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Parents, Community and Mentor Organizations
Students today are decidedly different learners from their parents, grandparents and even older siblings. They’ve grown up in a world surrounded by digital technology and are being asked to meet higher academic standards. WHY is being given as much emphasis as HOW and students are expected to understand concepts at a much deeper level.
Today, a main role of parents, family members and community is to empower each student to learn, achieve success and to become a confident, productive member of a pluralistic, global society. This is not always easy – especially if we don’t understand this very different environment in which students operate today.
The Challenges
The classroom isn’t the only place kids learn. They are influenced by a wide variety of technologies that allow distant interactions with just about anybody any time. Sometimes it is hard to recognize good and bad behavior when “everyone is doing it.”
Cyber Bullying
With 24-hour access to electronic technologies and applications, it is easy for kids to bully others through mean text messages or emails, rumors passed around and posted on social media sites, and embarrassing pictures, videos, websites or fake profiles.
Sexting
Kids don’t think about the potential long- and short-term consequences of sending nude or compromising pictures to someone via text message or a sharing application.
Respect
When we have most of our interaction with each other through electronic devices, sometimes we forget the simple ways of showing respect to each other in one-on-one situations.
Peer Pressure
When one person acts in a certain way, it is easy for others to follow along. Raising kids to do the right thing when everyone around them is doing the wrong thing is not an easy task.
Overcoming Challenges
It is imperative that parents don’t run to the rescue every time their child has a problem. As parents it is our job to teach them how to think their way out of a problem or challenge.
Bias
In the 21st Century our kids are going to be exposed to kids who don’t look like them, think like them or act like them. Parents need support in how to raise kids that are accepting, tolerant and supportive of others.
The Outcomes
A citizen of the 21st Century faces a multitude of challenges and choices every day, and they need to react quickly an appropriately. They need to know how to think through problems quickly, critically and creatively.
Critical
thinkers.
Overcoming Challenges.
Citizens of the world.
Being Resilient.
Safety and Security.
Solving Problems.
Making good decisions.
Handling adversity.
The Opportunities For Parents
We use the same principles we use with teachers and administrators to give parents the tools help their children build and maintain relationships that are the foundation for a supportive, positive and inspiring environment at home, in the community and in the classroom. We help parents understand the importance of social and emotional learning and the role they, as a parent, play in supporting their 21st Century learner. This program is engaging and provides opportunities to role play various situations.
Parent University
Parent University is a hands-on, interactive program for K-12 school districts consisting of five modules. Each module shows parents how to implement fun, interactive and engaging activities with their children that build skills 21st Century students need to be successful.
- Module 1: Eye Contact, Respect and Active Listening – Laugh, collaborate and support other parents as you learn and practice active listening skills.
- Module 2: Empathy, Compassion and Trust – Learn how to guide your child in building positive relationships built upon empathy and compassion.
- Module 3: Inclusion – Build skills of compassion and empathy that will lead to inclusiveness instead of discrimination and exclusion.
- Module 4: Mean vs. Nice – Help your child understand words and behaviors in the context of mean versus nice using a common language.
- Module 5: Using 8 Essential Questions – When facing conflict or a negative situation, these 8 Essential Questions will help parents and their children understand the difference between the intention of words or actions and how they may actually impact others.
Online Courses
We offer two online courses to help parents that can be referenced anytime by parents. Each course consists of multiple lessons and interactive assignments to help you engage with your children in a fun, non-threatening way.
- Parents: Home and School Partnership – Get an overview of how kids today are different and how parents can support their specific learning styles. After viewing the first two modules without the kids, we’ll guide you through having a conversation with your child using the same five modules we go over in our workshops.
To access this course go to this link: http://generationtextonline.odigia.com/courses/enroll/47.html
- Parents: Internet Safety for 21st Century Children and Teens – Life today is lived online. Learn how to educate your children about possible dangers and pitfalls of being online, including texting, sexting, interacting with people online and the digital footprint we all leave behind with every post or text.
To access this course go to this link: http://generationtextonline.odigia.com/courses/enroll/40.html
Online Resources
Is your child’s school using the Generation Text Online framework? This framework provides a common language and common strategies for a true school and parent partnership. As a part of the Gen Text in school curriculum, homework assignments will have your child facilitating conversations with you allowing the whole family to be active learning participants.
One-on-One Video Training
This one-on-one training provides parents/community members with an hour long interactive training on the principles, routines and 21st Century teaching practices in order to build relational and communication skills with your children. This training will support parents/community members in how to use inquiry based learning to build these skills with their children and to understand how to infuse these routines into everyday interactions. Participants are offered a 30 minute follow up video call following a month of implementation.
I think you hit the mark with the kids. My daughter came home nonstop talking about the presentation. The parent program was very informative and easy to follow. Keep up the good work.
The Opportunities For Community Members and Mentors
Training and support for community members and mentors mirrors that which we offer to teachers. If your organization provides mentoring or other services to students, we can create a program to suit your needs on a schedule that works for your participants.
Hands-On Workshops
Generation Text Online will guide mentors and community members in understanding how the 21st Century has altered the successes, the pitfalls and the learning of this generation of students. Our talk will touch on brain research and give insight as to how to best support this generation of children, preadolescents and adolescents and guide them as they face the challenges presented to them as they grow up in the twenty-first century.
Generation Text Online will conduct a 90 minute interactive workshops where mentors and community members will be introduced to strategies and techniques that will support and empower each student to learn, achieve success and to become a confident, productive member of a pluralistic, global society. This workshop will guide mentors in understanding the importance of social and emotional learning and the role that a mentor plays that will best support their 21st Century learner. This workshop is engaging and provides opportunities to role play various situations.
A month later, mentors and community members will have an opportunity to participate in a round table discussion where each participant can share their experiences with the strategies and support each other. Gen Text will facilitate this discussion and encourage this group to meet on a regular basis in order for continued support, as well as teach other mentors.
https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&feature=vm&video_id=LlftlH2l4lU
Online Learning
Take your own learning to the next level with our online, accredited courses for everyone through CE Credits Online. These graduate-level courses have multiple modes of teaching, including text, videos, quizzes, reflective journals, and written assignments.
Online Resources
Once you have participated in one of our programs, you get access to online resources that you can use every day to help achieve a 21st Century Learning Environment.
One-on-One Video Training
This one-on-one training provides parents/community members with an hour long interactive training on the principles, routines and 21st Century teaching practices in order to build relational and communication skills with your children. This training will support parents/community members in how to use inquiry based learning to build these skills with their children and to understand how to infuse these routines into everyday interactions. Participants are offered a 30 minute follow up video call following a month of implementation.
Jill I agree that mentors leave lasting impressions on students lives!! Your company does great work! I’m a stronger mentor with more tools in my toolbox because I have learned more about the techniques you teach in your program.
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How can we work together to make this more inclusive and safer?