Chicago Celebrates National GEAR UP Week |
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National GEAR UP week is a typical week at Chicago Teachers' Center at Northeastern Illinois University (CTC@NEIU), the GEAR UP partner universities and CPS schools. Busy setting the final details for this week’s activities, reviewing and evaluating recent events, and planning for upcoming initiatives. Staff are busily engaged in providing direct support to students, implementing parent programs, delivering professional development, fostering the growth of relationships with school partners, and working on their own professional development. Over 175 teachers participated in this weekend’s YAL Conference, Young Adult Literature, a conference developed by Chicago Teachers' Center that demonstrates how the combination of compelling books and engaging learning strategies provide powerful learning experiences for middle and high school students. One important feature of the conference is mentoring teachers to become unit developers and then professional development providers to their GEAR UP colleagues. This weekend 8 teachers who had previously attended YAL, wrote and implemented their own units presented workshops on those units. On Friday this week, there will be a debriefing meeting with the staff who planned and worked at the conference to reflect on what worked best, what needs improvement for next year’s conference and what needs follow up for this school year. In this same National GEAR UP Week, the Call for Proposals was posted on the Chicago GEAR UP website, asking teachers to put together proposals for presenting at iMATHination, a conference that has come to include all STEM related topics. The conference is in January, but the preparation has been underway for months. As GEAR UP students prepare this year for both the transition to high school for the graduating class of 2016, and for college for the graduating class of 2012, college visits are high on the list of GEAR UP activities. For 8th grade students, it helps to begin with the end in mind. So as they begin high school, college visits help them understand that they are moving toward another, longer term goal. High school seniors are beginning to narrow their choices and make their final selections. College visits now are to finalize their decisions and begin to make the necessary adjustments to a successful transition. Seniors will be visiting Wright College this week to decide if this is the right fit. GEAR UP workshops are being conducted across the city, providing students with the extra academic support and mentoring they need. Loyola University is offering Saturday classes that will help students with every aspect of the transition to college. Post-secondary Planning classes are built on a coaching model and are delivered by actual college students who have been trained and professionally prepared for their role in supporting GEAR UP students. The first of 18 classes begins this Saturday at four Chicago GEAR UP high schools. Roosevelt University is sponsoring a college fair at one of the high schools. They are expecting 36 colleges to be represented. The fair was planned for the early evening so that parents will be able to attend as well. The University of Chicago is planning GEAR UP Talks at one of the high schools. Saturday School for middle schools are getting ready to launch as well as Family Math Nights. GEAR UP staff, staying on top of recent trends in technology, have formed an iPAD User's Group. The group meets for the first time this week to share ideas about how this simple tool can be used to aid instruction and student development. Not to be left out of the picture, GEAR UP students from the graduating class of 2011 attended a recent all staff meeting to share what GEAR UP support worked best for them in the transition to Truman College. Their responses were taped and video is being developed this week that can be shared with upcoming GEAR UP graduates. They are also making plans to make some in-person visits to their alma maters. Sometimes programs that begin as a GEAR UP pilot, such as Freshman Connection, a summer transition to high school program that was developed through GEAR UP and later adopted city-wide by Chicago Public Schools become part of a national discussion. On this week’s Ed Gov Blog, the post, Kicking Off National GEAR UP Week, Freshman Connection is highlighted as an example of “a successful GEAR UP partnership in action.” Being able to share nationally through ED.gov, at NCCEP and other conferences allows GEAR UP to build a national treasury of best practices. It’s an exciting time, and staff are eager to see that students get the services and support they need to make a successful transition to college. Next week there will be follow through with these activities and more on the way. Continually assessing and evaluating programs, incorporating research of best practices, and responding to the community needs, GEAR UP |
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Post-Secondary
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iPAD User's Group |
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iMATHination Call
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staff are continually developing a learning community that will allow Chicago Public Schools to develop and deliver on the highest standards of practice. GEAR UP students are becoming students of choice when it comes to college recruiting. | |
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