OUR PURPOSE
The purpose of Guided by Kids is to provide educational opportunity to upper elementary and middle school students from a geographically and socio-economically diverse population in the Omaha area. We will provide educational training in speech, debate, research, and listening skills to students who currently have little chance to receive that kind of instruction and experience. Additionally, we will give our student members an opportunity to identify a community improvement project and complete work on that project.
HOW WE OPERATE
All students who attend Guided by Kids must be in 5th-8th grade during the 2022-2023 school year, and all students will attend classes free of charge. Student participant numbers will be capped at 20 for this year's classes.
During class time, we will provide a tablet for students to use who do not have one they can bring to class. We will provide a Chromebook laptop computer to any child who is admitted to Guided by Kids who does not already have one they are using, once they have consistently demonstrated a commitment to attending class regularly and doing work assigned.
Guided by Kids will meet approximately 16-20 times on a weekly basis (with one break in late February, early April) and began classwork this year in person at Omaha Marian High School, for our first ever summer mini-camp teaching Congressional Debate. We had 9 students participate in camp and most plan on returning for classes in December of this upcoming school year, but we can still accept more students registering for our classes as we cap class size at 20. Regular class sessions will be 6:00 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. on Thursday evenings, and start Dec. 8, 2022 at Omaha Marian High School.
OUR EXPECTATIONS
Student participants in Guided by Kids will also be expected to work on their speech/debate assignements outside of class time and to communicate with their teachers, Fred Robertson and Payton Shudak, or any other teacher added, if number of students justify an additional hire, via email for extra help and guidance between regular classes. It will be important for students to attend regularly, and for any absences to be reported in advance to Fred Robertson via the contact information he has given.
All teachers and all members of the Board of Directors have or will have (if we make a new hire) background checks completed and our Board of Directors has a policy in place to protect your children’s safety and security. Both instructors, Fred Robertson and Payton Shudak, are fully vaccinated and boosted.