Resources
Tools
The National PTA has released the Parents' Guide to Student Success that promotes the Common Core State Standards.
The guides - one developed for each grade from kindergarten through eighth and two for high school - in English language arts and math - provide clear, consistent expectations for what students should be learning at each grade so they are prepared for college and a career.
Each guide features:
- Key items that children should be learning in English and math in each grade;
- Activities that parents can do at home to support their child's learning;
- Ways parents can build stronger relationships with their child's teacher; and
- Tips for planning for college and a career (high school guides only).
While the guides were developed for parents, after-school professionals can use the guides in working with parents - and, in programs connected with school, with teachers - to promote the core standards.
The guides can be downloaded - in English and Spanish - at www.pta.org/4446.htm.
Discipline Help Website
Are you seeking assistance on how to address behaviors in your program such as bullying, disruption, fighting, gossiping, swearing, arrogance, immaturity and others?
Free online assistance is available from the Discipline Help Web site, http://www.disciplinehelp.com/, created by The Master Teacher.
Follow the Money: A Tool for Mapping Funds for Out-of-School-Time Initiatives (November 2009):
This tool draws upon selected examples of fiscal mapping research by statewide afterschool networks that track funding for out-of-school time programs. The tool provides an overview of fiscal mapping - a research approach that identifies the current expenditures for services for children and youth and their families. Organized into three parts, the tool provides an overview of the six steps in completing a fiscal mapping process, considerations and strategies for data collection, and worksheets to help readers collect the data itself. Available at: http://www.financeproject.org/publications/FollowTheMoney.pdf
This tool is part of a series of resources developed by The Finance Project to provide statewide afterschool networks, children and youth-serving initiatives and others with information and tools on how to finance and sustain effective out-of-school time programs that support the positive development of children and youth, and to develop systems that provide an infrastructure to help coordinate and guide investments in out-of-school time. The Finance Project appreciates the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation for its support of this tool. For more information, please visit our Out-of-School Time Information Resource center at: http://www.financeproject.org/index.cfm?page=25.
Roads to Success Career and College Curriculum Free and Available Online, Grades 7-12
Roads to Success, a 6-year-old nonprofit offering a new guidance curriculum, training and technical assistance in New York and nationally, is pleased to announce that all our of program materials are now available online, and school-based and afterschool-based counselors and educators can download them free of charge. Programs will be able to access all the materials a school or afterschool program will need to start or strengthen its career and college programming, including:
- Facilitator’s Guides
- Student materials
- Parent newsletters
- Over 180 lessons, developed over a 5-year period and field-tested in 35 schools in low-income communities from New York to West Virginia.
The materials contain information on career choice, postsecondary planning, and independent living (including topics like study skills, career development, reasons to complete and excel in high school, college access, finding and keeping a job, financial literacy, and more).
Roads to Success, developed with support from the McKelvey Foundation and continues with grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ford Foundation, JP MorganChase and others. For information about Roads to Success, and to download free program materials, please visit www.roadstosuccess.org.
The creators of Mixing in Math have redesigned the site to make it easier to find activities, projects and information about mixing math into after-school programs. The site also includes new activities, a search-by-topic section and a separate menu of activities and materials in Spanish.