Opportunity for Community/Student Engagement

AWAKENING: MOTION is about equality in mobility. Everyone — whether you take the bus, walk, ride a bike or drive a car — has the right to get from Point A to Point B safely, affordably and with dignity. Charleston’s Upper Peninsula is home to six neighborhoods with 3,100+ residents, 1,500+ housing units and 500+…

Celebrating Local Culture with Deninufay

Deninufay African Dance and Drum Production’s mission is to uplift and encourage youth to be awesome one dance at a time. They have worked with Engaging Creative Minds, performed at various festivals, offer classes for kids, and can be booked for school or afterschool events to perform or teach students the various dance styles. What…

Summer Learning is Important

Disadvantaged children fall even further behind in academics during what has been termed the ‘summer slide’. According to the National Summer Learning Association: Most students lost 2 months of math skills with low-income students losing another couple 9 in 10 teachers spend at least 3 weeks re-teaching material at the start of a new school…

The Benefits of Mindfulness Begins with the Teacher or Provider

Teachers and afterschool providers who finds themselves becoming increasingly interested in mindfulness and integrating mindfulness into their classrooms or programs have to keep one very important thing in mind…it starts with them. Introducing kids to mindful awareness, bringing attention to their breath, focusing their mind on particular thoughts or mantras, has been shown in recent…

A Walking Classroom

According to the National Afterschool Association “80 percent of what we know is acquired through listening, which is closely connected with reading comprehension. There is also a strong connection between increased physical activity and improved brain function.” The Walking Classroom is a unique approach to learning that combines physical activity with active learning via podcast. Students…

Teaching Measurement Skills for Life

Students having the knowledge and familiarity with various forms of measurements is important because the need for measuring and estimating will appear in innumerable ways throughout their lives, whether it be in baking a cake, arranging the furniture in a room, or creating various crafts. A UK research study has found that since the 1970s,…

Fight Back Against the Opioid Epidemic

Operation Prevention is the brainchild of a collaboration between the Drug Enforcement Administration and Discovery Education hoping to activate and facilitate conversations about drug-free living, particularly as it relates to opioid abuse and addiction. The site provides resources including lesson plans that vary by age group. Majority of people in the U.S. have in some…

We ♥ Afterschool! Celebrate February 14th

February 14th is We Love Afterschool! day and the Afterschool Alliance has created a toolkit for you to use with your students. Students will be able to express what it is about the afterschool community they love and share it with the wider public. As Valentine’s Day approaches, share messages on social media using the…

CofC highlighted in NAESP Afterschool and Summer Learning Site!

The new portal on NAESP’s Afterschool and Summer Learning site is up and running. Fran Welch, Dean of Education, Health, and Human Performance, and Courtney Howard, Director of the Center for Partnerships to Improve Education, both make appearances in the video discussing various Charleston schools’ partnership with the College. The Summer STEAM Institute as well…

Palmetto Artisans

We’ve all seen or encountered the children in downtown Charleston selling the palmetto roses, perhaps purchasing one or two on occasion. Perhaps you’ve also noticed the booths set up in various areas or those selling the roses wearing bright yellow shirts. Its these young sellers who are part of Charleston Recreation Department’s Youth Palmetto Art…