Thursday, November 25, 2010
GABAYBATA: GABAYBATA: The Unofficial Webpage of ECED13 Studen...
GABAYBATA: GABAYBATA: The Unofficial Webpage of ECED13 Studen...: "GABAYBATA: The Unofficial Webpage of ECED13 Students of UCC University of Caloocan CityGen. San Miguel St., Sangandaan, Caloocan City Guida..."
High School Guidance Counselors deliver the comprehensive guidance program to students in grades nine through twelve in a manner that prepares students for post secondary opportunities.
High School Counselors must have the following qualifications, (All high school counselors in Northside I.S.D)
are professional educators,
have earned a Master's Degree,
are specifically trained in counseling techniques,
are certified as school counselors by the Texas Education Agency.
High School Counselors address their continuing professional growth through:
Inservice training
Workshops
Local, state and national conferences
Continuing Education
Inter-school counselor meetings
Current professional literature and media information
Presentations to professional groups
Technology networking
Students may see the school counselor through...
A student self referral
A teacher referral
A parent referral
A counselor request
An administrator request
Students may want to see the counselor for many reasons, including assistance with:
Problem-solving by exploring alternatives to make appropriate decisions.
Developing positive attitudes towards self and others.
Establishing personal goals.
Developing educational plans and in selecting the related courses based on individual interests and talents.
Interpretation of results of standardized tests.
High School Counselors across the district provide similar services tailored to the educational level and to the student and campus needs. To find out more about the guidance program at each high school campus, click on the link below to go to the NISD High School Websites.
Visit Northside ISD High School Websites
top
Guidance Curriculum
High School Counselors teach the guidance curriculum and assist teachers with guidance-related curricula. The following are examples of the topics that are addressed in class guidance sessions.
Academic support
Career pathways
Character development
Decision-making
Developmental assets
Goal-Setting
Graduation requirements
Study skills
Understanding academic records
Conflict management
top
Individual Planning
High School Counselors provide individual or group assistance with educational planning and career exploration. Sample activities include the following:
9-12 Pre-registration activities such as course selection and review of graduation requirements.
Special events such as college and career days, financial aid programs and elective fairs.
Assistance to students with information for special programs such as dual credit, transition/IEP needs.
Student/parent conferences to address educational and career planning.
Freshman Conferences to orient students to high school.
Sophomore conferences to review student Graduation Status Report (GSR), to interpret the standardized test scores and to provide career guidance.
Junior Conferences to review the GSR, to provide college, career and relevant testing information.
Senior Conferences to review the GSR, provide post-secondary education admissions information, as well as scholarship and financial aid information.
top
Responsive Services
High School Counselors provide students with counseling services, either individually or in groups, to address relevant adolescent issues as a result of student, teacher, parent and/or administrator concerns, or for crisis response. Examples of concerns students may bring to the counselor's office include the following:
Conflict mediation
Dropout prevention
Financial assistance
Peer relations
Progress toward graduation
Schedule issues or changes
Social issues
Teen parenting
Violence and drug abuse issues
Counselors also provide consultation services to parents and teachers.
Additionally, counselors may refer students (and when needed, their families) to other programs for other resources or services such as:
Safe and Drug Free Program,
Gifted and Talented Program,
Special Education Services,
HORIZONS Program, (perhaps link to their website)
Other district and community resources and services.
top
System Support
High School Counselors coordinate with school and community to bring together resources for students. Counselors provide information about:
AP Testing Schedule
Exit Level TAAS testing schedule
Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and American College Testing (ACT) testing schedule and preparatory classes
PSAT Test Schedule
Counselors organize or assist with many activities on behalf of students with other campus, district and community groups. Examples include:
Ninth Grade Orientation (see campus website for information)
Parent Programs, such as Financial Aid Night and Junior Parent Programs
High School Guidance Program Open House
Partnerships with community businesses
Mentoring Programs
Career-Tech Expo
College Night
Communication networks with college and military representatives
School Advisory Team
Safe and Drug Free School and Communities Program Advisory Council
National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ) Student Training Program
Junior Achievement
NISD programs and resources, Compensatory, Special Education, optional high school and testing programs, etc.
Counselors provide consultation and training services to school staff and parents. Topics they address can include the following:
Developmental Assets
Multicultural/Diversity training
Guidance program information
New teacher training
Signs and symptoms of substance abuse and violence
top
High School Counselors must have the following qualifications, (All high school counselors in Northside I.S.D)
are professional educators,
have earned a Master's Degree,
are specifically trained in counseling techniques,
are certified as school counselors by the Texas Education Agency.
High School Counselors address their continuing professional growth through:
Inservice training
Workshops
Local, state and national conferences
Continuing Education
Inter-school counselor meetings
Current professional literature and media information
Presentations to professional groups
Technology networking
Students may see the school counselor through...
A student self referral
A teacher referral
A parent referral
A counselor request
An administrator request
Students may want to see the counselor for many reasons, including assistance with:
Problem-solving by exploring alternatives to make appropriate decisions.
Developing positive attitudes towards self and others.
Establishing personal goals.
Developing educational plans and in selecting the related courses based on individual interests and talents.
Interpretation of results of standardized tests.
High School Counselors across the district provide similar services tailored to the educational level and to the student and campus needs. To find out more about the guidance program at each high school campus, click on the link below to go to the NISD High School Websites.
Visit Northside ISD High School Websites
top
Guidance Curriculum
High School Counselors teach the guidance curriculum and assist teachers with guidance-related curricula. The following are examples of the topics that are addressed in class guidance sessions.
Academic support
Career pathways
Character development
Decision-making
Developmental assets
Goal-Setting
Graduation requirements
Study skills
Understanding academic records
Conflict management
top
Individual Planning
High School Counselors provide individual or group assistance with educational planning and career exploration. Sample activities include the following:
9-12 Pre-registration activities such as course selection and review of graduation requirements.
Special events such as college and career days, financial aid programs and elective fairs.
Assistance to students with information for special programs such as dual credit, transition/IEP needs.
Student/parent conferences to address educational and career planning.
Freshman Conferences to orient students to high school.
Sophomore conferences to review student Graduation Status Report (GSR), to interpret the standardized test scores and to provide career guidance.
Junior Conferences to review the GSR, to provide college, career and relevant testing information.
Senior Conferences to review the GSR, provide post-secondary education admissions information, as well as scholarship and financial aid information.
top
Responsive Services
High School Counselors provide students with counseling services, either individually or in groups, to address relevant adolescent issues as a result of student, teacher, parent and/or administrator concerns, or for crisis response. Examples of concerns students may bring to the counselor's office include the following:
Conflict mediation
Dropout prevention
Financial assistance
Peer relations
Progress toward graduation
Schedule issues or changes
Social issues
Teen parenting
Violence and drug abuse issues
Counselors also provide consultation services to parents and teachers.
Additionally, counselors may refer students (and when needed, their families) to other programs for other resources or services such as:
Safe and Drug Free Program,
Gifted and Talented Program,
Special Education Services,
HORIZONS Program, (perhaps link to their website)
Other district and community resources and services.
top
System Support
High School Counselors coordinate with school and community to bring together resources for students. Counselors provide information about:
AP Testing Schedule
Exit Level TAAS testing schedule
Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and American College Testing (ACT) testing schedule and preparatory classes
PSAT Test Schedule
Counselors organize or assist with many activities on behalf of students with other campus, district and community groups. Examples include:
Ninth Grade Orientation (see campus website for information)
Parent Programs, such as Financial Aid Night and Junior Parent Programs
High School Guidance Program Open House
Partnerships with community businesses
Mentoring Programs
Career-Tech Expo
College Night
Communication networks with college and military representatives
School Advisory Team
Safe and Drug Free School and Communities Program Advisory Council
National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ) Student Training Program
Junior Achievement
NISD programs and resources, Compensatory, Special Education, optional high school and testing programs, etc.
Counselors provide consultation and training services to school staff and parents. Topics they address can include the following:
Developmental Assets
Multicultural/Diversity training
Guidance program information
New teacher training
Signs and symptoms of substance abuse and violence
top
GABAYBATA: GABAYBATA: The Unofficial Webpage of ECED13 Studen...
GABAYBATA: GABAYBATA: The Unofficial Webpage of ECED13 Studen...: "GABAYBATA: The Unofficial Webpage of ECED13 Students of UCC University of Caloocan CityGen. San Miguel St., Sangandaan, Caloocan City Guida..."
MY MOTHER REQUEST
Three yeas ago, there was a girl named Lani. She's the youngest in the family. She has to be away from her family after graduation in high school to study her in Manila.
Two weeks after, she always cry because he really missed her mother.Because of that she got sick. but six months and years later, she accepted that it is the time to overcome the sadness that she feel because she think that she s not young now.
October 2009, she told her mother that she will have her vacation to her cousin hometown. Her mother told that she must go right away to their house since it is near. But her cousin didn't allow her because of the typhoon and would not be ale to continue her study if she will be stranded on her way. So she postponed her homecoming.
On month f November 1, 2009 she had her vacation again at he cousin hometown but she did not also come again to their house. November 15, she called her mother.but that time her mother got sick.She told her mother to get will soon. But three days later, their neighbor in their hometown text that her mother passed away.She's angry to herself because for the last time she did not grant her mother request to see her.
WEAK POINT:
Do not depend to your family because the time will come that you will get fa to your family,so must prepared your self to that situation.
POSITIVE POINT:
Be independent to overcome the sadness to your heart...
RELATED TO LIFE SITUATION:
This certain story was related to my life.It also happened to me personally,that time my mother died and I strongly strive to went back to my hometown.Hometown where my real home can be found, a place bounded various memories of my childhood years.
It happened that the time my mom called and asked me to visit her, yet, unfortunately I failed her request, therefore, at this moment regret in my heart. If only I granted my mother's request....and if I did Isaw her ever for the last moment of her life.
LESSON FROM THE STORY:
We must grant the request or wishes of our beloved parents, relatives or someone. So that at the end of the day if anything happen we can't blame ourselfs for losing such opportunity
Two weeks after, she always cry because he really missed her mother.Because of that she got sick. but six months and years later, she accepted that it is the time to overcome the sadness that she feel because she think that she s not young now.
October 2009, she told her mother that she will have her vacation to her cousin hometown. Her mother told that she must go right away to their house since it is near. But her cousin didn't allow her because of the typhoon and would not be ale to continue her study if she will be stranded on her way. So she postponed her homecoming.
On month f November 1, 2009 she had her vacation again at he cousin hometown but she did not also come again to their house. November 15, she called her mother.but that time her mother got sick.She told her mother to get will soon. But three days later, their neighbor in their hometown text that her mother passed away.She's angry to herself because for the last time she did not grant her mother request to see her.
WEAK POINT:
Do not depend to your family because the time will come that you will get fa to your family,so must prepared your self to that situation.
POSITIVE POINT:
Be independent to overcome the sadness to your heart...
RELATED TO LIFE SITUATION:
This certain story was related to my life.It also happened to me personally,that time my mother died and I strongly strive to went back to my hometown.Hometown where my real home can be found, a place bounded various memories of my childhood years.
It happened that the time my mom called and asked me to visit her, yet, unfortunately I failed her request, therefore, at this moment regret in my heart. If only I granted my mother's request....and if I did Isaw her ever for the last moment of her life.
LESSON FROM THE STORY:
We must grant the request or wishes of our beloved parents, relatives or someone. So that at the end of the day if anything happen we can't blame ourselfs for losing such opportunity
MAKATURO: MAKATURO: The Unofficial Webpage of BEED Students ...
MAKATURO: MAKATURO: The Unofficial Webpage of BEED Students ...: "MAKATURO: The Unofficial Webpage of BEED Students of UCC ECED 11 - Assessing Behavior of Young Children"
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
sample guiding program learning school
The 10 Step Guide to Program Planning
We've outlined below some action steps to help you plan a successful and effective youth program. Whether you're offering an in-school or out-of-school program, good planning is very often the key to success.
You may find that you have the time and resources to do some of these action steps while others may be beyond the scope of your current priorities or capacity. Just remember, it's never too late to embark on a particular phase of planning, even after a program has launched.
After you've read the 10 action steps below, take a look at the Program Planning Checklist. By the end of your planning process, you should be able to answer most, if not all, of the checklist questions.
Step 1) Do a Landscape Survey
A landscape survey pinpoints the people and organizations you need to know about to run your program. A landscape might cover a particular service area, an entire city, a region, or perhaps even groups across the country. It might include: groups that are providing similar services; foundations, school programs, government agencies, corporations, or individuals that provide funding or other types of support for your kind of program. Or it might include research, policy, or academic groups that are writing about or studying the work that your program will do.
The objective is to make sure that your program's development is informed by an awareness of existing initiatives. This awareness reduces redundancy by uncovering groups and individuals that may have useful information or experience upon which you can build. It provides the information that allows you to determine how and whether your program supports, complements, or contrasts with other programs.
The scope of your landscape survey should take into consideration the different aspects of the program you wish to develop. For example, if you intend to provide services to adults as well as children, find out about adult education and adult employment training programs (with or without a technology component) in your area in addition to looking up youth development, after-school, and out-of-school programs for youth.
As a document, a landscape doesn't need to be complicated. At a minimum, it should include the names, contact information, and a short one or two sentence description of each person and/or organization uncovered in the search.
Step 2) Get the Facts
Your organization will be in a stronger position to determine the focus of your technology-enhanced learning programs if you get the straight facts on what kind of computer and Internet access your current and future youth and adult participants have at home and at school. This information is also important for grant proposals and reports to funders and other program supporters.
It is helpful to find out: How many of your participants have a computer and Internet access at home? For those who do, what do they use it for? Do the schools that the youth in your program attend have computers in the classrooms or in computer labs? If so, what kind and how much hardware, software, and Internet access is available at the school? How much time, on average, do students spend on computers each day? Do they receive instruction on how to use the computers, software, and the Internet? Is computer use integrated into curriculum and school activities?
Step 3) Conduct a Staff Audit
All the staff and volunteers who will potentially be involved with technology-enriched lessons as instructors, class assistants, class participants, or chaperones should be brought into discussions at an early stage of planning to gather their ideas, questions, and suggestions. It is particularly important to have an open discussion about the skills that staff and volunteers already have, and the skills they want or will need to develop in order to contribute as instructors and participants. Staff and volunteers should have an opportunity to talk about the concerns, risks, and challenges as well as the positive developments they anticipate.
Why is it so important to find out specifically what your staff and volunteers can do well, can't do well, want to learn how to do, and don't want to do? Very simply, because the success of the programs rests on their shoulders. The first set of learning activities that you offer should be closely aligned to staff and volunteer strengths and interests. Some youth programs have a clear focus on visual arts, music, dance, sports, or other areas that can be enhanced and expanded through technology. As your youth program grows, you may be able to retain paid or volunteer instructors who can help branch the program into new areas.
A staff audit might also reveal gaps that point to the need for staff training or perhaps even a redirection of the learning programs. For example, your organization may want to provide homework support for school age children that involves the use and learning of technology. A discussion with staff about the challenges they face in helping children with homework may reveal that staff don't have much information on the homework that is being assigned to children, or don't have tutoring skills in children's homework subject areas.
Step 4) Do a Youth Audit
Adults who work with youth often talk about the importance of listening to youth and giving them options, but somehow we often neglect to give children the opportunity to voice their ideas and opinions about the youth programs we create for them. As children grow into their teen years, the need to participate in the selection and design of the activities in which they are engaged becomes more and more important. For pre-teens and teens especially, the level of participation in voluntary activities such as after-school programs often correlates to the degree to which they feel those activities are meeting their needs and interests.
Regardless of age, children will come into a technology-enhanced learning program with their own ideas about what they want to do with computers and the Internet. With younger children, this might be articulated as simply as, "I want to play with the computer" or "I want to play games." Older children and teens will often have very specific ideas about what they want to do or learn. Children will also often have specific ideas about what kinds of broader youth activities are of interest to them. Field trips, opportunities to make money (teens), and having free time to do activities of their own choice — otherwise known as "playing" — may be among the options for which they express a preference.
Adults can elicit this information in a number of ways: written questions, suggestion cards, brainstorming sessions, and with teens, most importantly, open discussions. Adults should not be afraid to explain that although it is important to hear everyone's ideas and opinions, all those ideas may not be able to become part of the program activities in the present or future. It is the responsibility of adult leaders and caretakers to establish ground rules, guidelines, and priorities.
Some organizations have found interesting solutions that create a balance between the expressed preferences and interests of youth and the priorities and goals of the adults who lead the programs. Supervised free time is set up on weekends, to ensure that after-school program time is saved for structured learning activities. Pre-teens and teens are given significant amounts of responsibility in serving as lab technicians or teaching assistants in exchange for community service or internship credit at school, hourly wages or stipends, opportunities to participate in adult-level training, and/or free use of equipment at designated times.
Step 5) Form a Planning Team
Two heads are better than one. Rather than having one poor soul shoulder the burden of planning out a program on his or her own, many groups have formed planning committees or planning teams. The team shares the responsibility for designing and carrying out the planning for a physical center and the technology-enhanced learning programs.
A planning team should have a diverse representation of skills, be small enough to allow for open discussion and avoid bureaucracy, and include a diversity of stakeholders. In addition to the obvious leadership — the paid staff who will be responsible for managing the technology learning — your organization might consider recruiting the following to serve on the planning team: a committed parent, volunteer, youth participant, staff person who will not work directly in the learning center, and perhaps even a board member.
Step 6) Set Target Goals and Outcomes
It can be difficult for an organization to determine the precise goals and outcomes it wants to achieve through the creation of a technology-enhanced learning program for children. Program leaders may be intimidated at the thought of setting targets that might not be achieved. But it is critically important to undertake this part of the planning process. Establishing clearly articulated goals and outcomes, and revisiting them periodically, will help keep staff and leaders focused and will help parents, youth, funders, and other program stakeholders understand why certain decisions are being made in the development of a program.
"Goals" are usually measurable, and they are directly related to program activities. "Outcomes" are usually associated with the effects of a program rather than its direct activities. Outcomes ultimately become what people perceive to be the results of the program. Example of a goal: serve at least 100 children a week for at least five hours per week. Example of an outcome: increase number of youth prepared for, and interested in, pursuing higher education.
Step 7) Make a Timeline
A timeline is a list, table, or chart that estimates the target dates for completing certain activities or phases of activity ‚ i.e. "finalize staff hiring" or "finish installation of new software." It is important to sketch this out because until due date estimations are actually written down, unreasonable or uncomfortably tight deadlines may be set in motion.
Step 8) Create an Action Plan
An action plan identifies and prioritizes the things that need to be done to run a program, assigns specific people to carry out those items, and sets a due date for completion. It is recommended that an action plan not exceed 90 days in scope, and that it be reviewed and updated on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis to track progress. See YouthLearn's sample action plan for an example.
Step 9) Create a Program Description
Picture a potential funder, the parent of a youth participant, or a potential volunteer walking into your learning center or logging on to your organization's website. What written information will be available to help them understand what your program is doing and where it is headed?
A program description should provide more information than is typically found in a written brochure or delivered verbally in a program tour. To accomplish this, it has to be at least a couple of pages in length. A detailed program description will also strengthen your efforts to communicate the fundamental aspects of the program to staff and volunteers who need to know the "official" facts and figures about technology use and learning in your program.
Step 10) Make a Wish List
After you have carefully planned within the reality of your current budget and staff capacity, take some time to imagine what you would ideally want your learning program to be if money were no object and you had access to the best and brightest staff and volunteers in the world. That vision should shape some parts of your future planning. When a potential funder asks where you want to take the program, and what you think you need to get there, you'll have answers.
We've outlined below some action steps to help you plan a successful and effective youth program. Whether you're offering an in-school or out-of-school program, good planning is very often the key to success.
You may find that you have the time and resources to do some of these action steps while others may be beyond the scope of your current priorities or capacity. Just remember, it's never too late to embark on a particular phase of planning, even after a program has launched.
After you've read the 10 action steps below, take a look at the Program Planning Checklist. By the end of your planning process, you should be able to answer most, if not all, of the checklist questions.
Step 1) Do a Landscape Survey
A landscape survey pinpoints the people and organizations you need to know about to run your program. A landscape might cover a particular service area, an entire city, a region, or perhaps even groups across the country. It might include: groups that are providing similar services; foundations, school programs, government agencies, corporations, or individuals that provide funding or other types of support for your kind of program. Or it might include research, policy, or academic groups that are writing about or studying the work that your program will do.
The objective is to make sure that your program's development is informed by an awareness of existing initiatives. This awareness reduces redundancy by uncovering groups and individuals that may have useful information or experience upon which you can build. It provides the information that allows you to determine how and whether your program supports, complements, or contrasts with other programs.
The scope of your landscape survey should take into consideration the different aspects of the program you wish to develop. For example, if you intend to provide services to adults as well as children, find out about adult education and adult employment training programs (with or without a technology component) in your area in addition to looking up youth development, after-school, and out-of-school programs for youth.
As a document, a landscape doesn't need to be complicated. At a minimum, it should include the names, contact information, and a short one or two sentence description of each person and/or organization uncovered in the search.
Step 2) Get the Facts
Your organization will be in a stronger position to determine the focus of your technology-enhanced learning programs if you get the straight facts on what kind of computer and Internet access your current and future youth and adult participants have at home and at school. This information is also important for grant proposals and reports to funders and other program supporters.
It is helpful to find out: How many of your participants have a computer and Internet access at home? For those who do, what do they use it for? Do the schools that the youth in your program attend have computers in the classrooms or in computer labs? If so, what kind and how much hardware, software, and Internet access is available at the school? How much time, on average, do students spend on computers each day? Do they receive instruction on how to use the computers, software, and the Internet? Is computer use integrated into curriculum and school activities?
Step 3) Conduct a Staff Audit
All the staff and volunteers who will potentially be involved with technology-enriched lessons as instructors, class assistants, class participants, or chaperones should be brought into discussions at an early stage of planning to gather their ideas, questions, and suggestions. It is particularly important to have an open discussion about the skills that staff and volunteers already have, and the skills they want or will need to develop in order to contribute as instructors and participants. Staff and volunteers should have an opportunity to talk about the concerns, risks, and challenges as well as the positive developments they anticipate.
Why is it so important to find out specifically what your staff and volunteers can do well, can't do well, want to learn how to do, and don't want to do? Very simply, because the success of the programs rests on their shoulders. The first set of learning activities that you offer should be closely aligned to staff and volunteer strengths and interests. Some youth programs have a clear focus on visual arts, music, dance, sports, or other areas that can be enhanced and expanded through technology. As your youth program grows, you may be able to retain paid or volunteer instructors who can help branch the program into new areas.
A staff audit might also reveal gaps that point to the need for staff training or perhaps even a redirection of the learning programs. For example, your organization may want to provide homework support for school age children that involves the use and learning of technology. A discussion with staff about the challenges they face in helping children with homework may reveal that staff don't have much information on the homework that is being assigned to children, or don't have tutoring skills in children's homework subject areas.
Step 4) Do a Youth Audit
Adults who work with youth often talk about the importance of listening to youth and giving them options, but somehow we often neglect to give children the opportunity to voice their ideas and opinions about the youth programs we create for them. As children grow into their teen years, the need to participate in the selection and design of the activities in which they are engaged becomes more and more important. For pre-teens and teens especially, the level of participation in voluntary activities such as after-school programs often correlates to the degree to which they feel those activities are meeting their needs and interests.
Regardless of age, children will come into a technology-enhanced learning program with their own ideas about what they want to do with computers and the Internet. With younger children, this might be articulated as simply as, "I want to play with the computer" or "I want to play games." Older children and teens will often have very specific ideas about what they want to do or learn. Children will also often have specific ideas about what kinds of broader youth activities are of interest to them. Field trips, opportunities to make money (teens), and having free time to do activities of their own choice — otherwise known as "playing" — may be among the options for which they express a preference.
Adults can elicit this information in a number of ways: written questions, suggestion cards, brainstorming sessions, and with teens, most importantly, open discussions. Adults should not be afraid to explain that although it is important to hear everyone's ideas and opinions, all those ideas may not be able to become part of the program activities in the present or future. It is the responsibility of adult leaders and caretakers to establish ground rules, guidelines, and priorities.
Some organizations have found interesting solutions that create a balance between the expressed preferences and interests of youth and the priorities and goals of the adults who lead the programs. Supervised free time is set up on weekends, to ensure that after-school program time is saved for structured learning activities. Pre-teens and teens are given significant amounts of responsibility in serving as lab technicians or teaching assistants in exchange for community service or internship credit at school, hourly wages or stipends, opportunities to participate in adult-level training, and/or free use of equipment at designated times.
Step 5) Form a Planning Team
Two heads are better than one. Rather than having one poor soul shoulder the burden of planning out a program on his or her own, many groups have formed planning committees or planning teams. The team shares the responsibility for designing and carrying out the planning for a physical center and the technology-enhanced learning programs.
A planning team should have a diverse representation of skills, be small enough to allow for open discussion and avoid bureaucracy, and include a diversity of stakeholders. In addition to the obvious leadership — the paid staff who will be responsible for managing the technology learning — your organization might consider recruiting the following to serve on the planning team: a committed parent, volunteer, youth participant, staff person who will not work directly in the learning center, and perhaps even a board member.
Step 6) Set Target Goals and Outcomes
It can be difficult for an organization to determine the precise goals and outcomes it wants to achieve through the creation of a technology-enhanced learning program for children. Program leaders may be intimidated at the thought of setting targets that might not be achieved. But it is critically important to undertake this part of the planning process. Establishing clearly articulated goals and outcomes, and revisiting them periodically, will help keep staff and leaders focused and will help parents, youth, funders, and other program stakeholders understand why certain decisions are being made in the development of a program.
"Goals" are usually measurable, and they are directly related to program activities. "Outcomes" are usually associated with the effects of a program rather than its direct activities. Outcomes ultimately become what people perceive to be the results of the program. Example of a goal: serve at least 100 children a week for at least five hours per week. Example of an outcome: increase number of youth prepared for, and interested in, pursuing higher education.
Step 7) Make a Timeline
A timeline is a list, table, or chart that estimates the target dates for completing certain activities or phases of activity ‚ i.e. "finalize staff hiring" or "finish installation of new software." It is important to sketch this out because until due date estimations are actually written down, unreasonable or uncomfortably tight deadlines may be set in motion.
Step 8) Create an Action Plan
An action plan identifies and prioritizes the things that need to be done to run a program, assigns specific people to carry out those items, and sets a due date for completion. It is recommended that an action plan not exceed 90 days in scope, and that it be reviewed and updated on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis to track progress. See YouthLearn's sample action plan for an example.
Step 9) Create a Program Description
Picture a potential funder, the parent of a youth participant, or a potential volunteer walking into your learning center or logging on to your organization's website. What written information will be available to help them understand what your program is doing and where it is headed?
A program description should provide more information than is typically found in a written brochure or delivered verbally in a program tour. To accomplish this, it has to be at least a couple of pages in length. A detailed program description will also strengthen your efforts to communicate the fundamental aspects of the program to staff and volunteers who need to know the "official" facts and figures about technology use and learning in your program.
Step 10) Make a Wish List
After you have carefully planned within the reality of your current budget and staff capacity, take some time to imagine what you would ideally want your learning program to be if money were no object and you had access to the best and brightest staff and volunteers in the world. That vision should shape some parts of your future planning. When a potential funder asks where you want to take the program, and what you think you need to get there, you'll have answers.
The 10 Step Guide to Program Planning
We've outlined below some action steps to help you plan a successful and effective youth program. Whether you're offering an in-school or out-of-school program, good planning is very often the key to success.
You may find that you have the time and resources to do some of these action steps while others may be beyond the scope of your current priorities or capacity. Just remember, it's never too late to embark on a particular phase of planning, even after a program has launched.
After you've read the 10 action steps below, take a look at the Program Planning Checklist. By the end of your planning process, you should be able to answer most, if not all, of the checklist questions.
Step 1) Do a Landscape Survey
A landscape survey pinpoints the people and organizations you need to know about to run your program. A landscape might cover a particular service area, an entire city, a region, or perhaps even groups across the country. It might include: groups that are providing similar services; foundations, school programs, government agencies, corporations, or individuals that provide funding or other types of support for your kind of program. Or it might include research, policy, or academic groups that are writing about or studying the work that your program will do.
The objective is to make sure that your program's development is informed by an awareness of existing initiatives. This awareness reduces redundancy by uncovering groups and individuals that may have useful information or experience upon which you can build. It provides the information that allows you to determine how and whether your program supports, complements, or contrasts with other programs.
The scope of your landscape survey should take into consideration the different aspects of the program you wish to develop. For example, if you intend to provide services to adults as well as children, find out about adult education and adult employment training programs (with or without a technology component) in your area in addition to looking up youth development, after-school, and out-of-school programs for youth.
As a document, a landscape doesn't need to be complicated. At a minimum, it should include the names, contact information, and a short one or two sentence description of each person and/or organization uncovered in the search.
Step 2) Get the Facts
Your organization will be in a stronger position to determine the focus of your technology-enhanced learning programs if you get the straight facts on what kind of computer and Internet access your current and future youth and adult participants have at home and at school. This information is also important for grant proposals and reports to funders and other program supporters.
It is helpful to find out: How many of your participants have a computer and Internet access at home? For those who do, what do they use it for? Do the schools that the youth in your program attend have computers in the classrooms or in computer labs? If so, what kind and how much hardware, software, and Internet access is available at the school? How much time, on average, do students spend on computers each day? Do they receive instruction on how to use the computers, software, and the Internet? Is computer use integrated into curriculum and school activities?
Step 3) Conduct a Staff Audit
All the staff and volunteers who will potentially be involved with technology-enriched lessons as instructors, class assistants, class participants, or chaperones should be brought into discussions at an early stage of planning to gather their ideas, questions, and suggestions. It is particularly important to have an open discussion about the skills that staff and volunteers already have, and the skills they want or will need to develop in order to contribute as instructors and participants. Staff and volunteers should have an opportunity to talk about the concerns, risks, and challenges as well as the positive developments they anticipate.
Why is it so important to find out specifically what your staff and volunteers can do well, can't do well, want to learn how to do, and don't want to do? Very simply, because the success of the programs rests on their shoulders. The first set of learning activities that you offer should be closely aligned to staff and volunteer strengths and interests. Some youth programs have a clear focus on visual arts, music, dance, sports, or other areas that can be enhanced and expanded through technology. As your youth program grows, you may be able to retain paid or volunteer instructors who can help branch the program into new areas.
A staff audit might also reveal gaps that point to the need for staff training or perhaps even a redirection of the learning programs. For example, your organization may want to provide homework support for school age children that involves the use and learning of technology. A discussion with staff about the challenges they face in helping children with homework may reveal that staff don't have much information on the homework that is being assigned to children, or don't have tutoring skills in children's homework subject areas.
Step 4) Do a Youth Audit
Adults who work with youth often talk about the importance of listening to youth and giving them options, but somehow we often neglect to give children the opportunity to voice their ideas and opinions about the youth programs we create for them. As children grow into their teen years, the need to participate in the selection and design of the activities in which they are engaged becomes more and more important. For pre-teens and teens especially, the level of participation in voluntary activities such as after-school programs often correlates to the degree to which they feel those activities are meeting their needs and interests.
Regardless of age, children will come into a technology-enhanced learning program with their own ideas about what they want to do with computers and the Internet. With younger children, this might be articulated as simply as, "I want to play with the computer" or "I want to play games." Older children and teens will often have very specific ideas about what they want to do or learn. Children will also often have specific ideas about what kinds of broader youth activities are of interest to them. Field trips, opportunities to make money (teens), and having free time to do activities of their own choice — otherwise known as "playing" — may be among the options for which they express a preference.
Adults can elicit this information in a number of ways: written questions, suggestion cards, brainstorming sessions, and with teens, most importantly, open discussions. Adults should not be afraid to explain that although it is important to hear everyone's ideas and opinions, all those ideas may not be able to become part of the program activities in the present or future. It is the responsibility of adult leaders and caretakers to establish ground rules, guidelines, and priorities.
Some organizations have found interesting solutions that create a balance between the expressed preferences and interests of youth and the priorities and goals of the adults who lead the programs. Supervised free time is set up on weekends, to ensure that after-school program time is saved for structured learning activities. Pre-teens and teens are given significant amounts of responsibility in serving as lab technicians or teaching assistants in exchange for community service or internship credit at school, hourly wages or stipends, opportunities to participate in adult-level training, and/or free use of equipment at designated times.
Step 5) Form a Planning Team
Two heads are better than one. Rather than having one poor soul shoulder the burden of planning out a program on his or her own, many groups have formed planning committees or planning teams. The team shares the responsibility for designing and carrying out the planning for a physical center and the technology-enhanced learning programs.
A planning team should have a diverse representation of skills, be small enough to allow for open discussion and avoid bureaucracy, and include a diversity of stakeholders. In addition to the obvious leadership — the paid staff who will be responsible for managing the technology learning — your organization might consider recruiting the following to serve on the planning team: a committed parent, volunteer, youth participant, staff person who will not work directly in the learning center, and perhaps even a board member.
Step 6) Set Target Goals and Outcomes
It can be difficult for an organization to determine the precise goals and outcomes it wants to achieve through the creation of a technology-enhanced learning program for children. Program leaders may be intimidated at the thought of setting targets that might not be achieved. But it is critically important to undertake this part of the planning process. Establishing clearly articulated goals and outcomes, and revisiting them periodically, will help keep staff and leaders focused and will help parents, youth, funders, and other program stakeholders understand why certain decisions are being made in the development of a program.
"Goals" are usually measurable, and they are directly related to program activities. "Outcomes" are usually associated with the effects of a program rather than its direct activities. Outcomes ultimately become what people perceive to be the results of the program. Example of a goal: serve at least 100 children a week for at least five hours per week. Example of an outcome: increase number of youth prepared for, and interested in, pursuing higher education.
Step 7) Make a Timeline
A timeline is a list, table, or chart that estimates the target dates for completing certain activities or phases of activity ‚ i.e. "finalize staff hiring" or "finish installation of new software." It is important to sketch this out because until due date estimations are actually written down, unreasonable or uncomfortably tight deadlines may be set in motion.
Step 8) Create an Action Plan
An action plan identifies and prioritizes the things that need to be done to run a program, assigns specific people to carry out those items, and sets a due date for completion. It is recommended that an action plan not exceed 90 days in scope, and that it be reviewed and updated on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis to track progress. See YouthLearn's sample action plan for an example.
Step 9) Create a Program Description
Picture a potential funder, the parent of a youth participant, or a potential volunteer walking into your learning center or logging on to your organization's website. What written information will be available to help them understand what your program is doing and where it is headed?
A program description should provide more information than is typically found in a written brochure or delivered verbally in a program tour. To accomplish this, it has to be at least a couple of pages in length. A detailed program description will also strengthen your efforts to communicate the fundamental aspects of the program to staff and volunteers who need to know the "official" facts and figures about technology use and learning in your program.
Step 10) Make a Wish List
After you have carefully planned within the reality of your current budget and staff capacity, take some time to imagine what you would ideally want your learning program to be if money were no object and you had access to the best and brightest staff and volunteers in the world. That vision should shape some parts of your future planning. When a potential funder asks where you want to take the program, and what you think you need to get there, you'll have answers.
We've outlined below some action steps to help you plan a successful and effective youth program. Whether you're offering an in-school or out-of-school program, good planning is very often the key to success.
You may find that you have the time and resources to do some of these action steps while others may be beyond the scope of your current priorities or capacity. Just remember, it's never too late to embark on a particular phase of planning, even after a program has launched.
After you've read the 10 action steps below, take a look at the Program Planning Checklist. By the end of your planning process, you should be able to answer most, if not all, of the checklist questions.
Step 1) Do a Landscape Survey
A landscape survey pinpoints the people and organizations you need to know about to run your program. A landscape might cover a particular service area, an entire city, a region, or perhaps even groups across the country. It might include: groups that are providing similar services; foundations, school programs, government agencies, corporations, or individuals that provide funding or other types of support for your kind of program. Or it might include research, policy, or academic groups that are writing about or studying the work that your program will do.
The objective is to make sure that your program's development is informed by an awareness of existing initiatives. This awareness reduces redundancy by uncovering groups and individuals that may have useful information or experience upon which you can build. It provides the information that allows you to determine how and whether your program supports, complements, or contrasts with other programs.
The scope of your landscape survey should take into consideration the different aspects of the program you wish to develop. For example, if you intend to provide services to adults as well as children, find out about adult education and adult employment training programs (with or without a technology component) in your area in addition to looking up youth development, after-school, and out-of-school programs for youth.
As a document, a landscape doesn't need to be complicated. At a minimum, it should include the names, contact information, and a short one or two sentence description of each person and/or organization uncovered in the search.
Step 2) Get the Facts
Your organization will be in a stronger position to determine the focus of your technology-enhanced learning programs if you get the straight facts on what kind of computer and Internet access your current and future youth and adult participants have at home and at school. This information is also important for grant proposals and reports to funders and other program supporters.
It is helpful to find out: How many of your participants have a computer and Internet access at home? For those who do, what do they use it for? Do the schools that the youth in your program attend have computers in the classrooms or in computer labs? If so, what kind and how much hardware, software, and Internet access is available at the school? How much time, on average, do students spend on computers each day? Do they receive instruction on how to use the computers, software, and the Internet? Is computer use integrated into curriculum and school activities?
Step 3) Conduct a Staff Audit
All the staff and volunteers who will potentially be involved with technology-enriched lessons as instructors, class assistants, class participants, or chaperones should be brought into discussions at an early stage of planning to gather their ideas, questions, and suggestions. It is particularly important to have an open discussion about the skills that staff and volunteers already have, and the skills they want or will need to develop in order to contribute as instructors and participants. Staff and volunteers should have an opportunity to talk about the concerns, risks, and challenges as well as the positive developments they anticipate.
Why is it so important to find out specifically what your staff and volunteers can do well, can't do well, want to learn how to do, and don't want to do? Very simply, because the success of the programs rests on their shoulders. The first set of learning activities that you offer should be closely aligned to staff and volunteer strengths and interests. Some youth programs have a clear focus on visual arts, music, dance, sports, or other areas that can be enhanced and expanded through technology. As your youth program grows, you may be able to retain paid or volunteer instructors who can help branch the program into new areas.
A staff audit might also reveal gaps that point to the need for staff training or perhaps even a redirection of the learning programs. For example, your organization may want to provide homework support for school age children that involves the use and learning of technology. A discussion with staff about the challenges they face in helping children with homework may reveal that staff don't have much information on the homework that is being assigned to children, or don't have tutoring skills in children's homework subject areas.
Step 4) Do a Youth Audit
Adults who work with youth often talk about the importance of listening to youth and giving them options, but somehow we often neglect to give children the opportunity to voice their ideas and opinions about the youth programs we create for them. As children grow into their teen years, the need to participate in the selection and design of the activities in which they are engaged becomes more and more important. For pre-teens and teens especially, the level of participation in voluntary activities such as after-school programs often correlates to the degree to which they feel those activities are meeting their needs and interests.
Regardless of age, children will come into a technology-enhanced learning program with their own ideas about what they want to do with computers and the Internet. With younger children, this might be articulated as simply as, "I want to play with the computer" or "I want to play games." Older children and teens will often have very specific ideas about what they want to do or learn. Children will also often have specific ideas about what kinds of broader youth activities are of interest to them. Field trips, opportunities to make money (teens), and having free time to do activities of their own choice — otherwise known as "playing" — may be among the options for which they express a preference.
Adults can elicit this information in a number of ways: written questions, suggestion cards, brainstorming sessions, and with teens, most importantly, open discussions. Adults should not be afraid to explain that although it is important to hear everyone's ideas and opinions, all those ideas may not be able to become part of the program activities in the present or future. It is the responsibility of adult leaders and caretakers to establish ground rules, guidelines, and priorities.
Some organizations have found interesting solutions that create a balance between the expressed preferences and interests of youth and the priorities and goals of the adults who lead the programs. Supervised free time is set up on weekends, to ensure that after-school program time is saved for structured learning activities. Pre-teens and teens are given significant amounts of responsibility in serving as lab technicians or teaching assistants in exchange for community service or internship credit at school, hourly wages or stipends, opportunities to participate in adult-level training, and/or free use of equipment at designated times.
Step 5) Form a Planning Team
Two heads are better than one. Rather than having one poor soul shoulder the burden of planning out a program on his or her own, many groups have formed planning committees or planning teams. The team shares the responsibility for designing and carrying out the planning for a physical center and the technology-enhanced learning programs.
A planning team should have a diverse representation of skills, be small enough to allow for open discussion and avoid bureaucracy, and include a diversity of stakeholders. In addition to the obvious leadership — the paid staff who will be responsible for managing the technology learning — your organization might consider recruiting the following to serve on the planning team: a committed parent, volunteer, youth participant, staff person who will not work directly in the learning center, and perhaps even a board member.
Step 6) Set Target Goals and Outcomes
It can be difficult for an organization to determine the precise goals and outcomes it wants to achieve through the creation of a technology-enhanced learning program for children. Program leaders may be intimidated at the thought of setting targets that might not be achieved. But it is critically important to undertake this part of the planning process. Establishing clearly articulated goals and outcomes, and revisiting them periodically, will help keep staff and leaders focused and will help parents, youth, funders, and other program stakeholders understand why certain decisions are being made in the development of a program.
"Goals" are usually measurable, and they are directly related to program activities. "Outcomes" are usually associated with the effects of a program rather than its direct activities. Outcomes ultimately become what people perceive to be the results of the program. Example of a goal: serve at least 100 children a week for at least five hours per week. Example of an outcome: increase number of youth prepared for, and interested in, pursuing higher education.
Step 7) Make a Timeline
A timeline is a list, table, or chart that estimates the target dates for completing certain activities or phases of activity ‚ i.e. "finalize staff hiring" or "finish installation of new software." It is important to sketch this out because until due date estimations are actually written down, unreasonable or uncomfortably tight deadlines may be set in motion.
Step 8) Create an Action Plan
An action plan identifies and prioritizes the things that need to be done to run a program, assigns specific people to carry out those items, and sets a due date for completion. It is recommended that an action plan not exceed 90 days in scope, and that it be reviewed and updated on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis to track progress. See YouthLearn's sample action plan for an example.
Step 9) Create a Program Description
Picture a potential funder, the parent of a youth participant, or a potential volunteer walking into your learning center or logging on to your organization's website. What written information will be available to help them understand what your program is doing and where it is headed?
A program description should provide more information than is typically found in a written brochure or delivered verbally in a program tour. To accomplish this, it has to be at least a couple of pages in length. A detailed program description will also strengthen your efforts to communicate the fundamental aspects of the program to staff and volunteers who need to know the "official" facts and figures about technology use and learning in your program.
Step 10) Make a Wish List
After you have carefully planned within the reality of your current budget and staff capacity, take some time to imagine what you would ideally want your learning program to be if money were no object and you had access to the best and brightest staff and volunteers in the world. That vision should shape some parts of your future planning. When a potential funder asks where you want to take the program, and what you think you need to get there, you'll have answers.
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