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Summer Bridge (Rising) Enrichment Club Highlights – Table Tennis and Fitness

Welcome to Table Tennis & Fitness Enrichment Clubs for Summer Bridge 2021. 

The Table Tennis Club is led by Ms. Millye (also the Middle School Team Softball Coach), Mr. Ohl (also a teacher at The Lab School), and Ms. Amy (a new member of our Arete family this summer). Table Tennis is a competitive game; however, it is a sport that many students wouldn't look upon first. Interestingly, Table Tennis is one of the most popular clubs and was the first Enrichment club to be fully enrolled this summer. Students enjoy Table Tennis as they feel they are challenged beyond their limits. With Table Tennis, students are able to acquire patience as well as strategic skills. To know how you want to strike your opponent, you need a strategy. Within this club, we see different students strategizing in different ways. We see some students who like to hit their ball with a spin, and then we have some students who like to back-hand from the start. It's amazing to see youth taking charge in a sport like this one. 

 

We also would like to highlight the Fitness Club this summer. Fitness is led by Emily Robles, Ranffy Perez, and Ali Sumareh, who are all Alumni from The Lab School. Fitness allows students to freely express themselves while also challenging them to go above and beyond phyiscally. With fitness, middle school students are able to learn about the importance of working out but also being active. Being active is essential to the youth as they need the consistent reminder regarding their health and wellbeing. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, students are in the gym playing a variety of different sports. As shown to the left, students are in a circle playing volleyball with their instructors. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, students are in the cafeteria, hallway, or fitness center doing different activities, ranging from running, working out, or doing different sets. 

Students from both of these enrichment clubs enjoy them and are always active when it comes to participating. 

Stay tuned for next week's post as we will continue to highlight the different clubs that we have for Summer Bridge! 

Be sure to check out our Instagram Page and Website for any updates, announcements or newsletter regarding the summer program.

 - 08/24/2021 - Mariyam Sumareh

Advancing our Bronx-based Teacher Pipeline

IDE Professional Learning for Arete Alumni Pursuing Careers in Teaching and Youth Development

At Arete, we pride ourselves on opening up pathways for youth to be successful in their chosen career pathways, specially youth who are alumni of our afterschool, summer, and internship programs in Mott Haven.

This week we offered paid training through our partnership with IDE (Innovative Designs for Learning) to Arete alumni who work as employees in our Summer Programs at MS/HS 223 in Community School District 7 in the South Bronx. Our intergenerational approach to offering afterschool and summer programs in Mott Haven has distinguished our organization. By creating new teaching career pathways for middle and high school students in our teaching internship program, our high school graduates are able to enter the work force during their first semester of college. The specialized training, mentoring, alumni network, and opportunity to give back to their community through direct service in our afterschool and summer programs all provide unique advantages to the youth choosing to work with Arete as employees after graduation. They are caring, talented, problem-solvers and educators who take on leadership and direct teaching roles in our youth development programs.

This week's alumni educator training focused on how to engage students in the classroom by making learning more student-centered. Our alumni are a critical part of our strategy to support our partner schools with building trust with families as they choose to send students back to school this fall. They serve as bilingual family advocates who call families weekly and make connections to humanitarian, education, housing, and health services. They work afterschool as activity specialists, intern supervisors, technology specialists, and program coordinators. Providing opportunities for our alumni to build their skills enables us to have higher quality programs and for our alumni to progress further on the pathway to education and youth development careers.

 

Engaging Students in the Learning

IDE & Areté Education

What do we mean by “engagement” in the content of teaching and learning? What causes students to engage in the learning? How can we tap into their curiosity and drive in order to ignite learning? This professional learning experience will not only expose you to key ideas with respect to student engagement, but will also provide you with a set of concrete tools and strategies for engaging students in academic and social-emotional learning. You will leave the experience with a self-identified goal for increasing engagement in your own work with students.

Focus and Essential Questions for Each Day:

  • Day 1: The Basics of Engagement
      • What do we mean by “engagement?”
      • What fuels meaningful student engagement with the learning?
      • What strategies can we use to increase engagement in our work with students?
  • Day 2: Building Engagement through Various Avenues
    • How can we build engagement through positive teacher-student relationships?
    • How can we build engagement by affording students choice & voice in the classroom?
    • How can we build engagement by posing meaningful and accessible problems or challenges?

 

 

 - 08/05/2021 - sbsd@areteeducation.org
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Splish Splash Friday Bash - Summer Bridge (Rising)

Arete interns and staff members once again came together to create the final water activity for the Summer Bridge students this past Friday while still following COVID-19 guidelines. Students came prepared to play and have a bit of fun before the big Showcase event occuring next Thursday on August 5th. This water activity was conducted once again by the ever creative Amy Arizmendi, Secretary and Family Advocate

There were 3 stations in this Splish Splash Friday Bash.

Station #1

Consists of the first person in line acting as the catcher, who will need to catch three balloons that will have to be popped over their head to try and catch as much water in the funnel as possible.

As soon as the catcher catches and pops three balloons, they will be able to move on to Station #2.

Station #2

This station has a bucket of water with three sponges. The objective is to soak the three sponges with as much water as possible and while holding it over one's head, squeeze as much as one could into the funnel. 

In Station #3

An inflatable pool is filled with gold coins and water. Each student has to dig and pick up a coin with a number, representing the number of balloons they would grab and toss into a bucket.

 

To conclude this blog we would like to say a heartfelt Thank You! to all the staff members and interns for making this summer extremely successful while following COVID19 safety protocols

These fun activities helped students to shift their focus from academic learning and send them home happy after being able to let loose with their friends. 

 - 08/03/2021 - Ismael Valentin, Jr.

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