Environmental Education at the Princeton-Blairstown Center

Identification chart

Imagine a beautiful forest setting with clean air, miles of trails, and clear streams. Now imagine you were back in school in such a setting. Your teacher gives you a bucket, a net, maybe some petri dishes and magnifying glasses, and a species identification chart. Would you be excited for your lesson?

Environmental education is taught in classrooms around the world but there is something special about learning about the environment, in the environment that you are learning about. The National Environmental Education Foundation reported that students who participate in programs and activities outdoors show an increase in intrinsic motivation and improvement in student’s learning attitudes. You may not have access to a beautiful 268-acre campus like the Princeton-Blairstown Center every day, but that is ok! Your school yard, playground, or nearby parks and public lands work just as well when implementing an immersive environmental education curriculum.

Two students explore the water at the Center as part of their stream study.

Even if you are unfamiliar with environmental education but are willing and able to take your students on a field trip, the Princeton-Blairstown Center is the place to go! We offer fifteen curriculum-aligned programs for students featuring inquiry-based, hands-on science learning. Each program combines outdoor exploration with STEM- and SEL-reinforcing activities to help participants engage more deeply with science and the scientific method. Our environmental education curriculum is aligned to middle school curriculum standards. However, Center staff can help high school teachers plan the use of our outdoor classroom for higher-level, hands-on biology and environmental/earth science classes

Environmental education not only improves academic achievement according to the National Environmental Education Foundation but it also encourages environmental stewardship, deepens personal development and wellbeing, and strengthens communities.

Courses at the Center include everything from forest ecology, stream science, phenology and climate change to ornithology, nocturnal animals, and amphibian studies. Our Environmental Education page has course descriptions and previews.

Many species call the Princeton-Blairstown Center home and your experience may include canoeing by a busy beaver building a dam, listening to owls at dusk, or turning over rocks in a search for salamanders. Whatever program you choose, your experience will be authentic, engaging, and spark an interest in learning.

Students carefully hold salamanders.

Participants at the Center smile about their hands-on experience with salamanders.

STEM, SEL, & PBC

Sometimes it seems like there is a “day” for everything. There’s Pi Day, National Panda Day, National Puppy Day, National Potato Chip Day… we could go on. However, there are two events that the Princeton-Blairstown Center is especially interested in celebrating this month!

Four Summer Bridge participants pose for the camera.

 SEL Day, celebrated on March 11, is a way to celebrate the importance of social emotional learning (SEL). Social emotional learning is a mainstay of the Center’s programming and is woven into every single activity and course. We believe it is important to incorporate social emotional learning into our programming because providing SEL programming allows youth to practice and become competent in social-emotional skills such as learning how to identify and process their emotions, become more self-aware, and develop compassion and empathy for others. To showcase and promote our SEL curriculum and celebrate SEL Day, we shared pictures, videos, and articles on all our social media that relate to social emotional learning. We even share ALL our resources, including our SEL curriculum for middle- and high school students — for free. You can find all of our SEL resources here.

March is also NJ Stem Month! This month, all organizations in the state are called upon to showcase and celebrate their work in STEM. The Center has been actively participating in the month-long celebration of all things STEM by posting photos, stories, and videos on social media using the hashtag: #NJSTEMMonth. You can find all of our #NJSTEMMonth posts on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter!

Summer Bridge participants work together on an assignment.

All our programming has SEL and STEM elements, but we have one program in particular that really focuses on both SEL and STEM: the award-winning Summer Bridge Program, a one-week leadership and academic enrichment program that focuses on developing social emotional learning skills, lessening summer learning loss, and helping students create strong relationships with their peers and with adults. During the week-long program, students are divided into small groups of 10-12 and paired with a trained facilitator and a school/agency chaperone.  Each group spends time engaged in hands-on Literacy, STEM, and SEL activities. Traditionally, the program is held at our campus in Blairstown, but with a global pandemic we decided to bring the program to the communities where our students live in 2021 and 2022.

Two Summer Bridge participants collaborating.

 The Center’s Summer Bridge Program is designed to serve youth from historically marginalized communities – free of charge. We realize that not everybody has the same access to resources and opportunities. This is our way of helping to provide quality SEL and STEM education to everybody!

Because we do want everybody to have a reason to celebrate SEL day and NJ STEM Month with us this March!

Reasons to Love PBC

With its award-winning programs and beautiful natural settings, there are endless reasons to love PBC! Here are just a few reasons why we (the staff) love the Princeton-Blairstown Center:

Pat Karl enjoying the fresh air at PBC

“I love working at PBC’s “campus in the woods” because having an office overlooking our property full of wildlife, trees, and a lake offers a relaxing and calming feeling.  Just driving into this beautiful property, you can’t help but appreciate all the wonders of nature (especially at sunrise or sunset).” -Pat Karl

“I love PBC because there is such a long history here of people being passionate about sharing meaningful outdoor experiences with young people who might not otherwise have such a transformative experience. There is nothing better than watching a kid achieve something like the target jump that they never thought was possible – the look of pride, amazement, and joy they have is priceless!” -Meredith Murray

Meredith Murray outside on a snowy day

Ron Franco rappelling at PBC

“PBC helps provide our curious participants with a beautiful natural environment, along with a kind, caring, and thoughtful staff, topped with the adventurous spirit of the forest! For this...I LOVE PBC!” -Ron Franco

“I love PBC because it is a safe place to work! I know I look a little banged up in the photo but those are NOT work-related injuries! Rather, the photo shows the extensive training PBC provides to ensure that everyone on staff is fully prepared for any and all emergencies. Here I am part of a group of seriously “injured” campers taking part in Wilderness First Responder (WFR) training in March 2021. Our year-round and seasonal staff all have the opportunity to earn WFR certification prior to the start of each season. The training was amazing and I am a better Director of Programs for having participated!” -Mark DeBiasse

Mark DeBiasse participating in Wilderness First Responder training at PBC

Maren Morsch enjoys a hike with her pup

“I love PBC because it offers incredible opportunities for individuals and groups to Learn, Grow, and Lead – with support, encouragement, and fun at every turn.” -Maren Morsch

“I love being outdoors, especially at PBC, because it always feels like there is something new to explore and learn about. When I’m with our participants, getting to share that joy and open their eyes to the natural world is truly inspiring.” -Holly Lynn

Holly Lynn getting outside despite the winter weather at PBC

“I love what PBC stands for.  PBC’s team truly cares about each child and works diligently with the groups so they get the experience(s) they need.  I enjoy hearing about how these groups leave with lifetime tools and experiences that mean something to them collectively and individually.  There are many groups who come year after year.  It shows a true commitment to their students and how they recognize the effect PBC has on children and that there’s always one more step!  Who wouldn’t want to be a part of this amazing team!!!” -Gina Greico

Jennifer Fisher on a ski slope

"I love PBC because of how it connects people with nature and how the programs are designed to help people grow into better versions of themselves." -Jennifer Fisher

“My work is given meaning because of PBC. Working at PBC allows me to give back to my community by knowing we are impacting the lives of young people. I also love our work culture and how we are always striving to be better than we were the previous year.” -Nicole Nilsson

Nicole Nilsson and her son enjoy a day near the water

Chef Bob cooking on the grill

“I enjoy cooking a restaurant quality meal for the kids and making them feel welcome - all in a rustic camp setting.” -Chef Bob

“I love PBC because of its important mission to help our most vulnerable youth to grow and succeed, while having fun outdoors in nature.  I deeply respect and admire PBC’s commitment to conservation and sustainability, and their continuous effort to spread the awareness to the next generation of leaders.  I love the incredible kindness and dedication of PBC’s staff and their tireless commitment to the program’s success.” -Anna Kats

Anna Kats snowshoeing at PBC

Pam Gregory, President and CEO of the Princeton-Blairstown Center

“I love PBC because it has a history of providing access and equity to transformative outdoor experiences for young people from historically marginalized communities.  I also love that the young adults who come to work at PBC grow tremendously and often go on to work in helping professions that make the world a more equitable and better place.” -Pam Gregory 

The Value of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in Difficult Times

Senior Program Manager, Ron Franco, leads SEL and STEM activities during Wilderness Leadership School.

As a former high school science teacher, I can tell you that there is always a lot to think about when it comes to planning lessons and managing a classroom. At the forefront of most “teacher-brains” is content: How should I teach this concept? When will I get to that before our standardized tests? Unfortunately, one of the things furthest from my mind was incorporating a comprehensive social emotional learning curriculum when I was trying to find the time, energy, and funds to include more projects; make sure my students did better on standardized tests; and scaffold lessons to suit individual talents and needs.  

COVID-19 has shown us that learning isn’t just about content. It is about feeling connected, being able to communicate, and having a safe space to feel a sense of purpose and belonging.

This post written by Emma García and Elaine Weiss of the Economic Policy Institute showcases why school policies and curricula need to change from focusing solely on content to putting social-emotional learning front and center. Staggering statistics including the fact that mental-health emergency room visits by middle- and high-school aged students have increased by 31% highlight how children need support to deal with their trauma, emotions, and grief.

When schools abruptly closed their doors for two weeks of “remote learning,” students and teachers thought they were in for a mini-vacation. But two weeks turned to four weeks and four weeks turned to four months and here we are, almost two years later still dealing with the turbulence of the pandemic. I tried to help my students cope by giving them hands-on assignments and sending personal emails and messages when they seemed to be falling behind or despondent. One student was a freshman in an honors biology class who was smart, cared about his academics, and provided insight into our daily conversations, until he lost his mom to COVID-19. When I sent an email after I learned of his mom’s passing, he replied that I was the only teacher to do so and that it really meant a lot to him. From then on, I made sure to email him occasionally to check in and give him the opportunity to talk even though I was not a counselor or social worker. I allowed him time and space to grieve and encouraged him to participate in class at a level that was comfortable for him.

The benefits of social emotional learning are undeniable. This brief written by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) in collaboration with The National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention found that SEL programs can have big benefits. After analyzing over 200 studies of different school based SEL programs, they found that participants showed a 9% decrease in conduct problems, such as classroom misbehavior and aggression; a 10% decrease in emotional distress, such as anxiety and depression; a 9% improvement in attitudes about self, others, and school; a 23% improvement in social-emotional skills; a 9% improvement in school and classroom behavior; and an 11% improvement in achievement test scores.  

The Princeton-Blairstown Center (PBC) believes so strongly that social emotional learning should be a priority that it is the basis for our mission. As we all continue to deal with the fallout of the pandemic, SEL programs are not only beneficial, but essential to students’ emotional and academic success. PBC is providing weekly SEL resources for teachers and educators to use in their classrooms or during virtual meetings to help students manage the additional ups and downs they have had to navigate since March 2020. These weekly emails are one way that PBC can provide teachers and others who work with young people with the tools to keep students connected to their peers and caring adults.

Part of a SEL activity provided by PBC to teachers via email during the pandemic

Goals and Goal Setting

Having goals is good. But setting attainable yet rigorous goals can be difficult. The situation in which goals are determined and the purpose for which they are set can also differ. Is there something you need to accomplish as part of a team, organization, or group? Or is there something you aspire to personally? As the new year approaches you have probably jotted down a few goals for yourself!

Goal setting is important. In the classroom, goal-setting drives students to be more self-motivated and helps them to focus their efforts in order to accomplish the goal. In many classrooms across the United States, it is best practice for the instructor to have a learning target displayed and explained for every lesson. The learning target is designed to be understood by students and direct the learning agenda. The instructor may refer to the learning target at multiple points in the lesson to show how their activities will help them reach their goal.

“Student Goal Setting: An Evidence Based Practice”, an analysis created by the Midwest Comprehensive Center confirms the benefits that setting goals has to offer. We can see that setting difficult yet attainable goals attributes to deeper learning and understanding and that setting a higher-level goal will push students to higher levels of effort. When students perceive that they are making progress and accomplishing their goals they are further motivated to learn.

Goal setting has been proven to aid learning across all ages and academic ability.

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a tool used in education to help educators design thoughtful learning targets. It includes action verbs designed to create goals for specific learning outcomes and range in rigor. Bloom’s taxonomy categorizes cognitive processes into six levels. Starting from the basic level, Bloom’s Taxonomy sorts cognitive processes into these six categories:

Bloom’s Taxonomy

1.      Remembering

2.      Understanding

3.      Applying

4.      Analyzing

5.      Evaluating

6.      Creating

Each level lays the groundwork for students to climb to the highest level of learning.

PBC incorporates this best practice into its environmental education and Social Emotional Learning curricula. When students must work together to accomplish a goal, whether that goal is to climb a rock wall, canoe together, or identify invertebrates, they participate in breaking down and accomplishing the goals that have been set for them or by them. Our facilitators help them bring that learning home by asking the right questions that engage them in analyzing and evaluating their choices.

What are your goals for the new year?

Participants Get INstructed on How to Work together to maneauver their canoe

Many Ways to Give

November is a time of year when it feels like everyone has gratitude and generosity on their mind.

Despite the difficult history of Thanksgiving in the United States, the day usually marks the beginning of the “giving” season, like end-of-year campaigns for nonprofits and kickoffs for service projects rooted in various faith traditions.

Another calendar moment that arrives at the end of November is Giving Tuesday, a day created to celebrate generosity of spirit and community that serves as a foil to the consumerist impulses created by days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. To “celebrate” Giving Tuesday, people choose to share their generosity in many different ways⁠⁠—whether it’s helping a neighbor, advocating for an issue, signing a petition, sharing a skill, or donating to causes. The wonderful thing about the intentional cultivation of this spirit of abundance and generosity is that it reminds us that everyone has something to give and every act of generosity counts.

PBC is the recipient of countless non-monetary acts of generosity each year. For example:

Outgoing Board Chair Sarah Tantillo (LEFT) takes a break FROM RAKING during Woodcutters Day 2021 with incoming Board Chair Claudia Franco Kelly (right).

• Our Board of Trustees spend a huge amount of their time, along with their personal and professional expertise, to help guide the organization to be the best it can possibly be; to adapt to a changing philanthropic landscape, cultural landscape, and climate; and to help our staff and facilities provide a paragon experiential education experience for the young people we serve.

• Each year, volunteers fill the Blairstown Campus for Woodcutters Day to beautify and improve the property, spending a whole day working hard in the outdoors for the good of our participants.

• People who work in the trades, engineering, photography, or other subject specializations have offered their services to help PBC meet goals or complete special projects, such as the hydrogeneration system below the Bass Lake Dam.

• Students and chaperones who have attended PBC volunteer their time, likeness, and voice to amplify the impact PBC’s programming has had on their lives and the lives of others.

Examples like these serve to remind us that even in times of economic uncertainty, we each have a deep reserve of generosity, which we can deploy in myriad ways to make a difference. Your time, your kindness, your skills, and your voice are all things you can give, in addition to or in lieu of a financial donation.

Regardless of each person’s capacity to give, the most important part of this “season of giving” is choosing to share of yourself, in whatever way is right for you, with others. The most important thing any single person can do is choose to give – whatever that looks like!

Indigenous Peoples Day 2021

This is the first Indigenous Peoples Day to be earmarked by a U.S. Presidential Proclamation. It begins: “Since time immemorial, American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians have built vibrant and diverse cultures — safeguarding land, language, spirit, knowledge, and tradition across the generations.”

The document does not omit the legacy of “violence, displacement, assimilation, and terror wrought upon Native communities and Tribal Nations,” and enumerates several ways in which the actions of the government have harmed indigenous people in the U.S. It also points out the disproportionate impact that COVID-19 has had on Native communities. To this point, an alarming statistic from The Guardian indicated that when “compared to white children, American Indian/Alaska Native children were 4.5 times more likely to lose a parent or grandparent caregiver” to Covid-19. This terrible and permanent legacy of the pandemic is painfully similar to the forced or coerced removals of Native children from their birth families that occurred regularly until the passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act. In an organization focused on the growth and support of young people, these parts of American history are especially heartbreaking.

Given this long and painful legacy, of which these two small examples are just the tip of a proverbial iceberg, it may seem antithetical to “celebrate” Indigenous Peoples Day. However, a “[recognition of] Indigenous peoples’ resilience and strength as well as the immeasurable positive impact that they have made on every aspect of American society,” and the ongoing efforts for the protection of their cultures and communities are certainly cause for celebration.

As part of PBC’S commitment towards creating a more equitable and just community, part of our welcome speech to each group that visits the Blairstown Campus is a Land Acknowledgement, which shares information about the Native people who originally inhabited the region. It reads: “The Princeton-Blairstown Center recognizes that we occupy traditional ancestral lands, obtained by coerced cession, of the Munsee Lenni-Lenape people, a people that are still here, continuing to honor and bring to light their heritage. We honor and acknowledge that the land we occupy stands on part of their ancestral homeland.”

This day is also a call to all people to take steps toward long-delayed progress and justice for Native people and their communities. While there are lots of suggestions about how to observe the day with respect and meaning, consider something as simple as examining common words or phrases that carry harmful or racist connotations and working to eliminate them from your vocabulary.

Happy Indigenous Peoples Day!

Clean Energy Week 2021

September is the month of Zero Emissions Week, and more locally, Climate Week NYC!

Sustainability is a core value of the Princeton-Blairstown Center. From water turbine installation in the 1970s to produce power from the water flowing over the Bass Lake Dam, to the (now defunct) earth oven originally constructed near the Center’s garden site, to the solar panels on Egner Lodge, the Center has a track record of employing sustainability technology, and using it to both lower the Campus’s carbon footprint and explore science and technology with students.

This year, a number of these clean energy initiatives were included in the Center’s revised Environmental Education curriculum. To further encourage familiarity and impromptu education about the clean energy initiatives at the site, a set of five interpretive signs were designed and placed around Campus to highlight the infrastructure, the science concepts behind the technology, and the benefits each initiative brings to the Center. The signage was installed by the Facilities team, and is referenced by facilitators and staff as they move around property with program participants, Board members, and funders.

As with the efforts of the Program team to use the technology for teaching, one of the most exciting features of the Center’s clean energy technology is seeing it in action. When a local group brought a women’s retreat to campus, a participant used the new EV charging station to recharge their vehicle while they attended workshops. The solar panels on Egner Lodge have a feature that allows anyone with an internet connection to check their estimated output and carbon reduction. And the Center’s garden is a delicious example of sustainable practices for caloric energy, taking in food waste from the dining hall, turning it into nutrient-rich soil via composting, and using inputs of time, sun, and water to turn it into fresh produce to be served to students and staff – “clean” energy for minds and bodies.

Why S.T.E.A.M.?

(Editor’s Note: This post was co-written by Kathryn Cimis-DeBiasse, former Madison, NJ Visual Arts Teacher.)

By now, most people are likely familiar with the term STEM, an acronym that outlines educational instruction and activities related to the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. But what about STEAM?

Students in PBC Wilderness Leadership School classes created their own animals to reinforce a lesson about animal adaptations.

The argument for incorporating the Arts into STEM instruction may at first seem incongruous. But for educators and those who are real-world technology problem-solvers, the connection between art and science is a given. “The connection is obvious for anyone who has ever worked in any traditional STEM career. Everyone from software engineers and aerospace technicians to biotechnical engineers, professional mathematicians, and laboratory scientists know that building great things and solving real problems requires a measure of creativity. More and more, professional artists themselves are incorporating technological tools and scientific processes to their art,” says Mary Beth Hertz, a certified technology integration specialist in her article on the topic in Edutopia.

According to Elliot Eisner (1933-2014), the late Stamford University Professor of Arts Education, there are ten lessons the Arts teach:

1. The arts teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships.Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts, it is judgment rather than rules that prevail.

2. The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution and that questions can have more than one answer.

3. The arts celebrate multiple perspectives. One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world.

4. The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem-solving purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity. Learning in the arts requires the ability and a willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.

5. The arts make vivid the fact that neither words in their literal form nor numbers exhaust what we can know. The limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition.

6. The arts teach students that small differences can have large effects. The arts traffic in subtleties

7. The arts teach students to think through and within a material. All art forms employ some means through which images become real.

8. The arts help children learn to say what cannot be said. When children are invited to disclose what a work of art helps them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words that will do the job.

9. The arts enable us to have experience we can have from no other source and through such experience to discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling.

10. The arts position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young what adults believe is important.

SOURCE: Eisner, E. (2002). The Arts and the Creation of Mind, In Chapter 4, What the Arts Teach and How It Shows. (pp. 70-92). Yale University Press.

As we read Eisner’s list, we can see how the study of the Arts links to both science and technology as well as social and emotional learning - both of which are an integral part of the curricula at the Princeton-Blairstown Center.

Summer Bridge Students from an NJIT cohort explain an A.I. software concept using visual aids they created for their pitch.

Eisner’s first item extols the arts as a means of teaching students how to make qualitative judgments. In our data-driven culture, the ability of individuals, communities, and organizations to wisely discern and apply qualitative analysis to quantitative information is paramount for achieving novel and creative solutions to the challenges we face.

In the visual arts, these muscles are routinely exercised as students approach an assignment or project. For instance, within the genre of portrait painting, when students investigate and analyze how artists have approached this topic and how technology, sociology, and historical events have shaped what constitutes a portrait, it releases them to explore a variety of visual vocabulary (and media), and add to that dialogue as they create their “solution” to this visual problem.

Through the critique process students begin to respectfully observe, discuss, and recognize areas of success and opportunities for improvement, both in their own work and the work of others. They begin to see that, unlike some other areas of study, there is often more than one right answer, and shades and degrees of success. In STEM, the pace of technological change and the nature of scientific discoveries require the ability to be open to different viewpoints, and the ability to go where the data lead you. “Surrendering to unanticipated possibilities” is a way for scientists to potentially reduce personal bias in research and be open to whatever the research and data indicate.

Summer Bridge 2021 students created ad campaigns designed to educate and inspire behavior change around current environmental justice issues.

Through visual arts, students also begin to learn that in some ways, a given piece is never truly finished, though for practical purposes we as educators and students may call it so.  This is an important paradigm shift as we realize in many areas of life, we revel in the inclination to check the box and be “done.” Orientation to task completion is a real cognitive phenomenon, and often stands in the way of the most important elements of work. Learning how to spend time in that uncomfortably incomplete grey zone, and subsequently reviewing and revising a project or assignment repeatedly through iterative processing, is a difficult but important skill for everyone. 

For the artist, developing the ability to see opportunities for exploration and improvement is never meant to be confused with the ability to achieve perfection. Rather, it’s about seeing, observing, and knowing what the next step “might be”, but often, accepting that the next step may be something that is explored in a future objective, or assignment, and being comfortable with that. This perspective has tremendous value for scientists, engineers, architects, mathematicians, and other science-based professionals, and the arts can be a fun and creative way to introduce and immerse students in this mindset.

Summer Learning At PBC

It’s National Summer Learning Week! Each year the National Summer Learning Association (NSLA) celebrates National Summer Learning Week to elevate the importance of keeping kids learning, safe, and healthy, ensuring they return to school ready to succeed. This year, the importance of making sure kids are prepared when they return to school is even more important than ever, and PBC is proud to be a partner in this work.

When schools first closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, many of us presumed that it would be a few weeks before students could return to the classroom; some districts did not plan for remote learning but rather used their scheduled spring break days and “snow” days to account for students not being in school for an extended period. As we know, those few weeks turned into months and, in some cases, more than a year of remote learning. Parents, teachers, and caregivers have seen the impact extended remote learning has had on students, particularly in the Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous communities. Students in these communities were more likely to have remained in remote learning situations longer than others and, according to a report from McKinsey, the cumulative learning loss could be six to 12 months, compared to four to eight months for white students.

Students at Achievers Academy in Trenton try their hand at the “walking A” activity, a teambuilding and communication challenge.

PBC’s award-winning Summer Bridge Program kicked off this month, bringing our summer learning experience to young people in Trenton and Newark completely free of charge. This one-week leadership and academic enrichment program designed to serve young people from historically marginalized communities in New Jersey was honored with the 2018 NSLA New York Life Foundation Excellence in Summer Learning Founder’s Award, which recognizes outstanding summer programs that demonstrate excellence in accelerating academic achievement and promoting healthy development for low-income children and youth between pre-kindergarten and twelfth grade. Summer Bridge is normally held on our Blairstown Campus, but hosting students overnight in small cabins seemed too great a risk given the ongoing pandemic. Therefore, PBC’s staff reconfigured the curriculum and logistics and came up with a plan to bring the Summer Bridge Program to participants in their own communities this year. PBC is continuing to partner with schools and community-based organizations in Trenton and Newark to provide 90 minutes of academic enrichment each day, along with a host of leadership, team-building, and problem-solving activities designed to build social-emotional skills in schoolyards and local parks.

The academic curriculum focuses on STEM and literacy in a series of hands-on, inquiry-driven, interdisciplinary outdoor learning experiences centered on equity and social justice, with a focus on the power of community gardening as a means of civic action and towards food justice. Students also form positive, supportive relationships with peers and adults while increasing environmental awareness and proactive stewardship of natural resources. In addition to meeting a wide range of Common Core Literacy and Next Generation Science Standards, the social-emotional elements of the Summer Bridge Program meet important Career Ready Practices and 21st Century Life and Career Skills that are critical pieces of the revised New Jersey Student Learning Standards.

A summer Bridge literacy lesson, held on-site at Achievers Academy as part of Summer Bridge 2021.

Students from Achievers Academy in Trenton participated in the first week of Summer Bridge and were happy with their experience. One student said she learned how to communicate with others when she was frustrated and another student said that this was the first time she had an opportunity to attend anything like a summer camp and how much fun she had canoeing. If the photos from their day at Blairstown are any clue, it’s safe to assume many other students felt the same way.

And as this year’s Summer Learning Week winds down, we are looking forward to a visit from the CEO of the National Summer Learning Association, Aaron Dworkin! He and several others from the team at NSLA, plus a potential future program partner, are slated to join us for an action-packed visit during a day of Summer Bridge on-site programming. We can’t think of a better way to send off this year’s celebration, and are excited for the many ways we might expand and enhance our partnership with the United States’ premier coalition of summer learning programs.

So Much More Than Soil - SEL and Gardening

As an embodiment of our core values, PBC’s facilitators strive to connect environmental experiences not just to academic concepts, but to social emotional learning (SEL) and social justice movements as well. This June, a time of year where our gardens are creating ample amounts of nourishing food for plates in Egner Lodge, we are exploring the additional role of the PBC garden in nourishing skills, meaningful connections, and the relationship between participants and the planet.  

As Todd McPherson, Urban Garden Coordinator at Luther Burbank High School mentions in Students Use Gardening to Develop Social Emotional Learning Skills, “A functioning and productive garden space [is also a] very interactive outdoor classroom…really, we can incorporate just about any discipline into the gardens.” Other interviews in the video make the case for conducting mentorship and other leadership lessons in a garden setting, which is something we have been facilitating with our Summer Bridge, Leader-In-Training, and Wilderness Leadership School participants for several years.

The video also emphasizes the observed increase in empathy among students learning and interacting with the living organisms endemic to gardens. The graduate thesis Growing Citizens: Students’ Social Emotional Learning via School Gardens elaborates on how “In addition to academic learning goals, gardening has the potential to provide students with a sense of empathy related to nature that may [help develop] pro-environmental stances later in life. Gardening may also contribute to the attainment of related citizenship skills such as collaboration and communication.”                               

Garden helpers hold up giant kohlrabi they helped harvest from the PBC garden. Produce harvests go to Chef Bob, who turns them into delicious meals for Egner Lodge.

Ron Franco, Senior Program Manager, shared some of his perspective about working with students in the PBC garden, and how observing and caring for the living things in a garden space are effective catalysts for deeper conversations and connections that reach far beyond the boundary fence.      

 “Over the past four years, [our] garden has proved fruitful in more ways than one can imagine. It provides an interactive, colorful, and lively learning experience for our curious participants, a place where we engage in thought-provoking, hands-on garden curriculum and activities.” As participants work together toward common goals in the space, they practice collaborative skills, and “rejoice in the wonders while soaking in colorful inspiration and novel experiences, such as tasting a vine-ripe cherry tomato or other garden treat for the first time in their lives…Hopefully, these eye-opening moments and stirring experiences will help ignite [participants’] interest in sustainable agriculture, green movements, and food justice. Through the garden, PBC helps plant a small seed of hope and opportunity for our future nature-conscious leaders.”

SEL and Mental Health

May is Mental Health month. In a year where mental health stressors have arrived at the forefront for both students and adults, the role SEL can play in mental health outcomes is worth examining.

Even in “regular” (i.e. pre-pandemic) times, SEL and mental health were considered intertwined. In a brief prepared by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) in collaboration with The National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention, Connecting Social and Emotional Learning with Mental Health, the organization asserts that “Addressing children’s mental health is critical for school and life success. Social and emotional learning programming, when implemented with fidelity and integrated into the fabric of the school and community, provides students with the skills they need to be successful within an environment that promotes their physical and emotional safety and well-being.” However, in the extraordinary circumstances of a global pandemic, social emotional learning tops of the list of recommendations for classroom educators for what they can do to best support students’ mental health during COVID.

But, why should that be the focus? While the answer is not truly linear, the CASEL brief outlines the cumulative positive effects of robust SEL programs. By increasing the number of tools a student has to both identify and navigate periods of stress and challenge, their ability to be flexible and resilient increases, and ultimately, mental health interventions become less frequent. According to CASEL, “SEL programming may reduce the number of students who require early intervention, because participation in SEL programs fosters in children the skills they will need to cope with life’s challenges and helps teachers manage their classrooms in ways that promote interest and engagement, all within a caring school environment.”

Participants work together to accomplish goals, enhance communication skills, and strengthen relationships with peers and adults through experiential learning led by PBC facilitators.

At PBC, our experienced facilitators work with students to hone social emotional skills through experiential and adventure education. This approach to teaching SEL - markedly different in practice from most classroom- and school-based SEL initiatives - was recently studied in a group of students in the UK who were all classified as having social, emotional, or behavioral difficulties – arguably among those most in need of mental health supports. The researcher concluded that outdoor and adventure education may offer additional benefits above and beyond those of the classroom efforts, because “as students engaged in outdoor learning activities, they used core SEL skills in combination rather than in isolation. This may differ in – and be an advantage over — how students use SEL skills in classroom-based programs. Another distinct advantage of outdoor SEL intervention programs is the reliance on group work, which provides students with opportunities for developing effective social interactions, communication and relationships.”

Supporting mental health can’t just be focused on screen-free time, or mindfulness, or connecting struggling students with school counselors and therapists. The evidence suggests that incorporating SEL is key to improved mental health outcomes for youth, especially with COVID not yet behind us.

SEL and the Outdoors

The focus on social-emotional learning (SEL) at the Princeton-Blairstown Center is in everything we do. As an outdoor, adventure, and experiential education-focused organization, it means that SEL is the thread that ties all of our activities and programs together. For this Earth Month edition of Compass Points, we considered the many natural intersections of social-emotional learning and our outdoor and environmental programming.

Research published in the Journal of Adolescence studied an Outward Bound group’s experience with SEL and highlighted the program’s positive impacts on the students’ ability to “successfully endure distress and a process of experimenting with new mindsets that helped them rise above their anxiety and distress…and found that peers provided skillful and responsive on-the-spot support that motivated youth, helped them succeed, and scaffolded students’ learning strategies for dealing with physical, social, and emotional challenges.” The novel situations brought about by adventure education, and the fear and anxiety that accompany almost all situations that involve the new and unknown, can be used as perfect jumping-off points for experienced facilitators to dive into emotions and mindset shifts with outdoor education participants. The coping skills, strategies, and tactics that come out of those discussions can then be translated to classroom learning and beyond.

A research survey compiled by Green Schoolyards America asserts that “fewer, longer sessions of outdoor learning (education outside the classroom) are more beneficial than more frequent, shorter sessions and lead to improved pro-social behaviors among students.” This is another strength of organizations like PBC, which can - and do! - structure most participant activities around the experience of being in the out-of-doors. Sharing experiences in that space, along with thinking and learning in that context with peers, can offer new and different perspectives for any member of modern society, particularly one which seems increasingly expected to spend the majority of its time indoors. 

Also noted in the Green Schoolyards piece is that “blended learning that combines traditional education with forest school or other models of outdoor curricula enhances children’s social interaction skills, builds confidence, promotes problem-solving and independence, builds negotiation skills, and supports creativity.” In this year of extraordinary disruption to all areas of society, we have been fortunate to offer two full semesters of Wilderness Leadership School (WLS) for local students, at a time when our regular partners were unable to attend on-campus programs. WLS offered a weekly all-outdoor, full-day learning format, compounding the social-emotional learning opportunities such curricula can provide to a group of students whose traditional learning and extracurricular activities have been disrupted in unprecedented ways. In providing for public health and safety considerations, we were able to tap into both the healing power of nature and the many opportunities for increased learning, health, and future success that outdoor learning provides.

If the pandemic has reinforced anything for those of us in the outdoor and adventure education field, it might be that before, we could agree that these experiences were important – now, we can all loudly assert that they are not merely important, but in fact critical to the development of the social-emotional skills that enhance the grit, resilience, and overall success of all people.

International SEL Day at PBC

The second International SEL Day is happening today, March 26th. This day of recognition invites communities across the globe to celebrate the importance of social emotional learning (SEL). This year’s theme is “Building Bonds, Reimagining Community,” which traces closely the arc and aim of the programs that PBC provides for thousands of young people each year.

Adam Faller, Assistant Director of Operations and Staff Development, talked about PBC’s process. “The sequence that we build with students, whether virtual or in person, is to start with building relationships and group norms.” An intentional small group setting helps promote interpersonal connections and the ability to reflect and connect with the others in the group. “We try to focus on all aspects of social emotional learning, in any length program. Our debrief exercises really focus on the entirety of the social-emotional learning spectrum,” said Adam. “Yes, sometimes people get angry, frustrated, or upset – but all of that provides learning opportunities for them, and for us.”

When thinking about an activity that is particularly applicable, Adam described an exercise that uses a maze with just one exit that participants try to complete while blindfolded. “You put them in a maze that effectively has no end, and say ‘If you need help, just raise your hand.’ Inevitably, there are almost always a few [participants] who will refuse help and continue to wander the maze indefinitely. This exercise really speaks to all the pieces of the SEL wheel – am I self-aware enough to ask for help? Can I recognize other people asking for help? Am I comfortable asking peers or leaders for help? And so on.”

Director of Programs Mark DeBiasse described an instance where an intensive focus on SEL over the course of several weeks in the PBC Leader-in-Training Program proved transformative.  A teacher in Newark schools who also serves as a member of the PBC Advisory Council mentioned one student who had participated as an LIT II, staying on Campus for six weeks. “It was clear to him and to the other faculty that this individual was challenged when it came to social-emotional learning through their observations of the student in their school setting, especially in regard to self-awareness and self-regulation,” said Mark. The teacher and others felt this student had tremendous potential but would often see them exhibit behaviors or make comments that reflected a lack of age-appropriate SEL skills. “While speaking about the impact of PBC’s programs, [the teacher] went on to describe the maturity and personal growth that he and the other educators observed at school and in the classroom after the student’s summer in the LIT program.”

Facilitator Tabs Alam shared a perspective about how SEL work can not only contribute to personal and individual growth, but also the growth and development of a group. One particularly impactful group that she facilitated was a session with the Center for Great Expectations, a nonprofit that “provides transformational mental health and substance use disorder treatment to women, children, men and families impacted by trauma, abuse and neglect.”

Great Expectations “were willing to really challenge themselves and one another over the course of their program,” said Tabs. She described how the dynamics and demographics of the group required her to tap into her full range of facilitation skills since they were starting from a place of knowing one another very well and were also committed to being completely honest with themselves and each other; in a way it was often difficult to be with other people in their lives. “They wanted to learn how to really respect and support one another. It was very different than working with student groups; often, it is hard to know what might be too much, what the triggers might be, versus with this group - everything was on the table. And if something [really difficult] did come up, they would work through it together.”

The group was simultaneously dealing with a host of complex, difficult, and deeply personal challenges. “They had dealt with all kinds of different things, like sexual abuse, substance abuse, trauma, attempted or failed family reunification…Many were in the program because they were trying to prevent family separation and/or relapse into substance abuse.” With all members of the group living together but also working through their own high-stakes challenges, small interpersonal conflicts could result in larger emotional or even physical fights. Forgiving one another was easy, but preventing future conflicts was harder. After completing some of the group activities together, a lightbulb moment emerged.

“One of the women stepped up and said, ‘I always think that people are trying to correct me, and it makes me so mad…what I sometimes don’t realize is that all these people here are trying to correct themselves the way I am trying to correct myself. I forget that people lash out because they, too, are dealing with their own [trauma].’”

Tabs chose activities to specifically address things like exploring and breaking down different communication styles, which would make an impact on the ways that people related to one another immediately but also served to assist with things like the interpersonal conflicts in the shared living space over the longer term. Other activities included a Celebrity Charades game that helped people recognize and talk about the different “masks” they sometimes wore, and why. Over the course of several days, the lateral efforts of the group challenging and supporting one another amplified the effect of Tabs’ facilitating: “They were doing these activities with others who they had already given permission to push and challenge them, rather than me always needing to challenge or push someone myself. And I made it clear to them too - even if this conversation doesn’t happen in front of me, it’s still happening and it’s still progress. Those [are the kinds of] effects that go far beyond what I alone can do in an initial program.”

By the time the program concluded, it became evident that the group was on the right path for long-term cohesion and committed to continued growth, together. “They started to demonstrate how self-aware they were about the role they played in each other’s lives and recoveries – they all seemed to feel like, I need to hold these people very tightly, because they have become an essential part of my growth.”

Order From Chaos

For almost a year, PBC has been providing social emotional learning lessons and resources for teachers and families to use in the new learning environments to which we’ve all had to become accustomed. Each week, an email arrives with a carefully curated lesson designed for teachers and other youth development professionals to use with their students. Lessons are designed to be engaging, fun, and educational and may include activities to develop literacy, environmental education, or social emotional skills. Each one provides questions to follow each activity that can be discussion starters or journal entry prompts.

Earlier this month, one of the lessons was titled “Order From Chaos” as a nod to the chaos we’ve all been experiencing and how there can be order as well. We thought our Compass Points blog readers might like to see one of these activities for themselves and maybe you can play along with your family.

If you would like to receive these emails each week, please email pbc@princetonblairstown.org.

Download the activity here, or see below for the full activity plan.

Activity: Order From Chaos

Champions Adjust!

It is the first month of a new year. Not just any year, either – a year following what we have all heard described repeatedly as: Unprecedented. Anomalous. Exhausting. Chaotic. As the “craziest year of our lives” requiring us all, in many senses of the word, to “pivot.”

Like every other individual and organization, all the forecasting and planning that we put together to map the year 2020 was immediately rearranged as the threat of the Covid-19 pandemic arose. Then, shuffled, rethought, and rearranged again as the worst-case scenarios we feared took hold, and reconfigured yet again when the pandemic persisted for many weeks and months, all the way up to today.

It is not a surprise that organizational course corrections are sometimes needed. That is why we track initiatives, priorities, and statistics, hold performance reviews, organize work plans, and create budgeting and maintenance forecasts. Often, small tilts of the wheel are enough to keep the plan moving along the track when circumstances change around us. However, the magnitude of the changes that occurred in such a dizzyingly short time frame posed significant hurdles for our entire staff, even without the backdrop of a global public health crisis.

But in 2020, every department rose together, again and again, to meet the (many) challenges PBC faced. When groups were barred from coming to our beautiful Blairstown Campus and meeting in person, program staff used their resourcefulness and ingenuity to create virtual programs for our students and online audiences. When classroom learning was abruptly moved online, and teachers and students shared the challenges and mental health impacts of this format, program staff and communications staff created a weekly SEL email for teachers that could be used in Zoom classrooms to enhance social connections and SEL skills while adhering to social distancing. Finance staff successfully applied for Federal Paycheck Protection Program loans and continually tracked and readjusted budgets to keep the organization fiscally sound. Maintenance staff scaled up their plans, tackling extensive repairs, deep cleanings, and other tasks that would ordinarily be too disruptive while students are using Campus facilities. Perhaps more amazing is that these changes were implemented successfully on top of the changes the pandemic created in many other facets of everyone’s lives.

The Senior Leadership Team meets each January to identify our organizational priorities and set the plan - and tone - for the coming year. In reflecting upon how the organization reacted and continues to adapt to the changing landscape, they came up with a working mantra for the year: Champions Adjust.

It is abundantly clear that large-scale changes for the Center, and in our personal lives, will continue until Covid is squarely in the rearview. Until then, we’ll adjust.

The Challenge Our Children Face

At this writing, the first Americans have received a COVID-19 vaccine outside of a clinical trial, and it looks as if we might be able to start a move toward some sense of normalcy at Blairstown. For the historically marginalized young people we work with, some sense of normalcy can't come too soon. 

As of December 3rd, more than 1.4 million children have tested positive for COVID-19, representing 12% of all cases.  Thankfully, COVID-19 associated hospitalizations and death are rare among children, but the long-term impact still needs to be studied.   

While COVID-19 may not be as physically debilitating for children as it is for adults, its impact on their mental health, access to food and housing, and educational opportunity is more than most of us can fully understand, particularly for the young people PBC works with in Newark, Camden, and Trenton. 

A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 43% of parents living with children reported that they or a family member had lost a job or taken a pay cut due to the pandemic, including 62% of Hispanic families, 50% of black families, and 36.5% of white families. Fifty-two percent of low-income families reported job losses. 

Lower-income adults and families, like those we serve in Newark and Trenton, were particularly vulnerable to the financial impact of the virus. Only 23% had emergency funds set aside to cover three months of expenses in case of a job loss, illness, or economic downturn. Over 46% of low-income adults say they have had trouble paying their bills since the start of the pandemic and approximately 33% report they are having trouble paying rent or making mortgage payments.  

New Jersey food bank operators report that people in some places are waiting 2½ hours to get a bag of food. Soup kitchens and food pantries are reporting double, even triple, the normal traffic. Lines waiting for grab-and-go food packages form at dawn in some places and stretch for blocks. Food security programs are used to seeing seniors, veterans, the homeless, people with mental or emotional difficulties. During COVID-19 they are also seeing service workers, hospitality workers, teachers, nurses, construction workers, and professionals. 

With most schools remote due to high local infection rates, children who normally have access to free breakfast and lunches at school must get nutrition another way, further exacerbating food insecurity. When a student's basic needs for food, clothing, or shelter are unmet, it's almost impossible to learn. Adequate affordable housing is an ongoing problem in our state, where high housing costs abound, and the pandemic has only made the situation worse; on December 14th, NJ Spotlight News featured "19%" as their number of the day, representing the percentage of NJ adults with children who said they are afraid they won't make their next rent or mortgage payment. 

While most schools in Trenton and Newark found ways to get Chromebooks or computers to their students at the start of the pandemic, many students still don't have access to reliable internet for school work. A McKinsey study states that lower-income students are less likely to have access to high-quality remote learning or to a conducive learning environment, such as a quiet space with minimal distractions, devices they do not need to share, high-speed internet, and parental academic supervision. Many students in Trenton and Newark have parents who are essential employees who are unable to work from home, help their children navigate connectivity issues, or supervise their school work. 

A recent study from the New York University Grossman School of Medicine looked at 10 major US cities and found that in counties where the population was substantially non-white with a median income defined as $60,240, the COVID-19 death rate was more than nine times higher when compared to counties that are substantially white with the same median income. And the infection rate was nearly eight times higher for the more racially and ethnically diverse counties that authors called "more-poverty areas." What does this mean for PBC's students?  Many lost family members to the virus, and even more had family members become severely ill. This can lead to added stress, depression, and a sense of isolation for our students.

All of these factors make it critically important that our students have access to high-quality academic enrichment and a supportive peer group they can connect with to help them process the trauma they have experienced over the past year.  We will continue to provide virtual after school programs for some students and weekly SEL lesson plans for educators and youth workers. Additionally, we are beginning to plan for off-site programming that will take place in parks near where our students live so they can connect and learn together outdoors until COVID is eradicated.  

Thank you for helping us provide these much-needed opportunities to historically marginalized students. They have had a year that most of us cannot fully imagine.

Gratitude : A State of Being

(Editor’s Note: This post was written by PBC Senior Program Manager, Ron Franco.)

National Gratitude Month has been awarded to November, and you might be thinking… Ron, how can I begin to muster feelings of gratitude while 2020 has thrown us ALL so many crazy curveballs?

Well, with a humble and grateful heart, I thank you for blessing me with an opportunity to share my gratitude light, share a few insights and highlights, and take a stroll with you down a lane full of appreciation, thanks, and wonder.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines gratitude as “the state of being grateful: thankfulness; a feeling of appreciation or thanks.”

This is a beautiful, simple definition. Seriously though, “a state of being grateful!” Please take a moment to be present with the thought of… a state of being grateful.

Let me paint a picture for you about how I often approach my daily gratitude practice: It is early morning on a workday, the sun is beginning to peek out over the forest behind Bass Lake, and I am cresting the curve in front of PBC’s picturesque stone pillars. I pause a moment and offer a version of a gratitude mantra… “Thank you, Universe, for bringing me to PBC. I am humble and grateful to learn from this pristine land and forest, my fellow animated co-workers, and our wonderfully curious participants who we are blessed to serve. Please grant me patience, empathy, and the desire to listen. Please give me strength in body, kindness in heart, and let me relinquish my ego so I can serve the highest good of ALL beings I encounter today.”

Over the years, I have found a morning Gratitude Mantra helps guide my attitude, spirit, and work into a place filled with light, empathy, and curiosity. Implementing your own Daily Gratitude Mantra can help you stay focused and mission-driven by framing everything with a unique, positive, and appreciative perspective.

Gratitude is a layered theme with all groups I have been blessed to facilitate, and I am humbled by so many valuable and life-affirming lessons our young participants have taught me. A big lesson that will always remain deep within me is that “You Reap What You Sow.”

If you sow seeds of love, appreciation, and gratitude, then you likely will be rewarded with a day full of love, appreciation, and gratitude. Your attitude is like an emotional magnet – you can expect to attract precisely the same energy that you are putting out into the world.

RON fRANCO WORKING WITH STUDENTS FROM THE SEED SCHOOL IN 2018.

This lesson has helped me to connect with groups from all different walks of life while sharing amazing collective experiences, like conquering fear at the Dam Rappel or Super Zip, tasting the world’s freshest cherry tomato from our teaching garden together, finding peace under the quiet, bright night sky, and discovering wonder in the natural world while a waterfall babbles our shared worries away.  

I will always remember the first group I facilitated at PBC. It was an amazing group of 9th grade students from The SEED School of Washington, DC. I was granted the opportunity to spend three and a half adventurous days with them, and recall at the time feeling a bit overwhelmed by the duration of the program. However, I relied on my trusty bag of gratitude “tricks” throughout the program and was delighted on our last morning together as they “Shined Light” on me as their facilitator.

The morning was cool and a bit drizzly with a spring morning mist, and while gathered in a circle sheltered by the forest canopy, this amazing group of students began to share individually the impact that I had on them over the last few days… “Thank you for always being on our team… Thank you for always being supportive and helping us try to stay positive and say nice things to each other… Thank you for being your genuine self…Thank you for caring about us… Thank you for saying ‘Good Morning’ to me at breakfast, and asking how I was feeling each morning…Thank you for all the little things that truly showed us that you cared.”

I will never forget the lessons that those young students shared with me so many Aprils ago.

My friendly reminder to you is that gratitude is everywhere, even in the year 2020, because gratitude is a state of being. It is a presence within you – an ongoing, evolving “awareness of appreciation.” I encourage you to start with cherishing small, genuinely grateful moments, building towards a Daily Gratitude Mantra, and then transitioning to an enthusiastic state of being. Enjoy the ride as you witness in wonder the magic of gratitude!

National Make a Difference Day

(Editor’s Note: this post was written by PBC Board Member, Claudia Franco Kelly.)

Each day, we are given the opportunity to change the world and National Make a Difference Day is about emphasizing the importance of community service and volunteerism. National Make A Difference Day began in 1992 and is celebrated every fourth Saturday of October. There are many reasons to acknowledge National Make a Difference Day, but simply put, it’s about assisting those in need and experiencing the good feeling of helping others. 

The options to help people and give back to your community are endless. A good place to start is with some soul-searching and by asking yourself, “What am I passionate about?” It might be women’s equality, education and outdoor experiences for children, voting rights, the arts, food insecurity, or any one of a number of important causes that could benefit from your time, talents, and attention. 

For instance, if it’s the arts that you are enthusiastic about, then look at the website of a local theater and see what volunteer opportunities exist and reach out to them.  If food insecurity is something you care deeply about, call a local food bank, maybe you can help run a food drive or deliver food to the homebound in your community. Do you have a specialized skill that could help advance the mission of a local nonprofit?  For me, I knew I wanted to serve as a Board member, so I got involved with Nonprofit Connect, an organization in my community that provides training in board leadership and other nonprofit resources. Through that program I met with organizations that were searching for new Board members and now serve on the Board of Trustees of the Princeton-Blairstown Center.  In my time on PBC’s Board, I have been able to use skills I developed through my professional experience to help move the organization forward.

Volunteering offers vital help to people in need, to worthwhile causes, and to your community, but the benefits that accrue to you are often greater than what you give. I have had the opportunity to meet new people in my community and create a new social outlet, which I wasn’t able to do while I was commuting. It’s also a chance to develop or hone a skill, and get that wonderful feeling that you have made an impact. 

In today’s environment, there are many individuals and nonprofit organizations that are significantly and negatively impacted by the pandemic and I ask you to please consider what you have to give. Your time, your talent, or your treasure, even in small doses, can have a positive effect on someone in need.     

I’ll close with what I think is particularly good advice from the tennis legend Arthur Ashe:  ”Start where you are.  Use what you have.  Do what you can.” 

Building Community in an Online Classroom

(Editor’s Note: This post was written by PBC Board Chair, Sarah Tantillo, EdD, who serves as Managing Director of Humanities at the Great Oaks Legacy Charter School in Newark, NJ. She is also the author of Hit the Drum and literacycookbook.com)

Among the many challenges of teaching online is the need to build community in our virtual classrooms.  In the spring when we went remote, we already knew our students and had built strong relationships with them in person.  This fall, we don’t have that advantage.

The teachers I work with at Great Oaks Legacy Charter Schools Network have spent the past month trying out various ways to build community in their middle school Zoom classrooms, and in a recent meeting, they shared what has worked.

Before class starts and in the first few minutes of class:

·       Greet students warmly by name.

·       Engage in mini chit-chat.

·       Invite students to type in the Chat responses to personal questions such as “What are you doing this weekend?  What did you like about ___?  What’s something positive happening in your life?” or other “getting-to-know-you” questions.

·       Run a quick Show and Tell.

·       Do a daily “temperature check” via a Zoom or Nearpod poll (e.g., “How are you feeling? A) Excited, B) Sleepy, C) OK, D) Ehhh, E) Don’t ask.”) and use that data immediately.  For example, if students mostly respond “Sleepy,” get them up to do an energizer—maybe a Dance Minute or a quick “Shake It Out” activity.

During class:

·       Show students’ faces as much as possible.  When you share your screen, students can only see 4-5 faces at a time.

·       Encourage supportive hand signals like “brain-matching.”

·       Give students voice in the classroom through Chat or by unmuting themselves.  Remind students that this is “our” classroom, not a podcast.

·       Put students in breakout rooms for discussions; make sure your directions are clear so that students can jump right in.

·       Make learning “a collaborative thing” as much as possible.

·       Constantly praise students by name for positive behaviors/academic success and encourage them to do the same with one another. Model praise in the Chat.

·       Encourage students to “@Chat”: to respond to one another’s academic remarks (“@Javon, I agree with you!” or “@Amaya, nice explanation!”)

·       Invite students to co-host and share their screens.

·       Establish various roles for students.  Here’s what one teacher introduced in the first week:

o   Time Keeper - Give me a 10-minute warning when class is going to end. I want to respect your time and your breaks!

o   Class DJ - You have to be able to get to class early and play the pump-up tunes before class begins. 

o   Mini Me - You will be in charge of leading the class discussion from whatever the topic of the Do Now is; you get to be the teacher. 

o   I Got This - During class discussions if we reach a point where the conversation gets stale, you will keep the conversation going. 

o   Joy Factor - You will encourage us in the chat and motivate your classmates to speak up and shout them out.

Other things to keep in mind as you move through your lesson:

Students participating in the Center’s Virtual Summer Bridge program complete a mindfulness exercise.

·       Be transparent and show respect for their feelings and ideas that they share.

·       Be honest and straightforward: We are human and we aren’t perfect. 

·       Telling a random joke or making a connection to real life can break the monotony of a lesson and also help students to engage.

·       Play games that tie into the lesson.

At the end of class, stay on for students who have questions or just want to be social for a few minutes.

Since the quarantine began, PBC has been offering resources for educators and families to help them build community and develop students’ social-emotional learning skills. Archives of the resources are hosted on PBC’s COVID-19 and SEL Resources page.

I hope these ideas will help others.  We are all in this together!