Artificial Intelligence: Terms and Definitions

By Sam Piha

Source: www.pexels.com

Almost every day there is a piece in the news about the opportunities and dangers of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Many young people, even those who are very tech savvy, know little about this topic. Adults, including those in afterschool programs, know even less. Yet, AI is all around us and is being used by companies more and more. 

We believe that youth need to understand more about AI, and afterschool is a perfect place to do this. But are afterschool leaders equipped for this? See our briefing paper on AI and afterschool here.

“It’s important for educators to understand AI so they can help their youth make sense of a technological development that is predicted to be a huge force in the world, experts say. It’s crucial for educators to be AI literate, to be able to explain what it is, and to understand its powers and limitations.” [1]

Below are some common and more esoteric AI terms and definitions that may be helpful.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) - AI is a machine’s ability to perform the cognitive functions we associate with human minds, such as perceiving, reasoning, learning, interacting with an environment, problem solving, and even exercising creativity. You’ve probably interacted with AI even if you didn’t realize it—voice assistants like Siri and Alexa are founded on AI technology, as are some customer service chatbots that pop up to help you navigate websites. [2]

Algorithm - a procedure used for solving a problem or performing a computation. Algorithms act as an exact list of instructions that conduct specified actions step by step in either hardware- or software-based routines. Algorithms are widely used throughout all areas of IT. In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm usually refers to a small procedure that solves a recurrent problem. Algorithms are also used as specifications for performing data processing and play a major role in automated systems. [3]

Deepfake - A deepfake is an image, or a video or audio recording, that has been edited using an algorithm to replace the person in the original with someone else (especially a public figure) in a way that makes it look authentic. [4] 

Strong AI - also known as artificial general intelligence, is a machine that can solve problems it’s never been trained to work on — much like a human can. This is the kind of AI we see in movies, like the robots from Westworld or the character Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation. This type of AI doesn’t actually exist yet. [5] 

Weak AI - sometimes referred to as narrow AI or specialized AI, operates within a limited context and is a simulation of human intelligence applied to a narrowly defined problem (like driving a car, transcribing human speech or curating content on a website). Weak AI is often focused on performing a single task extremely well. While these machines may seem intelligent, they operate under far more constraints and limitations than even the most basic human intelligence. Weak AI examples include: Siri, Alexa and other smart assistants, self-driving cars, Google search, email spam filters, and Netflix’s recommendations. [6]

Machine Learning (ML) - A machine learning algorithm is fed data by a computer and uses statistical techniques to help it “learn” how to get progressively better at a task, without necessarily having been specifically programmed for that task. Instead, ML algorithms use historical data as input to predict new output values. [7] 

Deep Learning - a type of machine learning that runs inputs through a biologically inspired neural network architecture. The neural networks contain a number of hidden layers through which the data is processed, allowing the machine to go “deep” in its learning, making connections and weighing input for the best results. [8]

The Four Types of AI - AI can be divided into four categories, based on the type and complexity of the tasks a system is able to perform. They are reactive machines, limited memory, theory of mind, and self-awareness. [9]

Source: www.pexels.com 

Reactive Machines - A reactive machine follows the most basic of AI principles and, as its name implies, is capable of only using its intelligence to perceive and react to the world in front of it. A reactive machine cannot store a memory and, as a result, cannot rely on past experiences to inform decision making in real time. Perceiving the world directly means that reactive machines are designed to complete only a limited number of specialized duties. Reactive Machine examples include Deep Blue, which was designed by IBM in the 1990s as a chess-playing supercomputer and defeated international grandmaster Gary Kasparov in a game. [10]

Limited Memory - Limited memory AI has the ability to store previous data and predictions when gathering information and weighing potential decisions — essentially looking into the past for clues on what may come next. Limited memory AI is more complex and presents greater possibilities than reactive machines. [11]

Theory of Mind - Theory of mind is just that — theoretical. We have not yet achieved the technological and scientific capabilities necessary to reach this next level of AI. The concept is based on the psychological premise of understanding that other living things have thoughts and emotions that affect the behavior of one’s self. In terms of AI machines, this would mean that AI could comprehend how humans, animals and other machines feel and make decisions through self-reflection and determination, and then utilize that information to make decisions of their own. Essentially, machines would have to be able to grasp and process the concept of “mind,” the fluctuations of emotions in decision-making and a litany of other psychological concepts in real time, creating a two-way relationship between people and AI. [12]

Self-Awareness -  Once theory of mind can be established, sometime well into the future of AI, the final step will be for AI to become self-aware. This kind of AI possesses human-level consciousness and understands its own existence in the world, as well as the presence and emotional state of others. It would be able to understand what others may need based on not just what they communicate to them but how they communicate it. Self-awareness in AI relies both on human researchers understanding the premise of consciousness and then learning how to replicate that so it can be built into machines. [13] 

Stay tuned to the LIAS Blog for more on the topic of AI. 

 

END NOTES

[1] Inspirit Scholars, What is AI for Kids? An Introduction to Artificial Intelligence for Kids, https://www.inspiritscholars.com/blog/what-is-ai-for-kids/ 

[2] McKinsey & Company, What is AI?, https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-ai

[3] Alexander S. Gillis, algorithm, https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/algorithm

[4] Mirriam- Webster, deepfake, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/deepfake#h1

[5] Alyssa Schroer, What is Artificial Intelligence?, https://builtin.com/artificial-intelligence

[6]-[13] IBID.

Lights On Afterschool 

Join more than 8,000 communities and 1 million Americans in celebrating afterschool programs for this year's Lights On Afterschool! This nationwide event, organized by the Afterschool Alliance, calls attention to the importance of afterschool programs and the resources required to keep the lights on and the doors open.  Everything you need to plan a successful event, from case studies to sample materials, is available in the Lights On Afterschool Planning Kit.

To learn more about Lights On Afterschool, register an event, access event planning tools, or to find out what’s going on in your area, visit afterschoolalliance.org.

From a Nation at Risk to a Nation at Hope

By Sam Piha

On Jan. 15, Aspen's National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development released a report, From a Nation at Risk to a Nation at Hope: Recommendations from the National Commission on Social, Emotional, & Academic Development. 

This report calls on all of us to ensure that all youth have access to quality social and emotional learning (SEL). We advise anyone who works with youth, whether in the classroom or in the community, to read this report. View the full report and its complementary research, practice, and policy briefs at NationatHope.org. 

Karen Pittman

When we interviewed Karen Pittman (Forum for Youth Investment and Aspen Report Commissioner) for the History of Afterschool documentary, we asked her about the rise of SEL and where afterschool fits in. She responded, “The concept of social, emotional and academic development has really sort of come to a frenzy in the past couple of years. It's certainly come to the attention of schools over the past decade.

Where does after school fit into all this? You would hope that we'd be right at the  forefront, saying, ‘We've been doing this for years. We know how to do it.’

Unfortunately, because we've been calling this youth development, when the K-12 field started to say, ‘We need to do social and emotional learning’, they were developing specific curricula around social and emotional learning, and we have a little bit of a language difference with K-12.

We think on the after school side that we know that these are the skills that young people are building, and we have had a focus on making sure that we're meeting those standards for developmental settings, and what we talked about is building quality programming. We’ve had a little bit of a hiccup in making sure that K-12 educators understand that when we talk about quality programming, we're talking about creating settings where these skills can happen.” 

Ms. Pittman also issued a letter to youth development leaders and funders regarding how best to leverage this report by the commission. You can read it here. You can also read commentaries by New York Times columnist David Brooks, by Rick Hess and Tim Shriver, and by Chester Finn. 

Playing to Win: Competitive Kid Capital

By Sam Piha

Sam Piha

In August of 2013, author Hilary Levey Friedman published her new book entitled Playing to Win: Raising Children in a Competitive Culture. In her book and subsequent article in the November issue of The Atlantic, Ms. Friedman contends that parents send their children to competitive afterschool programs to gain advantages that they can utilize when they enter the workforce. In interviewing middle-class and affluent parents, she learned that there are five skills that parents hope their kids will acquire, which she calls "Competitive Kid Capital". 

• "The importance of winning: Friedman writes, 'Such an attitude prepares children for winner-take-all settings like the school system and lucrative labor markets.'

• Learning from loss: This teaches kids perseverance and focus—traits that are valuable as children move through life if they want to work toward successful outcomes.

• Time management: 'Children need to learn how to manage their own schedules,' writes Friedman, 'something they may have to do some day as busy consultants and CEOs.'

• Adaptability: Participation in competitive out-of-school activities teaches children how to perform and compete in environments that require adaptation, such as taking the SAT, the LSAT or the bar exam, according to Friedman. 

• Grace under pressure: For example, the grace a student learns to maintain when performing in a ballet recital will serve that student well when interviewing for a job."(1)

Are these skills truly important for young people's success? Can we teach them in afterschool and summer programs that include kids from all economic backgrounds? Or are they skills that can only be acquired in "pay-to-play" afterschool programs? 

We contacted Hilary Levey Friedman to ask about the history of competitive activities in afterschool programs and issues regarding their accessibility. She was very gracious in answering our questions, some of which is cited below. 

Hilary Levey Friedman

Q: You write about the intentions of middle to upper class parents regarding competitive afterschool youth programs. Did you find some programs that were more diverse in the participants?

A:  Dance parents that I interviewed offered the most diversity, with several working class families. They valued the same skill set of competitive kid capital, but they did not know how to leverage it as well in terms of college admissions. I like to say that ALL parents want what is best for their kids, and they make choices based on what is available and realistic for their families. I write more about this issue here, which I think is helpful to highlight.  

Q: Can you comment on the differences between free and "pay-to-play" afterschool programs? 

A: ALL afterschool programs offer invaluable skill development and life lessons. But not all free programs are able to offer the same level of developed, organized competition. Chess provides one way to do this, as it costs less than, say, soccer or other sports activities. Services by community non-profits are incredibly important for other reasons (like giving kids a safe space in the afterschool hours), but they can't always fill the competitive void-- even though historically this is where competitive afterschool activities come from, as I detail in Chapter 1 of the book. If you don't have the book the full chapter is available for download on UC Press' website. 

Q: This was not always true historically. Can you speak to this?  

A:  About a hundred years ago, it would have been the lower-class children competing under nonparental adult supervision while their upper-class counterparts participated in noncompetitive activities, often in their homes. Children’s tournaments, especially athletic ones, came first to poor children—often immigrants—living in big cities.

With the simultaneous rise of mandatory schooling and laws restricting child labor, worry mounted over the idle hours of children, which many assumed would be filled with delinquent or self-destructive activities. Urban reformers were particularly preoccupied with poor immigrant boys who, because of overcrowding in tenements, were often on the streets.

Reformers’ focus was less on age-specific activities and more generally on “removing urban children from city streets.”  Initial efforts focused on the establishment of parks and playgrounds, and powerful, organized playground movements developed in New York City and Boston. But because adults “did not trust city boys to play unsupervised,” attention soon shifted to organized sports.

By the 1930s this pattern began to shift as a consequence of the Great Depression and as educational philosophies changed. During the Depression many clubs with competitive leagues suffered financially and had to close, so poorer children from urban areas began to lose sites for competitive athletic contests organized by adults. Fee-based groups, such as the YMCA, began to fill the void, but usually only middle-class kids could afford to participate. 

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Dr. Levey Friedman matriculated at Princeton University, from which she earned a PhD in Sociology in 2009 as both a Spencer Dissertation Fellow and as a Harold W. Dodds fellow. During graduate school her research focused on competitive after-school activities (chess, dance, Kumon enrichment classes, and soccer), children’s work, and university commencement speakers. Dr. Levey Friedman recently completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University quantitatively studying youth sports injuries, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. 

The Best Sites For Cooperative Learning Ideas

Larry Ferlazzo

The Learning in Afterschool & Summer project promotes 5 learning principles. We stress the importance of learning that is collaborative and learning that is active, which means incorporating project-based and problem-based learning. 

Larry Ferlazzo, a high school teacher in Sacramento, CA, offers a valuable list of favorite websites for cooperative and project-based learning. Click here to access this very valuable compilation.

_____________________
Larry Ferlazzo teaches Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced English Language Learners (as well as native English speakers) at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, California. He has been a high school teacher for nine years after spending nineteen years working as a community organizer.

In addition to writing his blog and maintaining his website, he also has another blog entitled Engaging Parents In School. In addition, he writes regularly for the In Practice blog. “In Practice” is written by a group of teachers from around the world who teach in low-income communities. 

Expanding Minds and Opportunities: Leveraging the Power of Afterschool and Summer

By Sam Piha

I was honored to be a contributor to an important new book that was just released entitled Expanding Minds and Opportunities: Leveraging the Power of Afterschool and Summer Learning for Student Success. 

This compendium was edited by Terry K. Peterson, Ph.D. and includes a number of studies, reports, and commentaries by "more than 180 thought leaders including community leaders, elected officials, educators, researchers, advocates, and other prominent authors. This landmark collection of nearly 70 articles is being met with great acclaim, as it presents bold and persuasive evidence and best practices from the field that quality expanded learning opportunities:

Terry K. Peterson, Ph.D.

• promote student success and college and career readiness,
• build youth assets such as character, resilience and wellness,
• foster partnerships that maximize resources and build community ties, and
• engage families in their children’s learning in meaningful ways". (You can view an email that describes this new release and share it with friends.)

Every article in the book is available for free download by clicking here and the entire book is available on hard copy through Amazon.com. Check it out! 

During my years at CNYD, I managed a team project to create a guide to introduce California's burgeoning afterschool movement to CNYD's youth development framework. That publication entitled Youth Development Guide: Engaging Young People in After-School Programming is now available as a free download. It is an excellent guide that has withstood the test of time.  

STEM: Teaching Process Over Outcome

By Guest Blogger, Cathie Mostovoy of Mostovoy Strategies

Cathie Mostovoy

The thousands of people who gathered recently as the Space Shuttle Endeavor journeyed through the streets of Los Angeles to its resting place at the California Science Center offer clear evidence of the degree to which we as a society, consciously or unconsciously, derive our national identity from a tradition of innovation and technological progress.  After a decade of educational policy preoccupied with attaining targeted achievement levels in reading, writing and math, there isn’t a lot of mystery behind the current resurgence of interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) programs. STEM is the hot topic in education at the moment, yet getting quality programs off the ground is presenting quite a challenge. What’s the problem?  

“How LIAS Can Strengthen the STEM Movement” (LIAS blog, October 3, 2012) provides a good overview of issues involved and provides points for more in-depth discussion. While a central point of Sam Piha’s Q&A with Carol Tang, Director of the Coalition for Science After School, is that afterschool programs, particularly those that incorporate the LIAS principles, can support STEM education, Tang also explains that well-intentioned programming efforts fall short when “educational materials selected are not matched well with the program's mission, strengths, staff skills or audience.” This reminder that there are multiple factors that can create barriers to success is incredibly important. From the list Tang provides, I believe staff skills may be one of the most critical.

As Ms. Tang notes early in the conversation “we have to be honest and admit that students in school are not receiving science instruction anymore given other priorities.” It is critically important to recognize this isn’t just a problem today. The demise of in-school science programs dates back to 2001 when reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act tied standardized test scores to federal school funding. (Ironically, the act called for schools to employ scientifically-based teaching methods and scientifically-based standardized testing, yet at the same time effectively pushed science programs out of many schools.) This is significant because afterschool program leaders, the staff members who have the most direct contact with program participants, are often college students or recent graduates. These are young people whose elementary, middle and high school years also coincide with this era of missing science programs. Their college educations prepared them to enter a teaching world that emphasizes outcomes over process. And, they came of age in a society that values instant gratification. Teaching in manner that aligns with LIAS principles simply doesn’t align with their own experiences.

During my years running an agency that provides afterschool programs, we interviewed and hired many bright and passionate young people, but it was difficult to find staff members who were comfortable being inventive and experimental. The majority felt most at-home with sequential learning; they liked lesson plans that moved from A to B to C with some specific expected outcome related to each step. And, I was often struck by how hard it could be to get them to think a situation through critically and suggest corrective actions; things were either working or they were not. These things just did not come naturally to them. That is a challenge we need to address, because if teachers aren’t comfortable exploring their students won’t be either.

So, when I think about how LIAS can strengthen the STEM movement, I think that one important way is for LIAS principles to be incorporated into professional development programs. There are many intelligent, dedicated, service-oriented young people in the afterschool ranks, we just need to provide them with the right technical assistance. The success of STEM and how quickly that success can be achieved may hinge on understanding this. 

__________________________

Cathie Mostovoy is a proven executive leader with more than 25 years’ experience administering youth development and educational programs.  Her expertise is in organizational growth, strategic partnerships, and program and leadership development. As the past Chief Executive Officer for Woodcraft Rangers, Inc., a non-profit organization in Los Angeles she utilized her growth strategy plan and natural assessment skills to grow the organization from under $1 million dollars to over $11 million and increased services to over 17,000 young people. Much of her success as a leader in her work is due to her ability to leverage funding, build strong relationships and maximize youth and community involvement.

Currently she is the Vice-President and Past President for the California School Age Consortium, member of the leadership team for the California Afterschool Network and Chair for the Older Youth Committee. Her past history of service includes serving as State Ambassador for the National After School Alliance, Ambassador for the National VERB, Chair of the Los Angeles Partnership for After School Enrichment and is member of numerous other initiatives and committees for children, families and the community. 

The Importance of Social-Emotional Learning

By Sam Piha

Joseph Durlak

Joseph Durlak and his team have produced some seminal studies that examine the impact of in-school and afterschool programs that promote social-emotional learning. Two of his most important studies offered a meta-analysis, examining high-quality evaluations of the programs and their many effects on youth outcomes. We urge the readers to review these studies when reflecting on the implementation of their own programs. Readers should also visit the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) website. Below we offer a brief interview with Dr. Durlak. 

Q: In partnership with a number of your colleagues, you conducted two meta-analyses regarding the effectiveness in school and after school efforts to promote social-emotional learning. Can you briefly explain what is meant by social-emotional learning and competencies? 

A: In brief, social and emotional learning (or SEL) focuses on the systematic development of a core set of five interrelated social, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral competencies that help children more effectively handle life challenges and thrive in both their learning and their social environments. These skills fall into five areas:   self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. Representative competencies in these areas include the abilities to recognize and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, appreciate the perspectives of others, establish and maintain positive relationships, make responsible decisions, and handle interpersonal situations constructively (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, 2013).

Q: In your research you were interested in whether youth gained social-emotional competencies and whether this had an impact on school behavior and academic success. What did you learn?

A: Overall, we found that the 213 programs that we evaluated were successful in improving students functioning in all six of the outcome areas we examined.  

In perhaps the most important finding, programs were able to improve students’ academic performance (grades and test scores) to a degree that corresponds to an 11% percentile gain in academic performance.  This type of gain corresponds to what many educational interventions have been able to do based on other evaluative research.  SEL Programs also significantly improved students’ self-perceptions, their social and emotional skills, and their prosocial attitudes (e.g., toward school ) and significantly reduced levels of conduct problems and emotional distress (e.g., symptoms of anxiety and depression).   

Q: In these studies, the effectiveness of these efforts were conditional on the quality of the implementation. You identified some key characteristics of implementation that were vital to the program’s success. Can you briefly describe these characteristics? 

A: Extensive research on both children and adults suggests that skills training is most effective when certain principles are followed. Many of these principles are consistent with educational research on effective teaching practices. 

We found that four characteristics representing four of these principles were associated with programs that were more effective than others.  We constructed the acronym, SAFE, to capture these features. ‘S’ stands for Sequential, meaning that programs had a carefully sequenced plan that was designed to develop SEL skills.   This was usually accomplished by a specific curriculum or protocol that built competencies in a coordinated, step-by-step fashion.  ‘A’ stands for Active and means that active forms of learning involving practice and feedback were used to develop skills. Hands-on learning followed by constructive feedback leads to skills acquisition. ‘F’ stands for Focused, meaning that sufficient time was set aside exclusively for skill training, ‘E’ stands for Explicit and means that the skills targeted in each program were clearly explained to students so they knew what was expected of them. 

Aside from these four program characteristics, we also found that programs that were associated with better implementation were more effective than those that experienced problems with implementation.  Implementation involves several dimensions but basically refers to the extent to which intended programs are conducted as planned. 

In other words, effective SEL programs are both well-designed from the start and well executed when they are put into action.   

Q: There is growing discussion of the importance of non-cognitive skills. How are these non-cognitive skills related to the SEL skills that are promoted by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)?

A: In general, there is now growing evidence that success in school and later life is not dependent solely on one’s cognitive or intellectual abilities.  The different domains of functioning are not independent. We have shown that fostering students’ personal and social development via SEL programs can also improve their academic development.   

Q: The LIAS project is promoting 5 key principles that we should apply in our afterschool and summer programs: learning that is active, collaborative, meaningful, supports mastery, and expands horizons. Can you say a bit about the relevance of these principles and how they overlap, or not with social-emotional learning?

A: There is considerable overlap and sometimes only the terms are different. For example, learning that is active and that supports mastery relates to both the ‘A’ and ‘F’ of our acronym in that students need to practice new skill and we must devote sufficient time and attention to foster student mastery. 

The LIAS principles of collaboration, meaningfulness, and expanded horizons are each consistent with the types of skills that compose SEL such as skills relating to managing one’s emotions, developing and maintaining satisfactory relationships with others, and enhancing self-awareness.  In general, the LIAS principles and the five SEL domains allows flexibility and adaptations to occur for work with different types of youth at different developmental stages, and with different needs and interests.

___________________________

Joseph Durlak is Emeritus Professor of Clinical Psychology at Loyola University, Chicago. He currently lives in Santa Fe. New Mexico, where he remains active writing, editing, consulting, and reviewing. His primary interests are in prevention programs for children and adolescents, meta-analysis, community psychology, and social and emotional learning programs. He has published major reviews on prevention programs for youth, after-school programs, program implementation, and school-based social and emotional learning programs.  He is currently editing contributions for the Handbook of Social and Emotional Learning, to be published by Guilford in late 2013.   

The How Kids Learn II Conference - SOLD OUT

By Sam Piha

The How Kids Learn II conference in San Francisco is now sold out but interested parties can put their name on our waiting list. The conference will feature leading thinkers from the fields of education, youth development, and the new science of learning. Speakers include Pedro Noguera, Jane Quinn, Robert Granger, Nicole Yohalem, Jenny Nagaoka, Renate Caine, Jodi Grant, and a number of innovative, highly acclaimed program leaders from the Bay Area. 

This one-day TED-like conference is being sponsored by the Learning in Afterschool & Summer Project and  Temescal Associates. Co-sponsors include the WHH Foundation, the Packard Foundation, the John Gardner Center at Stanford University, Region 4 (Alameda County Office of Education), THINK Together, City Span, Partnership for Children and Youth, DCYF, Bay Area Community Resources, LA's BEST, Children Now, and Public Profit.  The conference is being conducted at the Contemporary Jewish Museum on January 9, 2013. If you wish to be on the waiting list, sign-up today at www.howkidslearn.org. 

Skills That Matter and the Role of Afterschool and Summer Programs

By Sam Piha

Sam Piha

There is a growing body of research that suggest that young people's development of non-academic skills are critical to their academic achievement and success. In fact, there is good evidence that the acquisition of these skills are better predictors of academic achievement and life success than standardized test scores. These skills are referred to as social-emotional competencies and non-cognitive skills. We believe that afterschool and summer programs are well-positioned to develop these skills and educate stakeholders as to their importance. It is important to note that having an impact on youth outcomes requires strong program design and consistent implementation. 

Jenny Nagaoka

Pedro Noguera

The Learning in Afterschool & Summer project will use the upcoming How Kids Learn II conference and several future blogs to highlight these important skills. At the conference, we will hear from Dr. Daniel Goleman (via video), Founder of Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) and the author of Emotional Intelligence. The conference will also feature a presentation by Jenny Nagaoka, University of Chicago, on the role of non-cognitive skills in adolescence. We expect that we will also hear about the importance of these skills from presenter, Dr. Pedro Noguera from NYU. 

Joseph Durlak

A future blog will focus on the Responsive Classroom approach - a way of teaching that emphasizes social, emotional, and academic growth in a strong and safe school community. In addition, future blogs will feature interviews with Joseph Durlak and Paul Tough. Dr. Durlak is known for his meta-analysis studies of the impact of in-school and afterschool programs that worked to promote social-emotional learning and key features of implementation that are required for impacting youth outcomes. Paul Tough is a writer whose articles and books examine the importance of non-cognitive skills. His latest book, How Children Succeed, is having a major impact in the fields of education and youth development.  

Practitioners can find more articles on social-emotional learning and activities that promote these competencies on the Edutopia website. 

Learning in Afterschool Youth Ambassadors Meet With State Legislators

By Learning in Afterschool Youth Ambassadors Naylia Sanchez and Sianna Smith, Manual Arts High School/Woodcraft Rangers

Monday, May 23, 2011

Sunrise approaches us and we prepare ourselves for the next 48 impacting hours, as the students and staff of Woodcraft Rangers at Manual Arts High School made our way to Sacramento to join our fellow Learning in Afterschool (LIA) Youth Ambassadors at California School- Age Consortium’s 7th Annual California Afterschool Challenge (CalSAC).

After lunch, we learned about the budget cuts made in afterschool and education. The speaker that had everyone moved was Director of CDE’s Learning Support & Partnerships, Gordon Jackson. Mr. Jackson made a speech that referred to his childhood, a time when he would pretend to be a super hero, wearing a cape and “fighting evil villains”. He then reminded the audience that that is what we all are, super heroes, super heroes working together for a cause and for a brighter future for generations to come. His moving speech was encouraging.

We then participated in a youth-led role-play exercise where we acted out what a successful meeting with the legislators looked like, compared to one that would be “out of control and chaotic”. To conclude our lunch plenary everyone was separated into their teams for an ice breaker activity, which shortly spread to a game that included everyone in the room to help familiarize ourselves with the processes of a bill becoming a law and a budget being passed.

After being dismissed, the Learning in Afterschool Ambassadors met upstairs where everyone was catching up. Shortly after, Michael Funk reminded us that as Youth Ambassadors we were going to be able to lead some of the policy and advocacy training. Suddenly everyone else began entering the Tofanelli Room to get started with the advocacy training. After a PowerPoint presentation reminding us of how bills and budgets are passed, the LIA Youth Ambassadors set-up for the training.

They introduced themselves and began the second portion with an ice-breaker. We laid on the floor and traced our hands. On each finger we wrote four things we were proud to have accomplished in our lives. Next we had to look at all the other surrounding hands and we had to find something that was similar and link them together. Afterwards we moved on to preparing our stories for the legislators making them friendly and most important making sure they were OUR stories.

As we brain-stormed and thought deeply about what our story was going to be, the LIA Youth Ambassadors leading the advocacy training gave us different ideas. Brain-storming along with us, they mentioned aloud some of the issues that they believed impacted all of us being in an afterschool program. Then the youth from the Champions Program led us in a quick role-play with our stories.

After the training, it was time to relax. The LIA Youth Ambassadors Core Group from Long Beach YMCA led this portion of our trip. Everyone felt the serene vibe and felt unperturbed. We ate a few snacks then we all played games together, some that required us to refrain ourselves from bursting into laughter while all the others made humorous gestures. Following the youth social we were dismissed, and we ended our day by going to dinner and resting for our big day the following morning.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Six in the morning and the alarms ring for us to wake up, but as most people, the snooze button became our friend. It wasn’t until seven that we awoke from our deep sleep to get ready for our day. By 9 a.m. we had reached the North Steps of the Capitol Building just in time for some group photos and a small breakfast. For approximately half an hour our team, met together and started discussing which legislator, assemblymen, and staff members we would be meeting with.

Our team leader, Eliza, helped us with the basics. We were going to be meeting only with the friendly staff of Assembly Member Linda Halderman, Assembly Member Tim Donnelly, Senate Member Rod Wright, and Assembly Member Anthony Portantino. The last visit that we had was just a drop-in visit with Assembly Member Betsy Butler. After being briefed, we followed our team leader inside the State Capitol to get a brief tour inside the building so that we would know where to go when it was time for our visits.

After completing our tour, we went back outside just in time for the rally that was being held. Joining us for the rally was the marching band from John Reith Middle School and a few of the state representatives that supported what we were doing. Immediately after the rally our legislative visits began and we were off. Once we completed our visits, we ended our day with another rally where we received certificates for participating and took group pictures.

From this experience we have acquired knowledge on how our state is being run. This has opened our eyes to many more innovative ideas and it has helped us boost our confidence and self-esteem. We thank the Learning in Afterschool Project and CalSAC for allowing us to be a part of this magnificent experience.