Afterschool Answers

As the new school year begins we all start dreaming about how much good stuff we’re going to get done this year. We have plans to make sure students learn and that everyone follows the rules and that everything goes just so. While you’re making all your plans, don’t forget to plan for some fun. Remember to make afterschool a place where students are happy, a place where they want to be after a full day at school.

This year make plans to start a sports league, or a drama program, or a dance group. One of your group leaders probably has experience and would love to be in charge of such an activity. If you have a little money in the budget you can try a project like Lego® Robotics or building a giant 2D (or even 3D) puzzle. And of course, don’t forget about service learning projects.

Don’t give up on the teaching and learning! Find activities for your afterschool program that include both learning and fun so you can keep your students always wanting more and coming back week after week.

What fun stuff do you have planned for this new school year? Comment and share with us

Camille Diaz Curriculum, Scheduling, Students activity ideas

Administered for the California Department of Education “the California After School Resource Center (CASRC, “cas-rac”) provides access to a comprehensive set of reviewed materials, resources, trainings, tools, and supportive services for after school programs.”  Before a resource is added to the CASRC Library it is reviewed by the CASRC Materials Review Board for school appropriateness, research-based features and alignment to standards.

On their website www.californiaafterschool.org you can browse the 12 topics in their Resource Library or perform a search if you are looking for something specific.  Topics include mathematics, reading/language arts and physical activity as you would expect, but also behavior management, nutrition, program administration, youth development, and more. You can also request a copy of their catalog (published annually).

Once registered, you can add any item from their collection to your loan list and it will be shipped to you (anywhere in California), free of charge, on the date you requested (pending availability).  You can use the materials for up to four weeks and then you ship them back.

This is such an easy way to get quality reviewed materials to use in your afterschool program for just the cost of one-way shipping.  Check out the website and start checking out materials.

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My afterschool curriculum which I publish on my website Curricubits was recently reviewed by CASRC and added to the Resource Library.  The Oceans, Geology, and Family themes are available for checkout.

Camille Diaz Curricubits, Curriculum, Materials Materials, resources

I had dinner a few weeks ago with a friend of mine who is a regular-day teacher. She told me that her principal is discouraging teachers at her school from teaching any science or social studies unless their entire class is testing at proficient or above on their state tests.  I had suspected this was the case in some schools, but I was shocked to have my suspicions confirmed.  While this is a terrible downturn for our students, this brings a huge challenge – and responsibility – to light for Afterschool.  With testing and budget pressures forcing regular day teachers to continue to narrow their focus, It is now up to those of us in Afterschool to offer engaging, hands on, standards based curriculum in subjects where students are missing out such as science, art, social studies, music, and fitness.

View this as an opportunity to broaden your reach.  Instead of spending all of your time working on homework or repetitive crafts, start teaching what your students are missing and make your program an invaluable part of your students’ learning.  Engage them with new standards based lessons in subjects they don’t normally get to experience.  This may sound difficult or time consuming but it doesn’t have to be.  Curriculum is already available at places such as Curricubits.  Materials can be inexpensive and easy to find if you are able to get creative in how you use them. 

By teaching new and exciting material to your students, you can truly make a difference in their learning.  Increased general knowledge and a positive attachment to school improves students regular-day attendance and boosts their test scores.  Your program can be the place parents turn to help provide their children with a more well-rounded education.  If you communicate with parents about all the wonderful things you are teaching in Afterschool, word will spread and your program will never have an empty slot for long.

Go ahead!  Leave a comment and tell me what you think.

Camille Diaz Curriculum Curriculum, public relations

Ashley: Text Messaging Guru

In today’s world of social media buzzwords like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, texting, blogging, RSS, Web 2.0, and Wiki, it’s hard to sort it all out and easy to want to give up and try to ignore it for a couple more years. Well, that’s not going to work, because this stuff isn’t going away and if you’re not using social media in your Afterschool program, you are missing simple, low cost opportunities to improve communication with staff, students, and parents. Don’t worry if you don’t know how it all works. Most of the systems are easy to use and user friendly. If you still need help, or you just don’t have the time, appoint one or two social media savvy members of your staff to handle it. Ashley (pictured here) handles almost all of my text messaging as I am a total klutz at that.

Here are a few ways you can get started.

1. Email (can be free or paid)
Ok, this one might be obvious, and I’m sure you already have email, but are you using it as effectively as you could? Are you Read more…

Camille Diaz Parents, Staffing, Students, Technology communication, public relations, social media, Technology

Creator of Curricubits, Camille Diaz and Curricubits Volunteer, Ashley Brignoni at the BOOST Conference in Palm Springs, CA.

Thank you so much to everyone who stopped by the Curricubits booth at the BOOST (Best Out-Of-School Time) Conference in Palm Springs, CA last week.  Ashley and I had a wonderful time doing the Curricubits art activity “Chalk Mountain” with you and discussing the other Curricubits themed lessons.

Please feel free to comment below about your experience at BOOST.  To see more pictures of us visit the Curricubits page on Facebook.

Camille Diaz Curricubits Curriculum

When the end of the day comes and it is time for students to leave with their parents, does your orderly well structured afterschool program suddenly disintegrate into chaos?  Even if your check-out time is orderly, you may be able to use some of these time honored and field tested methods to help make your check-out time even faster and smoother.

Keep reading all the way to the end because step number seven is the fastest, easiest, and most important.

1. Notify Parents that Change is Coming

After you work out exactly what your new check-out procedure will be, send home a flier to parents with a detailed explanation of what they should expect and what you would like them to do.  Make announcements to students as well, reminding them of when the new check-out system will start.  If you just spring the new check-out plan on everyone without coaching them first, even more chaos will ensue.

2. Close the Doors Until You Are Ready

Funnel your students in through one door and have parents start lining up outside of another closed door.  Put up a sign and close that door 10-15 minutes before check-out begins so you don’t have parents coming into your meeting space and disrupting the last few minutes of your students activity time.  When you are ready to begin check-out, open the check-out door.

3. Regroup Before Releasing Students

Call all of your student groups back to your main meeting space before you dismiss everyone.  This will give you the opportunity to relay any last minute messages and you can make sure all your students are accounted for before parents start picking them off. Read more…

Camille Diaz Logistics check-out, Logistics

Is your afterschool program stuck in the proverbial doghouse?  Do the “regular day” teachers and staff act like your program doesn’t really matter?  If so, this is probably not because you have done something wrong, it is because they don’t know about all the great things you are doing right.  Do a little positive public relations and open the lines of communication.

Communicate With Regular Day Teachers

Develop systems within your program to work with regular day teachers. Find out what subjects they are covering and do supplemental activities. Get the homework assignments for the week so you can make sure students finish and turn it in.  Find out which students need extra help so you can reinforce what teachers are doing during the school day.

Communicate With Parents

Let parents know what their children are doing in your program. Try sending home a short weekly newsletter (just one page) to announce your plans for the week.  If parents know how many great services you are providing, they will appreciate your program as more than just childcare.

Communicate With Students

Fill students in!  Tell them what you are doing each day and each week.  Send them home with some exciting news or experiences to talk about.  As they report all the positives about your program to their parents, teachers and friends, your program will gain in popularity.

There is no better way to advertise than word of mouth.  So start talking and create a positive buzz about your wonderful afterschool program.

Please leave us a comment and share your tips for creating a positive buzz about afterschool.

Camille Diaz Parents, Students, Teachers communication, marketing, public relations

Check-in is a critical part of the afterschool program day.  It is your first chance to welcome students into the program and provide some relief from what may have been a stressful school day.  Unfortunately, it is very easy to overlook the importance of check-in time.  When students arrive are your group leaders rushing around getting snack ready or collecting supplies for the day?  If they are you need to train them to do things a little differently.  Here are some simple changes you can make to your check-in to completely change that first impression for the afternoon.

Arrive early

Schedule your staff to arrive at least 15 minutes before the students arrive.  Make sure they have enough time to collect their supplies, organize their clipboard, prepare their table and prepare snack.  Everything that needs to be ready, should be completely ready when students arrive.

Greet Students

Are your group leaders standing at their table or assigned area when students arrive?  They should be.  Train your group leaders to greet each child individually, using their name, when they first arrive.  They need to strike up a little bit of conversation with students and ask about their day.  Really devote some time to making students feel special when they get to your afterschool program.

Give Down Time

Just as adults want to relax for a few minutes when they get home before starting on dinner or chores, students want to relax, too.  Give about 10 minutes for students to just sit and chat when they arrive to the program before you start making any announcements or sending groups off to their assigned activities.

Giving students time to relax and creating a warm, welcoming atmosphere for them when they arrive will help make your afterschool program something that students look forward to.  This can boost your attendance and reduce behavior problems because you have created a calm friendly environment where students want to be.

Camille Diaz Logistics check-in, Logistics, Scheduling, staff training

I would like to share a few tips with you on assigning students in your Afterschool program to teams.  It seems like having one team for each grade level would make life easier, but it does not.  It actually limits your options when it comes to accepting new students into your program to fill empty slots.  Take a look at the tables below.

Table 1: Assigning Students to Teams by Grade Level

Table 2: Assigning Students to Teams with Mixed Grade Levels

In Table 1, you only have room for one team of second graders – probably 20 students at the most.  What happens if your program suddenly becomes very popular with second graders?  In Table 2, you have room for about 30 second graders.  Mixing grade levels across teams also allows you to move students from one team to another if needed, and that can be a great relief if a conflict arises.

Here’s another tip:  schedule one or two extra students on every team.  If you are working from a grant – as so many Afterschool programs are – you probably need to meet a particular attendance requirement every day to get your maximum funding.  No matter how hard you try and how good you are at getting students to show up, someone will always be absent.  If you overbook your teams by one or two students each, you should hit your desired/required numbers every day. 

Camille Diaz Logistics, Scheduling Logistics, Scheduling, student teams

Holidays are great.  Everyone gets to celebrate and there are always loads of fun crafts to do.  While you’re gearing up to do some of those crafts, take a moment to teach at the same time.  Put together a lesson that includes a history of the holiday or one that focuses on a new art technique or style.  Perhaps you could discuss some family traditions or several different cultures.  Don’t fall into the trap of just cutting out big hearts or shamrocks or stars or whatever to decorate and stick on the wall.  The holiday gives you a hook to get students interested – don’t pass up a golden teaching opportunity.

Camille Diaz Curriculum Curriculum