Inner-city Elementary After School Programs
Inner-city elementary age kids face many challenges in and out of the classroom. These challenges range from education day in and day out, as well as, sometimes growing up in an impoverished family and community. Factors also include peers which these kids come into contact with at school, in the streets and at home. Kids today need more than ever an extra push of positive motivation from mentors. I believe that this constructive mentoring begins with after school programs. After school programs give kids the opportunity to work one on one with an adult to reinforce encouragement and teach more than just text education. Because I have participated as a volunteer at an after school program, I have seen first hand the positive impact such programs can generate among elementary aged kids involved.
These after school programs are very important for the future of thousands of elementary aged kids. For those less fortunate kids that do not have supportive parents or appropriate supervision at home, after school programs give those children a chance to receive constructive attention from a mentor. Because I feel these programs are so beneficial, I am very interested in the further spread of after school programs among public schools nationwide. However, the progress of the elementary mentoring must begin one school district at a time.
After school programs can potentially decide the direction of many elementary age students? futures, as well as the communities in which they live. After school programs serve a great advantage to inner city elementary age kids by allowing them the opportunity to interact in a supervised location with mentors, because these mentors do no not only te...
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...EBSCO. DU Penrose Library, Denver. 21 Jan. 2005
“When schools, parents, families, and communities work together to support learning, students tend to earn higher grades, attend school more regularly, stay in school longer, and enroll in higher level programs.” (Van Roeckel, 2008, p. 1) Deer Valley High School in Glendale, AZ is the first high school built in the Deer Valley Unified Scholl District, and with a population around 1800 students, the high school is one of the bigger schools in the state. It has a tradition of family on its’ campus, where there are still teachers teaching that were there when the school opened in 1980. A number of former students have become new teachers on campus and just about all the teachers’ children have attended and graduated from the campus. With a school like ours, there are many connections to the community around it and it is demonstrated by the programs that bring in parent and community to help with the development of our students. There are numerous booster clubs run on our campus to help support student achievement on the sports fields, a school to work programs to teach the students necessary skills in different areas of either nursing, sports medicine classes, and in the culinary arts classrooms, and funding to our school to help ensure all students graduate on time. There are many programs on our campus, but I will discuss four of the programs: baseball booster club, C2G program, “school-to-work”, and the special education program sponsored by Arrowhead Hospital. These programs are designed to improve the relationships between the campus and the people in the community, and give all students on campus every opportunity to succeed in their future.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS), with the support of The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, recently received a four-year, 1.83 million dollar grant from the United States Department of Education to implement a character development program for students. This program is designed to integrate character development into classroom instruction and to ensure parental and community involvement in character development initiatives. The program has existed for one year. The purpose of this paper is to overview the goals and activities of the program.
...is, R. G., & Wise, D. L. (2005). Youth Friends: Outcomes from a school‐based mentoring program. Journal of Primary Prevention Special Issue: Mentoring with Children and Youth, 26(2), 129‐129.
"Catching Them Early" profiles the extraordinary efforts of Richmond's Lincoln Elementary School to ensure a bright future for its children. Ninety-nine percent of the kids attending Lincoln qualify for federal meal subsidies; many have family members in a gang. So the school makes special efforts, including the hiring of outreach workers, to provide the kind of support kids need to stay in class and do well.
Recent efforts have gone into effect in many states, including more federal funding for head start programs, in addition to statewide initiatives to make children ready for school by implementing specific curriculums in regular daycare programs among high-risk populations to ensure kindergarten readiness. The ecological theory has led to social action in early childhood education, and we are just now beginning to see the start of these changes. The ecological model was able to show how links between child, home, school, peer, and neighborhood factors creates a high-powered network of relationships. These relationships influence children’s transition to school, both directly and indirectly, and were, therefore, able to lead people to take the social action necessary to demand and create change. In conclusion, the ecological theory was used to initiate and construct these new social programs and intern has begun empowering many at-risk communities across the United States. Empowering our youth in our communities is radically important for our future, also to future generations as well, we could end many deficiencies that plague America today by
But, there is hope: a loving, supportive environment that encourages children to grow into themselves. Preschool. Government programs are in place to help low-income families offset the costs, and national agencies provide multidimensional support for preschoolers and their families. Seven hours in a classroom doesn’t fix the problems at home. Rather, these programs are designed to help low-income families through a multi-faceted approach, attacking several issues in one mighty blow (Olson, Ceballo, and Park 427). These programs offer a variety of resources, including parenting classes, stress management courses, family counseling, and nutrition education. Through these programs, the entire community is assuming responsibility for taking care of its children. After all, it takes a village to raise a child.
When kids are raised on this setting, where they see informal rules as the norm, they become familiar with it and see it as inspirational (Anderson, 1994). Inspirational in the sense that they see these adults that don’t work, but still survive and have money to spend. Therefore they might come to the conclusion that school is not necessary. Neighbors can have an impact on students’ views when it comes to their future. A good neighborhood promotes the importance of education because instead of students observing alcohol consumption in the streets and drug use, they will be motivated by neighbors that have stable jobs as result of achieving a
The Child Development Center of College of San Mateo provides early care and educational programs for children between the ages of 3 to 5 years old. Children are divided into classrooms with a “master” teacher, a “regular” teacher, and two or three “associate” teachers. Klara attended Classroom, “A,” a stimulating and well-resourced classroom. Klara was observed for two hours on Monday from 9 am to 11 am and for two hours on Wednesday from 9 am to 11 am. During these two hours, classroom activities consisted of “free time,” “story time,” and an outside “play time.” A “master” teacher, a “regular” teacher, and two “associate” teachers were present during observations. Additionally, a total of eighteen children were in attendance during the observed days.
In this generation, with this continuously improving developments and the global economy, education that is of high quality is not only the pathway towards opportunity but it is a pre-requisite that one needs for achieving success. Since educational achievement and economic progress are inextricably linked, it is essential to educate every student in America so as to graduate from high school fully prepared to join college and for a career is of national importance. So as to create an economy that will last, there should be revision of competitive and complete education that can enable learners to succeed in the global economy that is based on innovation and knowledge. This essay argues for reform of K-12 education through includes stopping cuts in education budgets to curb teacher attrition, incorporation of technology to empower teachers on delivery, expansion of the K-12 engineering curriculum and accountability reforms including the delivery of tests so as to improve K-12 education in the United States.
Child welfare and family services: Policies and practices, USA: Parson Education Inc. Garbarino, J. (1992) The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secon Children and Families in the Social Environment, New York, NY: Walter De Gruyter, Inc. Walls, J. (2005). The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary The Glass Castle, New York, NY: SCRIBNER.
The sixth-grade year is critical in terms of providing the foundation for a student’s middle school career (Clark, 2007). If students have problems transitioning to middle school, the outcome for students may be negative (Ruiz, 2005). Akos, Eccles, and Midgley (1993) state that the timing of these events in a student’s life can lead to lower motivation, lower self-efficacy, lower standardized test scores, higher rates of absenteeism, and behavioral issues. Developmentally responsive schools may be the key to alleviating the problems of young adolescents' school transition (Mullins, Emmett R.; Irvin,
At this time, I became a group leader in an after-school program for a 3rd-grade class. This was my first time working with children and as imagined, it was a tough transition. The students were Latino and African American, living in poverty stricken neighborhoods with a dysfunctional home life. The program focused on students who were at risk of retention. A large number of students were below average and had been recommended to receive extra academic support. As a result of my time spent working and learning with the students, I choose an educational path.
Children are our future and they should be given every possible opportunity to succeed in life even if they are born into disadvantaged situations. Sometimes the families of certain children can’t provide as much as other children’s families and this can create a gap in the achievement and development of these children. Those disadvantaged children need special programing that accommodates for the lack of cognitive and social development that if not properly addressed could lead to poor school performance and delinquency.
I cannot recall a more rewarding experience than helping facilitate a child’s education while enabling parent participation alike. These experiences have drawn me to my current position as an Educational Assistant where I am constantly interacting and establishing relationships with students, learning about their goals and aspirations. It is that same desire to empower our future students that has steered me towards a career as a school counselor. By enrolling in the Masters in counseling program, I aspire to develop methods and experience to become an effective, experienced, and adaptable school counselor that promotes self-awareness, allowing students to realize their full potential and impetus them towards a promising future. I want to learn skills that facilitate personal and career development, ensuring that our students grow accomplishing their goals and ambitions. To discover techniques that help students improve in all areas of academic achievement, establishing relationships with students and parents alike. By becoming a school counselor, I am determined to become an advocate for underserved youth. I aim to become an effective agent educational reform, providing support for students in the various institutions that may disempower
The learning environment connects the classroom to the community through a democratic approach. This community based learning brings the world into the classroom so students can implement social change and challenge social inequalities. The curriculum focuses on student experience and taking social action on real problems such as hunger, violence, and discrimination. It is important to instruct students to explore in group settings so they can work together to analyze and develop theories that can help each other and make a real different in the world. As a future educator, it is important to not only to teach my students the issues in our world, but how we can work together to find