Excellence is a standard we all want to achieve in summer learning. It’s also a bar that can seem unattainable. But programs large and small, well-established or just starting out, have things about them that are excellent. Maybe it’s an inspiring, veteran teacher; a unique campus or curriculum; a fantastic assessment system; or a determined young student who returns summer after summer, encouraging other kids to do the same.
That’s why we’ve designated January as Excellence month at the Association, and launched the “What Makes You Excellent?” campaign on our Twitter and Facebook pages. As the Feb. 11 deadline for applications for the 2011 Excellence in Summer Learning Awards approaches, we want to know what makes your program excellent, and to help share your stories in Tweets, pictures, links, and videos.
Please share your examples of excellence with us. Send us a Tweet, write on our Facebook wall, or email videos, longer stories, or anything else you have that shows the excellent ways in which you serve disadvantaged youth, and the Association will be sure to share.
Don’t forget to download your Excellence in Summer Learning Award application now. In addition to selecting awardees this year, the Association plans to recognize models of excellence in STEM programs, school-community partnership programs, and transitions programs among the applicants.
Program quality manager Larry Smith is eager to hear from you and to help if you’re in the process of completing the application. Good luck!
January 14th, 2011
The latest post from our Summer Changes Everything host committee features Gail Thomas Strong of WFYI in Indianapolis, who shares great insights about how to make summer learning stick — as well as a favorite place for you to visit while you’re in Indy.
Summer should be about memories. And as adults in summer programs, part of our work should be around creating those memories – new friends, new skills, new learning, and new sense of accomplishment.
I remember a summer camp where I learned to shoot a bow and arrow, and one where I finally managed to get the foil dinner cooked all the way through. There was the summer when I resolved to read an entire mystery series, so made daily trips to the library on my bike. Another summer I set up a candy store in my grandmother’s yard with a friend, and learned a lot about supply and demand – and about eating one’s profits!
As a youth leader, I made it my mission to make sure summers had learning moments every step of the way. The key word was “intentional.” How could we learn more about nature while walking to the pool? How could a field trip to the art museum reveal more than the lovely pieces in the building? How could the teen trip out of town be a prolonged experience in map-reading, budgeting, goal-setting, itinerary-planning, and reflecting? On good days, learning happens incidentally, but on great days, learning happens every minute by design. Camp is more fun, the experience is more meaningful, and the long-term outcomes stick more strongly.
See you at Summer Changes Everything in Indy in November. I’ll bet you have memories of a summer that changed your understanding of who you are and what you could do. At this conference, you’ll learn more about how to make that happen for your campers every day. And while you’re here, visit the new Rhythm Discovery Center museum downtown at Washington and Illinois. Awesome place!
September 20th, 2010
