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Quality Counts!
Sam is a college student who works directly with children in an afterschool program. He's never worked with children before, but this job fits his schedule. Sam figured the children would have homework to do, would want something to eat, and then they would want to run around. Frustration is beginning to set in as Sam has to yell over the children to get their attention, has resorted to bribery to get homework finished, and is tired of playing the same three games. Training would help Sam with all these issues!
High Quality Programs Intentionally Develop Staff
There is no point in having a compelling vision, great leadership skills, a worthwhile strategy, a solid management system, or an enlightened purpose without developing a high performing team (Fletcher, 2004). Staff development is a process through which individual interests move toward alignment with your program's vision and goals, as well as best practices for out-of-school time programs. It includes a combination of information, guidance, direction, modeling, coaching, mentoring, and empowerment. Its purpose is to strengthen skills, increase knowledge, build self-confidence, and transform individuals into a team that resonates with purpose, commitment, and excellence. DASN members can learn more about high quality staff development by looking at AQuA Element 4.
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Free and Easy
Practices that increase the quality of your program immediately:
Communicate Competencies
National Afterschool Association has developed a list of the core competencies (knowledge, skills, and dispositions) necessary for youth professionals to provide high-quality afterschool programming. These can be downloaded here. Additionally, The NAA Code of Ethics sets standards of conduct for the afterschool professional and outlines personal and professional excellence. It encourages the professional development of those working in the afterschool field and can be downloaded here. Discuss both with your staff as you set expectations for professionalism.
1. Check out the Dallas AfterSchool Network website. DASN offers training for Executive Directors, Program Directors, and Youth Development staff monthly. If you require a training we do not currently offer, contact us.
2. Ask staff members that have attended trainings to take notes and make a presentation to the group soon after their training is finished. This helps the staff member retain information while in training and allows the rest of the team to gain the knowledge as well.
Staff Meetings
Host mandatory staff meetings regularly. These meetings should be engaging for your team. During the meetings, host mini-training sessions for staff members about youth related topics.
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Academically Speaking
Appropriate practices that support learning:
Tiered Homework Time
If you or your staff ever feel bogged down during homework time, try tiering your approach to homework help. When a child first needs help, have a volunteer or an intern give it a try. They can then pass on harder questions to a staff member. Pass the most difficult questions up to the Site Coordinator or the designated expert in the subject. This way the most knowledgeable team members on a subject are free to help with the most difficult questions. Have a team meeting before you begin this approach to figure out who is confident in which subjects and make sure the whole team is on the same page. Have staff that need to deepen their academic understanding? Make connections with community agencies focused on adult learning and help grow skills.
Train Your Staff in State Requirements
Information about the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS Standards) and how they fit in the new STAAR testing can be found at the Texas Education Agency website. If you would like to know more about supporting standards in afterschool, let DASN know!
Play to Staff Skills
To use staff in the most effective manner, play to their strengths. Survey staff to find out about their unique skills and interests, and have them plan and lead activities that play to their strengths. Did you know Priya has been playing guitar for the last eight years? She may want to teach the kids guitar or lead another music lesson. Diego just got a new digital camera, and he can't wait to explore all it has to offer. He may want to lead this activity:
Photo Scavenger Hunt
Objective:
The students will learn basic picture taking and teamwork skills.
Things You'll Need:
-One digital camera per group
-Photo List of Scenarios
-Prizes
-Scrapbook
To setup:
Create a list of photo scenarios. These can be done in many ways- have fun with it!
-Try making a list of activities identifying how the group must take pictures of themselves. For example, they may need to take one spelling out the word "Hi" with their bodies in front of the blue bookshelf.
-For older groups, some clues may be riddles, such as "Take a photograph in Ms. B's classroom of something that runs but never walks, lacks arms but has hands, and lacks a head but has a face." They would then take a photograph of the clock in Ms. B's classroom.
-You could also try this as a get-to-know-you game for your group. One clue may ask the kids to take a photo of all of their group members that own a pet with a picture of an animal.
-Or have kids practice their math skills by asking them to take a picture with a basketball and the number of group members they would have left if they started with 12 and lost 9.
Run the Scavenger Hunt:
-Start with a basic lesson on photography and how to properly use a camera.
-Split the children into small groups with a staff member.
-Gather the teams and hand out copies of the photo list and digital camera to each team.
-Explain that teams must take as many pictures as they can within 1 hour (or other appropriate amount of time), with the winner being the one that gets the most or has completed the scavenger hunt first. Be sure to go over rules and expectations for the scavenger hunt as well.
-Once time is up, have everyone meet back at the designated location to view the fun photographs as a group.
-Hand out prizes to the winning team or just celebrate the win.
-Print the photos and have the children create a fun scrapbook of the day's activities.
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Behaviorally Speaking
These quality practices take a bit of time or money to implement:
Workplace Etiquette
How you behave at work affects the climate. Using proper workplace etiquette ultimately helps the whole team become more effective and gives afterschool the professionalism it deserves. These are a few helpful tips to share with your team as you develop professionalism (also see Code of Ethics, above):
1. Limit your use of cell phones during work hours. Use your cell phone during work hours for emergencies only. If you know of a possible situation where you may need to use your phone in advance, let your supervisor know before the start of program.
2. Make sure you are prepared for daily activities in advance. It's always a stressful feeling not to have your supplies ready for the next day. If possible, look at the curriculum a week in advance and pull things so you can be prepared.
3. Be open-minded and willing to listen to others and their opinions. Listening allows you to understand your coworkers, their opinions, and their values. Listen intently when your coworkers speak and ask questions so you are clear about their concerns and expectations. It may be helpful to rephrase and repeat back coworkers' statements to ensure understanding.
4. Be punctual. Being consistently late can stressful for not only you but your team members as well. Children cannot wait, and they expect you to be ready to go as soon as they walk into your program.
5. Try to return all phone calls or emails in a 24 hour time period.
6. Be well groomed, and wear attire appropriate for the activities you will be doing. For staff members, that typically mean closed-toed shoes and clothing that you can move around in that don't mind getting messy. Leave your ripped clothes, graphic shirts, and sandals at home. If you have an event prior to program, wear business casual and bring a change of clothes for program time.
7. Ask questions. Don't be afraid to want to know more, and ask to gain understanding.
8. Say "yes" as often as you can. If a staff member asks you to help out with something, say yes if you have the capacity even if the job isn't appealing to you. Remember you are part of a team. The same is true when you are working with the children. If a child asks if the group can play a different game or if he or she can get a drink of water, say yes if it is possible and won't hurt the rest of the program.
9. Be dedicated to the goals of your team. Success of an afterschool site is very dependent on teamwork and relationships between staff members. During staff meetings, be sure to go over goals for the program. See which ones have already been met, which ones need some adjusting, and what new goals should be added to the list. On a daily basis, consider these goals during programming and work together to achieve them.
10. Have a true passion and commitment to the mission of your organization. Make sure you know the mission statement of the program, and look at each activity during the day in relation to the mission. Strive to ensure that all activities, interactions, and other aspects of the program are supporting the mission.
The Art of Communication
Become a better communicator. Develop the ability to listen to others and hear the spoken words, but also understand the concerns and motivations staff members may be conveying. Try to let go of the other thoughts that may cloud your head and really focus in on what is being said. Don't worry about how you will respond; instead try to completely understand what you are being told. Strive to communicate as clearly, concisely, and persuasively on paper and in e-mail as you do in person or over the telephone.
Make yourself available to your staff members. If you have an office, try to leave the door open whenever possible. Use personal visits and e-mail to check in with the staff members you coach or mentor.
If you need to have an uncomfortable conversation, make a plan and set emotions aside. Try using the Five I Messages to express yourself: Start with what you are seeing or otherwise sensing, add how you are feeling, then your interpretations that make you feel that way. Next add what you want to happen now, and finish with the positive results you believe that action will lead to.
For example: Jane, when I see you come in 15 minutes late without letting me know I feel upset because I am unable to prepare the materials for the day's lesson by myself, so I want you to be on time from now on so that I count on you to help get everything together for the program to ensure the day goes well for the kids.
For more tips on successful communication, look at The Seven Challenges Workbook: A Guide to Cooperative Communication Skills for Success at Home and at Work by Dennis Rivers. This free workbook includes great tips for improving your communication skills.
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It Takes a Bit of Work
These quality practices take a bit of time or money to implement:
Community Treasures
Consider hiring staff members from the community. Focus recruitment efforts locally. If possible have your staff members represent a variety of ages, races, and academic backgrounds. If you have non-English speaking participants, try to hire staff that speak the native language.
Professional Development Tools
Developing and implementing a long-term, comprehensive professional development plan is no easy task. The alternative, however, is to provide ineffective or scattershot professional development that does little to improve the overall quality of your program. Developing a professional development tool will enable you to assess your teams current professional development needs, set goals for the future, estimate resources you need to accomplish those goals, and evaluate your staff members' progress. Use a template found here to help. Check out the other tools available on this site to deepen the quality of your program. Another staff evaluation can be downloaded here.
Tracking is Key
Start tracking all staff training and development programs. This can be done by adding signed acknowledgment forms to the staff member's personnel file. This method is often used when a staff member completes new-hire orientation, mandatory workplace safety training like CPR and First Aid, or other professional development. The documents can be as simple as a sign in sheet, or a form that demonstrates the staff was fully participative during the training sessions, such as end of day certificates.
Develop Career Paths
Ensure that each position has opportunities for career progression. You may do this by assigning many titles within one position (apprentice, assistant, associate, etc). This will allow staff to see that they are progressing professionally, and will encourage them to stay with your organization longer.
Coaching Your Team
Think of your favorite sports teams... what are the character traits of the coaches? They are teachers, they have skills and self-control, and they are trustworthy. As a program director, you must be this figure to your staff members. If you don't currently spend much time observing your program, schedule that time with yourself to observe and coach periodically. Staff members should look to you as the leader and will value your opinions at all times. While observing your staff members, look for teachable moments. Guide your staff through any trials they may have during program time. Make sure you describe and model what your expectations are for your team members.
Need Qualified Staff?
DASN has a list of all work/study contacts at all the higher education sites in the North Texas area. Contact us to request this list.
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Research says...
These pieces of research will help you explain the importance of quality programming to your stakeholders:
In Staffing Practices of High-Quality After-School Programs we learn that there are connections between the professional and educational qualifications of frontline staff members as well as the ways they are trained and supervised, and the quality of the afterschool programs they serve. In this study of 20 afterschool programs, researchers found several things that differentiated higher level quality from the lower level quality in programming. You will notice some of these attributes in high quality programming:
- Staff members are more qualified with higher levels of prior education and more relevant prior work experience.
- Staff members can articulate their professional goals in terms of supporting participants' social and emotional development.
- Staff members enjoy and are committed to working in the afterschool profession.
If you need research to support the importance or cost of quality programming, please contact DASN for suggestions.
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For archived copies of Quality Counts!, click here.
Dallas AfterSchool Network is a 501(c)(3) organization comprised of more than 40 afterschool providers operating more than 400 afterschool sites and serving nearly 30,000 students in Dallas, Tarrant, Rockwall, Denton and Collin Counties.
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www.dasn.org
214-306-8400
2902 Swiss Avenue, Dallas, TX 75204
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