tool to learn more about human behavior. As part of Lesson 4 I read “Engaging Youth in School.” These are some of the key points:
1. A student’s engagement in school was found to be correlated with a student’s behavior and achievement in school. Their engagement is based on their belief s about how good they are in school, their values and goals, and their social connection to the school. This held true with students from different backgrounds.
2.Studies show that students (depending on circumstances) become both more and more less interested in school as they grow from elementary school to high school.
3. When students have choices about the classes they take or in the way they accomplish an assignment they are more likey to do schoolwork.
This was a wonderful resource. It was very interesting to read about what works and doesn’t for trying to get kids involved in their learning.
Topics: Recommended Resources, Recommended reading, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Web Resources Can Lead to Great Learning and Fun
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | Friday, December 26th, 2008
Every semester, Making Connections students suggest resources that they use and recommend for other teachers and mentors who work with kids at risk of dropping out. Here are two great suggestions for web based tools. Each is a wonderful site on its own. Combined together, they can be the basis of an exciting, personalized learning project, These sites are perfect for teachers and/or mentors; whether you are working in a classroom, after-school program or one on one.
There are many ways to make the most of this idea (and I hope you will share yours), but one thing is for sure, providing kids with access to the ideas, information, images and inspiration linked to these sites, can lead to hours of fun and learning, for kids (and adults) of any age, and learning style.
WebQuest.org is a “great educational technology tool!” A WebQuest “is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web.”
This site contains everything you need to know to set up and work through a web-based research project, including numerous and varied resources, a forum where you can ask questions, or even post your own WebQuest ideas, and a searchable database of completed projects and examples you can adapt to your own classroom or program.
Suggestion: Create a WebQuest about jobs – the kinds of work that people do, and the skills and education they need to do their work.
The Teacher’s Guide Virtual Field Trips
There is lots of great stuff here, but my favorite part of this site is the list of Virtual Tours of Museums. This is truly a treasure trove of information, images, inspiration … for everyone. A mentoring pair can visit this site, choose a museum to visit together, and spend days exploring and discovering (the horse, the history of rock and roll, the art of Russia …)
Keep in mind that each museum presents information in different ways, so you may need to spend some time checking out what is available, but one thing is for sure, whatever the interests, background, age and attention span of ‘your’ kids, there will be something to capture their attention.
TIP: Type Virtual Tour into the search box on the museum sites to access in-depth information.
Note: On both of these sites and the sites that they link to, you will find numerous teacher, kid and family resources, lesson plans, ideas and more.
SHARE YOUR CREATIVITY - tell us how you used these sites to work with kids in your classroom or program.
Topics: Recommended Resources | No Comments »
At least one answer to the question, What Should I Do Now?
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | Friday, December 19th, 2008
When I first considered writing this recommendation for a website, I worried that it was not a good idea because not all kids have access to computers. However, after a week of snow and cold, and plenty of time to think back to my days as a parent with young snow bound kids at home, I decided that ANYTHING I can do to make the time at home more fun, less BOOOOORING, and more educational is worth the blog space. And, once the kids are back in school and once again in after school programs and mentor relationships, this site will still be worth knowing about.
PBS Kids Go is a lively and kid appropriate website filled with fun, educational and holiday things to do - for kids, with kids, about kids. Each game or activity on the site is related to PBS characters such as Arthur, Maya and Miguel, and the Cyberchase kids.
The site has really well designed things to do. In this season of cold and winter breaks away from school, after-school activities and mentor programs, (not to mention a full week of snow days so far), the games on this site are a wonderful way to keep kids involved and learning. I think many of them artfully combine learning (science, cooking, culture, mysteries, even economics) and fun. Kids can save their scores and login to continue a game they enjoy.
The site also has lots of holiday music and videos, eCards that let kids send greetings and keep in touch with friends, Speak Out (an opportunity for kids to share their ideas), resources for teachers and parents, videos in English and Spanish, TV schedules and lots more. Basically, it contains the answer to the age old question - what should I do now?
PBS Kids Go is part of PBS Kids – which offers an even broader array of activities, music, games and more, related to PBS children’s programming. This site and the related PBS Parents and PBS Teachers is definitely a resource that mentors, teachers and parents should be aware of.
Do you have any favorite resources to recommend to help kids make the most of time away from school? Tell us … use the comment feature below. Thanks
Topics: Recommended Resources, Resources for Mentor, Resources for Teacher, Things to do | No Comments »
A Taste Of Success
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008
“I don’t accept excuses about kids not learning. You can’t blame the kids … If a child does not succeed; it means the adults around him or her have failed.”
Geoffrey Canada, president and CEO of Harlem Children’s Zone, a nonprofit providing education and support programs for poor families in Harlem.
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the challenges of educating tough kids, kids from poverty, kids who don’t want to learn, and kids who seem beyond the reach of what our schools can provide. I’ve been reading a lot, and turning to the media for ideas. One of the messages that keep coming up is that to reach those kids who are hardest to connect with, we need to find ways to make what they learn meaningful; to connect their learning to their real lives and real goals. In other words, find ways to motivate kids to want to learn. All good advice, but how?
A blog is a great venue for sharing other people’s great thoughts and ideas. And this message, an essay for This I Believe, by Geoffrey Canada, on the NPR website not only contains an inspiring message, but expresses what I BELIEVE far better than I can. It is also a recipe for success (listen, you’ll see what I mean.)
PLEASE TELL US: What motivated you to stay in school? What motivates you now? Please share your thoughts, and your ideas for ways to motivate kids.
Topics: How to Help, Inspiration, Recommended Resources | 1 Comment »
At the Minority Affairs Conference
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | Tuesday, August 26th, 2008
The Minority Affairs Conference was held this year on Aug 12 and 13 at KahNeeta. This conference is an annual event for educators (mostly teachers attended this year) who work with minority students. This summer, people came from all around the state to learn from one another and be inspired by experts in the field of equity, teaching and learning and social justice. Click here to learn more, and see a video about the conference
I attended the conference, and presented there too, with Patricia Martinez, former principal and Executive Director for the Oregon Council of Hispanic Advancement (OCHA). We offered two presentations of our talk, The Third R: Strong Relationships Help Keep Kids in School and Achieving. These were a great opportunity for both Patricia and I to share stories about how building relationships can make a difference with kids at risk of dropping out of school, and ALSO with coworkers, parents and members of the community. The stories we told, and the stories shared in the workshops illustrated the power of connecting with the people in our community, and the positive difference that even something as simple as a smile can make.
If you have stories about relationships – both good and bad – and how they affected your willingness to stay in school, your desire to teach or work with kids, or your sense of yourself, please share them on this blog. Experience and research shows that, for many of us, it’s the stories that we hear and read that inspire us to work harder to help kids (and they help us to understand ourselves better too.)
During our talks, Patricia listed several resources that teachers in the classroom, and mentors who work with culturally diverse kids can use to extend their learning about how to work with kids and families from diverse cultures. These are some of the suggestions.
If you attended the conference, and/or, if you have ideas for resources (books, speakers, websites, etc.) that teachers and mentors can use to learn more about subjects such as Cultural Competence, Social Justice and How to Bring Family and Community into the Schools and learning community, please add your ideas to the list by clicking the COMMENT button below.
Building Culturally Responsive Classrooms: A Guide for K-6 Teachers
By Concha Delgado-Gaitan
Published by Corwin Press, 2006
ISBN 141292619X, 9781412926195
166 pages
http://books.google.com/books?id=_aCWtZmBFSUC
Con Respeto: Bridging the Distances Between Culturally Diverse Families and Schools: An Ethnographic Portrait (Paperback) by Guadalupe Valdes
http://www.amazon.com/Con-Respeto-Distances-Culturally-Ethnographic/dp/0807735264
Alma Flor Ada (San Francisco State Univ)
http://www.almaflorada.com/
This website shows the collection of work by the extremely talented and prolific writer. There are books, resources and learning opportunities on the site.
Topics: Creating a Positive, Recommended Resources, Recommended reading | No Comments »
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