The Balancing Act

Autumn Impression by Vassily Kandinsky
Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts

By Matthew Samolewicz, PC Graduate Fellow 2010

Dr. Beth Miller, in her Critical Hours: Afterschool Programs and Educational Success, argues that the standardized testing culture of today’s schools has resulted in less time and fewer resources devoted to critical skills our students need to successfully navigate life after school. Soft skills, such as teamwork, problem-solving, and communication, are often overlooked as our schools race to meet overarching standards. If our system is not cultivating these hard-to-measure soft skills in today’s youth, in Miller’s words, what can we do to "right the imbalance," of our preoccupied institutions?

Project Coach's dedicated team is making every attempt to equalize the playing field for the students we have come to know in the past two months. Every week, our Springfield coaches take on leadership roles that enable them to exercise the essential soft skills mentioned above. Outside of their coaching responsibilities, PC organizes afterschool programs our coaches are required to participate in, including SAT preparation, tutoring and individualized projects led by Project Coach’s Red Shirts.

This past Thursday night, I had the opportunity to share an hour and a half with two of our high school coaches. Zachery Johnson and Kiana Figueroa, both eighth grade students, will be facilitating their own drawing project for Smith College’s Museum of Art this Saturday, November sixth. The event welcomes families to enjoy the Museum's incredible collection free of charge and offers a variety of art-based projects to youth visiting the museum. In preparation for Family Day, Kiana, Zach and I, with the help of the Museum’s Julie Zappia, spent Thursday's PC session projecting paintings from the Museum’s collection onto Chestnut Middle School’s library walls. We looked closely at the work of Paul Cezanne, Vanessa Bell, Vassily Kandinsky and Fernand Leger. The coaches shared their visions with Julie and I. They imagined machines, figures and landscapes in the works. Zach and Kiana considered what it might mean to leave parts of a painting unpainted and reacted to the color, compositions, and feelings that confronted them. They observed as a team, often playing off of each others interpretations. They approached painting as a sort of puzzle that, with time and a little bit of oneself, can be unlocked. Kiana and Zach communicated the visual stories and understandings they saw without missing a beat.

There is no doubt in my mind that every youth has the capacity, vision, and imagination to be great learners and leaders. Zach, Kiana, and our other Blue Shirt Coaches have proven this time and time again. Project Coach, with it's comprehensive range of strategies and services, works to propel our coaches to a place where they can share the greatness we see each week.

Critical Hours and Project Coach

By Anna Bartolini, PC Graduate Fellow 2010

Through multiple levels of adult mentoring in its programming, Project Coach intentionally and explicitly attempts to build strong youth-adult relationships. The Critical Hours Executive Summary, which synthesizes research on the benefits of afterschool programs, points to positive relationships with adults as one key area for promoting educational equity. Interaction with adults outside of the home setting can expose youth to a variety experiences that “broaden their horizons” and “build on their interests and skills.” Research suggests that consistent participation in high quality afterschool programs that emphasize these youth-adult connections can help ameliorate some of the “circumstances linked to poor achievement, e.g., low expectations by teachers, students’ alienation from school, lack of enrichment activities, and poor quality education.”

 

The Project Coach model places youth-adult relationships at the core of its work by providing multiple ways for youth to engage with various adults. Most notably, each high school coach, or Blue Shirt, is paired with a college coach, or Red Shirt. This relationship is fostered throughout the entire year through explicit modeling or instructing of coaching technique and through a variety of more informal opportunities. Coaches work together to prepare for each session with the elementary kids, socialize and get to know each other during Monday and Thursday sessions, and work on long-term goals such as improved grades at school or completing homework assignments on time.  The Red Shirt essentially takes on the role of the mentor, guiding or coaching the Blue Shirt through the full Project Coach experience.

 

Blue Shirts also have the opportunity to engage with a variety of other adults. Each Blue Shirt has an academic coach, a teacher or administrator who helps the student stay focused and on task at school through frequent check-ins with both students and teachers. The academic coach is essential for helping to forge the after school-school link by ensure consistency between Project Coach goals and school goals.

 

Junior and Senior Blue Shirts also participate in Let's Get Ready, a no-cost SAT prep program. The coordinator for this program, Marie Wallace, serves as another adult role-model and mentor for the Blue Shirts. Many of the Blue Shirts will work extensively one-on-one with Marie in order to navigate the college application process.

 

As a team, the various adult coaches and the Project Coach administration work to provide Blue Shirts with multiple opportunities for positive adult-relationships through informal interactions, direct academic assistance, and a broad variety of enriching experiences. For example, this month, Blue Shirts will attend a college basketball game (including a session with the head coach), participate in a screening and discussion of the documentary Waiting for Superman, and visit a local college campus. These types of experiences will continue throughout the year, both in efforts to help provide opportunities for educational equity, and to form genuine long-lasting youth-adult relationships.

Meet the PC Team - Marquis Taylor

My name is Marquis Taylor, and I'm a graduate teaching candidate at Smith College and a Project Coach Fellow. My long term goal is to lead a youth based non profit that focuses on building leaders by reconnecting youth to learning.

My interest stems from my own youth. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA and I had the privilege of using basketball as my vehicle to broaden my horizons.

Currently, my goal is to begin a program in Brockton, MA for the summer of 2011. I am learning how vital networking and building relationships are especially in the non profit world. Between traveling to meetings, school, coaching, and Project Coach, I have been able to develop great relationships that have allowed me to meet some influential people from Stephen A. Smith (ESPN analyst), Jim Calhoun (UConn Head Basketball Coach), Tim Moore (Quinnipiac University Head Basketball Coach), and Ed Cooley (Fairfield University Head Basketball Coach).

As a result of these meetings, Fairfield University Men's Basketball Coaches and Project Coach will be setting up a time for our high school coaches to see a high level Division 1 basketball game, and meet with coaches and players, on November 8th (see our blog for a write up soon after!).

Ed Cooley, who is also a Stonehill College graduate, is a dynamic and energetic coach who will truly leave a lasting impression on our high school coaches. I am excited to be apart of the process and look forward to giving our high school coaches a new experience.

http://www.fairfieldstags.com/coaches.aspx?rc=22&path=mbball

Student-Teaching and Project Coach: A Parallel Process

Upon first consideration, it might be difficult to see connections between The Smith College Campus School, a day school in Northampton, and Project Coach, an after-school program in Springfield. However, PC Fellows like Anna Bartolini and Kathleen Boucher live this connection every week.

Bartolini, who is a student-teacher in a first grade classroom at the Campus School, says she is picking up on strategies to use with the elementary participants at Project Coach sessions. Going from the highly structured school day to the after-school atmosphere can be challenging, says Bartolini. At the same time, she is gaining useful experience with solving problems spontaneously, figuring out new ways to motivate and engage young people.

Bartolini also thinks of student-teaching and PC as parallel experiences. As a student-teacher, she plays a role quite similar to the High School coaches with PC. She notices strategies her lead teacher uses to encourage her as a new teacher, like accentuating the positive. Bartolini says that this serves as a reminder to always compliment the HS coaches, giving them encouragement along with increased responsibility.

Bartolini (left in photo) is not only learning from her lead teacher at the Campus School, however, as some HS coaches have more experience with Project Coach, and with working with young kids. Bartolini learns strategies from returning coaches, and with all of the coaches with whom she works, she is constantly learning how to become a better mentor by strengthening relationships. Part of this work involves learning about the goals of the coaches (Barbara (right in photo), Ty, and Elyahsa), both immediate and long term (like which college to attend).

In her first grade classroom, Bartolini gets to know her students in very different ways, through reading and recess both. As she gets to know her students, she sees what reading strategies work best. She says that the first graders were really comfortable with her at the very beginning of the year. While first graders are eager to "hold your hand at recess," Bartolini says, high school students can sometimes hold back until they feel they know who you are.

According to PC Fellow Kathleen Boucher, student-teacher in a fourth grade classroom at the Campus School, she feels like she transitions into a head teacher with Project Coach. While she looks for advice from her head teacher at her teaching placement, her high school coaches look to her for help with the elementary participants after school. At times, Boucher notes, she jumps in and becomes the leader of both groups. According to her, it is a sometimes a challenge to bring the structure of the classroom to the athletic field. One management technique she brings from student-teaching is for giving directions, whispering "If you can hear my voice, clap once." Other strategies she finds helpful include rotations of activities, like during the indoor sessions (due to rain) and, now, with the options of dance and track during soccer sessions. Boucher is interested in seeing how the basketball season compares with soccer, and in learning more about what the program means to elementary-aged participants.

Overall, Project Coach Fellows learn about children across ages, races, and classes. They work with them both in the classroom and after school, at the desk and on the field. They also help with academic assistance by helping to track grades and improve on homework. Undoubtedly, these experiences will help to make them insightful and effective teachers in the future.

2 Million Minutes of High School

High school youth coaches left the field after playing team-building activities, games like rock-paper-scissors as teams, and walked into the Chestnut Middle School Library where they engaged in a listening activity. Divided into groups, each youth coach had forty five seconds to describe what their post high school goals were. All the other members of the group were instructed to listen. At intervals the youth coaches froze and described what a good listener looked like. Good listeners were focused, made eye contact, kept their chins up, and nodded their heads. When asked how a teacher would react to a good listener one youth coach stated that the teacher would feel like “they are doing their job”. In their forty-five seconds, the coaches spoke with enthusiasm about their future plans. “I want a year of travel” because “what makes you smarter is not school but experience” going to “Miami and stuff”. When asked about funds, the coach responded, “save up and hope to win the lottery”. Another coach stated that she wanted to be an accountant because “I like numbers. I like how much control you have, the pressure. I want to move to California, get married. I already have someone I’ve been dating for a year and a half”. Once the listening activity was over, Sam Intrator asked the coaches how many minutes they spent in high school.

During the second part of the session the youth coaches watched a fragment of the movie “2 Million Minutes”, whose title refers to the number of minutes students spend in high school. The documentary follows two American students, two Indian students and two Chinese students, exploring the cultural, economic and social pressures these students face, emphasizing that US high school students lag behind in math and science. Among twenty-nine developed countries, the US ranks twenty-fourth in math.

After watching twenty minutes of the movie, the coaches discussed what they though the message of the movie was. Many voiced that they thought US students did not take advantage of their education, viewing it as a birthright. They spoke of the difference between the motivation of growing up with economic certainty and the motivation of students for whom education is a passport out of poverty. When the youth coaches were asked what steps could be taken now bridge the US’s lagging behind in math and science, and how they could achieve their own goals, they spoke of putting more of an emphasis on work and work ethics, of trying to do better than they were presently doing by “focusing on school, on yourself”. One youth coach stated that the best time to correct anything was now since they could not correct the past. It was emphasized that school grades are important but that there are also other skills and qualities that are important like the ability to communicate and listen effectively and the ability to lead, all qualities that the youth coaches demonstrate each week. After the discussion, each coach was asked to write a response to two questions. The first question asked about the message they, as coaches, could transmit to their elementary school players. The second question asked them to write down what they would do differently when they got back to school the next day. I will “take school seriously”, a student responded.

Photo Courtesy of Broken Pencil Productions

Here's Johnny! A Closer Look At The Man Behind The Scenes!

Anyone who has spent time in the North End has probably run into John Rodriguez.  The lifelong resident of the North End recently told me about some childhood memories, reflections about the North End today, and why he loves Project Coach.

John was born in Springfield’s North End in 1964, and remembers the neighborhood as family oriented when he was a boy.  The parks were always filled with picnics and kids played baseball after school and on the weekends. 

John went to school at Brightwood Elementary, down the street from the fields now used by Project Coach.  North End children today, he says, are not like they were in the ‘70s.  John sees too much drug and crime activity on the streets now, and observes that kids today are more street smart.  They have learned to adapt to their environment.  He observes another difference: growing up in the North End is tough on a lot of kids because their parents aren’t around.  John estimates that in any crowd of 20 kids, only 3 live with both parents.  And then he shakes his head.

I asked John why he works as a School Monitor at Gerena Elementary School.  John’s answer was much more complex than I anticipated. John is quiet and friendly man who defies the image of a School Monitor.  For years he worked in a nearby juvenile jail.  He saw a lot of good in the kids he worked with there, but also a lot of despair. The job was tough.  He gravitated to Gerena because he wanted to work with kids and give back to his community.  But he also wanted intercept these kids and help them chose the right path so they would not end up at the juvenile jail. 

John believes in Project Coach.  He values it because it offers consistency and a foundation to kids who do not experience much routine or comfort outside of school.  And he especially appreciates the confidence that emerges in the children.  At the beginning of John’s first year working with Project Coach, he remembers a shy small elementary school girl standing at the fence watching kids play soccer with the program.  He went over to her and invited her to play.  “Oh no, I’m too shy,” she answered.  With a little persuasion she joined the program.  John beams as he reflects on the way that little girl blossomed in Project Coach.  He chuckles as he tells me that she’s a confident and popular middle school student now.  His compassion shines through, he can’t hide it.

By Kuna Tavalin - Project Coach Fellow 2010-2011

Youth Coaches and Graduate Students Collaborate on Individualized Community Projects

At the Chestnut Library youth coaches and graduate students assembled to begin a collaborative project. Each graduate student sat at a different table, giving their project pitches to each of the high school youth coaches who visited their table. The youth coaches then decided on which individualized project they wanted to participate in.

The project proposals included:

1. A civics project with Kuna Tavalin. The youth coaches would address a change they wanted to see in Springfield whether it is in education, health care or poverty. After researching the issue they will write a letter to the governor of Massachusetts, which could lead to a meeting, and presentation of their findings. One coach told her that it sounded like a “hard, long process” while another commented on how they would have to write the letter in a persuasive manner to “catch their attention”.

2. A project that will address gender issues and stereotypes in sports with Kathleen Boucher. Kathleen and a youth coach will compile a manual of specific situations that could arise and the possible ways of dealing with the situation. A youth coach did explain the some of the elementary school girls on his team had complained that “the boys don’t want to play with us” while the boys complained that the girls were being mean to them. This is one situation that the manual could address.

3.Matthew MacKenzie‘s project focused on financial planning, setting up a savings account, or a checking account while trying to set lifetime habits that could include tracking money through services offered online. The youth coach working with him may act as a liaison between a specific bank and his/her school, helping the students set up saving or checking accounts. One youth coach commented that for every paycheck he gets he saves $10 of it.

4. Courtney Centeno pitched a photography project. Each week a youth coach will develop a different kind of photograph, working to incorporate different elements such as lighting, perspective, and setting. They will photograph a portrait and landscape, manipulating elements to show what the person or location they are photographing means to them. While at Courtney’s table, a youth coach explained how she “ always did black and white” so that the viewer of the photographs could fill in the colours they saw in their own mind.

5 .Matthew Samolewicz first showed the youth coaches that arrived at his table a Jackson Pollock painting. He and a youth coach will create a project in which movement and art will be combined. One youth coach suggested using music so that one would be using their entire body to paint. When shown a series of cardboard sculptures one youth coach said “It looks like some girl dancing salsa somewhere”.

. 6. A literacy project with Marquis Taylor. The youth coach will pick a couple of sports themed books and then create a community-based project, connecting their reading to specific actions. One youth coach was reading “A Brave New World” but said that he couldn’t relate to it. He had however, read the entire “A Series of Unfortunate Events”, which he described as “good from the beginning to the end”.

7. Anna Bartolini asked for the youth coaches input and offered two different projects, one on nutrition, bringing the second piece of a healthy lifestyle, healthy eating, combined with sports. She also proposed to start an anti-bullying campaign that would incorporate a community speaker. Each project will involve community outreach.