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Maker-centered learning teaches life skills — critical thinking, collaboration, and communication. Other aspects of education encourage and cultivate these skills in students, but one of the unique things about maker-centered learning is that it teaches students these particular skills in an interdisciplinary way.
Erica Yoon, joined Citizen Schools after graduating from UC Berkeley with a Bachelors majoring in Cognitive Science Education minor. Serving as a AmeriCorps Teaching Fellow at Greenleaf K-8 Elementary School family in Oakland, California, she says “I love this job! It is definitely a position that comes with various challenges, but the relationships I make and the improvements I see on a daily basis keep me going.” Outside of work, she enjoys going for swims, playing Monopoly Deal, and singing karaoke.
An avid soccer player, Santy explained that the only reason he even heard about Menlo School, a private school in Atherton, was because of an after-school program, Citizen Schools, where he would wait out the gap of time between the end of school and the start of soccer practice and took an extracurricular course about local private school opportunities.
This month our employee spotlight goes to Vanessa Bishop, Regional Director of the Massachusetts region. When asked where she gets her inspiration from she had this to say, “My faith and students. When I think about both of them, they give me a purpose to keep going when things are challenging. My faith reminds me that there is a bigger purpose in everything that I do. On the same note, our students our the center of all the work and they deserve the best we can give. “
The California Community College Makerspace initiative (CCC Maker) has partnered with the National Association of Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE) to present make/SHIFT -- the Makerspace Ecosystem Summit in Irvine, CA on April 24-26. Registration is open for make/SHIFT and early bird discounts are available through February 28.
While talent is everywhere, the opportunity to develop the skills, mindsets, and networks needed for success is not. By the time they reach middle school, it has been shown that middle school students from middle-class families have spent 6,000 more hours learning than kids born into poverty. That’s where nonprofit organizations such as Citizen Schools come in, helping young students get the tools and networks that they need to later thrive as adults in a fast-moving economy.
Citizen Schools, a national nonprofit organization headquartered in Boston, is pleased to announce Kathryn Gabriele has been named the Campus Director at the East Somerville Community School. As Campus Director, she will oversee Citizen Schools out-of-school time programming at East Somerville Community School, where she will work with a team of AmeriCorps Teaching Fellows and school administrative staff to provide hands-on learning experiences, taught in partnership with local volunteers, for students.
A team of five intrepid students from Fischer Renaissance participated in a FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Qualifier tournament at Santa Clara High School November 11, 2018 as part of a Citizen School Apprenticeship. Lead by by a team of mentors, and Americorps members James Wesselman (myself) and Jamila Mentuhotep (Citizen Schools Teaching Fellows), the team finished the fun filled day ranking 6th in the robot game outperforming experienced better funded teams.
Citizen Schools strongly supports the recommendations released today by the Aspen Institute National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development. “From a Nation at Risk to a Nation at Hope” asserts that our nation is at a turning point: We now understand that social, emotional, and cognitive development underpin children’s academic learning. This breakthrough understanding about how people learn is fueling a growing movement to educate children as whole people, with social and emotional as well as academic needs.
At Citizen Schools, no role is more essential to the success of our students than that of the AmeriCorps Teaching Fellow. Citizen Schools National Teaching Fellows create extraordinary enrichment and academic support experiences for the students we serve the nation. On a daily basis, Fellows deepen connections between schools and parents, help to develop social-emotional skills through mentoring and coaching students, and facilitate hands-on learning opportunities through our apprenticeships
I get my inspiration from my childhood, my students, and my team. When I see the students come into after school every day, I think about my days in middle school when I had the opportunity to be part of an amazing after school program. I want to be able to provide the same great after school experience or even better than I had growing up and I know my team and I can make it happen for them.
On Tuesday, December 11th, Citizen Schools Massachusetts students from the Trotter Innovation School, East Somerville Community School and Orchard Gardens K-8 schools got the chance showcase all that they have learned and practiced in a Mock Trial at the Moakley Courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts.
December 19, 2018 - BOSTON, MA - Today, Make For All, a national coalition of leading education organizations, is issuing a 2019 call to action for K-12 schools, colleges, companies, makerspaces, museums, libraries, local governments, agencies and non-profit organizations across the country to work together and expand their efforts to support maker-centered learning, and build a strong focus on equity that reaches all students.
Through this program, service year participants will have the opportunity to develop essential technology skills, discover pathways into tech careers, and leverage technology to solve society’s most pressing challenges. As part of the new Service+Tech network, service year participants will have access to free, technology-focused resources and activities, including coding training opportunities, local civic tech hackathons, speaker series events, and tech career resources.
Jacky Bailey is a volunteer Citizen Teacher who joined Citizen Schools, after moving to the Bay Area from Australia, because she missed working with students and wanted to get to know her new community. When Bailey decided to teach an apprenticeship with Citizen Schools for the second time, she wanted to ensure her students could enact and advocate for change in the real world - and not just theoretically in the classroom.
Fresh from a visit to the greenhouse and a bit of weeding in a row of radishes and pumpkins, 18 youngsters gathered to show what they’d soaked up during their field trip to the Veggielution organic farm in San Jose.
Here at Citizen Schools, the work that we do everyday would not be possible without our amazing employees. All who go above and beyond their everyday call of duty to ensure that our young people, schools and communities get the best that they deserve. Each month, we are going to spotlight one amazing Citizen Schools employee. Here is our first one, Lauren Chamberlain
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