Resources

Adobe Youth Voices — Adobe Youth Voices Essentials provides free curricula and tools for educators to inspire young people to create digital media on issues they care about. Based on the best practices of educators from around the world, the curricula promotes youth expression, creativity, and engagement, helping young people build critical 21st century technology and life skills.

Afterschool Alliance— The Afterschool Alliance is a nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness of the importance of out of school time school programs and advocating for quality and affordable programs for all children.

American Institute for Research(AIR) — AIR supports educators and social service professionals, families and students, leaders and policymakers, to identify effective education programs and resources; to develop policies and services that promote well-being; and ultimately, to translate evidence into action.

Beyond the Chalkboard — Created by the Boston Children's Museum, Beyond the Chalkboard is a free, online multidisciplinary curriculum created specifically for afterschool teachers. This curriculum offers hundreds of high-quality, engaging activities that were created over years of work with afterschool programs across the country.

Buck Institute for Education (BIE) — BIE creates, gathers, and shares high-quality PBL instructional practices and products and provides highly effective services to teachers, schools, and districts.

Build the Out-of-School Time Network(BOSTnet) — BOSTnet's mission is to enhance the quality and increase the capacity of the out-of-school time field in Massachusetts.

Doing What Works— Doing What Works is an initiative of the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) was created in 2002 to be a central and trusted source of scientific evidence for what works in education.

Edutopia— Published by The George Lucas Educational Foundation, Edutopia is dedicated to transforming the learning process by helping educators implement six core learning strategies. These strategies — and the educators who implement them — are empowering students to think critically, access and analyze information, creatively problem solve, work collaboratively, and communicate with clarity and impact.

Forum for Youth Investment— Informed by rigorous research and practical experience, the Forum forges innovative ideas, strategies and partners to strengthen solutions for young people and those who care about them.

Frontiers in Urban Science Exploration's (FUSE) Resource Guide— This resource guide from Every Hour Counts outlines promising strategies to advance STEM learning in the hours after school. The guide includes profiles of promising city- and county- wide initiatives to bring STEM education to scale. It also takes a look into what's next for the informal STEM field so that practitioners can plan with the future in mind.

MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's Contextual Learning Portal— This portal is a space for school districts, community organizations, non-profit educational groups, and other youth serving agencies to share projects and lessons that connect to the learning standards and support contextual teaching and learning. Users can: connect with others who are creating contextual learning experiences in classrooms and out-of-school settings; browse projects and resources and submit your own; be inspired by others; get insights into ways of planning and organizing projects; find resources; and share results!

NASA for Educators— Browse this alphabetical list for items of interest to educators. Locate top level sites for interesting topics, education pages for NASA missions, print materials, and other hard-to-find pages that offer resources for educators.

National Institute on Out-of-School Time at Wellesley College (NIOST)— NIOST has moved the afterschool field forward through its research, education and training, consultation, and field-building. Much of NIOST's work has encompassed projects of national scope and influence, several representing "firsts" for the field and many focusing on building out-of-school time systems.

National Park Foundation's Electronic Field Trips— Electronic Field Trips (EFT) give students the opportunity to learn about a particular topic through national parks they may never get a chance to visit. Each EFT consists of two components:

1. A televised broadcast from a national park featuring National Park Service Rangers and youth hosts
2. A website featuring downloadable lesson plans for teachers and interactive games for students. The broadcast and the website complement each other and teach with rich imagery and content in three different modalities.

PBS Kids Plum Landing — Take your kids on fantastic adventures to explore our world with PLUM LANDING, an exciting environmental science project from WGBH Boston that helps kids develop a love for, and connection to, this amazing and beautiful planet we call home. PLUM LANDING offers children ages six to nine and their families a collection of fun and engaging games, apps, videos and hands-on activities, to do online as well as outdoors.

Program in Education, Afterschool & Resiliency (PEAR) — PEAR is dedicated to the "whole child--the whole day." PEAR continuously integrates research, theory, and practice for lasting connections between youth development, school reform, and mental health.

The After School Project — Sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The After School Project funds ASOST programs in low-income neighborhoods and offers many free publications.

The Classroom Bookshelf: Teaching with Children's and Young Adult Literature in the 21st Century — Each Monday, The Classroom Bookshelf posts an entry on a recently published book for children or young adults. Each entry includes three sections: a Book Review, Teaching Invitations, and Further Explorations. Their goal is to identify books that can be used in K-8 classrooms in a variety of ways.

The Coalition for Science Afterschool — The Coalition for Science Afterschool is a strategic alliance of individuals and organizations from STEM education, youth development and programs held outside of school time. Our mission is to coordinate and mobilize community stakeholders to strengthen and expand opportunities that engage young people in science after school.

The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) — CASEL is a not-for-profit organization that works to advance the science and evidence-based practice of social and emotional learning.

The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) — CNCS is an independent federal agency that plays a vital role in supporting the American culture of citizenship, service and responsibility and is a leading grant maker in support of service and volunteering.

The Massachusetts Afterschool Partnership (MAP) — MAP is a statewide partnership dedicated to improving quality and resources for afterschool, summer and youth programs across the state.

You for Youth! — The U.S. Department of Education's 21^st CCLC office developed this entire website based on what the field was saying they needed to create engaging afterschool programs. The site will help you connect and share resources with your colleagues, provide professional development and technical assistance opportunities, and offer tools for improving your program practices.

YouthLearn — YouthLearn is an initiative that offers youth development professionals and educator's comprehensive services and resources for using media and technology tools to create exciting learning environments.