NIOST at the NAA Annual Convention

March 6, 2019

NIOST is going to the National AfterSchool Association (NAA) Annual Convention March 15 to 18 in New York City! Several NIOST staff members and a number of our National Afterschool Matters fellows will be presenting workshops; NIOST Senior Strategist and former Director Director Ellen Gannett will also be given a special Leadership Award.

NIOST staff who are presenting at the convention:

Spot Coaching: Teachable Moments to Support Staff

Presenter: Kathy Schleyer, NIOST Director of Training & Quality Improvement

If you are a manager, team leader, or emerging leader, learn a simple coaching approach to help you support your team one conversation at a time. Join our session to learn about the difference between a management mindset and a coaching mindset, and take away a few tools to support your adaptation and use of a coaching mindset to maximize your impact as a leader.

Sat., March 16th, 4:00 p.m.
Room: Nassau West

Blurring Boundaries: Conversation on Gender

Presenter: Georgia Hall, NIOST Director and Senior Research Scientist

Some of our society's long-held assumptions and definitions about gender have shifted in more visible ways over the last 10 years. Gender is seen as a more fluid representation of how individuals understand their identities. This session is meant to give OST professionals language, resources, ideas to help their OST setting be more inclusive of young people of all gender identities and expressions and LGBTQ families.

Sat., March 16th, 4:45 p.m.
Room: Beekman

Windows and Mirrors: Ourselves, Our Youth, and Bias

Presenter: Georgia Hall, NIOST Director and Senior Research Scientist

We and the youth we work with are experiencing a fractured and challenging environment. We will work on and talk about how to cultivate awareness of our biases and work to increase empathy in ourselves, our youth, and programs.

Sun., March 17th, 11:30 a.m.
Room: Sutton Center

How Do You Measure Quality When You Can't See It?

Presenters: Ellen Gannett, NIOST Senior Strategist and Kathy Schleyer, Director of Training & Quality Improvement

Back by popular demand! You've heard about observation tools to measure afterschool quality. This is your opportunity to open a new lens to measuring quality by focusing on program areas that are not observable. By diving into a structural quality tool from the APAS (A Program Assessment System) suite of tools, you will learn how to assess your own program’s acumen in staff development, family engagement, connecting with schools, creating engaging offerings, and more.

Sun., March 17th, 3:15 p.m.
Room: Sutton South

National Afterschool Matters Fellows who are presenting:

Phase 10 Project: Facilitating Games with Teens

Presenter: Anthony Pound, NASM Fellow, New 42nd Street

Game play has been used for decades in early childhood education to teach a variety cognitive and non-cognitive skills. In higher education, schools like MIT have begun to explore the intersection of games and learning complex ideas. But how can out-of-school time professionals utilize game play, especially when working with the challenging age range of high school students? Based on a study using the card game Phase 10 and three groups of teens, this workshop will explore the possibilities of how different types of facilitation styles during game play can affect community building in adolescents.

Sat. March 16th, 3:15 p.m.
Room: Sutton South

Retention is Key to Building Our Workforce

Presenter: Sonia Toledo, NASM Fellow, Dignity of Children, Inc.

Because retention is a challenge in our field, it is crucial that we show a great deal of importance to the work our youth professionals do every day with the children they serve. Taking a page out of the corporate playbook to build a high-performing workforce, we need to understand our staff's knowledge, capacity, and motives to build a quality afterschool program. Learn how the afterschool field can benefit from the corporate world's best practices in developing their workforce.

Sat. March 16th, 3:15 p.m.
Room: Murray Hill East

The Afterschool Escape Room II (TP)

Presenter: Shawn Petty, NASM Fellow, Westat

Did you miss the afterschool escape room last year? Don’t fret as our master trainers are back to help you experience a new version of the afterschool escape room that delves into SEL. Discover how you can bring this hot trend to your program!

Sun., March 17th, 10:15 a.m.
Room: Concourse G

Changemakers! Access and Equity in OST

Presenters: Kenneth Anthony, Connecticut After School Network; Devan Blackwell, NASM Fellow, OST360; Rebecca Fabiano, Fab Youth Philly; Andrés Henríquez, New York Hall of Science; Sara Hill, SCO Family of Services and NASM Facilitator

In this session, based on a soon-to-be published book, "Changemakers! Access and Equity in Out-of-School Time," chapter authors will share ways that they have identified barriers to access and equity at their youth organizations, as well as strategies and solutions. Participants will have an opportunity to actively reflect on their own organizations and plan for change working in small groups with the presenters.

Sun., March 17th, 10:15 a.m.
Room: Beekman

Building Thriving Communities

Presenter: Andrea Magiera-Guy, NASM Fellow, NYC Department of Youth and Community Development

Since 1991, New York City has created innovative partnerships with schools, and later the City Housing Authority, to create community hubs where families and youth alike could learn and grow. This interactive session will focus on the past, present, and future strategies of the Community Center model.

Sun., March 17th, 11:30 a.m.
Room: Concourse G

Finding Middle Ground: Children with Special Needs

Presenter: Andrea Wilson, NASM Fellow, Casa Guadalupe Center

The session will focus on the background, challenges, and findings of a case study conducted through the National Afterschool Matters (NASM) Fellowship with the intent of investigating how coordination efforts between schools and an OST program can improve services for children with special needs. Participants will engage in a candid discourse of how a case study involving a single child with special needs resulted in small but tangible changes, as well as larger, more significant ones that will impact an entire OST program and its connections with feeder schools. Participants will be challenged to examine the current practices of their own programs and contemplate where improvements could potentially be made.

Mon., March 18th, 11:00 a.m.

Room: Gibson

(Applications for the next cohort of the National Afterschool Matters Fellowship are now open.)