Weekly Media Roundup: April 20, 2016

Theater Program Boosting Confidence, Grades in Rock Falls (Sauk Valley Newspapers, Illinois)

Rock Falls Middle School students are coming out of their shells thanks to an afterschool theater program run by the school, Sterling-Rock Falls YMCA and the Woodlawn Arts Academy. The afterschool students recently put on a performance of “The Wizard of Oz,” which impressed the Illinois State Board of Education enough that they have been asked to perform it again at the 21st Century Community Learning Centers spring conference in May. The program includes an academic tutoring element, but focuses on the arts as a way to unlock kids’ potential. “Arts is fantastic, because you get to watch it change their lives and watch them get more confidence in themselves,” program head Faith Morrison told Sauk Valley Newspapers.

Learning While Having Fun (St. Joseph Herald-Palladium, Michigan)

Benton Harbor’s 21st Century Community Learning Center program is receiving high marks across the board from parents, teachers and students. The afterschool program uses creative activities—like sending Barbie dolls bungee-jumping using rubber bands—to teach science, arts, math and other academic skills. According to project director Julie Earle, the kids can’t get enough—93 percent of students in the program said they wanted to attend in a recent survey. “The students are choosing to learn,” she told the Herald-Palladium. “To me, that’s the biggest reason we’re successful.” Additionally, 100 percent of parents say the program has helped their kids academically and kept them out of trouble.

Lessons in Golf and Lessons in Life (Bourne Courier, Massachusetts)

A group of elementary school students gathered at the Hyannis Gold Course last week to learn basic putting and other important golf skills as part of the First Tee Massachusetts afterschool program. Through the nine-week program, kids will learn to drive, chip, select the appropriate clubs and how to play by the rules of the game. All the while, they’ll absorb life skills that fit into the program’s nine core values: respect, courtesy, honesty, integrity, sportsmanship, confidence, responsibility, perseverance and judgment. The kids will learn to push through their mistakes, respect their competition and honestly report their own scores. “It is really a life skills program,” Hyannis’ PGA teaching professional Dave Donnellan told the Bourne Courier. “Golf is the vehicle by which we teach those life skills.”

Vance Middle’s CHAMPS Racing Team Prepares Teens for Real World (WJHL, Tennessee)

Thirteen Vance Middle School students are learning how the scientific concepts of force, friction, acceleration, velocity and speed apply to drag racing through the CHAMPS Racing Program. The afterschool program teaches kids how to use their math and science knowledge to solve real-life problems by working on their teacher David Boggs’ racecar, which he drives on the weekend at Bristol Dragway. “We take the race program and help kids use what they learn in the classroom and use it at the track,” he told WJHL.