21st Century Grants Help Ohio Afterschool
Note: Kansas also offers these 21st Century grants to afterschool programs. Contact Deb Elder at delder@ku.edu to find out how to apply.
Learning grant makes after school special
By JESSICA BURCHARD
Gazette Staff Writer
http://www.chillicothegazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060202/NEWS01/602020304/1002
FRANKFORT - When you scan the Adena Elementary School library after dismissal, you see an entire world of academic and social activities unfold.
At one desk, a student sits with her tutor reviewing multiplication tables, while at another students create scrapbooks. All the activities are made possible by the school district's 21st Century Learning Grant, which provides the district with funding for after-school programs.
"Our main objects are to enrich academics and health," said Marah Sharpe, coordinator of the grant programs. "We're not teaching them anything new here. We're just reviewing what they've been taught in class."
The federally funded grant is designed to assist the district in helping its student body improve performance on standardized tests. It concentrates on math, reading and writing, but also addresses fitness and other factors.
Adena Elementary received the grant during the 2004-05 school year, and it will continue through spring 2010. It funds academic, social and fitness activities for students kindergarten through fifth grade.
The school will receive a total of $1.2 million over a five-year period through the grant.
As part of the grant, the elementary must partner with local businesses to provide services to students. Sharpe collaborates with K & C Educational Associates on academics, the Ross County Health District on fitness and nutrition and Southern Hills Academy for cultural activities.
One student said it's the variety of activities she does that make staying after school fun.
"There's really cool things you can do," said third-grade student Brianna Wilson, 9. "The smaller groups of kids make it easier to learn."
Brianna is among the 80 students who attend the programs. The kindergarten students have the K-Club Tuesdays, the first- and second-grade students meet Mondays and Tuesdays, while third- through fifth-graders participate the rest of the week.
The kindergarten activities run from 3:15 to 5 p.m., but all the other programs are from 3:15 to 6:15 p.m.
"We have six different centers for students to participate in," said Sharpe. "There's language arts, which focuses on writing and reading, computers, a theme center that changes every nine weeks and a math games group."
The centers are directed by volunteers, teachers aides and local business people.
Ron Bateson, of K & C Educational Associates, serves as the instructional coordinator.
He coordinates the computer-oriented activities students do.
"We have computer station time with the Orchard program with a reading, language arts, math and writing portions," he said. "It's very visual, very colorful. It also adjusts for grade levels."
Students spend about 20 minutes at each computer station reviewing skills in a subject before switching to another computer. This enables them to go over multiplication, division, fractions, grammar and literature in a direct setting.
Sharpe said the computer program serves another purpose.
"It had all sorts of practice skills that have to do with state mandated content standards," she said. "Orchard doesn't feel like a test because they're on a computer. So many of our students are technologically advanced and like computers."
The grant requires the Orchard program be used to strengthen students' skills.
For Brianna, the best part of Orchard is one of the visual programs.
"My favorite is Kid Pics," she said. "You get to put little pictures into boxes. I get to play it one time on Thursdays."
Parents also are taking an active role in the grant activities.
Kim Pollock, mother of first-grader Alex, helped out when the Ohio Cultural Center visited the school.
"I help with the extracurricular activities they do," she said. "Alex absolutely loves the programs. He loves that they teach him about food. He learned about table manners."
Pollock said her son is teaching his sister about hygiene such as hand-washing and brushing her teeth. These are things he learned from a health district presentation.
Another student found making a scrapbook for the upcoming Winter Olympics her preferred activity.
"I'm learning about the Olympics and having a lot of fun," said 10-year-old Samantha Morris, while applying a purple gluestick to a cutout of a figure skater. "I watch them every year. When I grow up, I want to be a figure skater."
She smiles and quickly smoothes the glue-smothered cutout down on her scrapbook cover.
