CREATIVE LEARNING WHILE MAKING GENUINE COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS: Thoughts & Reflections by Melle RandallFounder and Director of THE ROC Network for Learning(find Melle's bio at the end of this essay)The following notes begin by reflecting back on the genesis and ideas behind The ROC Network for Learning and follow with a projection of my vision moving forward, one which includes how homeschoolers’ learning successes can actually inform and help the schooling world in a very positive way.
WHAT IS The ROC? : The ROC is a Creative Lab for Independent Learning & Homeschooling:Supporting Connections, Nurturing 21st Century Learning, Strengthening Community
Initially I just wanted a place for homeschooling families to be able to get together on a consistent basis. Then once it looked like we had acquired a space, I thought since we will be here, perhaps we could use this as a opportunity to create an environment of enriching activities where our children could play, learn, discover and explore.
The dream became a reality when I was lucky to find awesome teachers who are not only passionate about their subjects, but who love sharing their knowledge of their specialties with our children, and community.
It's truly been a pleasure to provide our communities with this option, among the many wonderful homeschooling options in New York City. It has been touching to see families connecting/bonding, meeting up with their old friends, and making new friends. And, it's been exciting to watch our children growing, learning and playing together while simultaneously aiding us parents as we facilitate and encourage our children's educational pursuits, and overall development.
Beyond the physical space, for me, The ROC Network for Learning is about creating environments that support strong connections, nurture solid development, and strengthen, albeit even a fluid, community.
Now in 2020, The ROC is an organization that has served hundreds of families, kids and teens for over 15 years, providing resources and opportunities addressing academic, life and career goals while responding to the changing face of education, learning, technology and society. In big open welcoming spaces kids, teens and families can get together on a consistent basis for learning, socializing, and just having fun.
The community is comprised of individuals and groups of committed parents and motivated, inquisitive teens and kids who like to do things together, and also a cadre of fascinating teachers who enjoy working with those kids in an open, focused, personal and creative format earning The ROC local and international visibility as
a Network for Learning, and a gateway for new homeschoolers.
The philosophy is fundamental. It’s the belief that that
no matter how diverse our communities, no matter how different we are from each other, there are times and places and experiences where we can meet and grow together. Building on an average 30 ongoing classes and programs located on site in our spaces each term while also providing opportunities throughout the New York City region, the nation and the world, The ROC Network for Learning offers families, kids and teens a variety of types of resources and opportunities including On-site Classes and Programs, Co-op Planning & Satellite Classes, Virtual Classes (using videoconferencing with teachers and other students around the world), Portfolio Development & Certifications, Internship & Mentoring Coordination (and also Virtual Internships via “Mock Jobs” working with mentors to create ways to initiate real-life work experience), Pathmaker Workshops Exploring and experimenting with 21st Century career and personal skills, Gateway to and from Homeschooling support and community for transitioning from school to homeschool as well as for our homeschoolers transitioning to school, Conferences & Workshops on critical issues in education, sharing films, forums, panels, and more.
The body of experience brought to The ROC represents years of learning how to support all kinds of learning both inside and outside of the conventional schooling box. We’ve created innumerable environments, events, and opportunities for our children to experience the arts, media, language, writing, sports, history, logic, cooking, gardening, civics/current events, and lots of STEM – science, technology, engineering and math… (to mention just a few!) And we love to share that experience with new families. We also reach out into the local communities and work with non-homeschooling organizations including local schools, local charities, local community gardens and local children’s programs (for example a music program for talented cildren who otherwise could not afford musical training), collaborating with these organizations and offering opportunities for homeschooled kids to assist and interact with these organizations whether by direct participation or by helping out (for example, helping set up, decorate, and work concession stands for fundraisers and charity events).
As someone who tries to think creatively to solve problems, in running the ROC and working with kids and teens each day, I like to offer new ways to re-think academic and life-education challenges by working with individuals, inventors and companies that offer new and emerging concepts, materials, plans, software and structures to allow for young talents to emerge and blossom.
- With that in mind, what I am interested in is presenting to potential policy makers what education and/or any regulation can and needs to be, and in bringing them proven solutions (i.e. things we are already doing) to any and everything they think is a problem.
For both listeners within and without the homeschooling world, I would like to have the opportunity to provide information on how resources should be directed that will allow these solutions to be solved even better, and for ways to support homeschooling while at the same time solving all the issues that they think homeschooling causes. So, for example, we might request specific new tools from a software developer or communications platform creator or show them how best to use any and everything they have to offer, and maybe even demand they create something that they don’t already have to offer, and so forth.
As a speaker, if I am invited to the pending Harvard Conference, I would like to bring to them an organized, diverse, multi-faceted conglomerate, with a hammered out, detailed analysis of their perceived problems with homeschooling and provide them with well thought out solutions to the issues they raise, using my own experience of nearly two decades as both the homeschooling parent of three and as the founder of The ROC which has afforded me with a wealth of experience working with a vast variety of families and learners.
Author's Bio:
MELLE RANDALL is a homeschooling community leader in NY City and longtime homeschooling single parent of three talented, capable and creative children. Her oldest daughter is now a successful college student while her two younger teens thrive on their homeschool high school journeys. All three children performed for many years with the Metropolitan Opera Children’s Chorus while simultaneously winning awards in Stem Programs and Lego Robotics, earning competitive science internships at the American Museum of Natural History, garnering community service commendations (one, for example, via a humanitarian Girl Scout’s World Water-Conservation project) and participating very actively in their mom’s wonderful organization,
The ROC (Resource and Opportunity Center) Network for Learning. The ROC Network for Learning, founded by Melle and still going strong after nearly two decades, has offered a variety of classes and experiences and so much more to the homeschooling community in New York City and also to the world beyond
(please see links below). The ROC is literally considered one of the major foundational “rocks” of the NYC homeschooling community with Melle, a pillar and community leader at the center, gently guiding and keeping things running smoothly with over 30 class offerings and much more going on at any moment. Indefatigable and always full of positive new ideas, Melle welcomes kids of all abilities and learning styles (including special needs) at The ROC and has years of expertise in mentoring children (and young instructors too!), including providing scaffolding to kids teaching other kids as a unique and wonderful paradigm within the varied class structure of the homeschooling world. Apart from all the programs and classes she offers via The ROC, Melle has also offered extensive support to parents needing help figuring out educational and lifestyle solutions for making homeschooling work for their families and for their unique situations, offering expertise, empathy and insight along with the practical solutions.
Having faced considerable challenges herself as a single mom of color who has been able to successfully nurture and support the academic, social and creative needs of her own three children, Melle is a creative thinker and problem-solver and one of her great skills and main goals is to offer new ways to re-think academic and life-education challenges by working with individuals, inventors and companies that offer new and emerging concepts, materials, plans, software and structures to allow for young talents to emerge and blossom.
ABOUT THE ROC: WEBSITE
ABOUT THE ROC: VIDEO 