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Heart House Austin
Making the Love Connection The possibilities are amazing when a child’s family, teachers, and community unite! Striving for anything less than that would be unfair to our children. Every month, we make an effort to recognize students, staff, and volunteers who have done an outstanding job at our program. There are many key players in the success of a child’s life, one of the most important being family. Therefore, a vital piece to the success of any program is parental and family involvement, something we are constantly striving to improve and increase. Forming connections with parents creates an enriching avenue of learning and growing for children. One of the most important ways we can begin to form those connections is by making sure that parents realize how much we value their time and efforts. We are moving forward, planning some exciting events that will help build strong connections between Heart House staff, parents, and children. One of the first steps has been the introduction of our Family Spotlight which, as of February, has been included in our family newsletters and learning center bulletin board. We spotlight parents, guardians, and other family members who have volunteered their time and energy for Heart House programs and events. We are hopeful that this recognition will give them the “warm and fuzzies” and allow other families to see the difference that involvement can make! Our second goal is to create on-going opportunities for staff and parents to build bridges between school, after-school, and the home so that students are strong, supported, successful, and safe! One way we plan to do this is by holding regular family conferences that would be social, interactive, and informative meetings on current Heart House programming and issues. Our first Heart House Potluck Dinner will be held at the end of March to acquaint families with staff and each other! In the near future, we would also like to offer socials and workshops for the parents and staff on children’s health issues, social and emotional development, behavior management, and simply getting to know each other! Our Executive Director is also looking at the possibility of forming an advisory council comprised of Heart House friends and family. We are motivated to create an environment where staff and parents feel welcomed and supported and comfortable in approaching each other with important concerns and issues when certain times come. We aspire to build as many different relationships and connections as we can for our families and community. Heart House Alumnus Jose Mora Places First in the Flash Flood/Alley Safety Campaign
Heart House is very proud of one of our alumni! Jose Mora, now in seventh grade, attended Heart House for 3 years. We are excited to announce that Jose has won first place in his age group for designing artwork for the Flash Flood/Alley Safety campaign. Jose competed with youth from across Texas. Jose says the highlight of this event was meeting the mayor of Austin and receiving a $100 check for first place. Everyone at Heart House recalls how much art has always meant to Jose. We were very pleased he wanted to share this moment with us.
April: Friend to the Environment What does it mean to be
environmentally “friendly”? April’s theme will focus on addressing
this key issue in our community and world, emphasizing environmental
citizenship and community service. Children will learn about different
kinds of pollution, human and animal interactions with the environment,
conservation, preservation, and services kids can provide to their
neighborhoods and communities to improve the environment! The
students will spend a lot of time creating and recreating, observing and
investigating. Math, science, literature, art, and citizenship are just
some of the disciplines woven into the environmental activities. And of
course, we will cover the 3 powerful “R’s” to empower children and
their families to reduce, reuse, and recycle! We
are also excited to partner with Keep Austin Beautiful, a local
environmental organization that will coordinate enrichment activities
and a neighborhood clean-up for us at the end of the month!
Last Month: Inventors & Inventions Every year, tens of thousands of people try to develop their ideas and market them commercially. But where would we be today without inventions from the past? March's theme focused on four major aspects of invention: famous inventions, important inventions, fun creations, and the process of inventing. These lessons defined and introduced inventions to students and encouraged them to begin thinking about how things work and who makes things work. The students gained a basic understanding of all the steps and influences involved in inventing machines and objects, integrating science, math, technology, social studies, literature and art. Through hands-on and group activities, Heart House children "met” historical and modern inventors, learned about their amazing (and sometimes wacky) ideas and creations and discussed how these people influenced life - past, present, and future! And, of course, they were able to become inventors themselves, transported into a world where anything and everything is possible!
The
needs
of educationally at-risk children require innovative instructional
methods
that traditionally have not been thought of as appropriate for this
group.
Remediation (education offered below age or grade level) is the
method commonly applied to the educational needs
of at-risk children, but has been found to diminish effective learning.
Remediation does not necessarily enable children to apply
learning or to transfer learning to new content.
Students
at Heart House have been found to have high levels of academic
potential, and when challenged with difficult concepts and the
expectation that they could achieve solutions, have produced work of
remarkable quality.
This suggests that instructional
methods
normally reserved for students of high academic ability, such as
thinking skills, and challenging questioning techniques, SHOULD be used
with at-risk students.
Our thematic teaching is an instructional program design which recognizes that there is potential in every child. The Heart House program delivers qualitatively differentiated experiences which focus on self-directed learning, using critical, creative, and productive thinking strategies in a variety of interdisciplinary activities. Our measurement shows that Heart House children CAN and DO achieve HIGH results not normally seen in their regular school-day environment.
Thank you to our many donors and friends who donated funds, time, and
talent to our organization this month! For
more information on donating to Heart House, please visit our website at
http://www.hearthouse.org.
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Heart House Program Sponsors and Diamond Sponsors provide core support for our mission. Please join us in recognizing and thanking them for making Heart House possible. Program Heart Sponsors
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