As demand for short-term international engagement experiences continues to grow, it is essential to support faculty in designing activities that are ethical, reciprocal, feasible, and academically rigorous. This article offers practical guidance for faculty to design, plan, facilitate, and reflect on short-term engagement activities…

Creating school connectedness can enhance the overall development and academic progress for youth. The purpose of this article is to provide teachers with both a theoretical and applied understanding of how to develop and support school connectedness with students through recreation-based learning activities. The theoretical concepts grounded…

Sonia Kovalevsky Days (SK Days) are nationally-held outreach events that are commonly organized by local chapters of the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) to encourage young women to continue their study of mathematics. The AWM Student Chapter at Worcester Polytechnic Institute hosted virtual renditions of SK Day for middle school girls…

Designing effective learning experiences that prioritize student-centered outcomes requires a solid foundation in course design fundamentals rooted in pedagogical principles. In this workshop, participants collaborate to create a learning activity that incorporates recognition of prerequisite skills and learning outcomes aligned with both…

As the demand for opportunities to learn English grows throughout the world, parents and educators are looking for innovative ways to engage students in English-learning opportunities. Perhaps your school or municipality will seek to initiate an English Camp to be on trend with this growing need. Or perhaps, like many go-getter teachers, you wish…

Family Literacy is an intergenerational program that brings parents and preschool- or elementary-age children to school together. It can provide a depth in education that allows learning opportunities for children and the adults in their lives. As relationships are built, learning becomes circular between parents, children, and teachers. This…

Although designed for informal educational structures and non-formal providers, the AeroEducate initiative offers youth in a variety of settings an initial exposure to the world of aviation and aeronautics. Real-world and context-based experiences spark learners' interests and may help them discover a personal and/or professional passion for the…

This brief presents select findings from the "Conversion of Enrollment Slots from Head Start to Early Head Start (HS2EHS) Case Studies," six case studies of grant recipients that converted enrollment slots from Head Start to Early Head Start in 2021. This brief focuses on "implementing new or expanded Early Head Start services…

Youth are natural scientists at birth, discovering and exploring their world and trying to make sense of it (Bers, 2008). A child's education is not limited to just the time they spend in the classroom. Children learn at home with their families, in public libraries, or through out-of-school-time (OST) experiences provided at community centers and…

The Texas Afterschool Centers on Education (ACE) is the program administered through the Texas Education Agency (TEA) for the federally funded 21st Century Community Learning Center (CCLC) grants. The Texas ACE Foundation Communities Cycle 9 program is composed of a compilation of activities at 3 AISD campuses that provide a comprehensive range of…

The pandemic created obstacles for our therapeutic recreation students who could not find or participate in an in-person internship. The only viable option was to create a virtual internship experience that still met NCTRC standards for national certification. This learning activity details the steps taken to create the experience, what was…

This article is co-written by teacher educators and pre-service teachers, and shares practical examples of how to design and enact a 'One Good Idea' project titled: 'How We Can All Be Allies'. This project allowed pre-service teachers the space to engage with and explore social justice issues, enhance advocacy skills, and to 'think outside the…

When the pandemic forced schools across the country to close their doors in March 2020, many district and school leaders worked quickly to plan for and address students' "unfinished learning." How would they support students who had been exposed to content, but had not yet had a chance to master it? Research supports two ways schools can…

The aim of this paper is to share our story about introducing environmental sustainability education (ESE) in an initial teacher education (ITE) program at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at University of Toronto, starting in 2018. In so far as narratives motivate reflection and action, the goal is to encourage readers to…

This paper presents a novel approach to teaching how vaccines work in the body, and introduces a community outreach project and activity we piloted with youth. Our Nuestra Ciencia program addresses scientific misconceptions among bilingual elementary school children in engaging and scientifically accurate ways. Utilizing analogies and…