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

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.

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.

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 sending updates to your staff? Your staff is probably already in the email mindset since colleges are now regularly sending updates to their students about homework assignments and class cancellations via email. What about parents? You can have your parents sign-up on an interest list to receive notifications about upcoming events. It’s also a simple way to get in touch with parents who may not always be available by phone during your business hours. They can reply when it’s convenient for them. If you grow a very large email list, you may need to go to a paid email broadcasting service (like iContact, Constant Contact, or AWeber) but for starters, just use what you already have.

2. Text Messaging (paid unless included in your cell phone plan)
On this one, I’m mostly talking about communicating with your staff. I don’t totally understand the obsession with texting – can’t you just call? – but it’s really taken off. People are even publishing books of their text message conversations. One big advantage is that if you want to send a message to all of your staff, and you have all of their phone numbers entered into your cell phone, you can select them all and send everyone the same message at once instead of making 10 phone calls. It saves you time and they are more likely to read the message then they are to pick up the phone if you call.

3. Facebook (currently free)
Once you create an account, you can set up a “page”. Create a page for your afterschool program. Then post updates (notes, links, photos, video) on your page. Parents, students, and staff can all become “fans” of your page and when they do, they will see those updates in their Facebook timeline when they log in to their account. By creating a page on Facebook, you can connect with people involved with your program who are on Facebook and with other afterschool programs and national afterschool groups like Afterschool Alliance.

4. Blogging (can be free or paid)
Do you have information you would like to post or topics you could use some parent input on? Start a blog. You can write your own posts and then allow people to comment (just like the blog you’re reading now). Google offers a free service called Blogger where you can get started easily. Anyone can read your blog and they don’t have to subscribe or give you their email address. This is perfect for communicating with parents who just want to know what’s going on with the program. It also gives you the opportunity to create a positive image of your program and develop a relationship with parents who you may not see often.

The more you use social media, the easier it becomes. Even though it seems daunting at first, just try one new thing at a time and work at it for a while. Before you know it, other afterschool professionals will be turning to you for advice on setting up their blog.

Are you using social media to tell the world about your afterschool program? What are you doing or planning to do next? Share with us by leaving a comment below.

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.

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.

4. Parents Sign-Out, Then Enter

Setup a table near the door where you want parents to enter. Have them sign-out their child first and then allow them to enter. This makes your check-out more accurate and more secure.  Parents can’t forget to sign out and you can screen every parent coming in.  If you run a large program and you think the line will be too long, divide your students alphabetically by last name and have two check-out lines.

5. Train Your Students

When students see their parents they usually get up and run right over.  Train your students to stay with their group until after their parent has signed for them.  When they see their parent they can gather their belongings and wait to be dismissed.

6. Shuffle Your Staff

After the first ten minutes when the majority of your students have left, combine the remaining students into one or two groups and give them some books or coloring for entertainment until their parents arrive.  Assign one or two staff members to supervise those groups while your other staff start cleaning up and restocking supplies for the next day.

7. End On a Positive Note

Even though the end of the day can be hectic, try to have students and parents leave with an upbeat, positive feeling.  Train your staff to say a sincere good-bye to each student using the student’s name as they leave.  Even if you don’t implement any of the previous six steps, do this one.  It is super easy and it let’s students and parents know that you value their participation in your program.

What do you do to make check-out time less chaotic?  Post a comment and let us know!

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.

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.

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.