Archive of 2008-09 articles -

This blog will not be used to post new articles but contains many useful articles written in 2008-09. The Tags to the Right do not work, so we have listed useful articles, with links, below.

1/20/-09 Cool Cash Introduction. The following articles were posted each week from January through May, and students were encouraged to view the T/MC library, look at these and other links, then post comments about what they found in the Cabrini Connections StudentVolunteer collaboration portal.





1/21/09 - Science, Math, Engineering, homework help links

2/2/09 - homework help; writing links

2/9/09 - Black History Month links

2/18/09 - Social Science learning links

3/4/09 - literature and arts activities

3/10/09 - college and career planning

3/17/09 - college and career web links

3/20/09 - college resources

3/27/09 - blogs on philanthropy, mentoring, networking, learning

3/27/09 - blogs and forums on education

4/3/09 - Business involvement and diversity resources

4/10/09 - Choose your future/career planning

4/17/08 - Street Gangs - many students commented on this

4/28 - Summer Activities for youth

5/6/09 - Leadership Strategies

5/13/09 - Networking and Fund Raising

5/20/09 - Social Capital links

Additional blog articles of interest

12/16/08 - introduction to new Student Volunteer Collaboration Portal

Tutor/Mentor Exchange - new site launched

11/25/08 - reflections from Nov. 08 Tutor/Mentor Conference

6/3/09 - reflections on Tutor/Mentor Conference

Ideas, work and results

Another Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference has come and gone and… it was a huge event. It was a chance to participate in a variety of interesting workshops, discuss new ideas (and how to make the old ideas work better) with old and new colleagues.

How barbers can help after-school programs was a presentation held by Mr. Ishmael Alamin, Owner of the Hyde Park Hair Salon, the Official Barbershop of President Barack Obama. Barbershops are social places where people come regularly. No matter your income or what your political favorites are, you have to come to a barber shop. For example, as a Presidential candidate candidate, Barack Obama traveled each week to the Hyde Park Hair Salon for a trim.

And, since barbershops are where discussions start about everything and anything, why shouldn’t we be inspiring discussions about the value of tutor/mentor programs? – asked Mr. Ishmael Alamin. In his barbershop, thought-provoking maps of the availability of tutoring/mentoring programs are on the wall and brochures about tutor/mentor programs are in the reception area. What a great way to start a discussion about how each of us can help!

Twitter - How It Can Benefit Tutoring and Mentoring Programs was the last workshop, presented by Mrs. Lovette Ajayi. To twitter or not to twitter, that is the question no? Come on; don’t tell me that you’ve never tried Twitter or some other micro-blogging application. It is fun and it can be very valuable. Mrs. Ajayi has 651 twitter followers. Therefore, whenever she twitters, 651 people receive that message. I know, some of us have newsgroups with much more e-mail addresses, but practice says that only 2-5% of receivers actually read those messages. Therefore 651 is a huge number. How to twitter and how to generate so many followers… well, you were supposed to come to the Conference. As an alternative, you can attend the 2009 Making Media Connections Conference http://communitymediaworkshop.org/mmc09/, to find about new media formats like Twitter and how to use them.

Impact Evaluation: From Basics to Best Practices, presented by Jenny Ellis Richards, was an excellent introduction into planning and results evaluation. Everything we do, we do to achieve some specific results. Impact or results are not just a bureaucrats’ wish, but the reason why each institution exists, why each of us is coming to a job or to a school. Right?

To evaluate the results, Mrs. Richards uses a Theory of Change methodology. A Theory of Change is a logic model for program; it is a picture of why your program should succeed. It is called ‘theory’ – because it has to be evaluated, improved on daily basis. Very interesting and very useful – just as many other workshops at the Conference.

Program of Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference is available at http://www.tutormentorconference.org/agenda.asp. I encourage you to check it and think about the next conference – in the autumn. Will you come?

Social Capital

Summer… just that word makes me feel relaxed, makes me think about vacation time, think about time with my friends, family, neighbors. During the school year we are all busy; school/work, daily duties – so some of us forget how it is important to have a good connection with people in our network, how it is beneficial to have a big network, how it is good to be able to reach people in other networks. That is why we should invest time during summer in our social capital.

What is social capital? Social capital is the connections within and between social networks. Something like glue that holds our society and institutions/groups together. Just as a printer (physical capital) or an education (human capital) can increase productivity (both individual and collective), so do social contacts affect the productivity of individuals and groups.

For example, if we have a task to do something, and thru our social network we can reach people who can provide us with ‘know how’ to solve that task, the task will become ‘a piece of cake’. Furthermore, social relationships and the social environments of school, family, and neighborhood influence students with respect to school performance. It influences adults too.

So, what do you plan to do with your social capital?

A few nice articles about social capital are linked in Tutor/Mentor Exchange Links Library: T/MC Links Library : Research, Resources : Social Capital

So, let’s check a few of them.

Social Capital article at InfEd.org (a site dedicated to promote and support INFormal EDucation) is a great way to start. The article (http://www.infed.org/biblio/social_capital.htm) provides all the most important data about social capital in plain English. Social capital for starters, Types of social capital, The decline in social capital, The benefits of social capital are just a few of interesting sections of that article. Find more about social capital at: http://www.infed.org/biblio/social_capital.htm

A New Conceptualization of Social Capital is an article that attempts to improve the conceptualization of social capital by incorporating a number of new factors that have previously not been considered

Read more at: http://www.gnudung.com/improvedconceptualisation.html

Conceptualizing Social Capital among Young People is an article written by Nicole J. Schaefer-McDaniel and focused on new theoretical framework of social capital among young people.

The author describes social capital among young people to consist of three components:

1. Social networks/interactions and sociability;
2. Trust and reciprocity; and
3. Sense of belonging/place attachment.

Find more about beneficial outcomes of social capital at http://www.colorado.edu/journals/cye/14_1/articles/article6full.htm.

What are your thoughts about those articles? Of course, you can fine much more links about social capital at T/MC Links Library : Research, Resources : Social Capital

I am very enthusiastic about your comments here or at Cool Links and Cool Cash >> Social capital,

Networking & Fund Raising

Hi,
Last week we had 28 posts in Cool Links – Cool Cash. Fantastic! It is the second time we’ve had participation over 20%. Great job and great posts!
So, let’s continue, let’s make even better results this week. Right?
And, do not forget that Cabrini students will be rewarded with $2 for each post!
OK; ready?

This is a fundraising week - we will have a Fundraising meeting for volunteers on Wednesday and Thursday. Therefore let’s check out the Networking and Fund Rising category in the Links Library (T/MC Links Library : Event Information : Networking & Fund Raising)

scottwallard.com/blog/ is a blog about social policy and poverty in America maintained by Scott W. Allard - an Associate Professor at the University of Chicago's School of Social Service Administration. Professor Allard is a passionate supporter of the social safety net.

What it the social safety net? The social safety net refers a collection of services which prevent individuals from falling into poverty beyond a certain level. For example, if single mother unable to work has several children, she and all her kids can be caught up in the hopelessness of extreme poverty.

However, by receiving money to support her children, along with universal health care and free education, she and the society (social safety net!) can provide her and children a better chance at becoming successful members of society, a better chance to become successful taxpayers…

In his blog Professor Allard wrote:

With more than 50 million Americans living near or below the poverty line and need on the rise, it becomes important to have an accurate grasp of what the safety net is, how it functions, and where the gaps in assistance are most severe. The written work presented here address challenges facing today's safety net.

Find more at: www.scottwallard.com/blog

UmbrellaMag.com is an online magazine devoted to charity events, volunteering and philanthropy in the USA. At this moment UmbrellaMag.com has 6 editions for 6 USA cites – including Chicago. Umbrellamag.com serves as a volunteering and philanthropy stock market. You can search for charity events or volunteering opportunities or you can promote your own volunteering event.

Find out more at www.umbrellamag.com

The Social Marketing Institute is being created to advance the science and practice of social marketing. Social marketing is a marketing process where the primary goal is ‘social good’. In classical, 'commercial marketing' the goal is primarily 'financial'. For example, Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection marketing strategy is focused on marketing of mentoring programs – because each mentoring program is a social good that benefit kids’ lives and communities.

Find more about social marketing and the Social Marketing Institute at: http://www.social-marketing.org

What are your thoughts about these sites, about these issues?

I am very enthusiastic about your comments; here or in the Cool Links and Cool Cash forum.

Leadership Strategies

Leadership is one of the most important aspects of the organizational context. Where to go, how, who, what for… are just a few of questions challenging leaders. Leadership can be a role of one prominent person or role of groups, associations or even whole countries can be leaders. Each of us can/should be a leader as an individual or can be a member of a group that is leading school, club, corporation or… world into the better future.

In Cabrini Connections, we are trying to nurture future leaders; leaders that will help us build a society where everybody has a chance, where success is a choice – not something young people will or will not inherit from their immediate surroundings; a society that helps the development of each individual – to her/his full potential.

Here are a bunch of very interesting Leadership Strategies, which are well described at http://tutormentorexchange.net/leadership-strategies.
Can you check a few of them and send your comments. What do you think about those strategies?
Do you know a leader you would commend or… what would you do/are you doing as a leader?

I am very enthusiastic about your comments!

Summer is coming…

Summer is coming…
OK, OK, summer officially starts June 21st, so we have more than a month to go. But… that is not a reason not to think about what you will be doing this summer right? For example you can have a rest – spend the whole day in bed, or you can have fun with friends & family. Maybe you can even travel… If you are an adult – you will probably have 10 vacation days and it probably will not be enough time to do everything you want to accomplish. But, what if you are a student and you have almost 3 months (June 12 – September 07) for summer vacation. Hmmm, maybe you can try a summer job: earn some experience, earn some money, and make a few new friends. Good combination; right?

So let’s check resources for summer jobs we have linked in TutorMentorConnection.org Links Library.

Youth Ready Chicago. For example the www.YouthReadyChicago.org/ program connects young people, ages 14 - 24, with internships, apprenticeships and jobs within Chicago’s public and private business sectors. You can get hands-on experience, gain marketable skills, see how you like a specific job, and of course – you can earn some cash. It is always good to have a little bit more money, but if it is money you earned through your own hard work – that is something special right?

Jobs For Youth-Chicago is a free program for teens and young adults ages 17 to 24.
It is a bit different that Youth Ready Chicago because you must have either a high school diploma or a GED and there is a 3 hour assessment test at the onset. Find more at: http://jfychicago.org/.

What about adults? Do we have a program to teach them how to organize the summer jobs how to work with kids?

Sure!
Youth Work Matters! is part of the University of Minnesota Extension Services. Program provides a highly interactive and very interesting online course that will help you understand youth and work with youth better.

The idea behind this program is that:

Our work with youth - both volunteer and professional - needs to come from an informed, intentional way of understanding their lives and the ways we support and promote their growth.

Sounds logical and worthy of research. Right?
Find out more at www.youthworkmatters.org
You can get enrolled in a course in less than a minute.

Check it out and send your comments; are you planning on working this summer?, can you recommend another resource, and what do you think about aforementioned sites?

I am very enthusiastic about your answers, here or at my.cabriniconnections.net >> Summer is coming… ?

Regards,

Vjeko

Street Gangs

The future is already here - it is just unevenly distributed. That was the message from the previous post.

So what is your future? What about the future of kids you saw yesterday fighting on the street?

Yes, gangs pose a significant threat to community safety. Furthermore, they are a terrifying threat for the future of kids who are or may become gang members. Right?

So, what are we doing about it?

Now when a very successful community organizer on the South Side of Chicago is the President of the USA – we can see a new federal approach to America's high-poverty areas. Check for example http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/urban_policy/.

That document states that:

Obama and Biden support innovative local programs, like the CeaseFire program in Chicago, which implement a community-based strategy to prevent youth violence and have been proven effective.

A link to the CeaseFire website is available at our Links Library; in the Gangs section:

Links Library >> Law, Justice, Poverty and Prevention >> Street Gangs.

Therefore, let’s say a few words about those links and the challenges of gang violence prevention.

CeaseFire is the first initiative of the Chicago Project for Violence Prevention. It collaborates with community-based organizations to reduce and prevent violence. CeaseFire relies on community leaders such as outreach workers, faith leaders, profit and nonprofit organizations to intervene in conflicts, or potential conflicts, and promote alternatives to violence. Of course, CeaseFire cooperates with police and promotes the message that shootings and violence are not acceptable. Finally, it calls for the strengthening of communities so they become capable of controlling and responding to issues that affect them.

Find more at: www.ceasefirechicago.org

The BUILD Model is designed to develop personal competencies, strengthen commitment to education and community service, and as a result develop stable, productive members and leaders in their communities.

Therefore, if a young person is encountering risk factors like gangs, violence, substance abuse, truancy, poor academic performance she/he/they can be recruited to BUILD Core Groups, where they are engaged in activities designed to reduce risk-taking behaviors, set and reach educational and career goals and promote positive impact on community.

Find more at: http://buildchicago.org.

Crime maps. If you are interested in maps of crimes in Chicago, you can check http://www.spotcrime.com/il/chicago or http://gis.chicagopolice.org/CLEARMap/startPage.htm

How do you like it? Which do you prefer: the CeaseFire program or the BUILS Model?

There are much more links. Please check them out: Links Library >> Law, Justice, Poverty and Prevention >> Street Gangs.

And of course, send us your comments at: SVHATS Forums >> Cool Links and Cool Cash >> Street Gangs.

The future is already here - it is just unevenly distributed

You have a mobile phone: Right? A small gadget with digital video & photo camera, radio receiver, MP3 player and… Probably, you can browse the internet with your phone and you have a few video games – just in case. OK, some of us have the ‘old models’ without some (all?) of those features… Me, for example. However, sooner or later we will have newer model and…

And you have your MySpace/FaceBook/Blog Right?

All of that was like ‘science fiction’ 10 or 15 years ago... It was science fiction for most of us. Aforementioned technology already existed - for example MP3 was patented in 1991. Just the majority of us did not use it; did not even know about it. It was as William Ford Gibson said:

The future is already here - it is just unevenly distributed

The future is already here …

So, let’s say a few words about Choose Your Future web site. It is a website developed by Chicago Public Schools to enhance postsecondary education and student development.

Link is available in www.tutormentorconnection.org Links Library : College & Career >> Education Resources >> Career mentoring.
Or simply click www.chooseyourfuture.org

Chooseyourfuture.org was developed to provide students with the resources they need to plan a successful path to graduation and post-high school success.

Therefore, check the site, find more about ASAP (All Students Are Powerful) group, make a plan for your future and send us your comments.

What do you think about that site?

Post your comments here or at SVHATS >> Cool Links and Cool Cash >> ChooseYourFuture.org

Think global, think diverse, think & act

Barack and Michelle Obama are in Europe and it seams to be the most important news on the world. Yes, yes the G-20 summit is an important event. That is the reason why they went there. Right?

But it seams that Michelle Obama’s speech in the Elizabeth Garret Anderson Language School in London (one of the most diverse schools in UK) is more important for Brits. You remember when she said:

My husband – you know him? – he is going to be very jealous of my afternoon. He's meeting with important people, but it's not as much fun as being here.

A day latter, during his speech in Strasbourg (France) Barack addressed the challenges and possibilities confronting world and young people:

It would be a tragedy if all of you who are so talented and energetic -- if you let that go to waste, if you just stood back and watched the world pass you by.

Better to jump in, get involved -- and it does mean that sometimes you'll get criticized and sometimes you'll fail and sometimes you'll be disappointed -- but you'll have a great adventure. And at the end of your life, hopefully you'll be able to look back and say, 'I made a difference.

It seams Obamas made a great introduction to discussion about Diversity Strategies links,

You can find a full list of links at Links Library >> Business Involvement & Resources >> Diversity Strategies

The Diversity Pipeline Alliance is a network of national organizations dedicated to preparing students and professionals of color for leadership and management in the 21st century workforce. The “pipeline” symbolizes system that carries students from success in middle school through college, the MBA and successful leadership positions in today’s world.

Find more at: www.diversitypipeline.org

DiversityWeb is a project of Association of American Colleges and Universities’ Office of Diversity, Equity, and Global Initiatives (ODEGI). Mission of the Diversity Web is to promote diversity and global knowledge as essential elements of any effort to foster civic engagement among today's college students. To acheive those goals, the office helps colleges and universities establish diversity as a comprehensive institutional commitment and educational priority.

Find more at: www.diversityweb.org

The Global Nomads Group (GNG) is an international NGO dedicated to heightening children's understanding and appreciation for the world and its people. Using communicational technologies such as videoconferencing, GNG brings young people together face-to-face to meet across cultural and national boundaries to discuss their differences & similarities, and the world issues that affect them.

Find more at http://www.gng.org/

What do you think about aforementioned sites? What about their mission? Will you use their service or join them?

I am very enthusiastic about your proposals, ideas and questions; here or at: SVHATS >> Cool Links and Cool Cash >> Diversity Strategies >> Think global, think diverse, think & act.

Education innovations

Hello,

The College Month is over – and you probably knew which college is your college of choice. Right?

Excellent!

Then let’s talk about Education innovations links. Teachers and students were always looking for a better way to teach and to learn; a better way to educate. IT has provided us with numerous new tools… so let’s check some ideas, platforms…

You can find a full list of links at Links Library >> Blogs, Forums on education, philanthropy, etc. >> Education innovations.

Classroom20.com is the social network for those interested in Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies in education. It won EduBlogAwards.com 2008 – for best use of social networking and 2007 - Best educational use of a social networking service. Check why and find more at www.classroom20.com.

The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, or ASCD, is a membership-based nonprofit organization founded in 1943 as a part of National Education Association's. Since 1972 ASCD has became totally independent of the NEA.

It has more than 175,000 members from over 100 countries, including principals, teachers, professors of education, and other educators.

Confusing name? While ASCD was initially founded with a focus on curriculum and supervision, the association has extended its mission with goals like: develop programs, products, and services essential to the way educators learn, teach, and lead.

The Spotlight Blog is a good source of the ideas and dilemmas shaping the future of digital media and learning. Therefore, if you want to find what's happening in the emerging field of digital media and learning, this is a good place to start.

Find more at: http://spotlight.macfound.org/

You can also check the http://digitallearning.macfound.org link… Because the MacArthur Foundation is running $50 million digital media and learning initiative to help determine how digital technologies are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life.

Experience Corps is an award-winning national program that engages people over 55 in meeting their communities' greatest challenge - education.

2,000 Experience Corps members tutor and mentor in 23 cities across the USA, providing literacy coaching, homework help, consistent role models and committed, caring attention.

It seems that makes all the benefits traditional tutor/mentor program does (Experience Corps boosts student academic performance, helps schools and youth-serving organizations become more successful) and in addition to that it enhances the well-being of older adults in the process.

Find more at www.experiencecorps.org.

What do you think about those innovations, those communities? Would you like to use some of them in your educational practice; would you like if your teachers were practicing some of them?

I am very enthusiastic about your proposals, ideas and questions; here or at: SVHATS >>Cool Links and Cool Cash >> Education innovations???

Education innovations

Hello,

The College Month is over – and you probably knew which college is your college of choice. Right?

Excellent!

Then let’s talk about Education innovations links. Teachers and students were always looking for a better way to teach and to learn; a better way to educate. IT has provided us with numerous new tools… so let’s check some ideas, platforms…

You can find a full list of links at Links Library >> Blogs, Forums on education, philanthropy, etc. >> Education innovations.

Classroom20.com is the social network for those interested in Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies in education. It won EduBlogAwards.com 2008 – for best use of social networking and 2007 - Best educational use of a social networking service. Check why and find more at www.classroom20.com.

The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, or ASCD, is a membership-based nonprofit organization founded in 1943 as a part of National Education Association's. Since 1972 ASCD has became totally independent of the NEA.

It has more than 175,000 members from over 100 countries, including principals, teachers, professors of education, and other educators.

Confusing name? While ASCD was initially founded with a focus on curriculum and supervision, the association has extended its mission with goals like: develop programs, products, and services essential to the way educators learn, teach, and lead.

The Spotlight Blog is a good source of the ideas and dilemmas shaping the future of digital media and learning. Therefore, if you want to find what's happening in the emerging field of digital media and learning, this is a good place to start.

Find more at: http://spotlight.macfound.org/

You can also check the http://digitallearning.macfound.org link… Because the MacArthur Foundation is running $50 million digital media and learning initiative to help determine how digital technologies are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life.

Experience Corps is an award-winning national program that engages people over 55 in meeting their communities' greatest challenge - education.

2,000 Experience Corps members tutor and mentor in 23 cities across the USA, providing literacy coaching, homework help, consistent role models and committed, caring attention.

It seems that makes all the benefits traditional tutor/mentor program does (Experience Corps boosts student academic performance, helps schools and youth-serving organizations become more successful) and in addition to that it enhances the well-being of older adults in the process.

Find more at www.experiencecorps.org.

What do you think about those innovations, those communities? Would you like to use some of them in your educational practice; would you like if your teachers were practicing some of them?

I am very enthusiastic about your proposals, ideas and questions; here or at: SVHATS >>Cool Links and Cool Cash >> Education innovations???

College Resources.

Hello,

It’s the third week of College and Career Month. So, you probably know what you want to do; you know which career path is for you … or at least you know in which direction you want to go.

Of course a college education is an important component of your career voyage. Important and expensive! But do not worry; there are numerous resources to get a scholarship or loan for your education. In this post I will mention a few good starting points for your research.

You can find a full list of links at Links Library >> College & Career Education Resources >> College Resources.

FastWEB is an acronym for (F)inancial (A)id (S)earch (T)hrough the (WEB). It is a free online scholarship matching service and college search service founded in 1995. This company was one of the first 100 commercial websites in the United States. FastWeb is recommended by more than 16,000 high schools and 3,600 colleges.

Find out why on www.FastWEB.com.

www.college-scholarships.com will provide you with information on college scholarships and financial aid, free college scholarship searches, colleges and universities, and college and university admissions and financial aid office email addresses and telephone numbers. Furthermore, very valuable SAT and ACT test preparation tips can be found at the college-scholarships.com site.

Find more at: www.college-scholarships.com

allcareerschools.com will provide you with information on top colleges and vocational schools, and degree programs that are are right up your alley. Whether you're just graduating from high school or looking for continuing adult education programs, the allcareerschools.com website is a good place to start.

Find out more at: www.allcareerschools.com.

What do you think about those resources? Did you find a scholarship that can work for you? Or can you suggest a better resource?

I am very enthusiastic about your proposals, ideas and questions; here or at: SVHATS >> Cool Links and Cool Cash >> College Resources?.

College Career sites

Hi,

It is time to continue with our research for the links to College Career sites. Right?

Therefore, let’s start with the PhD Project.

The PhD Project support business doctoral programs for minority students.

Participation in The PhD Project is available to anyone of African-American, Hispanic American and Native American descent who is interested in business doctoral studies. It is good to know that there is a program that helps minorities earn their doctorates. Right?

Why the PhD project?
The development of management educators and future business leaders within the African-American, Hispanic American and Native American communities is the cornerstone of The PhD Project's approach to workforce diversity. The shared mission is to increase the diversity of corporate America by increasing the diversity of business school faculty. As faculty, they serve as role models attracting and mentoring minority students while improving the preparation of all students for our diverse workplace and society.

Find more about the PhD project at: www.phdproject.org

www.study-online.net. Have you ever thought about getting a degree online? That is an option that more and more people are taking advantage of these days. This is due in part to the fact that more and more schools/universities are providing well done and globally recognized online programs. Therefore if you want an affordable program you can study while you are working – there is an online program for you. If you want to become a student of the world’s best universities – they have online programs for you. If you want to study online at Harvard, please check www.extension.harvard.edu/, if you are interested in an online degree from University of Illinois, please check: http://global.uillinois.edu/. Find out more about thousands of additional online courses at: www.study-online.net.

Bursa Beasiswa. You know what you want to study, but you don’t know how to find relevant resources? Check Bursa Beasiswa. Bursa Beasiswa is a reference point to browse and search for college scholarships: bachelor, master degree, doctoral, PhD, and postdoctoral

Find more at http://www.bursabeasiswa.com/

Check the links. There are 37 more links. Please check them out at: Links Library >>College & Career Education Resources .

Collaborate. And of course, send us your comments at: SVHATS >> Cool Links and Cool Cash >>College & Career Education Resources.

College & Career Education Resources

Have you started career hunting yet?

Do you know what your favorite colleges are, and have you begun to look into funding for college?

Tough questions; right? But the right answers are extremely important. Therefore at Links Library >> College & Career Education Resources >> Community Partnerships you can find links to sites that will help you find the right answers for you.

In this post I will mention just a few of them.

Chooseyourfuture.org was developed by Department of College and Career Preparation (DCCP, Chicago Public Schools) to provide students with the resources they need to plan a successful path to graduation and post-high school success, because with the proper support, every student has the ability to choose their future.

DCCP’s work was founded on four essential principles: awareness, readiness, access, success. Therefore, you should ask yourself: Are you aware and ready for college? Do you have access to all important data; Is a successful career your goal? When you figure the answers to those questions check out www.chooseyourfuture.org.

NextStudent exist to make your college funding quick and easy. NextStudent can provide you with:

• FREE access to more than 5.9 million different scholarships worth over $16 billion.
• Low-cost student loans, borrower discounts, and flexible repayment options.
• Free one-on-one counseling from your personally assigned Education Finance Advisor.
• Financial aid top tips for how to get the most out of your college financing.

Find out more at: www.nextstudent.com

www.allcareerschools.com is a good starting point for your career hunting challenge.

You can get career advice, detailed information on job opportunities, earnings, college degrees, training requirements and much more. Check www.allcareerschools.com.

Indiana Department of Educations has made an amazing web site dedicated to supporting students’ success and to ensure knowledgeable and productive citizens through coordinated and relevant policies, standards, resources, evaluation, analyses, programs and services.

Find more at: www.doe.in.gov

The National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC) is a voluntary, non-profit association of public research universities, land-grant institutions, and many state university systems with member campuses in all 50 states and U.S. territories.

The association’s overriding mission is to support high-quality public higher education and its member institutions as they perform their teaching, research, and public service roles.

www.nasulgc.org seems to be a good resource for your higher education research

Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count is a multiyear national initiative to help more community college students succeed. The initiative is particularly concerned about student groups that traditionally have faced significant barriers to success, including students of color and low-income students. Achieving the Dream works on multiple fronts, including efforts at community colleges and in research, public engagement and public policy. It emphasizes the use of data to drive change.

For more, please check www.achievingthedream.org.

Check the links. There are 25 links more. Please check them out at: Links Library >>College & Career Education Resources >> Community Partnerships.

Collaborate. And of course, send us your comments at: SVHATS >> Cool Links and Cool Cash >>College & Career Education Resources.

Because: Together We Can.
Right?

Technology! ...comes at a cost

Technology is a great thing. It allows us to do…almost everything. Imagine life without technology;

• How would we commute without cars, trains, ships… even without bikes?
• How would we communicate without the internet, phones, letters, books and TV?
• How would we cook without microwave ovens, stoves?

Luckily, technology provides us with good solutions for each of these tasks.

But… technology comes at a cost; not just as a one time investment in hardware and software, but as a continuous investment in maintaining and improving the system, learning about technology.

Therefore, if you want to save money on technology - sooner or later - you will face challenges & problems.

Web server. Just like we have had during last 2 weeks. The particular issues we had with our web server are described in the Challenges, Results and the Budget article (along with some possible solutions).

Local server. This week we had a huge problem with our local network server.

What happened? Some irregularity with the electricity supply occurred in our office. Therefore, Monday morning, half of the lights did not work and –as you probably guessed – our server crashed! Some files were corrupted and we had no internet, no access to our files for almost three days!

How did it happen? We did not have money for Local Network Server IT support. As you probably know - Network Servers are the heart of every modern organization: all e-communication flows through them, all files are backed up on them. And yes, they are a powerful and essential part of an organization – just as a heart is a powerful and essential part of our body. And yes, they often require professional support.

Professional support & price. Chicago IT Help can provide us with server support for $300 per month. That is a very good price and their services are excellent. However that is $3,600 per year – and we can not afford that right now.

Help. Therefore we need your help.

Donate. If you want help us, so we can afford IT support for our servers you can do it through the www.cabriniconnections.net donation form, or if you have knowhow about the servers, your help would be more than welcome.

Together We Can. Help us – so instead of managing crises with our servers – we can focus on our mission – helping students to start successful careers. Help us, and become a part of each student’s success. >> www.cabriniconnections.net

Literature and the Arts

Hi, this week our topic will be Literature and the Arts Links,

It is one small but cute category from the Tutor/mentor Connection link library.
[ Links Library >> Homework help, tutoring resources >> Literature and the Arts ]

Ready?

Guys read
Guys read is site dedicated to guy tested and guy approved books.

Why, how, who? The data from data from the National Center for Education Statistic suggest that boys consistently score lower than girls on national reading and writing tests.

In an effort to engage boys in reading, former schoolteacher Jon Scieszka has launched an Internet initiative called Guys Read. The idea is to provide boys a place to meet and talk about reading.

So, boys check it. Girls are welcome.

Teaching Animation to Students

Film Education is a charity with mission to utilize film as a powerful educational tool. And… they have been doing that since 1984. Remember, 1984 was a time without YouTube, digital cameras, a time without e-mail… even without Google.

Their long tradition and big community (National Schools Film Week a nationwide festival that was attended by 400,000 young people in 2008) has resulted in very interesting and useful web site at: www.filmeducation.org.

Check it; free resources cover a wide range of curriculum areas and include film clips, Teachers' Notes and a range of activities.

Where peace lives

www.wherepeacelives.org is a site developed with mission to teach effective conflict-resolution and peace building skills to build bridges of cultural understanding and mutual respect through art and media forwarding the conversations for peace in the world.

Check it out; find a way to use art as peace generator.

And send us your comments: SVHATS >> Cool Links and Cool Cash >> Literature and the Arts

Challenges, Results and the Budget

Challenges. Last week the Cabrini Connections website and eLearning portal (my.cabriniconnections.net) faced a big technical challenge. Therefore, for 3 days the site was not available.

What was it about? Why/how did it happen?

Well… To understand the challenges we faced, it is important to know something about our Web development background and about some new things we have developed at www.cabriniconnections.net.

Background. For many years CabriniConnections.net was hosted by an Australian hosting company. We had a lot of hard drive space, but there was no possibility of hosting more advanced web applications.

Upgrade. Therefore we have started developing and testing new web applications at a new, very powerful Apache server. Furthermore, since our e-learning application moodle, hosted for the time being at my.mentorforme.org, can support 25 concurrent users for every 512 MB of RAM, we had to upgrade our servers to Virtual Private Server business plan hosted by www.host.co.in.

2 sites. So, we had the official web site, cabriniconnections.net hosted on old server and a powerful new server where we were using mentorforme.org domain name. On my.mentorforme.org we had an eLearning portal and on mentorforme.org we had the new version of CabriniConnections.net.

New Cabrini Connections website is a dynamic web site that runs on Joomla Content Management System (CMS). Joomla is the most popular and one of the most powerful CMS. It has numerous features that will enhance our collaborative web development and improve users’ browsing experience. Suspicious? Well check out www.cabriniconnections.net... And send us your comments.

Cabrini Connections eLearning site (SVHATS) was developed and tested at my.mentorforme.org and recently it has been moved to the my.cabriniconnections.net webadress. It runs on the most popular Learning Management System - Moodle. Moodle is used by numerous schools, universities, corporations, lifelong learning centers, governments (especially in European Union). To serve as an illustration: at this moment there are 50078 moodle sites from 206 countries.

Pioneers? According to my research,- there are no other tutor/mentor programs that are currently using/maintaining software like moodle in Chicagoland. So, although moodle is widely used, we seem to be the first tutor/mentor program to be taking advantage of it :).

Google Applications. We also started integrating Google applications Education Edition into our domain; so all our students, volunteers and staff can use very advanced Google tools inside the CabriniConnections.net domain. Just some of the Google tools we can use are: gCalendar, gSites, gDocs, gMail (but in our CabriniConnections.net domain – so we call it cMail), 8GB of webspace per user…

That is our background and those are our results – in brief.

So what happened last week?

We had problems with cMail (gMail in our domain), so I contacted our hosting company for help, and… instead of fixing the problem with our mentorforme.org domain, they deleted mentorforme account – with both web sites; mentorforme.org and CabriniConnections.org.

So it took a few days to restore everything.

Who is to be blamed?

Well, I contacted the hosting company, so I am involved… The web hosting support team made a big mistake – deleting an account instead of just domain name.

However we have chosen the cheapest web hosting solution ($45/month for virtual private server with 512 MB of RAM). So, is that the reason why we did not have appropriate support?

I mean, none of this would have happened if we had an experienced professionals working for our hosting company. However, an experienced professional costs $70/hour and has the skills and expertise to warrant their higher cost. To summarize; these problems could have been avoided if we had money for high quality web hosting.

Can you help us to upgrade our web hosting?

Social Science Links

Hi,

A new week brings new challenges. Right?

Therefore this week we will talk about the Social science links on the Tutor/Mentor Connection Link Library..

Ask Asia. The first site is AskAsia.org. This is an educational website for students and teachers covering some thirty countries that comprise Asia today. The site features material that ranges from early civilization to current events.

Find more at: www.AskAsia.org.

History Learning Site. www.historylearningsite.co.uk is the address of History Learning Site. This is a commercial British site that provides numerous historic facts about selected periods of history. However, since it is a commercial site, it is full of ads, which can be quite distracting.

Topics covered on this site include: Ancient Rome, Medieval England, Tudor England, Stuart England, Britain 1700 to 1900, World War One, World War Two, The role of British women in the Twentieth Century, Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, Inventions and Discoveries of the Twentieth Century.

Find more at: www.historylearningsite.co.uk

Mr. Woodside's Virtual Classroom is hosted at http://mrwoodside.com. On this site Mr. Woodside combines the principles of video game design with a mastery model of education. Therefore the result is, as Mr Woodside says: World History Adventure, a year-long exploration, educational game.

Although this site is designed primary for Mr. Woodside’s students, it is a worthwhile resource for everybody.

Furthermore, this site is a good example how multimedia presentations, interactive history simulations, socratic discussions, and other history activities can make learning fun. We call it edutainment. Right?

Find more at http://mrwoodside.com.

Mr. Roughton's site is quite similar to Mr. Woodside's Virtual Classroom. You'll find history lesson plans, assignment ideas and more. It is nice to see how much effort some teachers invest into the quality of education they provide. Find more at http://mrroughton.com.

The History Place, hosted at historyplace.com, provides lots of data about selected chapters of world history. However, the same way as www.historylearningsite.co.uk the historyplace.com site is full of commercials (covering 30% of used screen surfaces).

Find more at www.historyplace.com.

What do you think about these links?

Please send us your comments: SVHATS >> Cool Links and Cool Cash >> Social Science Links.

National African American History Month

A few days ago (February 2nd), President Obama made a beautiful Proclamation of National African American History Month.

He ended with this paragraph:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim February 2009 as National African American History Month.

I call upon public officials, educators, librarians, and all the people of the United States to observe this month with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and programs that raise awareness and appreciation of African American history.

You probably knew that the whole Proclamation is available at www.whitehouse.gov (I encourage you to read it).

So, how will we celebrate the Black History Month? What activities we will do?

What. This week we will do collaborative e-learning activity Black History Links.

How. Our goal is to prepare a list of the 10 best websites about Black History. When we finalize the list, we will publish the links in the Tutor/Mentor Connection Link Library.

Action. So, what are your favorites?

Proposal. This is a list of sites I consider to be excellent sites about Black History (full list is available at Links Library >> Homework help, tutoring resources >> Black History Studies):

1. National African American History Month, 2009 A Proclamation by the President
2. African American History Month Website
3. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
4. African American History @ about.com
5. Wikipedia about African American History
6. Wikipedia about African Americans
7. African American Women Writers of the 19th Century
8. Black History Hotlist by pacbell.com
9. www.blackpast.org - this site is dedicated to providing reference materials to the general public on African American history
10. Africans in America
    PBS overview of African American history includes excerpts from primary sources.
11. Civil Rights Documentation Project
    Project emphasizing civil rights legislation from 1963-1965 includes primary sources and a timeline.

Collaboration. Would you add any site to that list? Do you think that some of the aforementioned sites are not good enough? Or....?

That is a challenge for today. There are a few more interesting links in Black History Studies .

Why I did not mentioned them here? Well… some things you have research on your own. Just go to Black History Studies and browse.

And send us your comments: SVHATS >> Cool Links and Cool Cash >> National African American History Month.

I’m very enthusiastic about your comments.

Homework Help >> Written skills

Starting to write an article or to speak a new language can be a challenge. Right?

Everything seems to be so easy, understandable, but when you have to put it on a paper (type in a computer?) or say it in an another language … well…

That’s why on the TutorMentor Connection web site we have the link category Homework Help >> Written skills.

So, let’s check the websites mentioned there.

NoodleTools is one of the leading bibliography software on the Internet, transforming bibliographic instruction methodologies. NoodleTools software supports the entire research process by.

• Searching intelligently
• Assessing the quality of results
• Recording, organizing and synthesizing information using online notecards
• Formatting your bibliography in MLA, APA, or Chicago/Turabian style

Full NoodleTools service is for members only (you have to pay), but there is lots of free stuff.

www.theeasyessay.com provides an automated information organization program. You know the dilemma I mentioned at the beginning of this article: Everything seems to be so easy to understand, but when you have to put it on paper ( or computer) … well… it is hard to find a way to start and it can be even harder to present those thoughts clearly. That is where the www.theeasyessay.com website can help. Try it. And send us your comments.

WorldChamp.com is a site that provides numerous language learning tools for almost any language in the world – for free. Of course, if you are ambitious, you can hire a tutor…

If you want to check BBC language learning tools, go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/. There you can find well illustrated, very interactive tutorials for all world languages. Some of the tutorials are in the format of a game. For example ‘Japanese Challenge - Can you avoid social embarrassment?’ is a game that puts you in the center of Tokyo and challenges you to find a way how to communicate properly.

eSpindle Learning, a nonprofit parent initiative, helps students gain a rich vocabulary, creating confident readers, writers and spellers. It provides numerous interactive spelling & vocabulary building activities. Try it. A 10 day trial is free, otherwise it is $9.50 per month.

The last website mentioned in this category is www.wordcount.org. Word Cont site visualize the way we use language. It presents the 86,800 most frequently used English words, ranked in order of commonness. I am not certain how we can use it, but it is interesting to see that word ‘Tutor’ is on 6584^th place and word ‘Mentor’ is on 16931^st place. Right?

What are your thoughts about it?

Science, Math, and Engineering

Hi,
Today’s featured links are grouped as Science, Math, and Engineering in the Tutor/Mentor Connections Links Database.

So, let’s start.

Volunteering Produces Health Benefits. Read the article A New Benefit for Future City Mentors: Volunteering Produces Health Benefits and find how Mentoring can increase your health.

Find more at: http://www.eweek.org/site/News/Eweek/2007_FC_mentor_benefits.shtml.

The Sloan Career Cornerstone Center is an ever-expanding resource for anyone interested in exploring career opportunities in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, computing, and healthcare. Explore over 170 degree fields and find out about education requirements, salaries, networking, precollege ideas, and career planning resources

Find more at http://www.careercornerstone.org/

Consumers Guide to Afterschool Science Resources. On link http://www.sedl.org/afterschool/guide/science/ you can find the Consumer’s Guide to Afterschool Science Resources. Those pages contains reviews of high-quality, hands-on science content for afterschool programs.

Reviewed materials include semester and year long curricula, activity kits, instructor guides consisting of many related activities, and Web sites that offer content appropriate for afterschool programs. Users of this guide are able to search and sort entries by title, subject, grade level, audience, and cost.

Find more at http://www.sedl.org/afterschool/guide/science/

The Chicago 1st Black Inventors/ Entrepreneurs Organization's (CFBIEO) provide resources that will help members (you?) to convert invention into a successful product.

Find more at: http://www.cfbieo.org/about.htm

Edutopa.org. Kids today are the digital generation. Right? They use computers and superfunctional mobile phones better than we used a knife and fork when we were 12. Yet, our schools are still in the middle of industrial revolution. Big classes, uniform industrial educational approach – one model for everybody… Looks the same as it was 80 or 800 years ago.

It seems that there is a huge gap between the current state of our educational system and the needs of our students (the time we live in, the technology we use). Edutopica.org is a website created by The George Lucas Educational Foundation to address that issue. Check it, and you will find very interesting, multimedia reach, articles/videos about Project Learning, Technology Integration, Teacher/Mentor Development, Assessment and bunch of other things we can do in order to increase the quality of education/mentoring we provide.

Find more at: www.edutopia.org

Discover Egypt’s Pyramids by www.nationalgeographic.com. This well-illustrated tutorial about Egypt’s Pyramids is available at www.nationalgeographic.com/pyramids. You as a visitor can scroll across the different pyramids, revealing their interior organization and a number of facts about their construction and so on. Let the research begin…

Fermilab is committed to enhancing mathematics and science education and stimulating science literacy. Laboratory education programs serve students from prekindergarten to graduate research scientists in training.

Find more at: http://ed.fnal.gov/

Project Exploration is a nonprofit science education organization that makes science accessible to the public—especially minority youth and girls—through personalized experiences with scientists and science. It serves as inspiration and tool to transform their lives by offering opportunities to interact with scientists and hands-on experiences with the wonders of science.

Check how we can use the project exploration method to help your mentee.

Find more: www.projectexploration.org

That is it for today. There are a few more interesting links in Science, Math, and Engineering .
Why I did not mentioned them here? Well… some things you have research on your own. Just go to Science, Math, and Engineering and browse.

And send us your comments.

Interesting; right?

BBC - Cool Site

BBC Education. BBC or the British Broadcasting Corporation is the world's largest broadcaster (28,500 employees). It is incorporated in the European Union (UK) by government charter; with a mission "to inform, educate and entertain”. The BBC reaches more than 200 countries and is available to more than 274 million households (its nearest competitor CNN – is available in 200 million households).

As you can notice – everything is big with the BBC.
Big, maybe even too big. For example, two years ago BBC started an online educational service called BBC Jam (BBC Digital Curriculum) with annual budget of $200 million. However, since the BBC Jam, as an high quality, interactive, and free(!) service, outshone most of competitors from commercial sector, the European Commission suspended BBC Jam programming on 20 March 2007.

It’s regrettable, yes…… but,the allegations are true. Even now, after suspension of the Jam BBC, online materials and activities overwhelm most of the competition. Just check http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ or http://www.bbc.co.uk/learning/ and you will find bunch of educational highly interactive (and entertaining) games, interesting content and interactive tutorials.

How do you like it?

Tutor/Mentor Connection Links Library

Hi,

Have you checked the Tutor/Mentor Connection Links Library recently? It contains 1500 entries. Which ones are your favorites? Or which group of links? We share these links with people from around the world. We want to encourage you to get to know them, and learn to use them yourself.

There are 24 links groups; if you are interested in public schools you have group designated just for that, if you are interested in content to enhance your or your child/mentee’s Arts, Science or Math skills – there are groups dedicated solely to those subjects as well. Therefore, if you have not checked it out yet – I encourage you to do so now.

You can probably guess that my favorite links group is educational technology. But… which linked website is the best; none of them – or all of them; it is hard to say. Therefore, let’s check some of them.

Starting this week, we're launching a new educational activity in SVHATS called Cool Links & Cool Cash. The goal is for students and volunteers to get to know the links in Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) site and, to learn to use these for school work, volunteer service, and college and career planning.

As an encouragement to spend time learning about these links, we're offering the opportunity to earn Cool Cash.

The rules are simple:

1. Each week I will describe a few websites in specific sections of the Links Library in my blog (blog.mentorforme.org). This week, I'm focusing on the section titled Science, Math, and Engineering.

2. Go to the Tutor/Mentor Connection Links Library that I've pointed to; Skim the links, and post a comment in SVHATS about the described web site. Why do you like it; why not. Would you recommend it to your friend… or not? Do you know about a better website?3. Earn Cool Cash. For each properly formatted post – you will get $2 (up to 2 posts per week).

4. Every Friday I will post a new blog article, describing a different section of the links library. You can review these from home, school or when you are at Cabrini Connections.

PS: If you are not part of Cabrini Connections, but a visitor from a different tutor/mentor program in Chicago, or a different city, we hope you will browse the links too, and use them in your own efforts to help kids through school and into careers.

www.tutormentorexchange.net

The New Tutor Mentor Exchange site is online. Have you checked it? New design, updated content, a bunch of new features…how do you like it?

Joomla? Yes, yes, it is build on the Joomla! CMS engine. Joomla! is the most popular and one of the best Content Management Systems around.

Easier & better content management. Joomla! provide numerous features that ease content management. Therefore it will be easier to keep the content updated. Also, it will be easier to collaborate on content development. Joomla! allows 7 different group of users; three from the back (administrator) end and four from the front end. That means – it will be easy to share tasks and responsibilities.

And…

Enough about Joomla (you can find more about Joomla! at www.joomla.org). Let’s say a few words about the TutorMentorExchange.net site. That is the focus of this article.

How to! As you can notice, www.tutormentorexchange.net is full of interesting articles that will guide you how to start a program, how to plan a strategy, how to lead a program, how to network, how to find if there is a program in your neighborhood… and many other things.

T/M Management Handbook. It is something like a Tutor/mentor program management handbook. Everything you need to know about how to start/support a good tutor/mentor program. Actually… almost everything; your contribution is essential to utilize that knowledge. You are the one who will convert that knowledge into real action. Or you can share that knowledge to somebody who will utilize it.

Right?