Catalyst Teacher Sylvia Beckham has been an invaluable asset to the Innovation Cohort and advancing STEM learning. She provided some practical tips for teachers who are looking to bring experiential learning into the classroom.
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Make For All, a national coalition of leading organizations focused on broadening access to maker-centered learning opportunities for students is announcing 40 new partnerships, collaborations and initiatives.
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In April 2021, Trevon Adams, Nadia K. Selby, and Kruschef Sanchez were invited to join Connor Anovick, a former Citizen Schools volunteer himself. They discuss how COVID has impacted public schools and how Citizen Schools supports public schools, both during and before the pandemic.
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The Makers + Mentors Network Maker Fellow program is designed to connect K-12 students to new, disruptive learning opportunities that help students build the academic and social-emotional skills key to their success in school, post-secondary enrollment, and workforce placement. We are adding ten new locations in four new states, and with a growing number of HBCUs and our first tribal college partner as host sites.
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Citizen Schools students recently had the opportunity to participate in our special Shark Tank event, which included four weeks of learning through a detailed set of modules called GoIT. Students who participated had the opportunity to learn about app development and pitched ideas to a panel of judges.
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When you are serving students during a pandemic, your after-school programming looks a lot different.
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During our three-part series, Elevating Voices For Equity, we learn, engage, and bring together community members to uplift Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) voices. In our first event, K-12 Educational Equity and Access, we hear from: Orlando Watkins, Jean Claude Brizard, Amanda Fernandez, Bing Howell, and Frankline Mardi.
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Citizen Schools Makers + Mentors Network is leading a team as part of the Reach for the Upside initiative, hosted by the K12 Lab at Stanford's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the “d.school”) in partnership with Genentech and with participation of Northern California Community foundations.
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2020 has been a year filled with tragedy, anxiety and uncertainty as communities have dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic and the greater realization that systemic racism has existed for years and that something must be done about this immediately. We also saw intense wildfires and storms affecting so many areas of the country, including some in our own backyard. We know that these catastrophic events have disproportionately affected communities of color.
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If you’re a parent or teacher, you’re probably familiar with the many challenges of remote learning. Sherry Tom, earth science teacher at Hostos Lincoln Academy of Science in Bronx, NY, is both, doing her best to support her students while sharing a workspace with her husband and two elementary school kids. “At school, my kids are led from one activity to the next. When learning from home, they’re expected to navigate Google Classroom on their own because I’m working and their dad is working.”
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Most middle school memories are a bit hazy, but Isabel Morales remembers clearly how much she enjoyed her Community Development apprenticeship as a Citizen Schools student at Robinson Middle School in Lowell, MA. “We went to so many places in Lowell and I learned so much about the city. I grew up in Lowell but my parents weren’t born here, so I didn’t have that family connection to it. Learning about the history of it and being a part of fixing it up was really meaningful to me.” 12 years later, Isabel has come full circle as a first year Teaching Fellow (TF) serving students at Winter Hill Community School in Somerville, MA.
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Earlier this month, Citizen Schools’ Maker Fellows participated in the Maker Fellows Institute, a 4-day immersive learning experience focused on introducing this year’s cohort to the pedagogy and research, techniques and tools that will support their efforts to create more opportunities for K-12 students to engage in maker-centered learning.
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It never crossed my mind that I’d be using my STEM-related skills at an internship with a nonprofit. However, my time with Citizen Schools as an IT Specialist Intern has taught me that STEM is just as essential for nonprofits as it is for science/engineering focused industries.
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BOSTON, MA – Makers + Mentors Network, a Citizen Schools STEM initiative, is partnering with community colleges and historically black colleges and universities to launch an innovative new program called Maker Fellows this fall. This program will connect over 25,000 K-12 students to maker-centered learning opportunities that help students build the academic and social emotional skills key to their success in school, postsecondary enrollment and workforce placement. Through service in their local communities and participation in targeted professional development, Maker Fellows will launch a career as leaders and champions of maker-centered learning and mentorship for underserved students.
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On Wednesday, July 29, Citizen Schools CEO Emily McCann was featured as one of the guest panelists on MENTOR’s webinar, which explored how educators and organizations are implementing relationship-based approaches to support underserved students impacted most heavily by both COVID-19 and violent racial injustices. Now more than ever, educators must prioritize students’ social and emotional learning (SEL), and many are turning to relationship-based approaches like mentorship for impact.
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We are incredibly fortunate to have Michael Keating join us at the start of this fiscal year as the new Chair of Citizen Schools’ National Board of Directors. Mike is currently a Partner at Foley Hoag and former Board Chair of The Boston Foundation. "A lawyer and lifelong advocate for expanded opportunity, Mike Keating is one of Boston and the nation's great civic leaders and we at Citizen Schools are excited to welcome him as the next chair of our Board of Directors," said Eric Schwarz, Co-Founder of Citizen Schools and outgoing Chair of the Board.
We interviewed Mike recently and discussed what inspired him to serve his community and to his new role with Citizen Schools.
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Today, Citizen Schools’ Make For All initiative is launching its 2020 national call for commitments in support of maker-centered learning at FabxLive, the global Fab Lab Network conference, hosted by the Fab Foundation. In 2019, Make For All announced 50+ commitments, representing 295 organizations and partners in support of maker-centered learning, focused on empowering students to develop the mindset, skills and experiences that are critical to preparing them for the jobs of the future, being innovative problem-solvers and creative entrepreneurs. These commitments will serve more than 768,000 students in 149 communities across the U.S. through 2021.
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Daana Archer isn’t like the teachers most of us are used to. She remembers her learning experience in middle school as “one-directional—the teacher was the holder of all information and knowledge, we accepted it and that was the end of it.” But Archer is one of many teachers across the country today striving to transform the way students learn, especially important given the unprecedented shift to virtual instruction.
The Catalyst Virtual Climate Science unit was just the research and project-based curriculum Archer needed in the midst of the pandemic.
As we watch heartbreak unfold across the country, Citizen Schools stands with our communities, our staff and service members, students and families to honor the memories of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery and all of those whose lives have been lost to senseless acts of racism and police violence. We denounce, in the strongest possible terms, the institutional racism ripping our nation apart, and declare, with pride, that Black Lives Matter.
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