2019 Agenda

Breakfast

Welcome and Opening Comments, Vic Jaras, Iowa Department of Education
Opening Keynote, Joanna Faber
The approach presented in this keynote address will help teachers and other afterschool leaders who find themselves locked in a power struggle with their children (and don’t we all at some time!) find better ways to communicate and connect.  The address will provide truly practical methods to use humor, creativity, and respect instead of bribes, threats, and punishments to encourage responsibility and get cooperation from youth.

Break

How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Learn • West Ballroom

Joanna Faber

How can you communicate more effectively with the children you work with?  What is the attitude and language that builds self-esteem and promotes a caring, respectful relationship? This workshop will focus on communication principles and practical skills that can be put to immediate use to make relationships with children more satisfying and rewarding. Through a lively combination of lecture, discussion, written exercises, and role playing, participants will learn to: cope with children’s negative feelings, engage children’s cooperation without bribes or threats, set limits while maintaining goodwill, encourage children to assume responsibility, resolve conflicts creatively, and use praise effectively. The methods are friendly, supportive, and, best of all, effective. Everyone will go home with handouts full of useful techniques that you can immediately put into practice at home and in your program.

Training for Trainers: Empowering Yourself to Empower Others • Southeast Ballroom

Chad Driscoll, Volunteer Iowa, and Mary Sheka, Iowa Mentoring Partnership

Tired of training volunteers and staff and seeing only glazed over looks with no retention of materials? Learn tips and techniques to improve your facilitation skills and achieve your training outcomes through engaging activities. You will have the opportunity to rework a training you currently use, too.

College and Career Readiness: Implementation in an Out-of-School Time (OST) Program • Northeast Ballroom

Theresa Slaughter, Central Iowa OST Enrichment Coach

In this session, participants will be taking an extended look at one approach to implementing a college and career readiness program in an OST setting serving grades 6-12. Participants will be introduced to Program ABC, walking through the planning and implementation process as well as engaging in hands-on activities that will promote learning opportunities.

Summer Learning with You for Youth (Y4Y) • Salon A/B

David McConnell and Monique McDowell, Foundations, Inc

Planning for summer programming shouldn’t start in May. Leaders should begin work with their team at the start of the school year to ensure maximum impact. An intentionally designed summer learning program will help meet targeted student needs and decrease summer learning loss. Intentionality means providing targeted interventions and enrichment activities that help students retain and build new knowledge and skills through engaging, real-life and relevant activities. This intensive workshop will teach learners how to accomplish work within an eight-step process, explore components of high-quality programs, and get tools and resources to help carry out a game plan.

Working Lunch • Main Ballroom, Buffet Located in the North Lobby 

Afterschool Champions and 21CCLC Stars Awards Presentation

Youth Performances

Break

How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Learn (Repeat of previous session) • West Ballroom

Joanna Faber

How can you communicate more effectively with the children you work with?  What is the attitude and language that builds self-esteem and promotes a caring, respectful relationship? This workshop will focus on communication principles and practical skills that can be put to immediate use to make relationships with children more satisfying and rewarding. Through a lively combination of lecture, discussion, written exercises, and role playing, participants will learn to: cope with children’s negative feelings, engage children’s cooperation without bribes or threats, set limits while maintaining goodwill, encourage children to assume responsibility, resolve conflicts creatively, and use praise effectively. The methods are friendly, supportive, and, best of all, effective. Everyone will go home with handouts full of useful techniques that you can immediately put into practice at home and in your program.

Visiting Authors and Children’s Book Author Kurt Wagner • Southeast Ballroom 

Vic Jaras, Iowa Department of Education, and Kurt Wagner, Author 

Participants will learn more about Iowa’s visiting authors program and hear from one of those authors about how he promotes the love of reading in children. Only 46% of children between ages 9 and 11 read for pleasure. We are working to change this by letting children meet authors and learn about the adventures in every book. Join author Kurt Wagner as he shares his experience with creating and writing a children’s book series, Anthony’s Adventures, and what he’s learned from the dozens of author visits he’s done across the state of Iowa. Kurt’s focus is to promote youth reading and creative thinking which he emphasizes in his engaging school presentations. He’ll be giving away a few book gift baskets at the conclusion of his workshop. 

OUCH! That Stereotype Hurts • Northeast Ballroom

Malisa Rader, Iowa State University Extension

Staying silent in the face of demeaning comments, stereotypes, or bias allows inappropriate attitudes and behaviors to thrive. This workshop will provide six easy, but effective, strategies for speaking up respectfully to counter hurtful comments and actions. Participants will gain skills for being an ally as well as learn what to do when they cause an "oops" moment by unintentionally saying something offensive.

Summer Learning with Y4Y (Repeat of previous session) • Salon A/B

David McConnell and Monique McDowell, Foundations, Inc

Planning for summer programming shouldn’t start in May. Leaders should begin work with their team at the start of the school year to ensure maximum impact. An intentionally designed summer learning program will help meet targeted student needs and decrease summer learning loss. Intentionality means providing targeted interventions and enrichment activities that help students retain and build new knowledge and skills through engaging, real-life and relevant activities. This intensive workshop will teach learners how to accomplish work within an eight-step process, explore components of high-quality programs, and get tools and resources to help you carry out a game plan.

Creating an Agency Wide Culture of Social Emotional Learning: Best Practice Techniques • West Ballroom

Dawn Cogan, Mel Dill, Beth McGorry, Ron Parr, and Melanie Seier, St. Mark Youth Enrichment

This is an interactive learning opportunity to explore how to create a culture of connection and respect throughout various aspects of your agency and programming. Starting with Administrative Staff, we will discuss hiring and staff retention, how to recruit, retain, and develop frontline staff, how to engage parents and students effectively to diminish behavioral issues, and how to incorporate community-wide support through enrichment, donors, volunteers, school day staff, and other stakeholders. In this session, you will hear from representatives who specialize in various aspects of our organization in order to give you practical ideas of how to transform the culture around you as a leader in your organization.

​

Making Books Come Alive for Your Students Over the Summer • Southeast Ballroom

Sandy Day, Council Bluffs Community School District, and Kevin Sorice, Kids Read Now

Learn how the Kids Read Now program can help summer learners retain and gain reading skills over the summer. See how Council Bluffs is working to eliminate the Summer Reading Slide through Book Choices, Challenges, Parental Engagement, and Rewards all while focusing on results. This session explores how students can associate books to their world by using text to text, text to self, text to world, and text to creativity questions to improve comprehension and recall. This session also looks at how data is used for student activity and program efficacy to increase reading test scores. 

Innovative Engagement Strategies Using Agriculture • Northeast Ballroom

Will Fett and Cindy Hall, Iowa Agriculture Literacy Foundation

Hands-on lessons and activities are ideal for engaging students of all levels. Participants will see a number of different activities that are quick and easy to replicate but pack a powerful learning punch! We will highlight free resources for literacy, too, with our “My Family's Farm” book series and our Iowa Ag Today student readers. Perfect for all audiences.

Cultivating Citizen Science with Y4Y • Salon A/B

David McConnell and Monique McDowell, Foundations, Inc.

Citizen Science projects empower youth to have an impact on the world. Learn how to plan and get involved in authentic, purposeful scientific research that enhances students’ knowledge and 21st century skills. Explore real life examples and Y4Y resources to implement Citizen Science in your program.

Treat Break

Together, We Touch Lives Forever • West Ballroom

Sandy Day and Carly Gates, Council Bluffs Community School District, Anna Hartmann, Council Bluffs Public Library, and Ashley Rutan, Country House Residence

This session will focus on methods to recruit new partners and develop partnerships over time in before school, after school, and summer programming. Two community partners will share information and points of view. A make-and-take project will wrap up the session that can then be presented to a partner back home as a thank you.

One Year Curriculum and How to Use the USB for PD • Southeast Ballroom

Vic Jaras, Iowa Department of Education

Learn how to use your conference flash drive effectively. There are tons of shortcuts, lessons, games, worksheets, web quests, and other resource material on this drive. There is an entire year of research-based afterschool curriculum on the drive, as well. Learn tips and tricks on how to prepare a lesson fast. Bring your computer to follow along or your notebook to take notes. What you learn at this session can be shared with others and help make lesson preparation easier.

Implementation of Conscious Discipline in Afterschool K-8 • Northeast Ballroom

Cassie Gerst, Burlington Community School District

Student behavior is a daily challenge in an after school setting. Students are tired after a long day of school and we tend to see a number of "bad behaviors" in our programs. Burlington Community School District's PIECES after school program decided to shift its classroom management style from a reward/punishment approach to a trauma informed, evidence-based, SEL best practice called Conscious Discipline. This session will discuss BCSD's first year of Conscious Discipline implementation within its five elementary sites and one middle school site. Learn how a public school district designed and implemented staff training, student behavior policies, coordination of school day and after school discipline practices, and reduced after school suspensions and office referrals by 90%.

Investing in Family Engagement with Y4Y • Salon A/B

David McConnell and Monique McDowell, Foundations, Inc.

Engaging families in your program can be challenging but is easily worth the investment of time, energy, and resources when you see the value in terms of student success. This session will explore best practices for improving and developing relationships with families. Y4Y trainers will collaborate with participants to customize free resources and tools to help create a family-friendly environment, serve family needs, plan activities for engagement and solicit family input and leadership.