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The mission of the Support Learning Foundation is: to conduct, sponsor, facilitate and/or fund the development of knowledge, application and distribution of educational methods, systems and curricula that incorporate new technologies to provide (or expand existing) educational opportunities and technology to help teachers, parents, schools, not for profit organizations and communities prepare students for meaningful jobs and careers, with emphasis on reducing the national drop rates for at risk populations and communities. |
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Research |
Urban Initiatives |
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| The Support Learning Foundation considers formative and summative research as critical to accomplishing our mission, that being to: “…find and deploy creative and innovative tools to reach the digital native. Each generation has a unique way of observing and interacting with their world. The foundation’s focus is on engaging students in the language in which they are well-versed – Technology. By using the technologies students crave, we can make the connection between real world application and the math, science, and language skills that are components of a “traditional” education. This shift, from content-delivery to making real connections, is how we add permanence and relevance to our children’s education. With an effective research model, we can better determine the extent to which our focus is meeting the needs of students, and at the same time, provide the kind of results that teachers and administrators expect. |
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Confucius InstituteThe Confucius Institute is a distance-learning program that specializes in teaching Mandarin Chinese to several universities and graduate learning programs. As one of our Urban Initiatives, the Support Learning Foundation has brought this distance learning to a new type of classroom. For the first time, the Confucius Institute is bringing their learning to kindergarteners, first and second graders. Urban Core Initiative In the late spring of 2008, SLF announced an Urban Core Initiative. It is the foundation’s intention to grant software and staff development in the total amount of $250,000 to school districts willing to pilot video game design curriculum. Districts chosen will be based on a set of criteria that includes the size of the district, density of students eligible for free and reduced lunch programs, and an eager education team with the willingness and desire to take a new approach to teaching and learning. Guidance Academy of STEM |
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Competitions |
Development |
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| Competitions provide a proving ground for students to apply their skills and knowledge. Just as auto makers use the commercial race track to test and apply new technologies to production cars, schools now have the opportunity to let students put their efforts into motion outside the traditional school-only framework, allowing them to fine tune their designs in (friendly) competition with their peers around the world. | 
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Development will be instrumental to the foundation’s ability to seed new innovation. Current examples include the partnership with the Confucius Institute and Greenbush Service Center with the initiation of Chinese language in the formative years (K-1) of children’s education. Another example currently in development is the establishment of partnerships with jazz musicians to extend a jazz-based curriculum into the intermediate grades – again, providing for a non-traditional curriculum design that satisfies a hunger for relevance.
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