Learning Dreams at Cherokee Heights
Schools throughout the country have found themselves force to restructure, based on test scores. Leaving aside questions of the efficacy of testing and the fairness of testing ESL students in English, the restructuring process can be seen as a frustration, or an opportunity. Cherokee Heights Magnet Elementary has chosen to view their restructuring as the latter, and are embarking on an exciting new project called Learning Dreams. Learning Dreams is a project built around the idea that if you improve learning for the entire family, the kids will have better academic outcomes. When Learning Dreams takes on a school, they send representatives to the homes of every student and ask the parents what their learning dreams are, what they’ve always wanted to do or explore. Learning Dreams volunteers then help the parents pursue those dreams. The idea is, when children see their parents valuing learning, they’ll come to value it as well. Eventually, the Learning Dreams representative works with every member of the family, and the family as a whole, helping them to explore and try new things while pursuing their learning dreams.
Learning Dreams was developed by Jerry Stein, in the University of Minnesota’s School of Social Work in the College of Education and Human Development. Mr. Stein has pioneered this program in two other schools in Minneapolis. Truancy in these schools has dropped dramatically, and parent involvement has shot through the roof.
The Learning Dreams project will involve the entire West Side in creating a culture of learning. Families will be more likely to take advantage of the various opportunities already being offered by members of the NLC. Perhaps, through all the increased interest in learning opportunities, new programs will arise to fulfill the needs of families.
The Learning Dreams project cannot succeed without the help of volunteers. Mr. Stein will be conducting trainings throughout the summer, in preparation to roll out the program in the fall. Those interested in volunteering should contact him at jerry@learningdreams.org. For more information, and to watch a great video documenting the Learning Dreams process, visit learningdreams.org.
Teen Power Going Strong
Teen Power formed through a partnership with Urban 4-H Youth Development, El Rio Recreation Center, Neighborhood House and the Neighborhood Learning Community in 2008. Here’s what some of the youth wrote about the program. “First it was a bunch of us creating beats and trying spoken word. Then the youth workers created a space for us to explore our talents more. We all love music in some way and support the group through our strengths. Some of us rap, some of us dance, some of us organize, and some of us create visuals. We decided on the name Teen Power, because we wanted power within our community. Sometimes adults don’t think youth care or have opinions about what’s going on around them. Through this group we have been able to show our community that we do care and that we are leaders. We have recorded political songs, such as: Go Vote, No More War, Life Struggles, and Discrimination. These songs made people take us seriously. We have also recorded tracks for fun to make you want to dance and to show how we can work together. Besides working on music, we want to be good citizens.”
This Spring Teen Power has been very busy, creating new music, performing, conducting youth-led evaluations and even writing grants! The group wrote and was awarded a small grant through the MN 4-H Foundation for their Kid Power program idea. Kid Power will be a day camp experience for younger kids in the community to learn about dance, song, writing, video editing and more from older youth. Youth in the Teen Power program will plan and lead this mentoring opportunity to serve as role models and teach younger kids what they’ve learned from the program. In April, Teen Power performed at the Urban 4-H Showcase Event and presented their Too Cool video at the project fair (which was selected for the Most Motivated/Self Inspired Award). Members of Teen Power also were awarded 1st, 2nd, and 4th place prices for their vocal performances and 1st place in spoken word. The best part of the day was during the judges break when Teen Power showed their true leadership skills by inviting the group of 200 youth and families on stage to dance to music and get to know each other better. They sure know how to pump up the crowd!
Urban Boat Builders
Students at Humboldt Secondary School have spent the past several months up to their elbows in sawdust and laquer, as they have worked with the folks from Urban Boat Builders to create two seaworthy crafts. This is the second year of the partnership between UBB and Humboldt, and both years have been a wonderful experience for all involved. When building a boat together, students learn how to communicate, work as a team, and they learn a valuable craft. And there’s nothing like seeing a big, beautiful thing that you made with your own two hands.
West Side Ambassadors
This spring break, the NLC is offering young people the chance to become West Side Ambassadors! On Monday, March 29, tours will be leaving from Neighborhood House and Boys and Girls Club, which will visit sites all over the West Side where learning happens. We’ll stop by the West Side Citizens Organization and learn how to take responsibility for our community, and make books at Riverview Library. We’ll see what the new Baker Center has to offer, and aquaint ourselves with the programs at Neighborhood House and Boys and Girls Club. Ambassadors will receive stamps in their West Side Passport at every stop. Filled out passports will go into a drawing on Thursday, at Boys and Girls Club at 4pm, and those that visit extra sites, or return to stops on the tour, will be entered into the grand prize drawing! Prizes will include Dairy Queen gift certificates and a $50 Target card!
We hope to see you there!
Youth Apprentices on the West Side
Youth (yooth) – a set of thoughtful, passionate leaders who come to the table with curiosity and power to be unleashed
Apprenticeship (ə-prěn’tĭs-shĭp) – relationship between youth and mentor, from which the youth derives skills, guidance, and challenge, and the mentor derives renewed outlook, meaning, and challenge
Project (proj’ěkt’) – a grand connection that yields great change
Youth are powerful agents of change. This summer, 20 young people in grades 9-12 will be connecting to the West Side neighborhood in St. Paul, Minnesota, and impacting the way it works and grows.
They’ll engage in this process through the Youth Apprenticeship Project (YAP).
Youth who participate in the YAP program are paid through the City of Saint Paul Youth Job Corps to spend 15 hours a week in a neighborhood business or organization working with a committed mentor. While the student will be doing work for the organization, his or her position is transformed from just a job to an apprenticeship because of the committed support of the mentor and the opportunity for meaningful work. This is an exciting way to build capacity in neighborhood organizations and develop young people’s skills in a place-based context.
YAP program staff, including myself, will work with youth at weekly meetings to develop and reflect upon the skills they’re learning in their apprenticeships. We’ll coach the apprentices as they do additional work on projects related to relevant issues in the neighborhood, bringing their personal skills into a community context.
We see this project as a great opportunity that will yield great change, connecting youth to mentors, to one another, and to a larger movement of community building in their neighborhood. These connections are a foundation of support for youth to engage their curiosity and enact their power.
This year, youth will get involved by attending YAP Interview Day on Saturday, March 20 from 12 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Wellstone Center in St. Paul. They will have brief interviews and fill out applications. Young people must interview by March 30, and should hand applications in at the Baker Community Center by April 2. To participate, young people must currently be in 9-12 grade and live or go to school in the West Side neighborhood.
If you’d like more information on YAP, please contact Deb Klein at kleind@augsburg.edu.
This post was written by Deb Klein, coordinator of the Youth Apprenticeship Project based on the West Side of St. Paul, Minn. Interested young people in grade 9 to 12 are invited to Interview Day this Saturday or to arrange another time to be interviewed before March 30. Applications are due April 2.
Underground Writer’s Club
Every Tuesday and Thursday, a handful of students from Guadalupe Alternative Programs High School gather after school to write. They write poems, essays, short stories, and they critique one another’s work. Here is a sample:
Women’s Locker Room
by Jen
Dialogue writing on the hater wall inside the stall clearly writing on the wall. Bustiitiz that girl is triumphant travels like the man in the middle of a night cap. She’s trippin not to woof but she’s snitch. Revealing herself tall on the wall.
Permanent Poetry
Every writer hopes one day to be published, some way or another. Well, the City of St Paul is providing an unique opportunity to make that happen in the Annual Sidewalk Poetry Contest. How would you like to see your work immortalized in concrete? The city will give five poets the chance to have their poetry stamped into part of the 10 miles of sidewalk they’ll be replacing this year.
This could be your work!
Said project creator and city Artist in Residence, Marcus Young, “We must be the only place it the world that creates public art as we fix our sidewalks. Fixing sidewalks is necessary work, and publishing poetry in concrete is practical, enduring, and surprisingly captivating. Our city is not just a city, but can be the biggest anthology of poems ever made.” In the three years the contest has been running, 261 panels have been installed featuring 26 different poems by St Paul lyricists.
Entries must be 10 lines or less, with each line maxing out at 40 characters, including spaces, with a no more than 250 characters, including spaces. Entries can be submitted at www.stpaul.gov/poetry.
West Side Youth Connection
Once a month, youth workers from around the West Side gather to discuss a variety of concerns, successes and important issues around young people and learning. This group is called the West Side Youth Connection, or the WSYC. The WSYC meets at a different location each month, so we can get to know one another’s space. We have met at Neighborhood House, Riverview Library, Torre de san Miguel, and Baker Community Center. Participants come from all these places and more, including the West Side Citizens Organization, Boys and Girls Club, St Paul Community Education, Dunedin Apartments, Parks and Recreation and Humboldt Secondary School. At our meetings, we discuss ways to better serve youth by sharing resources, or by discussing new methods and ideas. We also eat lunch!
Our next meeting will be on March 4th, from 12-1:30pm, at Boys and Girls Club (291 East Belvidere). We’ll be discussing the results of some shared data collection and discussing what those results mean for the West Side. If you’re interested in young people and learning on the West Side, please attend!
Welcome to Our Blog
Welcome to the new blog for the Neighborhood Learning Community! Soon, we hope to have lots of posts describing all kinds of awesome learning happening on St. Paul’s West Side. If you have a story you’d like to tell, email jpiersonnlc@gmail.com
