Blast Off to the Summer Matters Program Staff Conference
Registration now open for this free conference
Summer Matters Program Staff Conference
Friday, May 13, 2016 from 8am-3pm
Allen Temple Baptist Church
8501 International Blvd., Oakland, CA 94621
Looking for inspiration, innovation, and momentum for your summer learning program? The 2016 Summer Matters Program Staff Conference is the only conference specifically designed for site coordinators, line staff, and teachers working directly with youth in a summer learning program. A full day of planning, doing, making, and learning that will give you tools and resources empowering you to deliver the highest quality program possible. It will host various Bay Area presenters with topics including: Program Spirit, Including Older Youth, Making Learning Active, Teaching Strategies, Communicating with Families, and Social-Emotional Learning.
Best of all, the conference is free! Register today to help your summer learning program BLAST OFF! Learn more at events.summermatters.net.
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Wow! How I wish I lived in California during the summer! The community I live in here in the southeast, I have not found to be as eager to utilize innovative ideas and share resources as I see with you all!
One of the things I have seen over the years is the lack of planned academic structure within the Child Care Centers. The predominant focus of course is on safety and fun during the summer months. I have queried many centers and the ones I surveyed did not have activities developed to embrace supportive summer learning that would strengthen what was already learned in the school year with introductions to the next grade for students in Pre-K to 5th grade, middle and high school. I believe such programs would definitely be welcomed by the parents and could be a very good enhancement to centers which would set them apart from the competition.
There are very few affordable summer programs that have transportation built in. The cost factors of having more than one child is particularly hard on single parent families, grand parents raising grand children and those whose wages just cannot be stretched any further to include summer activities.
Childhood obesity issues increase during the summer and so does grocery budgets for families whose children qualify for free and reduced breakfasts and lunches as well as after school snacks and suppers. The quality of summer meals can indeed fight off hunger pangs, but often are presented in areas that children have to walk to when parents are working. Libraries are a mainstay for many children during summer months because of air conditioning and access to computers.
I have developed a program that runs during the school year and during the summer to address the issues of planned academic activities that support the school day and also gives an affordable alternative to having nothing for a lot more children than we know. The idea of having virtual correspondence programs gave me a run for my sanity in creating something that was engaging, edutaining and easy to access and affordable to parents with multiple children. We are registering now and would love to see how we might connect with the Summer Matters organization in California! The tremendous gift of technology provides a lot more possibilities for collaboration. If anyone is interested I would love to talk about collaborating.