To learn from experience... Taking time to examine what is working and what isn’t, what is rewarding and what is challenging can help you to make the most of the time you spend volunteering. Examining your preconceptions about alternative schools and charter schools and the students that attend them can help you grow and mature in your thinking. The reflective questions in Making the Most of Volunteering will help you get started.
The links under Tutoring Resources will provide you with fresh and interesting activities to engage your students.
The links to Research Studies and Reports will give you the background you need to place your volunteer experience within the context of local, regional, and national initiatives in education.
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Making the Most of Volunteering
Reflective questions to jumpstart your thinking...
Tutoring Resources
Minnesota Literacy Council
The Minnesota Literacy Council (MLC) is a nonprofit, statewide organization that provides literacy
services to adults, children, volunteers and community programs around Minnesota. Links on this site will lead to a variety of resources including curriculum, tutoring ideas, and notices of events and trainings for volunteers.
National Library of Virtual Manipulatives
A free collection of more than 100 digital activities aimed at helping preK to 12th grade students explore
math concepts.
PBS Teacher Source
A wide range of activities from pre-school to grade 12.
Puzzlemaker(Discovery Channel School site)
Makes customized word searches, crossword puzzles, math puzzles, cryptograms and mazes for
students of all ages and skill levels.
Teachers' Educational Resources
These pages include a link to free Federal Resources for Educational Excellence, which contains more
than 1,500 federally supported teaching and learning resources from dozens of federal agencies.
Mathematics and Science Education Centre
Lesson plans, assessment tools, and math games for varied grade levels.
Minnesota Office of Environmental Education
Free resources for beginning and intermediate ESL students using environmental issues as their
integrating concept. You can download the workbook that best fits your tutoring needs. ... Russian, Somali, Spanish, Vietnamese. Tutor Guide is the same for all editions.
A+ Math
Combination of math worksheets and online math games and activities.
Fun Brain.com
Online games for subjects ranging from division to grammar for students of a variety of ages.
Energy of a Nation
This site is sponsored by MN Advocates for Human Rights. It has curriculum and teaching resources focusing on the history of immigration and its impact, summaries of immigrant legislation and how to
take action. Also includes various reports and news.
Islamic Resource Group
Information about Islamic beliefs, practices and values and how they rEast High School te to everyday life in America.
US Citizenship and Immigration Services
A comprehensive site about immigration and naturalization. Includes "Customer Guides" which are a
series of "how to" information brochures about citizenship and naturalization.
The Internet ESL Journal
Articles, Research Papers, Lessons Plans, Classroom Handouts, Teaching Ideas & Links. This site is updated each month.
’Ambys Education Site: Language Arts Skills Development
High level grammar quizzes, exercises and vocabulary building.
Rideau Street Youth Enterprises
A collection of literacy and ESL activities and answers. Stories with exercises, grammar and
punctuation exercises, poetry by street youth with exercises, ESL exercises for grammar, word use, etc.
English Club.net
An online club for ESL students full of grammar help, irregular verb lists, jokes, games, pronunciation tips, guide to the internet, links to ESL sites. A very motivational site for ESL youth and young adults.
’éDaves E.S.L. Caf
Chats and discussions, ideas exchanges, idiom and slang lists, quizzes, job wanted and offered boards
and links to other sites
Research Studies and Reports
The Fordham Report 2006: How Well Are States Educating Our Neediest Children?
State by state analysis of student achievement for low-income, African-American, and Hispanic students; achievement trends for these same groups over the last decade; and the state's track record
in implementing bold education reforms.
Mind the Gap: Disparities and Competitiveness in the Twin Cities
(2005. Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program)
This report describes how levels of education, wealth, and economic opportunities differ between the inner city and the suburbs, between the races, and between the poor and the middle class. The author
argues that reducing the disparities, particularly the differences in education, is essential for the continued economic success of the area. “Making sure that all boats rise with the tide is one important
way of working toward continued future economic success. For example, increasing college attainment rates among underrepresented groups is a strategy for building a quality future workforce—not just an
effort to promote equity” (p. 6).
Report on Key Policies and Practices of Higher Performing High Schools
(2006. National High School Center, US Department of Education)
Focused on successful high schools that have set high standards for all students, this report provides
state leaders with suggestions on how to support accelerated learning initiatives.
Tough Choices or Tough Times
(2006. The New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, National Center on Education and the Economy)
Calling for an overhaul of the K-12 system, this report proposes a system in which students take “state board qualifying exams” to determine their opportunities for entry into higher education. Anyone at
anytime would be able to retake board exams. Teacher pay would be based on performance, not seniority, and teachers would actively be recruited from among the top third of high school graduates.
Redesigning the American High School--Getting It Done: 10 Steps to a State Action Agenda
(2005. National Governor’s Association Center for Best Practices)
“Getting It Done” identifies steps governors can take to jump-start high school reform.
Advancing High School Reform in the States
(2005. National Association of Secondary School Principals)
This association encourages states to develop policies “that are targeted at increasing the rigor of the [high school] curriculum...”(p. 5).
Innovations in Education: Successful Charter Schools
A publication from the U.S. Department of Education that profiles eight outstanding charter schools that have demonstrated success in boosting student achievement. The report also examines what elements
are needed to create an effective charter school.
Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools in 2006
A new report examines how low- to moderate-income parents decide to send their children to public charter schools, and challenges what it suggests are some stereotypes about those choices. The
study—published by the National Charter School Research Project at the Seattle-based Center on Reinventing Public Education—found, for instance, that charter school parents are just as sophisticated
and well informed as parents who make different choices, which counters assertions that charter school parents generally do not have access to enough information to make good choices of schools.
Emerging Evidence on Improving High School Student Achievement and Graduation Rates: The Effects of Four Popular Improvement Programs
Research-based lessons from four high school programs offer insight on how to address the challenges of assisting students who enter high school with poor academic skills, improving instructional content
and practice, creating a personalized learning environment, preparing students for the world beyond high school, and stimulating change in schools and districts.
See more on volunteering at MNIC...
Minnesota Internship Center Charter High School
300 Industrial Blvd
Minneapolis, MN 55413
612.722-5416 (administrative offices)
office@mnic.org
alibman@mnic.org
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