Archive - 2017 Illinois 21st CCLC Spring Conference
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
Bloomington-Normal Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, Bloomington-Normal, IL
Description
This conference is designed to provide strategies, best practices, and program management guidance to assist 21st CCLC grantees with the implementation of their programs. The conference also provides a forum for grantees, their partners, peers, evaluators, and other afterschool professionals to network and share information. The conference is organized in three major strands comprising topics integral to our work of developing high-quality afterschool programs:
- Academics Afterschool
- Continuous Program Improvement
- Afterschool Enrichment
Conference Objectives
- To draw on the knowledge and experience of Illinois 21st CCLCs
- To share evidence-based practices and emerging promising practices that support 21st CCLCs in achieving their program goals and meeting state program requirements
- To create opportunities for networking and to increase communication across 21st CCLC programs
Handouts
Presentations
Presentation |
Related Files |
| It’s Not More School, It’s Afterschool
Diana Rea, Program Director, Arrow Academy Planning activities appropriate for all youth in a program can be challenging. Learn from our successes and challenges as we present techniques we have used for reaching and engaging students of all socioeconomic conditions and scholastic abilities. Highlights will include how we focus on academics in reading and math, tie enrichment to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics), give students and parents choice, and empower staff to create opportunities tied to goals and interests. Come gain some new ideas, strategies, or just get re-energized about your program! |
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| Evaluation: Moving From Reporting to Use
Sophia Mansori, Senior Research Associate, Education Development Center Inc. (EDC), Waltham, MA In this session, the statewide evaluation team will share findings from the most recent statewide evaluation, with the goal of promoting use of evaluation as well as supporting grantees in their evaluation efforts. EDC will present findings from the statewide evaluation, share strategies that promote the use of evaluation findings, and engage participants in thinking about ways that they can use both the statewide evaluation and their own local evaluations to improve their programs. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own evaluation reports to consider during this session. |
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| Building Trauma-Responsive Programs and Schools
Keith Harris, YS3 Program Clinician, Alternative Schools Network, Chicago, IL
The Alternative Schools Network Youth Resilience Project is an initiative bringing knowledge, awareness, and support to schools and programs around issues associated with youth trauma. Participants will learn about trauma and its impact. The Project team will facilitate a discussion and work session on ways institutions can become trauma responsive. Find out how trauma-informed approaches improve the conditions for youth to learn, grow, and thrive as individuals within a safe and caring community. |
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| Exhausted From All the School Reform? Come Jump on the Energy Bus and Get Recharged!
Kelly Stewart, Assistant Professor of Education, McKendree University, Lebanon, IL We are all feeling the stress from education reforms being thrust upon us. One means to combat stress is positive energy. Come hear Dr. Kelly Stewart present the message of Jon Gordon’s book The Energy Bus, with a focus on the importance of positivity in all endeavors. Dr. Stewart is the former superintendent at Benton Consolidated High School and 2014 Illinois Association of School Administrators Superintendent of the Year. |
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| Introduction to Coding Using Microcontrollers
Aaron Cortes, Director, Center for College Access and Success, Northeastern
Illinois University, Chicago, IL
Today’s labor market faces a shortage of STEM professionals, computer programmers in particular, and a wide diversity gap in the workforce. This session will explore STEM toys and online resources that can be used to integrate coding activities into any educational program. Presenters will provide hands-on experience using STEM toys for coding, a detailed approach for delivering coding activities or programs, and resources to assess or evaluate students’ interactions and content attainment. |
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| Engaging Youth (Grades K–5) in College and Career Readiness Activities With Y4Y
Allyson Zalewski, Y4Y Education Specialist, You for Youth (Y4Y), Mount Laurel, NJ What does it look like to engage youth in college- and career-relevant learning? Learn how You for Youth (Y4Y) can support an inquiry-based approach to develop college and career readiness awareness and skills in the elementary grades through hands-on learning activities that match your students’ interests and goals. |
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| Engaging Youth (Grades 6–12) in College and Career Readiness Activities With Y4Y
Miranda Cairns, Y4Y Training Specialist, You for Youth (Y4Y), Silver Spring, MD What does it look like to engage youth in grades 6–12 in college- and career-relevant learning? Learn how You for Youth (Y4Y) can support you in applying an inquiry-based approach to developing postsecondary awareness, exploration, and preparation learning opportunities that match your students’ interests and goals. |
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| Providing Targeted Supports for English Learning Children and Their Families
Gil Sanchez, Division Supervisor, English Language Learning, Illinois State Board of Education, Chicago, IL Learn about the key features and attributes of the SAT exam that Illinois will offer to all 11th graders in Spring 2017. Find out about the support tools The College Board is providing through its First in the World partnership with Khan Academy to develop free, customized learning modules for all students. Participants also will learn about scholarship and other benefits for students as a result of taking the SAT exam. |
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| Moving Staff From Program Adoption to Expected Results: The Story of CBAM
Garry Davis, Technical Assistance Consultant, Illinois Quality Afterschool, Austin, TX We’ve all been there. You introduce a new afterschool program, provide training, and launch the program. You don’t see the outcomes you expected, so you stop the program and begin the search for another new program. But was it the program or the implementation that went wrong? The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) offers a framework and tools to ensure that those implementing programs do so with fidelity, by clarifying what the program is, identifying concerns stakeholders have along the way, and assessing if people are using or not using the program. Come and see what CBAM can do for you. |
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| STEM Projects Sprout Here at the Spring Conference
Kim Sellers, Director of Learning Support Services, Bureau Henry Stark Regional Office of Education 28, Atkinson, IL This presentation invites participants to engage in a variety of STEM learning challenges that can be used with students, staff, or at parent events. These academically enriching, hands-on activities will spark creative learning experiences beyond the walls of the afterschool classroom. |
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| Developing Youth Leadership Through Community Schools
Cheryl Flores, Director of Community Schools, Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, Chicago, IL Learn how to organize Youth Leadership Councils at your school or site. Find out how youth organizing crosses over into youth programming for a fuller, richer community school and afterschool program. Presenters will share strategies for engaging youth in leadership development opportunities after school. |
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| Building a BIG-M, 4-H Positive Youth Development Program in a Rural Afterschool Setting
Carolyn S. Hansen, 4-H Youth Development Educator–Metro, University of Illinois Extension of McLean County, Normal, IL Finding educationally sound afterschool programs for youth grades K–6 in a rural setting can sometimes be difficult. This session addresses how you might be able to work with the University of Illinois 4-H Program to offer your students quality learning opportunities that are fun and help children develop lifelong skills. Illinois 4-H provides a Positive Youth Development (PYD) opportunity for children based around the principles of BIG-M: Belonging, Independence, Generosity, and Mastery. Whether you build an afterschool club, work with Extension personnel to develop a program such as Health Rocks or Illinois Junior Chef, or customize lessons around STEAM, 4-H and Illinois Extension might be for you. |
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| Cultivating Citizen Science Project-Based Learning With Y4Y
Allyson Zalewski, Y4Y Education Specialist, You for Youth (Y4Y), Mount Laurel, NJ Citizen Science projects empower youth to have an impact on the world. Discover how to plan and get involved in authentic, purposeful scientific investigation projects utilizing You for Youth (Y4Y) resources that will build students’ STEM knowledge and 21st century skills. |
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| Luncheon Keynote Enhancing Quality: What Matters Most Is You Gale K. Gorke, Executive Director, Kids Kan Inc., Calimesa, CA The quality of our afterschool programming is reflected in the impact we make in students’ lives. Recognizing the importance of our personal example, especially as it is seen in the quality of the relationships we build and the programs we provide, is essential to our success and the success of our peers and the youth and families we serve. Dr. Gorke shares strategies for building cohesive, consistent program quality and reveals how to recognize innate giftedness in your self and in those around you. Learn how you can be the key to program quality! |
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| Aligning With the School Day With Y4Y Click and Go
Allyson Zalewski, Y4Y Education Specialist, You for Youth (Y4Y), Mount Laurel, NJ Discover the primary components for planning, designing, and implementing program activities that are intentionally aligned with school day objectives. Participants will learn about Y4Y Click and Go resources, a collection of targeted materials designed to deliver quick staff development. |
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| Evaluation: Lessons From the Field
Sophia Mansori, Senior Research Associate, Education Development Center Inc. (EDC), Waltham, MA In this session, EDC will facilitate a panel of grantees that will share strategies and experiences from evaluating their programs. What role does evaluation play in their program and organization? What strategies do they use for data collection? What challenges do they encounter in conducting their evaluations, and how do they address them? Hear examples of how grantees are conducting their evaluations and learn from your colleagues. |
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| Circle Time, BUILDing Relationships That Last
Deonna Hart, Site Coordinator, BUILD Inc., Chicago, IL Building a relationship between youth and mentor is a fundamental step in the process of establishing positive youth-to-adult and peerto- peer relationships. During this session, you will participate in an experiential exchange of thoughts, ideas, and options that will allow you to experience ways of creating an intentional space where social and emotional transformations can occur with youth in your afterschool program. |
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| Ready, Set, Grow! Implementing Agriculture Enrichment in an Urban Classroom
Yesenia Velasquez, Resource Coordinator, Gads Hill Center, Chicago, IL Kari Kraus, Youth Programs Manager, Gads Hill Center, Chicago, IL This session is designed for participants interested in using STEAM agriculture activities in afterschool programming. Agriculture is the simplification of nature's food webs and the rechanneling of energy for human planting and animal consumption. Huh?, you may ask. To simplify, our afterschool enrichment model integrates academics with agriculture through discovery and critical thinking while nourishing artistic expression, sensory awareness, social and emotional development, and students’ connection to their natural world. |
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| Transforming Lives: A Community-Based Approach
Tonantzin Gamboa, Community Schools Manager, ENLACE Chicago, Chicago, IL ENLACE Chicago's middle school programming provides opportunity for students to discover interests and develop personally within the context of a community. Programming builds on skills that connect to the school day curriculum. Youth also conduct their own explorations of their environment. Presenters will share ENLACE Chicago’s strategies, best practices, tools, successes, and challenges. |
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| “Be Creative” Storybook Cooking: Read, Write, Speak, and Create
Alisha Flores, Project Director, Family Focus, Chicago, IL This program model uses engaging techniques and innovative approaches to get students involved in culinary activities and the arts while increasing their reading, writing, and public speaking skills. Aligned with the Youth Program Quality Assessment (YPQA) model, the Storybook Cooking program has been adapted differently at each Family Focus 21st CCLC program to meet student learning needs, interests, and grade levels, and to incorporate cultural awareness. In working with youth, the program structure and safe space is equally as important as the staff training and preparation for optimal social and emotional learning. The Be Creative Storybook Cooking model uses multileveled reading, writing, speaking, and creative thinking activities paired with deeper learning approaches and the arts. |
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| Project Directors Meeting
Marci Johnson, Director of Teaching and Learning, Illinois State Board of Education, Springfield, IL |
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| Quality Inspires Innovation
Gale K. Gorke, Executive Director, Kids Kan Inc., Calimesa, CA In this session, Dr. Gorke explores how the focus on program quality can help guide the selection and implementation of afterschool program activities, experiences, and opportunities for both students and staff. Tap into the creativity and inspired thinking that a team motivated by quality can achieve. |