On Thursday, September 26th, Michelle Doucette Cunninham, Executive Director, spoke to one small part of the changes. Specifically, the Office of Early Childhood has changed the regulation for after school programs to allow 15 students to one teacher (instead of 10:1). Michelle spoke to the benefits this will provide families, children and programs, and thanked […]
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As the new school year starts we have an opportunity to rethink old habits, start new ones, explore interests, and become engaged in the field beyond your program. The Out-of-School Time field has grown and evolved over the past 24 years since the start of the Millenium. The field offers robust opportunities through federally funded […]
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Summer is a time for outdoors, water fun, and laughing with friends. However for millions of children across the country, summer is a time of isolation and choices that may have negative consequences for years to come in their lives. While middle and high income peers are provided a multitude of summer activities, low income […]
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In an effort to elevate the out-of-school time (OST) profession and enhance the well-being of OST professionals nationwide, the National AfterSchool Association (NAA) has proudly unveiled the Out-of-School Time Job Quality Standards (JQS). Developed in collaboration with leading experts and stakeholders in the field, these standards represent a pivotal milestone in the ongoing efforts to […]
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Back in February, Shawna shared a worksheet to help staff create activities based on their own interests, and as promised she’s back with her tie-dye inspired activity, Ice Dye Color Theory. Shawna found her love for tie-dye, especially using the ice dye technique, during the pandemic. We even hosted a team building where the network […]
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This month Shawna had the team help her demo a few Mizzen activities! They gathered to create a call for art for the fall conference using the Teens Curate Teens Collection. The collection is a series of 6 activities, empowering teens to curate their very own art exhibition. The activities begin with developing a theme […]
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The Network surveyed the field recently, and found that you wanted more arts content, so Shawna’s answering the call with this month’s PD Bite. She explored the first two activities in the Making Comics! Mizzen collection. A collection with 7 different parts, making it an easy to implement curriculum. The first activity, Making Comics Part […]
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Are you struggling to keep students engaged during program time? Finding activities, a little dry, even for you? Have you ever thought about developing activities based on your interests? Shawna created a worksheet for you to explore just that. In this month’s PD Bite, Shawna linked the worksheet so you can print it and use […]
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Now that the weather is cold, that means more program time is spent inside. It can be hard to keep kids engaged while they are all cooped up. I’ve explored the Mizzen App to find some activities that are great for the colder months. One of my favorite activities I tested while doing the Mizzen […]
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The Network is celebrating 35 years of after school excellence…and more! In 1989, the Network was founded as the Connecticut School Age Child Care Alliance (CSACCA) at the first After School Conference. Since then, we changed names (2x), moved to several locations and employed over 20 people. In addition to our after school work, we […]
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