PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
Through regular meetings with peers and
their advisors, CYSP scholars develop self-awareness, self-management,
and interpersonal skills to best prepare
for success in this 21st century.
Elements of Personal Development may include:
• Progress Monitoring
• Participating in Extra-Curricular Activities
• Character Education
• Enhancing Reading Skills
• Weekend Enrichment Programs
• Standardized Test Preparation
• College & Scholarship Applications
Progress Monitoring
Progress monitoring is used to assess students’ performance; check students’ prior tasks, providing meaningful feedback and assigning new weekly tasks/goals. Research has shown that when teachers utilize this tool effectively, students benefit more, their decision making improves, and students become well aware of their own performance.
Progress Monitoring is one of the essential requirements of the CYSP program. We as advisors must follow our scholar’s progress and guide them to plan all activities throughout the year. Additionally, advisors should have a good rapport with their students and parents.
Advisors must meet CYSP scholars on a regular basis (strongly recommended weekly or biweekly) to review past progress and give scholars new goals for future activities.
There should be at least one week between two progress monitoring meetings; this can happen individually or in a group. Scholars cannot have progress meetings with other advisors.
Recommended minimum meeting time is 10 min for individual meetings and 30 min for group meetings.
This category is mandatory for all students. The point value allocated to this category is 8 points. The maximum Progress Monitoring Meeting entries allowed for each student are up to 30 times throughout the school year.
* This item may be completed virtual or in person based on school decision.
Examples:
- A group meeting at school.
- A group meeting out of school such as at a public library, McDonald’s, Starbucks, etc.
- An individual meeting in school, during lunch, after school, or on weekends.
- An individual meeting during a scholar’s home visit with his/her parent(s).
The entry to Log:
Only advisors may enter their scholars’ progress monitoring meetings log in their Concept SIS under “Progress Monitoring”.
Participating In Extra-Curricular Activities
Extra-curricular activities help challenge and give students the opportunity to develop new skills outside of class. Specifically for High school students, extra-curricular activities can help during their college application process. Activities include arts, athletics, clubs, employment, personal commitments, and other pursuits.
Extra-curricular activities are a variety of after school programs. We accept out of school programs as well. 3 major categories are clubs, advanced study teams, and sports teams.
These activities can be school or community-related teamwork and, should be led by a coach, teacher or supervisor. If activities performed out of school, proof of completion is necessary.
This category is mandatory for most students and optional for seniors. The point value allocated to this category is 5 points. The maximum Extra-curricular activity entries allowed for each student are up to 80 sessions throughout the school year. This applies to all who participate in this activity.
Examples:
- Language Club, Dance Club, Math Club
- STEM Team, Robotics Team, Soccer Team
- Book discussions club with advisors
The entry to Log:
Scholars enter their extra-curricular activities information in their Concept SIS student account under “Participating Extra-Curricular Activities”.
* This item may be completed virtual or in person based on school decision.
Character Education
Character education are sessions that are designed and delivered in a manner that will help students develop variously as moral, civic, well mannered, behaved, non-bullying, healthy, critical, successful, traditional, compliant and socially acceptable beings.
Character education is a teaching method that fosters the development of ethical and responsible individuals by teaching them about the good values that people should have. It teaches the students the values of caring about other people, honesty, responsibility, and other important traits that make for an upstanding young adult.
Students can complete Character Education items in three ways under their advisors supervision.
- Option:
Basic character education lessons for advisors are available on the CYSP website (http://cysp.us/character-education/). advisors perform provided character education lessons with their scholars and assign them related work with the topics.
2. Option:
Soft skills activities can be used as Character Education. Follow the links.
To review click here, for all Soft Skill activities click here.
3. Option:
Edgenuity Social Emotional Learning(SEL) courses. Contact your school CYSP Coordinators or school SEL Coordinator. For further assistance, learn about Edgenuity and SEL click the link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsRlfTsPukQ
https://www.edgenuity.com/solutions/social-and-emotional-learning/
This category is mandatory for all students. The point value allocated to this category is 10 points. The maximum Character education entries allowed for each student are up to 30 times throughout the school year.
The entry to Log:
Scholars enter their character education information in their Concept SIS student account under “Character Education”.
Enhancing Reading Skills
Reading helps develop a student’s cognition, through thinking, processing, comprehension and writing ability. As Reading is a thinking process, we want to continue to challenge and engage our students, ensuring that they become strong individual readers.
Reading develops the mind and is fundamental to function in today’s society. Reading is important because words – spoken and written – are the building blocks of life.
Students select and read books appropriate to their reading levels, and complete a book report or provide Accelerated Reader (AR) test scores as proof if available.
This category is mandatory for all students. The point value allocated to this category is 8 points. The maximum Reading entries allowed for each student are up to 30 books throughout the school year.
Examples:
- Completed book from the provided CYSP book list with AR test score (min. 80%).
The entry to Log:
Scholars enter their book reading the information in their Concept SIS student account under “Enhancing Reading Skills”.
Weekend enrichment program
Weekend enrichment programs’ main aim is to transform potential into excellence. This is achieved through the various activities and services planned for students.
Extending the school day beyond the traditional academic day into weekends enriches our scholars’ overall academic, and personal development. Planning programs that engage them with exciting subjects in a relaxed setting.
Weekend Enrichment Program should be an academic program and planned at the beginning of the year. Weekend Enrichment Program must be at least 2 sessions for 5th through 8th grades and 3 sessions for high schools. If this is not scheduled or less than the minimum required hours, then we consider activities as extra-curricular. If scholars attend enrichment programs outside of school, they must show proper verification.
This category is optional for all levels, however, these activities are very important in terms of its point value and this will help gold and silver students reach their goal at the end of the year. The point value allocated to this category is 20 points. The maximum Weekend Enrichment program entries allowed for each student are up to 20 times throughout the school year.
Examples:
- Saturday school organized by the school administration or school coordinator.
- Advance study course organized by an outside institution during weekends (proof is required)
- Advance study course provided by individual advisors during weekends.
- Weekend Robotics, Science Fair or Language Contest prep in a group with a teacher.
- Any sport club activities which are led by a designated coach or advisor during the weekend.
- Educational camps, leadership camps, academic camps, and club related camps are considered weekend enrichment program
The entry to Log:
Scholars enter their Weekend Enrichment Program information in their Concept SIS student account under “Weekend Enrichment Program”.
* This item may be completed virtual or in person based on school decision.
Standardized Test Preparation:
Students are given an opportunity to take / plan Standardized test practice sessions. These sessions serve as a mock test in which students can take a test before their real test. More importantly, the outcomes of the session l allow students to reflect on their scores and see where their strengths lie or indeed areas that still need improvement. This allows them to then focus on those areas that still need mastering.
Studying is important because it is essential for a person to develop a complete education and provides students with the opportunity to develop study habits, time management skills and self-discipline.
This category is mandatory for most students and optional for seniors. The point value allocated to this category is 4 points. The maximum Standardized Test Preparation entries allowed for each student are up to 100 sessions throughout the school year. This applies to all who participate in this activity.
Examples:
- All Standardized Test Preparation should be out of class time !!! (after school, before school, during lunch break, weekend)
- Individual test prep from an outside organization.
- Complete standardized test prep at home.
- ACT, SAT, EOC, AP Exam Prep tests
- Online test practice during overnight and camp activities.
- Test prep websites such as Khan Academy, Measuring up, Study Island, IXL, Alex, edulastic etc. Please check the student’s study time frames and duration.
- Test prep which continues after the compulsory Weekend Enrichment Program hours may also be counted (Middle School: 2 hours minimum, High School: 3 hours minimum).
- Tutoring is not considered as Standardized Test Preparation
Activities below cannot count as an standardized test prep
-Homework
-Any kind of test, test practice, tutoring, work, etc. during class time
-Any kind of subject related test prep during the computer class, etc..
-Schoolwide (all students are working on test prep which is organized by school) test prep cannot be counted.
– Edgenuity (as an online course)
– Tutoring
The entry to Log:
Scholars enter their individual test prep information in their Concept SIS student account under “Standardized Test Preparation”.
College / Scholarship applications
In the climate of competitive admission, students need college guidance counselors’ help finalizing their lists of colleges they plan to apply to. Five to eight applications are usually recommended to ensure that a student is accepted into a suitable institution.
This category is mandatory for senior students and optional for all other high school grades. The point value allocated to this category is 5 points. The maximum College/Scholarship Application entries allowed for each student are up to 10 times throughout the school year. This applies to high school students who participate in this activity.
Examples:
- College application meeting with college counselor.
- Scholarship application meeting with college counselor.
The entry to Log:
Scholars enter their College/Scholarship Applications information as 1 entry for 1 complete application in their Concept SIS student account under “College/Scholarship Applications”.