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Working Together to Support Out-of-School Time Learning
Addressing the Risks and Rewards of 3-6 pm

risks-of--3-6-pm

The bell rings, signaling the start of afterschool for a half million children in the Central Valley. For too many this time is unsupervised, marked by the risks associated with boredom and unstructured time.

The risky behaviors: bullying, drugs, gangs, alcohol, sexual activity, pornography, crime, suicide, and other self-destructive activities.

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Middle School Students Discover School-day and Real-world Opportunities

 Jefferson Middle School

 

 

 

 

 




Afterschool programs of the past faced a dilemma with middle school students. Usually elementary school curriculum was adapted for middle school, but students transitioning to high school would not engage.

Today, middle school students have exciting opportunities for exploration, autonomy and real-world challenges. In programs throughout the Central Valley, afterschool is cleverly connecting students to their schools and real lives outside the school walls.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, 25 percent of older youth afterschool participants drop out of their programs within two months, citing disinterest in the activities.

“We don’t fully appreciate the unique nature of the social, emotional and cognitive development of middle school youth,” said Rico Peralta, director of program development at Central Valley Afterschool Foundation. “They are not being properly engaged so they vote with their feet.”

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Kings County Students Enjoy Learning with “Staytrips”

 Science is Fun 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The opposite of a vacation is the newly coined term, “staycation”—where the traveler stays in town and creates a “vacation” at home. Well, what is the opposite of a field trip–where students stay at school and let the field trip action come to them? A new afterschool term called the “staytrip”, which has become a remedy for some of the unique challenges afterschool coordinators face in rural Kings County.

“If we can’t go to them, then we will have them come to us,” said Denise Dean, second grade teacher and afterschool site coordinator at Armona Elementary School.

Thus began the process of compiling a database of resources and organizations that would be willing to travel to Kings County afterschool programs to create a field trip experience. According to Donna Rix, education/learning coordinator for Kings County Office of Education, the Afterschool Resource Database is the key to opening a new world to students who might otherwise only know the confines of their rural community. 

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