The “ME” in Team

Official Description: Explore your role in afterschool by taking an active deep-dive into several key elements of afterschool program quality: teamwork, responsibility, empathy, interaction, engagement, observation, and coaching. Session attendees will experience a combination of community-building, quality coaching, and personal reflection activities. There will be opportunities to fulfill multiple roles in this workshop allowing participants to highlight their many different personal strenghts and explore areas of growth within different learning contexts. All elements of this session can readily be brought back and implemented into your afterschool programs.

Layman's Description: We are going to play a lot of fun games, through which we will learn a lot more about how we (“me”) contribute to our various teams.

DO Conference Hype: In high-quality outside-of-school-time spaces, the differences in people, with their functional roles and responsibilities, are always in sync. Diverse personalities, skill sets, and expectations all connect to one another and reinforce the inherent dignity and belonging of all students and staff. Understanding your role and how you connect to your afterschool workspace will determine both personal and programmatic outcomes and successes.

Presenter: I’m just an afterschool program person standing in front of a conference asking it to love me. Movie reference? Well, if you are my age, then you said Notting Hill…but, if you pretended to be a student in your afterschool program you probably said Deadpool! Don’t worry, I’ll take both answers. Hi, my name is Brent Cummings and I am in the midst of a long career in afterschool education. For the past 17 years, I have been fortunate enough to engage our young people, their families, and our community through 21st CCLC programs. Over that time period, I have fulfilled the role of Site Coordinator, Program Director, and national Afterschool Ambassador. Most recently, as Walla Walla Public Schools’ Director of Accelerated Learning and Support, I have shaped and implemented many of our district’s America Recovery Plan initiatives - including the oversight and implementation of our ESSER III - Afterschool Supplemental Funding. Through these various roles, I have learned a few things that work for me and I am excited to work together with you to explore those concepts, methodologies, and programs.