Learning from the past to make a make a brighter future for our community children

I was intrigued when one of my students shared about her involvement with the CHUMS program beginning her freshmen year in Marquette, Kansas.   They started their program 7 years ago and it's still going strong.  This year it has expanded and includes grades first through fifth.

Excitement is beginning to brew as Bayle has agreed to share her personal experiences with the many positives that have resulted for the selected children that attend and the appreciation parents share as well in their evaluation.  She's also willing to share her point of view about some changes that could make the program even better.  

CCC's education students are excited to be involved in the REAL world of constructing a gap that could have a powerful positive impact for some of our local students.

We'll be posting our progress as we build our version of CHUMS.

Finding a project of engagement to help local children

A well organized and engaging after school program is a current need at RES in McPherson.  The name of the program Central Christian College preservice teachers is considering as a  pilot in the future is called C.H.U.M.S.  This program was developed by Tabor College and is operating successfully in Lindsborg and Marquette the last few years.

I have a student in my Ed. Psyche class who started working this program while attending high school at Marquette and is currently the director of this after school program for Marquette Elem. as well as a full time Central Christian College student.  My first item on my agenda is to visit Marquette and watch the program in action in the near future.

Our goal is to pilot with next fall with preservice CCC's teachers to direct and plan and implement lessons as part of their methods experience.

I'll be posting additional details soon.  

Changing Paradigms

Sir Ken Robinson's comments of our past education structure made so much sense, and was driven for a few to highly succeed, while the majority of the students were educated to fit the needs of our economic growth.

Public education should connect to the child's strengths and needs.

Interesting comment about no literacy growth even with smaller class sizes.

Population growth was interesting going from 6 billion in 1970, but by 2000 we had increased 30 million. 

The comment pertaining to ADHD needs to be taken seriously and we as educators and specialists need to be educated and aware of the needs of different learning styles and how to better engage our students. 

The redefining comment about a child's capacity of engagement is at 98% for kindergartener and  declines to 2% by age 25 +.

We need to develop vitality, creativity and diversity when teaching our students.