YEAR IN REVIEW January – December 2016
Temescal Associates is dedicated to building the capacity of leaders and organizations in education and youth development who are serious about improving the lives of young people. Learning in Afterschool & Summer (LIAS) Project: This project is focused on how children learn – learning principles that should guide programs that serve youth. We will be folding the LIAS project under the How Kids Learn Foundation. Below are some numbers that indicate some of our progress, followed by a brief description of our activities. By the Numbers • 273: Number of LIAS blog posts to date • 205,033: Number of views to date of the LIAS blog • 9,220: Number of views on the HKL YouTube channel • 2,668: Number of views of our Learning Principles for Afterschool and Summer Programs video • 2,215: Number of views of our LIAS video interviews with educational and afterschool leaders • 127: Number of participants registered for HKL VI (SF) • 478: Total number of participants registered for 2016 HKL Speaker’s Forums How Kids Learn 501(c)(3): HKL is now a fully incorporated entity. We are currently awaiting approval from the IRS for a nonprofit status. This was initiated to assist us in diversifying our funding and focusing on educational activities. This was done with the pro bono assistance of two Bay Area law firms. How Kids Learn Conference: In December 2016 (San Francisco) and January 2017 (Los Angeles), we conducted our sixth How Kids Learn conference. This year’s conference was focused on Equity and Expanded Opportunities to Learn.
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HKL Speaker’s Forums: The How Kids Learn (HKL) Speaker’s Forums are dedicated to providing those who are interested in improving youth outcomes with thought-provoking, educational opportunities. The HKL educational events offer access to national thinkers and researchers, innovative practitioners, and networking opportunities. We conducted 10 Speaker’s Forums across California and below is a list of the Forums. Date Speaker Topic Place 12/11/15 Jenny Nagaoka (UChicago Foundations for Oakland, CA Consortium on School Young Adult Success Research) 03/07/16 Jacquie Beaubien (PERTS at Growth Mindsets Los Angeles, CA Stanford) in partnership with LAUSD 03/16/16 Eduardo Briceño (Mindset Growth Mindsets Oakland, CA Works) 05/06/16 Charles Smith (Weikart Center) Social Emotional Oakland, CA Learning 05/10/16 Charles Smith (Weikart Center) Social Emotional Los Angeles, CA Learning 08/4/16 Lyn-Tise Jones and Faauuga Self-Care Oakland, CA Moliga-Puletasi, in partnership with Oakland Unified School District 08/13/16 Ken Futernick (CSU Afterschool and Fresno, CA Chancellor’s Office) in Teacher Shortage partnership with CTFF, Central Valley Afterschool Foundation, Tulare County Office of Education, Visalia Unified School District 08/25/16 Lynn Johnson (Spotlight Girls) Saving The World, Oakland, CA One Girl At A Time 09/13/16 Pedro Noguera (UCLA) in How Race and Class Los Angeles, CA partnership with LA’s BEST Influence Learning and Healthy Development 10/24/16 Terrence D. Shelton (Alchemy, Racial and Cultural Oakland, CA Inc.) Identity and Rites of Passage
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History of Afterschool in America Documentary: We are launching a project to produce a 1-hour video documentary on the history of afterschool in America. This will be broken into three 20-minute sections suitable for use in staff training. Each section will be accompanied by a brief study guide. Interviews and video clips will be conducted by youth videographers that are part of local afterschool programs and youth-led social enterprises. To ensure that we create a quality product, we have assembled a distinguished national advisory group. To date, we have conducted 14 video interviews with national leaders. New LIAS Postcard And Self-Assessment: We created a new LIAS postcard. One side displays the LIAS learning principles and their alignment to the new California Quality Standards for Expanded Learning Programs. The other side leads people to a new online selfassessment survey that provides program leaders with a tool to assess their alignment with the LIAS learning principles. It can be completed online using a smartphone, tablet, or computer. Scores are then returned in real time. To date, over 106 youth program leaders have taken the survey online. For programs that want to examine their alignment in depth, we offer a customized survey designed for program staff members and youth participants. Center for Digital Badges: We believe that if expanded learning programs, such as those found in afterschool initiatives and community-based organizations, are to prosper, they must be recognized as important places of learning. Further, we believe that the use of digital badges is an excellent way to acknowledge the learning of adult staff and youth in expanded learning. In 2016, we agreed to work with the MyCom Initiative in Cleveland, OH to assist them in integrating the use of digital badges. We also authored a chapter in a book entitled, Digital Badges in Education, published in 2016 by Routledge. LIAS Learning Communities: Participation of afterschool programs in LIAS learning communities. These have been sponsored by Santee School District and Catholic Diocese of Oakland 6 school collaborative. Region 2 Is considering LIAS Learning Circles for 2017.
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CA Quality Standards Committee: We created a crosswalk between the LIAS principles and the California Quality Standards. We are
increasingly called upon to support programs in their quality improvement plans that are part of grant compliance with CDE. We have done 1 conference on quality improvement and are entering our second year with catholic diocese to support the collaborative and their 6 programs develop quality improvement plans.
Updated Websites: We updated the following websites: o LIAS website www.learninginafterschool.org. o Temescal Associates website www.temescalassociates.com. This new splash page can lead you to our other projects, our online store, and to our LIAS blog. o Center for Digital Badges www.centerfordigitalbadges.com o How Kids Learn www.howkidslearn.org o Expanded Learning 360°/365 Project http://www.expandedlearning360-365.com/
Expanded Learning 360°/365: Skills for Success in School, Work, and Life is a collaborative project (ASAPconnect, CalSAC, the Partnership for Children and Youth, and Temescal Associates/LIAS) dedicated to promoting the development of critical skills beyond academics that research has identified as essential to young people’s success in school, work, and life. In the literature, these skills are identified as social emotional learning and character building – both of which are well aligned with youth development principles. Over the year, we continued our support of the 360°/365 project. We updated the project website and provided technical assistance training to schools and afterschool programs. As part of our work, Temescal/LIAS posted a number of new blogs and developed training materials. We adapted Beyond the Bell’s Social and Emotional Learning Practices (American Institute of Research) self-assessment tool and authored seven training modules for use by the core districts and the field at large. CalSAC is providing in person training to the districts and the field and has converted the modules to an on-line format.
Mindfulness in Afterschool: Research affirms that Mindfulness is an excellent way to promote grit, character building, and social emotional learning. Last year, we developed a mindfulness curriculum and training for afterschool programs and we again provided a two-day training for Riverside County Office of Education. We also developed a partnership with Inner Explorer, which provides online lesson plans for mindfulness activities.
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Finding the Gold Within: We sponsored a screening of Finding the Gold Within, which highlights the issues of race in America and the struggle of young black men who are college bound. The film was followed by a discussion led by the filmmaker and adult mentor from Alchemy, Inc.
Convening of Next Level Leaders: On October 24 – 25, we hosted a convening of 25 program leaders from across the state. These leaders were nominated by Regional Leads and other afterschool leaders. This convening focused on rites of passage for youth of color, social emotional learning, afterschool policy, and leadership. We conducted this convening in partnership with CalSAC. ISSUU: We are publishing a number of our articles in an online magazine format. To date, we have published 9 articles.
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