Youthlearn News Archive 2006

The Liberty Mutual Foundation is accepting grant applications on a rolling basis for projects that focus on education, health and human services and is giving priority to mentoring and afterschool programs. Grants are awarded to programs that encourage disadvantaged youth to excel in education, programs that improve quality of life or promote safe communities, programs that support arts and culture, or community development initiatives.

The Libri Books for Children Grants donate new, quality, hardcover children’s books for small, rural, public libraries across the country. Eligibility: Libraries should be in a rural area, have a limited operating budget, and an active children's department. The average total operating budget of a Books for Children grant recipient is less than $40,000. Deadline: April 15, 2006.

>From the Friends of International Education (Wisconsin) listserv:

The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) has created a list of bibliographies called 'Growing Up Around the World: Books as Passports to Global Understanding for Children in the United States.' The list includes books that accurately depict contemporary life in other countries.

Five regions: Africa; the Americas; Asia and the Middle East; Australia and New Zealand; and Europe are represented.

Laura M. Schulte-Cooper
Association for Library Service to Children 800-545-2433, ext. 2165 lschulte@ala.org"

Monica Biswas, of YouthLearn, has just returned from Mbandaka, in Equateur province of DRC. This was the third training with a group of administrators who are in charge of training and inspecting teachers in primary school. Anecdotal data so far indicate positive impacts on teaching practices.
I've been working with this particular group of administrators for just over one year. They have come a long long way. They are at ease with the concepts of “active pedagogy”, letting students discover things on their own, letting them learn from each other, as well as from the teacher.

The Coalition for Community Schools releases new paper, Community-based Learning: Engaging Students for Success and Citizenship."
"Students are bored. Research shows that as many as 60% of all students are disengaged from learning. A new study funded by the Gates Foundation, highlights disengagement as a key factor in the dropout rate. Community-based Learning addresses the problems of boredom and disengagement by involving students in real-world problem solving that is relevant and meaningful.

As the "blogosphere" continues its rapid expansion, more teachers are using Web logs to engage students in the world at large. Experts offer their list of favorite edublogs and note that teachers and students have yet to exploit the new medium to its fullest.

To encourage and promote crime prevention, community service, and civic responsibility, the National Crime Prevention Council is offering grants of up to $500 for young people’s service learning projects in their schools and communities. Deadlines for spring and summer programs are April 1 and June 1, respectively.

The AED Center for Youth Development and Policy Research wants to make sure you are aware of the most recent American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF) publication "Helping Youth Succeed Through Out-of-School Time".
This report clearly has connections relevant to your afterschool programs, research and practices.

The report and announcement are attached in PDF and can be downloaded as well at www.aypf.org/publications.

For further information, please visit: www.aypf.org

Students use Internet resources and Microsoft Word drawing tools to brainstorm (through webbing) questions about a person they will research and write about."
"It's biography time in your middle school classroom and students are looking a little shell-shocked. Why not help them get started with this tech-enriched lesson?

Prior to the lesson, students should have a basic understanding of some features of Word (Save, Print, and the top menu bars) and be able to navigate the Internet.

A philanthropic program of the Kohl's Corporation, the Kohl's Kids Who Care program provides Kohl's an annual opportunity to recognize and reward young volunteers who transform their communities for the better.

Any individual 21 years of age and older may nominate children and youth who are 6 to 18 years old and have not yet graduated from high school by March 15, 2006. Nominators will be asked to describe a young community volunteer's actions in detail and document efforts that are above and beyond what is normally expected.