Firework Lyrics

Posted on December 21, 2011 by anneEhresman

(With our apologies to Katy Perry)

One of our fans sent us these adapted lyrics celebrating Project Cornerstone (sung to the tune of Firework! by Katy Perry):

Have you ever heard of Project Cornerstone?

We are UP-standers, and we’re here for you….

Reaching out to folks, both the young and old

With a recipe, for building thriving youth…

 

We’ve got to let them know about our 41…

Take It Personally, Los Dichos, ABC

Do you know it’s all about relationships?

And there’s a SPARK in you

 

You just gotta ignite, the light, and let it shine
Just own the night like the 4th of July

‘Cause baby you’re a firework
Come on, show ‘em what you’re worth
Make ‘em go “Oh, oh, oh”
As you shoot across the sky-y-y

Baby, you’re a firework
Come on, let your colors burst
Make ‘em go “Oh, oh, oh”
You’re gonna leave ‘em all in awe, awe, awe

We hope you always feel that you have a place

You’re an UPstander, cannot be replaced

If you only knew what your future holds

After a hurricane comes a rainbow

 

We have to tell the kids that we believe in them

Help them find their path that leads them to the perfect road

Like a lightning bolt, your heart will glow

And when its time you’ll know

 

You just gotta ignite, the light, and let it shine
Just own the night like the 4th of July

‘Cause baby you’re a firework
Come on, show ‘em what you’re worth
Make ‘em go “Oh, oh, oh”
As you shoot across the sky-y-y

Baby, you’re a firework
Come on, let your colors burst
Make ‘em go “Oh, Oh, Oh”
You’re gonna leave ‘em all in awe, awe, awe
Boom, boom, boom
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon

 

It’s always been inside of you, you, you
And now it’s time to let it through-ough-ough

‘Cause baby you’re a firework
Come on, show ‘em what you’re worth
Make ‘em go “Oh, Oh, Oh”
As you shoot across the sky-y-y

Baby, you’re a firework
Come on, let your colors burst
Make ‘em go “Oh, Oh, Oh”
You’re gonna leave ‘em all in awe, awe, awe

Boom, boom, boom
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon
Boom, boom, boom
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon

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Celebrating Traditions

Posted on December 12, 2011 by anneEhresman

Carving pumpkins at Halloween and watching fireworks on the Fourth of July are part of our national culture. Holding neighborhood barbecues and New Year’s Day pot lucks provide us opportunities to meet and get to know our neighbors. Baking special birthday cakes and setting the table with a birthday tablecloth create a sense of belonging in families.
These are all traditions. Traditions are rituals that help us build support, connection and caring in our families, neighborhoods, schools and communities. Celebration of traditions creates a common bond and builds community. Often we celebrate traditions without realizing how they started or why they are important. Think about the traditions in your life. What are they? Why do you celebrate them?
Traditions can be created by intentional words or deeds to value a person or event in our life. If you want to learn more about older traditions, consult with elders to find out about the traditions of their childhood. Ask older members of your family or neighbors what they used to do. Think of what they say. Would it be fun to start a new-older tradition? Consider dropping May Day baskets on May 1 or eating black eye peas on New Year’s Day. Reviving something old will link older generations to today’s youth.
Celebration of traditions gives us a positive sense of self. Traditions that are based in our cultural heritage give us a sense of who we are and where our ancestors came from. Weaving cultural heritage activities throughout our daily lives roots us with a sense of purpose and promotes family togetherness. Working together with grandchildren, children, and parents to cook special foods, to sing songs, to dance ceremonial dances, and to hear family stories connects family members and preserves their heritage for future generations.

To preserve your traditions or to start new ones, follow these guidelines:
• Keep your traditions simple.
• They should be fun, inexpensive and not time consuming.
• Provide opportunities for all to be involved, from the youngest to the oldest.
• Look at your interests as a group and create an activity based in this interest.

Discuss your thoughts with all family members including the children. Ask for their suggestions on what to do or how to improve something you are already doing. Rituals don’t need to be complex to be meaningful. Finally, you may also want to start a traditions journal with your family to record the current traditions you celebrate all year long. In your journal, write all about it. Include recipes, pictures, and a brief description of your activities. Future generations will maintain and continue the tradition if there is a written record.  Families with a strong sense of traditions and special celebrations are more likely to raise kids who have a strong sense of identity, are healthy, have close ties to family members, and succeed in school.
This is a great time of year to focus on traditions, either experiencing them through the holidays or including them in a New Years’ resolution. May your holidays be filled with your best traditions!

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The Adolescent Brain – What Every Parent Needs to Know

Posted on November 1, 2011 by anneEhresman

This fall, Project Cornerstone sponsored Dr. David Walsh in a full day event open to parents and educators in Silicon Valley.

Dr. David Walsh is a leading authority on brain development in children and teens and the impact of technology on children’s health and development.

Here are a few of the highlights from Dr. Walsh’s presentation:

1. Finally an explanation on what’s so bad about screen time!

  • Only 17% of our neurons are wired at birth.
  • Whatever our brains does more of, our brains gets better at. This is how the neurons get wired. It makes sense, practice makes perfect.
  • There are 2 types of attention: Reactive and Focused
    When something in a room moves, the reactive part of our brain is hard wired to respond. We have to look at the movement. Television and video games are making the reactive part of our brain stronger. As our brains get better and better at reactive attention, focused attention is not getting as much practice.
  • Kindergarten teachers to college professors don’t light up and blink or have the types of sound effects our youth are used to, so children of all ages as a group are having a harder time getting focused.

2. Why does it seem like sometimes teens are just not thinking?

  • The prefrontal cortex, sometimes known as the CEO of the brain, is not fully developed in teens.
  • Sometimes it is not fully developed until the age of 25.
  • Adults use this part of the brain to make rational decisions.
  • Since teens cannot really on their prefrontal cortex, they use their amygdala, emotion center of the brain, to make decisions!

This is why our teens still need us in their lives.
For ways to help your teen while their prefrontal cortex is developing, read this article. It’s a fun and easy read:

http://life.familyeducation.com/teen/growth-and-development/36499.html

3. Why does my preteen/teen misunderstand my intentions?

  • Adults also use the prefrontal cortex to read body language and facial expression.
  • Teens cannot use their under developed prefrontal cortex, so again they rely on the amygdala, the emotion center.
  • The next time you are talking to your teen or preteen in a calm voice and they start yelling at you, “Why are you yelling at me?”, you’ll know it’s the amygdala that has taken over!

David Walsh has several great books for parents:

1. Why Do They Act That Way? A Survival Guide to the Adolescent Brain for You and Your Teen

2. No: Why Kids – of All Ages – Need to Hear It and Ways Parents Can Say It (Serves as the focal point of the national Say Yes to No campaign, which teaches parents and educators how to instill self-discipline in America’s children and ensure our kids our success in school and life.)

3. Smart Parenting, Smarter Kids: The One Brain Book You Need to Help Your Child Grow Brighter, Healthier, and Happier

A great article on the teen brain was also featured this fall on the cover of National Geographic magazine:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/10/teenage-brains/dobbs-text

 

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iKeepCurrent – Curriculum Tools for Digital Citizenship

Posted on October 18, 2011 by anneEhresman

At the Yahoo! Digital Citizenship Summit on Friday, October 14, 2011, Generation Safe shared one of their new tools to help teachers have timely, current conversations with their students on hot topics in the news. iKeepCurrent Generation Safe News Feed is a weekly source of thought provoking, current headline-inspired curricula and professional development.  You can sign up at www.ikeepcurrent.org.

In the News Feed:

  • Weekly curricula for students connected to current events and media stories
  • Weekly professional development
  • Weekly message to parents
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Halloween- A purrr-fect time to connect with kids and build assets!

Posted on October 12, 2011 by anneEhresman

Tips from Soma McCandless, Project Cornerstone School Support Specialist

Halloween is right around the corner.
Getting candy is only part of the fun for kids.
They love it all!
The costumes, the decorations, the parties, and the parades …

What can you do to build assets at Halloween?

• Spend time with your kids and their friends to put up the Halloween decorations.
• Let kids work together to design their own costume!
• Volunteer at a school Halloween party and go watch the school Halloween parade
• Participate in Operation Gratitude’s effort to donate candy to the Troops.
     o It’s a great service opportunity. Kids donate their extra candy to the troops.
     o Get your kids, neighbors, friends, or classrooms involved
     o Take candy to a location near you: http://www.halloweencandybuyback.com/
• 4th of July is not the only time for a block party. Set up a Halloween party in your driveway for the neighborhood kids. Its fun, cheap, and easy. Let kids plan the party. Ideas include:
     o Bobbing for apples
     o Pie eating contest
     o Pumpkin carving
     o Carmel apple making
• Stay home on Halloween night to welcome trick-or-treaters!
     o Greet the kids you know by name
     o Notice costumes and ask questions

One Asset Bulider’s Halloween Story: Leah-Age 28
A few years ago Leah bought a home in Silicon Valley.
She spent many hours gardening in her yard.
As she did, she got to know the kids in the neighborhood.
She started by just learning their names.
When Halloween rolled around, she was invited to a Halloween party by her friends. It was sure to be a blast!
She was tempted but Leah decided to stay home. She knew about asset building and she wanted to do it intentionally!
She stayed home and greeted every child or group of children that came to the door that night.
She used the names of the children she knew.
She commented on costumes.
As she did, she noticed the kids stand up a little taller and a little prouder and start to beam because someone had noticed them.
After hearing Leah’s story, Kelly, another great asset builder, decided to return home from a trip a few hours early so that she could be there to open her door to the children of her neighborhood.

What can we learn from Leah?

Like Leah, when you see a great costume:
Notice it! (Wow! I love your hair.)
Name it! (Are you Lady Gaga?)
Celebrate it! (What a creative outfit!)

Here are just some of the assets you can build at Halloween:
#1 Family Support
#3 Other Adult Relationships
#4 Caring Neighborhood
#5 Caring School Climate
#7 Community Values Youth
#8 Youth as Resources
#10 Safety
#14 Adult Role Models
#20 Time at Home
#26 Caring
#30 Responsibility
#31 Healthy Lifestyle
#32 Planning and Decision Making
#38 Self-esteem

For more great ideas for building assets on Halloween check out these tips from The Asset Edge.

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Peter Benson, CEO of Search Institute, Dies at 65

Posted on October 4, 2011 by anneEhresman

October 03, 2011 by John Kelly, Youth Today
Peter Benson, the long-time CEO of the Minneapolis-based Search Institute, died Sunday at the age of 65 after a year-long battle with colon cancer. Benson had gone on sabbatical last week to deal with his worsening condition.

Benson, who held a Ph.D. in experimental social psychology from the University of Denver, joined the nonprofit as a research scientist in 1978, leaving behind a job as chair of the psychology department at Earlham College in Richmond, Ind. He had led the organization since 1985.

“His vision not only for young people but for the people who work with young people and the people who support them was addictive,” said Karen Pittman, CEO of the Forum for Youth Investment, a Washington-based youth development organization.

Under Benson, Search Institute emerged as a major research and assistance entity for programs focusing on making positive youth development the focus of their work.

The Institute is perhaps best known for its promotion of “developmental assets,” a list of 40 assets that programs should strive to instill in youths. Over time, Search developed separate asset lists for four age ranges: 3 to 5, 5 to 9, 8 to 12 and 12 to 18.

In a more recent initiative, simply entitled “Sparks,” Search Institute scientists sought to identify the universe of desires that fueled young people to thrive, the hope being that those “sparks” could serve as the starting point for youth workers seeking to instill developmental assets in children.

“Spark is a life orientation … a way of being present in the world,” Benson told a crowd at a TEDx event in St. Paul, Minn., last April. “It may touch work, it may be work, it may be outside of work. It’s not the same thing as vocational planning, it’s about nurturing and naming what is in here .”

“I’m often introduced as the ‘grandmother of youth development,’” said Pittman. “If I’m the grandmother, Peter is the grandfather. I really can’t imagine finishing this journey without him.”

Benson was a columnist for Youth Today from 2005 until 2010. In his last column for the paper, in August of 2010, he expressed concern over the fragmentation of youth services into silos competing against one another for funding.

“If we were in any other business – say cell phones, bottled water or toilet paper – fighting for market share, brand differentiation and distinct advantage would be the way to go,” Benson wrote. “But when it comes to growing healthy, thriving young people, fragmentation is a recipe for failure.”

Gene Roehlkepartain, the Institute’s director of family strategies, will lead Search Institute as the board of directors decides on a permanent successor for Benson. The leadership team currently includes CFO Paul Kirst; Tim Showalter-Loch, vice president of strategic partnerships; and Nancy Alliegro, vice president of content development and sales.

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It Takes A Village

Posted on September 29, 2011 by anneEhresman

By Deanna Flores, Los Dichos Program Coordinator

You often hear the saying, “It takes a village to raise a child.” However, as Clay Roberts, well known assets speaker has stated, “no one ever says what that village should look like.” So now that the new school year is well under way, take time to define your village for both you and your children.
As asset builders, we know that one of the asset categories is Support – and there are six support assets within this category. Focusing on these assets is a great way to begin to define your village or “web of support”:

1. Family support
2. Positive family communication
3. Other adult relationships
4. Caring neighborhood
5. Caring school climate
6. Parent involvement in schooling

Remember the more supported our children and youth feel – the better they will be!

A few ideas to get you started:
• If you are at a new school –take time to get to know your child’s teacher or teachers. Help promote this process by taking time with your child to share with their teachers after school. It may be as quick as dropping off a donation of tissue and saying “hi!” – to spending a few minutes more to express how much you enjoyed seeing your child working on a project for their class.
• If you are at a new school — get to know the office staff and introduce yourself to them while your child is with you. If you are more comfortable with them, the greater the likelihood your children will be more comfortable with them as well. If you are returning to your school – take time to say “Hi!” and “Welcome Back” to office staff or even better take time to say “Thank you for their continued support.”
• As you get to know more moms or dads at your school, be sure to introduce them to your children. Your village or web of support can become their village and web of support if you share it.
• While in the car ask them, “Who loves you?” Let them go through the list. Maybe they say “Grandma and Grandpa” and then you reply “What about your cousins or your aunts and uncles?” Grow the list together so that they realize they have a lot of people who love and care about them.
• Ask them who made them smile at school today. Do this on a regular basis to get to know who their new friends might be.
• Take time to listen as your children share stories about people in their school day and be sure to get to know these people. If your children are in middle school or high school, listening is especially important. They are now teens and can have in-depth conversations about many things and share many things if we take the time to listen and connect. This will give insight to their village so that you can make it part of your village.
The goal is to build a strong village or web of support for the whole family to experience and thrive in. It feels good to know others care and are there for you!
Asset building is simple; we just need to intentionally make time to do it.

Take a second. Make a difference!

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Funding Opportunities!

Posted on September 15, 2011 by anneEhresman

Foundation Funding Opportunities

SOURCE: The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools, The Weekly Insider

School Garden Grants–Sponsor: Whole Kids Foundation
The Whole Kids Foundation, through the support of Whole Foods Market and Foodcorps, is providing School Garden Grants to teach kids to garden and learn about sustainability, conservation, food systems, and their community. Garden projects may be at any stage of development: planning, construction or operation.

Awards of $2,000 will be made available. Eligible entities must be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization or nonprofit K-12 school that is developing or currently maintaining a school garden project.

Deadline: December 31, 2011
 

Please contact the Whole Kids Foundation for more information and to apply for this funding: http://wholekidsfoundation.org/gardengrants-application.php

CVS Community Grants Program
The CVS Caremark Community Grant program awards funds to organizations targeting children with disabilities. Projects will focus on healthcare to the uninsured and underserved, and to public schools.
Grants of up to $5,000 will be awarded to nonprofits for programs targeting children under age 21 with disabilities that address health and rehabilitation services or enabling and encouraging physical movement and play. Organizations applying must have a CVS/pharmacy store located within the state where the community organization resides.
Deadline: October 31, 2011
Please Note: The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools (CHHCS) does not administer this funding opportunity.
Please contact the CVS Caremark program for more information and to apply for this funding: http://info.cvscaremark.com/community/our-impact/community-grants

National Inclusion Project–Let’s ALL Play
The National Inclusion Project supports recreation programs for children with special needs.

Up to $20,000 will be awarded. Nonprofits are eligible to apply.

Deadline: October 31, 2011

Please contact the National Inclusion Project for more information and to apply for this funding: http://www.inclusionproject.org/level_2.php?id=3

State Farm Project Ignition Grants
The Project Ignition Grants are intended to address teen driver safety through service-learning and creative awareness/engagement campaigns. Examples of past projects include: hosting events and demonstrations, forming community-wide partnerships, working on local and state policy, and producing public service announcements.

Awards of $2,000 will be available. Eligible entities include public schools in the U.S. and in the Canadian Provinces of Alberta, Ontario and New Brunswick that educate students in grades 9 through 12.

Deadline: November 15, 2011

Please contact State Farm for more information and to apply for this funding: http://www.sfprojectignition.com/

 

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Santa Clara County Developmental Asset Survey

Posted on September 7, 2011 by anneEhresman

By Linda Silvius, Director of School Partnerships

For the ABC Lead Meetings last week, Lori Maitski asked if I would be a part of the agenda and share some of the “big picture” items from the 2011 Santa Clara County developmental asset survey. The things that seemed important to share are as follows:

• Many of the surveyed students in middle and high school  (7th, 9th and 11th grade) had been involved with either the ABC program or Los Dichos in their elementary school years. The 11th graders have been involved since 4th grade, 9th graders since their second grade year, and our 7th graders started in kindergarten.
• Keeping that in mind, the results for our secondary students should be no surprise:
37 of the 40 assets increased
5 of the 8 thriving behaviors increased
23 of the 24 risk behaviors decreased

• With our 4th and 5th grade students, the following seem important:
19 of the 40 assets for elementary children increased, 13 of
which were Internal Assets;
6 of the 7 thriving behaviors increased. There was a 5% increase in “coping skills” – a critical life skill;
All 6 of the risk behaviors decreased – the most dramatic of which
was “sadness” – dropping from 53% to 34% – a drop of 19%!!

There is much to celebrate with this data – and there is good reason to recommit to this important work!!

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New Book from Annie Fox!

Posted on September 6, 2011 by anneEhresman

We received this note from our friend/author/speaker Annie Fox (author of Middle School Confidential)

Hello friends and family,

I hope this finds you all well and savoring the last days of summer.

Today’s a really special day for me and David and our little company, Electric Eggplant. Our new children’s iBook Are You My Friend? (written by me and illustrated by Academy Award winner Eli Noyes and produced by Electric Eggplant) is now live in Apple’s iTunes Store!

Are You My Friend? is a fully illustrated, original digital story book, featuring music and read-to-me audio narration.

As many of you know, I’ve been answering email from kids around the world since 1997. Nothing troubles them or matters more than having friends. Parents do a great job teaching toddlers to share and ‘be nice.’ But as friendship conflicts become more complex, kids are left to figure things out alone. That doesn’t always result in positive learning. Just in time for back-to-school, this iBook is appropriate for typical 4-8 year olds, kids w/special needs and reluctant readers. It helps them figure out what it takes to have a friend and to be a friend. It also includes a unique guide for parents, teachers and counselors interested in helping kids with social and emotional learning.

Click here to GET A (free) SAMPLE of Are You My Friend? http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/are-you-my-friend/id459787145?mt=11&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Enjoy the rest of your evening. We’re going out to celebrate!

In friendship,
Annie

____________________________________
Annie Fox
http://www.anniefox.com/

Get more resources for your family at the Project Cornerstone web site

 

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