CHOICES Champion

CHOICES NEWS

Last month, we told you about a simple way to help raise money for CHOICES!

Just download the GoodSearch—CHOICES Education Group toolbar at http://www.goodsearch.com/toolbar/choices-education-group. They’ve been featured in the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, Oprah Magazine, Good Morning America and more.

Each time you search the web with GoodSearch's Yahoo-powered search engine (oh and YAHOO is now powered by Microsoft BING, so you will get quality search results), about a penny will go to CHOICES Education Group. Also, every time you shop online at 1,000 participating stores including Amazon, eBay, Target, Apple, Staples, Expedia, etc., a percentage (3-30%) of your purchase will be donated for free! The site also has thousands of money-saving coupons! To give you a sense of how the money can add up, one charity has already earned more than $30,000!

Please forward to your friends and family and ask them to support us too! We know that many of you use GOOGLE for just about every search, but start your search with the GoodSearch Yahoo-Bing powered engine first…shop your normal online stores through GoodShop…and help us keep teens in school!!!

CHOICES IMPACT STUDIES

CHOICES Pre/Post Study Investigates Changes in School Engagement

We offer a pre and post CHOICES study for those program sites that would like to measure changes in school engagement of the teens that participate in their CHOICES program to use in reports back to funders, boards, presenters and schools. Evidence from independent research demonstrates that increased school engagement is a strong indicator of on-time high school completion. Our UPS grant recipients have been conducting this study for a few years now with great success. The study instruments are administered one week before CHOICES and one month after, and tools for compilation and analysis are provided for your use.

If you would like to conduct the study, please contact Tiffany at tmarkey@choices.org, 206-323-9827.

CHOICES MANAGEMENT TIP OF THE MONTH

CHOICES Overhead Transparencies Available in PowerPoint

Some of you may not be aware that the CHOICES workshop overhead transparencies are available in a PowerPoint presentation format. As convenient as this may seem, however, it could also present some challenges, depending on your school situation. Here are some things to keep in mind when using PowerPoint with CHOICES:

• You may need to bring in your own gear, since the school typically doesn't have it; if your school uses "smart boards," however, the PowerPoint slides should work with them

• Consider how to make the classroom dark enough for the students to see the projected image, but still bright enough for the students to see their worksheets

• You can only write on the PPT slides if you have the technology to do so (such as the "smart boards"); if you can project onto a whiteboard without getting too much glare, however, you can write on the projected image on the whiteboard, which will make cleanup between slides and sessions very easy

If you are a CHOICES client and wish to download the CHOICES PowerPoint transparencies, log-in via the CHOICES web site and go to Program Materials. If you do not know your password, please contact Tiffany at tmarkey@choices.org, 206-323-9827.