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Welcome to the Summer 2011 edition of the Challenge Success newsletter. There is a lot going on, and we are happy to update you on our progress as we continue to champion a broader vision of success for youth.
In this issue:
Fall Conference
Parent Education
New Tools
CS on the Road
You can download a PDF version of this newsletter from our site, by clicking this link.
Fall Conference
Mark your calendars for our 8th annual Fall Conference at Stanford University on September 30th and October 1st. We look forward to welcoming 10 new schools and 15 returning schools to Stanford to hear why one size does not fit all, the theme of this year’s event. The Friday evening session is once again open to the public, and we hope you will join us from 7:00-9:00 p.m. in Memorial Auditorium to hear our keynote speaker, Dr. Ken Ginsburg. Dr. Ginsburg is a pediatrician specializing in Adolescent Medicine at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He also serves as Director of Health Services at Covenant House, an agency that serves Philadelphia’s homeless and marginalized youth.
Challenge Success co-founders Denise Pope, Madeline Levine and Jim Lobdell will present concrete, practical ideas to help families define success on their own terms. Each child is different, and we invite you to join our conversation about how we can honor and develop the unique capabilities, skills and interests of every child. We will also hear from students on what success means to them, the pressures they face, and their coping strategies.
We expect a full house, so please register early at http://www.challengesuccess.org/Educators/Conferences/PlenaryRegistration/tabid/1218/Default.aspx and arrive early to secure parking. And look for signed copies of Ken’s new book, Letting Go with Love and Confidence: Raising Responsible, Resilient, Self-Sufficient Teens in the 21st Century along with copies of DVDs from our past conferences and parent education events.
Parent Education
Challenge Success is working hard to respond to the tremendous demand we are seeing for high quality, practical parent education offerings. We have expanded our 6-week live course, Raising Well-Balanced Children in a Fast-Paced World, and will be offering it three times during the coming school year - at Katherine Delmar Burke School in San Francisco in October, in Kentfield, CA beginning in February, and back at Stanford in the spring. Please check the website for more details.
We are also busy putting together an on-line course, which we expect to launch in the fall. The course will initially mirror our live class, which is aimed primarily at parents of elementary school-aged children. We intend to add a number of classes after our first course launches, including a class for parents of teenagers. We are looking for your feedback on what to develop next, so please email us your ideas or post them on our Facebook page.
Our new Parent Education Program Director, Gina Morris, will oversee all elements of our parent education program. Please contact Gina at ginamorris@stanford.edu for information about our programs.
New Tools
One of the most popular components of our fall schools conference is the “What works and What Doesn’t” session. In an effort to share that information more broadly, we have surveyed our member schools and are developing vodcasts of best practices. These brief videos will be accompanied by more detailed “How to Materials” on our website. The first module, on “Modified Block Scheduling,” was tested at our spring conference at Stanford University on April 2, 2011.
Our schools teams provided us with some targeted suggestions for improvement and suggested segments they would like to see such as “How to do Effective Parent Education,” “Academic Integrity” and “Homework Policies.”
Amy Alamar, our Schools Program Director, will be developing these modules and we will be offering them through our website beginning in the fall. If you have done something at your school that you would like us to incorporate, please email Amy at aalamar@stanford.edu.
Challenge Success on the Road
Madeline and Denise have been getting the Challenge Success message out around the country. In early March, they presented to parents at five different venues over three days in Chicago. The sell-out crowds were interested in hearing about solutions to the rise in student stress and lack of engagement that has been documented in films like Waiting for Superman and Race to Nowhere.
Denise was featured on a panel at Seattle University along with five national education experts and advocates on May 9th to discuss the public education crisis in America as part of their Conversation Education series. You may have heard Madeline on Philadelphia’s top radio station, B101 FM, or listened to her speak in New York or Santa Barbara this past spring.
Over the next several months, Denise and Madeline will travel to Dallas, Vancouver and Washington, D.C. as they continue to educate schools and families about engaging students with learning while maintaining a healthy balance in their children’s lives.
As you can see, there is a lot happening at Challenge Success. Be sure to visit our website and Facebook pages for the latest information. Thank you for your interest in our work and for your continued support.
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Challenge Success is located at
Stanford University School of Education
485 Lasuen Mall, MC 3096
Stanford, California 94305-3096 |
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