The date, the gown, the tux, the theme, the corsage. For many teenagers the prom is the highlight of their high school career, seen as the rite of passage from adolescence to adulthood.
In Prom Night, Amy Best interview countless teens about their prom experiences, and looks at popular media to understand today's teens. She finds that with the rising purchasing power of youth culture, the prom is now an industry unto itself with its own magazines, films, clothing, accessories and services.

Increasingly, educational researchers and policy-makers are finding that extracurricular programs make a major difference in the lives of disadvantaged youth, helping to reduce the infamous academic attainment gap between white students and their black and Latino peers. Yet studies of these programs typically focus on how they improve the average academic performance of their participants, paying little attention to individual variation. Why Afterschool Matters takes a different approach, closely following ten Mexican American students who attended the same extracurricular program in California, then chronicling its long-term effects on their lives, from eighth grade to early adulthood. Discovering that participation in the program was life-changing for some students, yet had only a minimal impact on others, sociologist Ingrid A. Nelson investigates the factors behind these very different outcomes. Her research reveals that while afterschool initiatives are important, they are only one component in a complex network of school, family, community, and peer interactions that influence the educational achievement of disadvantaged students. Through its detailed case studies of individual students, this book brings to life the challenges marginalized youth en route to college face when navigating the intersections of various home, school, and community spheres. Why Afterschool Matters may focus on a single program, but its findings have major implications for education policy nationwide.

Increasingly, educational researchers and policy-makers are finding that extracurricular programs make a major difference in the lives of disadvantaged youth, helping to reduce the infamous academic attainment gap between white students and their black and Latino peers. Yet studies of these programs typically focus on how they improve the average academic performance of their participants, paying little attention to individual variation. Why Afterschool Matters takes a different approach, closely following ten Mexican American students who attended the same extracurricular program in California, then chronicling its long-term effects on their lives, from eighth grade to early adulthood. Discovering that participation in the program was life-changing for some students, yet had only a minimal impact on others, sociologist Ingrid A. Nelson investigates the factors behind these very different outcomes. Her research reveals that while afterschool initiatives are important, they are only one component in a complex network of school, family, community, and peer interactions that influence the educational achievement of disadvantaged students. Through its detailed case studies of individual students, this book brings to life the challenges marginalized youth en route to college face when navigating the intersections of various home, school, and community spheres. Why Afterschool Matters may focus on a single program, but its findings have major implications for education policy nationwide.

Forest School's innovative outdoor approach offers specific benefits to learners with autism, including increased social skills, raised self-esteem and improved sensory function. This guide raises autism awareness amongst practitioners by providing practical and easy-to-follow advice for adapting Forest School activities for those with autism. For those coming from a mainstream Forest School background, the author offers an introduction to autism and shows what Forest School can offer people with autism - both children and adults - with first-person accounts that highlight its success with this group. The guide gives advice on the social and sensory benefits, offers practical advice on safety and on how to set up a Forest School and finally presents specific activities to be incorporated into practitioners' routines.

From childhood to adolescence, young people are enrolled in various public or private forms of educational arrangements outside regular school lessons. These activities can be summarized by the term extended education. The volume provides an overview of extended education in multiple nations around the world. Different models, policies, methods, and research findings are discussed from an international point of view. Children participate in school- or community-based programs, forms of private tutoring or after-school activities such as art courses or academic clubs, or they attend extracurricular activities at all-day schools or leisure time centres. In as far as these activities and programmes focus on the social, emotional and academic development of children and young people and are pedagogically structured to make it easier for the participants to learn specific contents they can be summarized by the term extended education. The volume aims at three main aspects: Firstly, it explores major characteristics of extended education as an emerging research field, defines what this research field is (and is not), and points to areas/nations/regions where we know very little about extended education. Secondly, the volume provides a potential framework for future cross-national research (collaborative and comparative research) on extended education we are lacking so far. And thirdly, the volume sheds light on the national and international features of extended education and suggests future developments in this field of education. The volume focuses on childhood and adolescence (through secondary education, including college students), though some lifelong implications are discussed as well. It encompasses 18 articles which cover extended education in 12 different countries around the globe.

Science fairs, clubs, and talent searches are familiar fixtures in American education, yet little is known about why they began and grew in popularity. In Science Education and Citizenship, Sevan G. Terzian traces the civic purposes of these extracurricular programs for youth over four decades in the early to mid-twentieth century. He argues that Americans' mobilization for World War Two reoriented these educational activities from scientific literacy to national defense a shift that persisted in the ensuing atomic age and has left a lasting legacy in American science education.

Learning to argue and persuade in a highly competitive environment is only one aspect of life on a high-school debate team. Teenage debaters also participate in a distinct cultural world--complete with its own jargon and status system--in which they must negotiate complicated relationships with teammates, competitors, coaches, and parents as well as classmates outside the debating circuit. In "Gifted Tongues," Gary Alan Fine offers a rich description of this world as a testing ground for both intellectual and emotional development, while seeking to understand adolescents as social actors. Considering the benefits and drawbacks of the debating experience, he also recommends ways of reshaping programs so that more high schools can use them to boost academic performance and foster specific skills in citizenship.

Fine analyzes the training of debaters in rapid-fire speech, rules of logical argumentation, and the strategic use of evidence, and how this training instills the core values of such American institutions as law and politics. Debates, however, sometimes veer quickly from fine displays of logic to acts of immaturity--a reflection of the tensions experienced by young people learning to think as adults. Fine contributes to our understanding of teenage years by encouraging us not to view them as a distinct stage of development but rather a time in which young people draw from a toolkit of both childlike and adult behaviors. A well-designed debate program, he concludes, nurtures the intellect while providing a setting in which teens learn to make better behavioral choices, ones that will shape relationships in their personal, professional, and civic lives.

The ultimate antidote to screen time - outdoor play with your kids! Whether you are a parent, a teacher, a Forest School leader or anyone else looking after children, this invaluable guide to nature-based play is full of ideas to get kids outdoors, learning about and connecting with nature, developing new skills and having fun. These new Forest School crafts, games and survival activities are all themed around the elements of earth, air, fire and water, with an underlying message of sustainability and wonder at the amazing web of life. For earth, make a mud slide, try Bogolan mud painting on cloth, or hurl mud missiles at a moving target. For air, make a bullroarer or a whistle, build a kite and fly it, or predict the weather by reading the clouds. For fire, dig a Dakota fire pit, make a bug-repellent torch or learn how to navigate using a shadow stick. For water, mix natural dyes, build and test a rainproof den, or drink foraged birch twig tea from a crafted log cup. There are also four magical stories to tell the children - one for each of the elements -guaranteed to spark their imagination.

* Step-by-step guide from conception to evaluation * Practical, short, and easy reference for teachers, leaders, or community members who may be designing a before/after school program * Ideal for students of any ability level, from gifted to special needs

Discussions of physical activity in schools often focus on health-related outcomes, but there is also evidence for its integral role in academic achievement, cognition, and psychological adjustment. Written by a scientist-practitioner, Physical Activity and Student Learning explores the effects of physical activity within the broader context of educational psychology research and theory and brings the topic to a wider audience. With chapters on positive school behavior, executive function, and interventions, this concise volume is designed for any educational psychology or general education course that includes physical activity in the curriculum. This book establishes physical activity as an important part of all learning-not just physical education and recess-and will be indispensable for student researchers and both pre- and in-service teachers alike.

If you've ever taken a child (or sat near one) on public transport - you know how important this book is. Five Minute Mum: On the Go is the ultimate companion to any journey, staycation or holiday: 80 games to keep little ones happily - and quietly! - occupied when you're out and about. Also featuring games suitable for big groups on holidays or at parties, this is endless fun for kids, and sanity saving for their grown ups!

A foundational tenet of the Out-of-School Time (OST) field is that all youth deserve impactful and engaging learning experiences. That requires that organizations, programs, and OST professionals remain responsive to the emerging needs of their diverse youth populations and the communities in which they live. This book illustrates the tensions that arise when organizations and OST professionals try to engage all youth, especially the traditionally underserved populations - when infrastructure, funding, and mindsets have not kept pace with the evolving needs of youth and their communities. The issues raised in this book - funding, outreach, engagement of immigrant families - have yet to be fully explored with an equity lens. Within these broad topics, this book brings to the surface the equity and access challenges as well as posit solutions and strategies. Each chapter is written from an insider's perspective, by practitioners themselves, who articulate some of the key and relevant issues in the field. Each chapter ends with a Research-Practice Connection section written by the editors, which discusses the topic from a research lens and generates a set of questions that can be used by researchers in future studies to explore the topic in a more in-depth, expansive manner.

This book is open access and available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by Knowledge Unlatched. Game studies is a rapidly developing field across the world, with a growing number of dedicated courses addressing video games and digital play as significant phenomena in contemporary everyday life and media cultures. Seth Giddings looks to fill a gap by focusing on the relationship between the actual and virtual worlds of play in everyday life. He addresses both the continuities and differences between digital play and longer-established modes of play. The 'gameworlds' title indicates both the virtual world designed into the videogame and the wider environments in which play is manifested: social relationships between players; hardware and software; between the virtual worlds of the game and the media universes they extend (e.g. Pokemon, Harry Potter, Lego, Star Wars); and the gameworlds generated by children's imaginations and creativity (through talk and role-play, drawings and outdoor play). The gameworld raises questions about who, and what, is in play. Drawing on recent theoretical work in science and technology studies, games studies and new media studies, a key theme is the material and embodied character of these gameworlds and their components (players' bodies, computer hardware, toys, virtual physics, and the physical environment). Building on detailed small-scale ethnographic case studies, Gameworlds is the first book to explore the nature of play in the virtual worlds of video games and how this play relates to, and crosses over into, everyday play in the actual world.

Globetrotting or Global Citizenship? explores the broad range of international experiential learning options available to Canadian students, as well as the opportunities and the ethical dilemmas that come with them. Combining practical advice with critical examinations of international experiential learning, this essay collection is designed to help the reader to move beyond photo-ops and travel opportunities and towards striving for a deeper global citizenship. Globetrotting or Global Citizenship? is a valuable guide for students considering going abroad for experiential learning and a useful resource for those returning from such programs, as well as instructors and administrators facilitating pre-departure and return orientation sessions. Anyone taking part in international volunteering will find the reflections and analysis provided here an excellent starting point for understanding the potential impact of their time abroad.

Tired of leftovers? Ready to cook up some new story times, ones that integrate books and games with math, science, and early literacy activities? These mix-and-match menus featuring kids' favourite topics, like animals, families, farms, and food, will engage young ones while easing their transition to school. Whether you're hungry for a full-course feast or prefer to order a la carte, this flexible resource dishes up Practical, up-to-date early literacy information that helps story time organizers understand how children grow and learn Detailed program menus to enable story time planners to establish uniformity in content, important for early literacy Original flannel board activities, poems, games, and finger plays incorporating science, math, and poetry A varied selection of mix-and-match books to help create appealing, perfectly seasoned menus With the guidance provided by this resource, the story times you cook up will be delicious and nutritious!

By some counts, Model United Nations (MUN) has become the single most popular extracurricular academic activity among high school students. More than two million high school and college students have assumed the roles of ambassador from real United Nations member countries, participated in spirited debate about the world's most pressing issues, and called, "Point of order, Mr. Chairman!" Now, in Coaching Winning Model United Nations Teams, Edward Mickolus and Joseph Brannan give MUN teachers and coaches the information they need to succeed. In this informative volume, the authors (MUN coaches themselves) provide detailed guidance for each step of the MUN path, from the first meeting in the teacher's classroom to the final days of an official MUN conference. Coaches will learn about the ins and outs of parliamentary procedure and the most effective ways to help their students draft position papers and resolutions. Most important, Mickolus and Brannan illustrate the many ways that teachers can inspire their students to take an active role in making the world a better place. By the time their students move on, MUN coaches will have instilled in them such important qualities as empathy, self-confidence, and grace under pressure. Coaching Model United Nations Teams is a fun, useful guide for teachers and coaches who are working to help develop tomorrow's leaders today. About the Author JOSEPH T. RANNAN is the faculty adviser to the George C. Marshall High School MUN team in Falls Church, Virginia. Before becoming a teacher, he served in the U.S. Navy, worked as a newspaper reporter, and was the assistant city manager for the city of Alexandria, Virginia, where he resides. DR. EDWARD MICKOLUS has written twenty books on international terrorist events and biographies of terrorists. As an undergraduate at Georgetown University, he led MUN teams to regional and national championships, and while completing his doctorate in political science, he founded and coached the Yale University MUN team and started the Yale MUN conferences. He lives in Dunn Loring, Virginia.

This book provides unique and contemporary insights into the major current issues and controversies in school and community health education, physical education and sports, as well as issues in teacher education of these issues. The distinctive focus of this new volume is to describe current issues and controversies using international perspectives and subsequently be able to create practical strategies for health and sports promotion activities in schools, communities and teacher education. Authors have been drawn together from the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, Israel, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Portugal, the Netherlands, Sweden and Germany. (Imprint: Nova)

Dale Borman Fink, the author of the only book on inclusion of youth with special needs in before and after school child care, now presents the first book to examine the experiences of children with disabilities participating in youth programs alongside their typical peers. This book is the product of Fink's quest to learn as much as possible about one community's experience with the inclusion of children with special needs in youth programs. Using a case study technique, he probes into the issues and dynamics that influence the increasing participation of kids with disabilities in such activities as Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and park and recreation programs. Fink enters a Midwestern community of 14,000, which he calls Wabash, interviewing the parents, the professionals, the peers, the community leaders, and the volunteers about the participation of children with disabilities. How does a girl who relies on an augmentative communication device take part in a Brownie troop? What do other tee-ball players think about a teammate with cerebral palsy? Why does one family refuse to use the local drop-in recreation center? Readers will learn what practices are evolving and what opportunities are being overlooked. Fink makes his own biases and interpretations plain, and he shares part of his own biography along the way. But it is the voices and experiences of the people of Wabash, rather than those of the author, that invest this book with such power about and such importance to all who are concerned youth with special needs.

Written by Richard James, Chess for Schools: From simple strategy games to clubs and competitions is a great resource to help teachers encourage children to enjoy the benefits and challenges of the chess game. Chess is a game of extraordinary excitement and beauty and all children should have the opportunity to experience it. Indeed, many claim that playing abstract strategy games such as chess provides a wide range of cognitive and social benefits-such as improvements in problem-solving ability and communication skills. However, Richard James argues that, because of the complexity of chess, most younger children would gain more benefit from simpler chess-based strategy games and incremental learning. In this practical handbook, Richard provides a wide range of games and puzzles based on these principles which are appropriate for primary schools and explains how teachers can identify children who would benefit from starting young. Richard also sets out how this approach can engage the whole community, including working with children with special needs, getting parents involved in learning and playing, and developing partnerships between primary and secondary schools. Chess for Schools shares the latest research into how children process information, combined with insights into international best practice in teaching chess to young children. The book demonstrates the transformative effect chess can have on older children, and how this can be promoted in secondary schools. Richard James offers valuable insights into the greater context of chess-playing, expressing how and why chess is a joy to so many worldwide andshares a series of resources and minigames for teachers to use with their learners. An ideal resource for primary and secondary school teachers wanting to introduce their pupils to chess.

Learn how to integrate book clubs into secondary school communities for transformation and inclusion so as to enhance and nurture students' literacies along with their social and emotional development. Using her extensive experiences with culturally, neurologically, and linguistically diverse students, the author provides a rich resource that demonstrates how book clubs serve as critical places where adolescents can develop as readers while simultaneously working to build authentic relationships with their peers. Polleck offers research and theories grounded in culturally sustaining pedagogies and healing-centered engagements along with practical strategies for book club facilitators-from developing specific student-centered pedagogical approaches to embodying critical and humanizing dispositions. Book Features: Guidance based on the author's 25 years of experience as a facilitator and researcher of book clubs. A focus on encouraging meaningful participation, identity and community building, and social justice. An approach that prioritizes collaboration among teachers, social workers, counselors, administrators, parents, and other school personnel. Practical strategies that include facilitation suggestions, sample lesson plans, and reflective questioning techniques. Engaging narratives that center the voices of students who have participated in book clubs. An accompanying website with suggested reading lists, teaching materials, classroom activities, and more.

Research in Outdoor Education is a peer-reviewed, scholarly journal seeking to support and further outdoor education and its goals, including personal growth and moral development, team building and cooperation, outdoor knowledge and skill development, environmental awareness, education and enrichment, and research that directly supports systematic assessment and/ or evidence-based advances in outdoor education. Research in Outdoor Education is intended to appeal to researchers, practitioners, teachers and post-secondary students through the exploration and discussion of diverse perspectives on the theoretical, empirical, and practical aspects of outdoor education in its broadest sense.

Ideal for early years to KS1 children who are starting or are already at Reception and KS1 primary school. Phonics! Number sentences! Reading schemes! School uniforms! Daisy Upton has two children, and used to be a teaching assistant, so is more than familiar with the reality of being a parent. This book is packed full of games and activities to help children feel confident and excited about learning. They -and you! - will get help with letters, numbers and everything in between. Daisy's games only take five minutes to set up and five minutes to tidy up you can support them at home without wanting to bang your head on the kitchen table. 'I love Five Minute Mum - she's come up with games that are fun and educational' The Unmumsy Mum Also available: Five Minute Mum: Give Me Five Five Minute Mum: On the Go