On September 19, 2009, Richmond County School System (RCSS) hosted a community summit on the issue of dropout prevention with a grant made possible by America’s Promise Alliance.
Everyone who attended received an email with an opportunity to complete a survey which in turn would provide attendees with a $25.00 Donors Choose credit to donate to a project.
I received my email and went to select a project in RCSS to donate the $25.00...but no educators in the RCSS have registered a project. So I sent an email to my school board member, the Superintendent, and finally the Public Information Director (PID). I also created the RCSS Dropout Prevention Ning and posted the same request there...Where is everyone donating the $25 Donors Choose credit?
The only response I received was from the PID stating he would look into it. So I am throwing the question to the net...the neighboring county has 2 projects, 17 projects from the schools I attended growing up, 80 projects in the county where my daughter attended HS in FL. Donors Choose has many projects and you can tailor the selection of projects using a multitude of options.
So where do I apply this $25 donation?
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Saturday, October 31, 2009
3 References - Do your students have them?
One of the many challenges I encounter when working with our youth is their inability to provide a minimum of 3 references that are not family members or some unknown digital connection made through social media. Most adults do not have an issue with providing three references because of their life experience.
Working with students and even some adults while developing a student resumes, you can see the struggles as they learn to document their own accomplishments. Many of them discount what they do in their community, schools, churches, and extra curricular activities.
One thing I kept for my daughter throughout our travels was a binder that we titled, "Me book" which contained everything from certificates of accomplishment/achievement/appreciation that she received over the years. This binder played a role when she created her first student resume in middle school. The "Me book" continued to be a repository for points of contact and organizations, which allowed her to reflect about adults she could list as references during her job searches and volunteer activities.
This activity also ties into them setting up Google Alerts for their own names and searching for those they list as references. Some students want to list their high school teachers as references when they apply for jobs or volunteer activities because it is where they spend the majority of their high school life. They are also encouraged to contact everyone they want to list as a reference and ask their permission and to verify contact information.
So encourage and work with your students, your children, your neighbor's children to get involved and make the community connections needed. If someone asks you if they can list you as a reference, be honest. Some people do not want to be listed as a reference and other people do not mind at all, they just want to be aware if and when their name is being used. It can be challenging to hide the surprise when recieving a call about a particular student and to reference their work, character, or lack of when an organization calls to verify a listed reference.
If you had to provide 3 references for a career or volunteer position, could you?
If your students wanted to list you as a reference, how would you respond?
Working with students and even some adults while developing a student resumes, you can see the struggles as they learn to document their own accomplishments. Many of them discount what they do in their community, schools, churches, and extra curricular activities.
One thing I kept for my daughter throughout our travels was a binder that we titled, "Me book" which contained everything from certificates of accomplishment/achievement/appreciation that she received over the years. This binder played a role when she created her first student resume in middle school. The "Me book" continued to be a repository for points of contact and organizations, which allowed her to reflect about adults she could list as references during her job searches and volunteer activities.
This activity also ties into them setting up Google Alerts for their own names and searching for those they list as references. Some students want to list their high school teachers as references when they apply for jobs or volunteer activities because it is where they spend the majority of their high school life. They are also encouraged to contact everyone they want to list as a reference and ask their permission and to verify contact information.
So encourage and work with your students, your children, your neighbor's children to get involved and make the community connections needed. If someone asks you if they can list you as a reference, be honest. Some people do not want to be listed as a reference and other people do not mind at all, they just want to be aware if and when their name is being used. It can be challenging to hide the surprise when recieving a call about a particular student and to reference their work, character, or lack of when an organization calls to verify a listed reference.
If you had to provide 3 references for a career or volunteer position, could you?
If your students wanted to list you as a reference, how would you respond?
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Research Topic Ideas
Like many students I hit times in my day or night when I struggle with writer's block. To kick off ideas and have some fun I like to throw ideas and key words into Wordle or peruse the Wordle gallery. So here a couple of the results.
I modified the number of words to use, different layouts, and palettes, but creating the Wordle helped jump start my writing for the homework assignment.
How do you use Wordle?
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