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Gabriela Baeza,  

Project Specialist
San Diego County Office of Education
Photo: Youth poses with her BOOST shirt and vision board at Pence Elementary's "Girls Only!" afterschool club. February 2011 

Spring is creeping around the corner! We hope all of you who were able to attend the BOOST Conference this past week enjoyed yourself and are walking away refreshed and rejuvenated! If you've got your energy going we encourage you to visit our Resource Center, a comprehensive collection of resources of everything from Academic Enrichment to Health and Obesity Prevention to Teen Dating. If you've come across a resource you would like to share please feel free to sent it to inspire@boostcollaborative.org !

We are pleased to announce that another member of our Leadership Team has received recognition. Christina Hale-Nardi is a valuable member of our Leadership Team and the Director of After School Programs for San Bernardino Unified School District. The San Bernardino Creative Afterschool Programs for Success (CAPS) and its partnership with the YMCA was selected as the "Best of the Best - Day Care" by readers of the San Bernardino Sun newspaper.   

Congratulations to Christina and to the CAPS! 

 (photos from the 2010 Conference) 

Visit our facebook page to post your favorite photo! Click here.  

Classroom Success for After School Programs

Don't get caught unprepared! Learn strategies to create effective policies and procedures in your after school program. Get into a routine of clear expectations with your students by creating a culture and climate of respect and learning in your program.

The Endless Summer- Camp Activities for Kids

Planning to run a camp or summer program for youth?  Need inspiration on new games, crafts, and thematic activities that are engaging, fun and will create lasting memories?  This workshop will prepare you to plan a 6-week themed camp program for kids that will make them want to come back every year!

No Parent Left Behind

This workshop will explore simple steps to help participants learn how to deal with the challenging parent situations they encounter in their programs through interactive scenarios and sharing of promising practices with peers. Leave those difficult situations behind and go back to your program feeling empowered and eager to work with and build relationships with your program parents!

Urban Teacher Fellowship Success Story:   

Natalie Gonzalez, LA City College Student (future CSU LA student)

California is expanding an exciting model to recruit and train future teachers from and for high need communities called the California Teacher Pathway. Based on the Urban Teacher Fellowship model piloted by the South Bay Center for Community Development,  LA Harbor College, and California State University Dominguez Hills in 2008 in Los Angeles, the California Teacher Pathway supports low income students in attaining their Associate's degree at community college and then transferring to a California State University for their Bachelor's degree and teaching credential.The students all work part-time in afterschool programs while on this pathway to gain hands-on, classroom experience as well as much needed income.

One student in the Urban Teacher Fellowship is Natalie Gonzalez who is currently 20 years old and attending Los Angeles City College. She was born and raised in Los Angeles and knew from an early age that she wanted to work with kids and positively impact their lives. She started working with LA's BEST in March of 2010 and has never looked back. She loves what she does with the kids on a daily basis and looks forward to becoming a teacher one day. Being in the Urban Teacher Fellowship, she sees that through education she can really change the direction of her future and continue to give back to her community.

Her experience working with LA's BEST has changed her view on how she interacts with others. She realized that so many of the children she works with come from many different family backgrounds and therefore experience life differently. Knowing this made her reflect on how she understands others and respects what each person goes through and how external factors in their lives can sometimes shape their behavior in the classroom. Natalie has learned a new way to approach her kids by tuning in to what they are experiencing that day and catering her lesson plans to the mood of her students. By building meaningful relationships with her students, she is better able to connect with them. Natalie is finishing up her coursework for her Associate's degree at LA City College and looks forward to transferring to the teacher preparation program at California State University Los Angeles.  

For more information about the CA Teacher Pathway please contact Rebecca Goldberg at rgoldberg@sbaycenter.com.

In Dave Pierce's first year as the District Physical Education Specialist, he has clearly demonstrated to students, staff and parents his passion and commitment for creating healthy lifestyle changes not only in our student's lives, but also in the lives of their families and the community as a whole.

Mr. Pierce works with all the students in our two schools teaching physical education during the school day and working to increase moderate to vigorous physical activity after school. He starts each school day class with jogging and he always runs with each class- that's about ¼ mile each class, five classes a day!  Mr. Pierce practices what he preaches, and his students and the staff respect that. He has even painted and laminated a map of California and the kids are "running from Julian to Sacramento" and tracking their mileage on the map.

After school, Mr. Pierce works in our after school programs teaching nutrition and once again facilitating activities that keep kids moving.  His nutrition classes involve hands on healthy cooking from scratch.  Last week he taught the children to make a sour dough starter (incorporating a science lesson) that will be used to bake sourdough bread.

Mr. Pierce organizes Family Fun Nights to bring kids and their parents together for an evening of games and health education.  He has also created a web site with health education information that parents and students can access.  In addition, Mr. Pierce distributes a Healthy Behaviors newsletter monthly to all parents.

Submitted by:

Susi Jones, Executive Director

Julian Pathways, Julian Union School District

Julian, CA

Since 1983, May has been observed as National Physical Fitness and Sports Month. Individuals and organizations everywhere have joined in the fun to promote awareness of the value of physical activity in the pursuit of happier, healthier, more productive lives. Try to dedicate the month to doing an outside activity at least once a week. Remember that not all kids enjoy sports so try something that everyone can participate in like a Relay Race for Kids.

Objective:  

Endurance and team cooperation 

 

Supplies:

Hard fruits or vegetables (apples, pears, bell peppers)
Cone or chair
Whistle 

 

Activity:

1. Divide students into two, three or four teams

2. Line teams up in single file

3.Give hard fruit or vegetable to first student on each team

4. Position cone about 30 feet from students

5. Use whistle as START cue for first student to walk, skip, hop or jump to the cone.

6. At the cone, the child should do 5 jumping jacks or hops

7. Change up the movement for the return trip, instead of walking having them walk backwards, bear walk, or crab walk.

8. Students hand the fruit or vegetable to next teammate and repeats until all teammates have run around the cone

9. Repeat activity as time permits

Remember to encourage parents to participate in the May fun! With longer daylight hours, encourage families to go for walks after dinner, or even a morning jog to jumpstart the brain.  

For more ideas, visit: AAHPRED.org

Submitted by:

Larissa Johnson, Physical Activity and Community Youth Organization Coordinator

Network for a Healthy California - San Diego and Imperial Region

This paper identifies the overlap between the learning principles promoted by the Learning in Afterschool project (more information at http://www.learninginafterschool.org) with six program quality measurement tools.

Through this comparison, authors Sam Piha and Corey Newhouse establish the strong relationship between the Learning in Afterschool learning principles and what you would expect to see in a quality afterschool program. This paper identifies which learning principles are most aligned with program quality measurement tools and which seem to be absent from the quality equation.

York Daily Record - April 2, 2011

Is Harlem program a fix for York City's education troubles?  

The Boston Globe - April 4, 2011
Plan would let agencies share Hub teens’ data

Juneau Empire - April 5, 2011
After School Coalition: Network in place for after school programming, needs to be tied together

Education Week - April 13, 2011
Anonymous Bullying on Social Network Seeps Into Schools

Food Safety News - April 15, 2011

New School Lunch Requirements Take Shape

Youth Violence Prevention Grants July 1st
The United Methodist Church is providing grants of up to $4,000 to programs that address the needs of children and young people between the ages of 5 to 18 in the areas of violence prevention, anti-abuse and relationship abuse. Eligibility: Small-scale community- and church-based programs.
Youth Violence Prevention Grants Website

Healthy Living Grant Program   July 15th    

Funded by the American Medical Association. Based on the thought that local leaders can come up with the best solutions to these problems, this initiative supports grassroots organizations who are on the front lines in their communities. These grants provide critical funding that can jumpstart a project, affect change quickly, increase visibility for a project/organization, encourage collaboration and make a lasting difference in a community.
American Medical Association Grant Website

The LEGO Children's Fund Grants  July 15th
The LEGO Children's Fund will provide quarterly grants for programs with a special interest paid to collaborative efforts and in providing matching funds to leverage new dollars into the receiving organization. Focus areas include: early childhood education and development; technology and communication projects; and sport or athletic programs that concentrate on under-served youth. Priority is given to programs in communities where Lego operates with a special focus given to organizations serving Connecticut and Western Massachusetts.
The LEGO Children's Fund Website