Friday, Monday, and Tuesday

The last three days have been pretty uneventful, just trying to keep the girls motivated to keep working. One interesting thing happened yesterday while I was observing a different math teacher, Ms. Wooster who teaches 9th graders. This class wasn't as bad as the other math classes taught by women i've observed, but it still was wonderfully managed. Students still talked out of turn and were obnoxious and rude to eachother. Ms. Wooster chose to talk over them instead of waiting until it was silent. To get them to be quiet, she would simply say their name to remind them to stop talking out of turn. At the end of the class, she asked me if I had any questions when I was thanking her for letting me observe and so I asked her about any discipline policy to deter students from talking out of turn. I tried to be non-threatening and curious explaining that all of the other classes I'd observed had the same issue. I just said, "What stops them from talking out whenever they want?" and she couldn't really answer me. She said it was something she needed to work on. I didn't mean to put her on the spot or make her feel like I was criticizing her teaching, but I was curious. Today was a good day because I was able to help Porsha with math and with a paper she was struggling with. I enjoy working with Porsha because she responds to my questions and accepts my help. I attempt helping some of the other girls, but after my suggestions they still seem lost. I can only do so much aside from doing their assignment for them. In the morning I attended a 9th grade advisory meeting on racism. Michelle, the assistant director, led a discussion and activity to begin discussing racism. The 9th graders have been having issues with students calling eachother racist, so the teachers organized a meeting to learn about what it means to be racist and to give the girls a forum to voice their opinions. It didn't take long for the students to be engaged and actively participating in the conversations. Michelle controlled the discussion which was a physical activity where the girls moved to different sides of the room based on how felt about a statement Michelle posed. One of the statements was "I know exactly what racism is" or "I have no idea what racism is." The students decided where they stood on the continuum and stood in that designated part of the room. The activity was extremely interesting, but unfortunately the bell rang and they had to go. Michelle did a tiny debrief, asking the girls if they would be interested in doing something like this again. The rest of the day I continued helping Porsha and I also helped another senior Mari with some math.

A life lesson

Let me give you a little background before explaining my delightful morning......For those of you who don't know, parking in Chicago is...lets just say a stressful, near impossible task. I had debated leaving my car in Nebraska for this very reason, but when the time came I felt uncomfortable taking public transportation by myself and I couldn't leave my car behind. For the first week and a half, parking has been delightful. I was able to park in my host's spot while she was in the suburbs, in her friend's parking garage while she was on vacation, and on a nearby street with a 24 hour permit. Yesterday I found a spot right outside my apartment complex about 10 feet from a fire hydrant and I saw no red or yellow paint to prohibit me from parking there so I thought This is too good to be true but maybe today is my day. Well guess what, it wasn't. I walked out of my apartment complex this morning to find a white car parked where I left my car. Either someone had stolen my car or it had been towed. I immediately called Betsy, my host, told her about the situation, and asked for her advice. She advised me to call 311 to determine where my car had been towed, but warned be of the ridiculous price I would have to pay to get my car back. I called 311 to figured out where my car would be located if it had been towed. I then called the towing place to confirm my car was in their lot. It was and they told me there was a $160 fee to get my car out and I could either pay with cash or credit but the credit had to be under the same name as the vehicle. At this point, I decided to call my mom to let her in on the situation, but unfortunately she was training for work in Omaha for the day so I would have to figure this out on my own. I called Betsy back to ask her if I should take a cab to towing place and I asked her where the nearest ATM was located. After obtaining all of the necessary information to successfully regain possession of my car, I left my apartment to begin the process. I walked to a Walgreen’s to get cash, flagged down a taxi, and filled out the paperwork at the pound. The gentlemen was extremely nice and explained that my car had been parked too close to a the fire hydrant because there needed to be 30 ft, 15 ft on each side, for the fire truck to pull in next to it. By 9:45, I was in my car driving to school after a very eventful morning. After talking to Betsy a final time, it sounded like I was pretty lucky with how fast and inexpensive the whole process had been. Moral of the story, don't park anywhere near a fire hydrant. Once I arrived at YWLCS, I observed Mr. Woodard's class as they did more work and review on elimination. On the first day of every month, the students vote for one student who deserves the Math Pride award. This goes to a student who has participated in class, completed homework, and helped peers. I think this is a great way to motivate students to be involved. I returned to the senior work room after Mr. Woodard's class and helped Kim with finding midpoints. After lunch, I attempted to help and motivate three seniors who are really struggling. I also had a talk with Mr. McCain about the support we have provided and how there is only so much we can do. The student must we willing to accept the help. One solution we came up with was having more checks and balances throughout the year to ensure this situation doesn't happen at the end of the year. YWLCS's assessment system benefits the majority of students at the school because they have the opportunity to make up or redo work, but for those that take advantage of the system, it bites them in the butt come the last three weeks of senior year. The rest of the afternoon I helped Kim get organized. We created a list of the things she felt she could accomplish tonight. While she was in Spanish, I edited her research paper about Guatemala. She returned at 3:30 and we went over her paper. Before I left, I made sure she felt comfortable with what she needed to accomplish.

Mid-Week

At the senior meeting to start the day, Mr. McCain introduced some new organizational strategies to get the girls on track. At the beginning of each day, he suggested they spend 5 minutes to organize their things to do and things to accomplish for that day. At the end of each day, he is now requiring them to write a paragraph about the achievements for the day. The paragraph reflection will be turned in to him as evidence of their progress. He also provided them with a check list of the ultimate things to complete in order to graduate. He explained that some of them would be able to check off the first three things immediately because academically they are eligble to graduate. After the meeting, the girls set to work and I offered my help. I observed Mr. Woodard's class as they learned about three equation, three variable elimination. I then returned to the senior workroom where the girls were spending time with Ms. Marc to make up math not-yets. It was during this period that I discovered how poor these girls' math skills are and how much they rely on a calculator. A simple addition or multiplication problem required the use of the calculator. At first, I thought it was a bad habit and that they really didn't need the calculator, but when I was explaining exlimination to a girl, she had to commute -8-2 and she couldn't do it in her head. I attempted to give her a visual with the number line explaining that when you subtract two, the number goes further to the left or negative. These girls are so desperate to make up thier not-yets that they spend 5 minutes learning an outcome before they want to take the quiz. I think there is value in not giving up on their possibility to graduate, but I predict they will not remember these math skills a week from now. Before lunch I went down to talk to Mr. Woodard about the math program and assessment method. I learned that they have been using IMP since the day the school opened. After looking at one of the textbooks, I saw that every day is planned by the book. They do their POW or problem of the week at the beginning of the week and then the lessons for each day are layed out. The book has problems that relate the skills to the real world which I find refreshing, but the strict structure of the curriculum is questionable. I figured out that the 7th graders take connected math along with a problem solving class three times a week, 8th graders take IMP 1, and if they pass IMP 1 they continue through the program advancing one level each year, so the highest math class offered is IMP 5 which correlates to algebra 2 with a little bit of pre-cal. I also found out that there are 5-7 outcomes for each unit and each student is given a HP (high performing), P (proficient), or NY (not-yet) based on evidence or lack there of showing the student's understanding of each outcome. They are in the process of creating outcome maps to specifically defined what constitutes each level of performanace. The class covers 3-4 units a year and in order to pass the class, students have to have received a P or HP on 70% of their outcomes. At the end of each unit, students create a math portfolio similar to the one Ms. Louie showed during her presentation on Monday. After learning about the math department, I talked with a special education teacher about YWLCS's SPED department. She explained the school believes in full inclusion having students in the mainstream classroom as much as possible, but there are aids in the classroom and a resource room to use for support. The SPED department worries that they will have too many students with special needs because in the application process they can not ask students about their abilities. During the two open houses offered throughout the year for prespective students, the SPED teachers do not hesitate to talk to parents about what they can and can not provide to ensure that parents are choosing the best school for their child. After lunch, I went to the professional development meeting where they began with a film on Courageous Conversations, which is a program YWLCS just adopted that promotes talking about the issue of race in education and academic achievement to narrow the gap. The video was extremely interesting and thought provoking. The major idea of the film was that academic achievement is not only a socioeconomic issue, but a race issue. The film showed data separated by socioeconomic status with sub cateogries of race, showing the average SAT score for each group. Although scores improved with each step up in socioeconomic status, the richest black student's score was the same as the poorest white student's score. This data can not be argued, it just needs to be addressed. I believe the first step is figuring out why this is the case and taking necessary steps to close the gap. The film raised many questions in my mind, but answered very few. They had planned to debrief the film, but an issue came up with a student and so after the film we headed straight into the academy meetings. I attended the senior academy meeting where they discussed seniors who are struggling to meet the graduation requirements. They decided to call the parents in for a meeting to explain the situation and give the parent and student options for summer school and enrolling in the fall. That is one great thing about this school, it is common for students to stay until they graduate no matter how long it takes them.

The beginning of the week

As you can see, I was finally able to upload some new pictures. I had been having problems with my computer and it wouldn't allow me to change the heading picture or add new pictures, but here is a picture of the school and then some of the juniors on the river field trip we went on last week. Yesterday was pretty uneventful. I helped the seniors with the research papers and went to observe Mr. Woodard's class in the middle of the morning. After lunch, I went to the Monday math meeting and listened to Ms. Louie present on her math portfolio project. Her 8th and 9th grade students put together math portfolios that explained math concepts they understand and showcased examples of their work. Ms. Louie brought two examples to the meeting to let us look over and provide her with feedback. Their portfolios weren't as rich as she would have liked and she was asking for suggestions on how to provide feedback to the students and possibly reassign the project after corrections. She also asked for what evidence we saw that the students learned the information. It was an interesting meeting and hopefully our comments helped her to move forward with the assignment. After the meeting I stayed to observe Julia's 7th grade class again. The students were learning about percents and I felt that class was more productive today, but still kind of crazy. This morning I reported to the senior room where Mr. McCain had a meeting with the girls about their class analysis part of the academic portfolio. The girls had to choose three classes to analyze and include in their portfolio. The analysis included an introduction about the class and teacher, a problem solving section that included identifying the essential question, providing evidence that addresses the subject, and drawing conclusions based on the evidence, and finally a making connections section where students explained connections between their learning and the subject as well as connections to the outside world. I think it is great to have students understand and be able to explain what they learned from a class and why it was important. After the meeting students set to work or attempted to get to work on their portfolios. Not very many of these students will come up to me and specifically ask for my help and at first I wasn't very comfortable with what they were doing to question them on their progress or prompt them to get to work. After sitting at a table for a little while, Mr. McCain sat down and challenged me with a question he had been wondering about. He fears that the girls are extremely overwhelmed and don't know how to organize and process the information to be productive. He referred to it as their executive functioning ability. He raised the connection between privilege and ability to function in this way because many of these girls may not have had a role model to learn these skills from. We discussed how the skills aren't really taught and I how I don't remember sitting down one day with my mom and discussing how to organize thoughts and tasks. Mr. McCain explained how its just a matter of modeling and seeing your mom make a list of her chores and grocery list and then performing the chores one task at a time until it was finished and running errands based on the location of the store. Once he said that, I completely related to that and understood where he was coming from with these girls. They have so much to get done in order to graduate that their brain is on overload and they can't focus on one task. If they do focus on one task, they work on it until it gets difficult and then they move on to a new task. Mr. McCain was brain storming a way to help them get organized and not make the process so daunting. I suggested individualized learning plans with specific goals for each day. After our talk, I was motivated to get involved and even be a little pushy to see what they were doing and ask how I could help. At first I figured they just didn't feel like doing their work and I didn't feel like I could make them, but after my talk with Mr. McCain I realize they are frustrated and overwhelmed and need help starting and getting organized. I began helping Denisha and got her on the right path before I left for a meeting. 20 visitors from Egypt came to visit YWLCS today and they were having a question/answer session with some of the teachers and students in the middle of the morning. The session required a translator which was incredibly interesting and challenging, but the information provided me with some new insight on the school. Margaret Small, the director, was there and answered most of the questions. She explained that the core curriculum is made up of math, science, humanities, technology, and reading/writing. The visitors were extremely interested in the curriculum and impressed by how the school educates the student's social and personal side by building leadership skills. One visitor asked about the effect of "unruly" classrooms have on learning and the students. One of the students answered the question by saying girls like to talk and share answers, but if a classmate is being disruptive other girls will tell them to be quiet. I think this is the right idea and a great goal, but not entirely what happens. Margaret explained that charter schools job in Illinois is to provide an alternative education to a population of students who are not being successful in the public system. I can appreciate what YWLCS is doing after realizing what charter school I just came from the different population they are serving here. The school really is providing an incredible opportunity for these girls to change their lives. During advisory I was able to sit down and read an extensive brochure about YWLCS. I learned some interesting facts and formulated some questions to explore over the next 7 days. From the brochure I learned that the juniors take a College Prep course where they create a college portfolio and learn about the application process, the math department follows the Interactive Math Program (IMP), the 10th graders participate in an internship with a community business, and that Saturday school is optional every week. I have more questions about the special ed program, an executive discipline program, the clinic, single-sex education in general, the college application process, and assessment. After lunch I worked with some seniors who stayed to get their work down. I edited several introductions and gave them suggestions on how to make their papers longer. I am motivated to be even more helpful and involved tomorrow to help these seniors graduate.

It's Friday

Mr. McCain was absent today, so as you can imagine, the seniors weren't as productive. I worked with the student who was absent yesterday and needed major help on her paper. She had decent content, but her organization was terrible. At the beginning of class, she was pretty frustrated because Mr. McCain wasn't there to explain the comments he had made about her paper. She changed her attitude once I explained to her what we needed to fix and told her I would help her get it done. For most of the morning I worked with her, as we reorganized her paper by moving paragraphs around and inserting better transitions. I also tried to help a student who is writing her research paper on the Second Sudan Civil War, but I am completely in the dark about the event and I was unsuccessful in my attempt to find information on the internet. After advisory and lunch, Mr. Woodard took me to Melissa Rash's 7th grade math class to observe. What an eye-opening experience. It was another unproductive, disrespectful class period. I'm beginning to wonder if there is a respect issue with Caucasian females holding authority roles for African American girls. The students wouldn't be quiet long enough for the teacher to explain directions and students were making jokes and laughing the whole time. Very little was accomplished. I don't believe they actually learned anything, just reviewed their homework from the previous night. Mid-way through the period, an African American female administrator entered the room to address the issue. She asked the students what the problem was, to which they responded that it was hot in the room, that their work was boring, and that the teacher continues to talk about the same topics. The administrator explained that the teacher has a good understanding for what they should be learning and they are to respect and obey her. When the administrator left class went a little better, but they still didn't get anything done. Before leaving, I tried to find Mr. Woodard to ask him about my observation, but I was unable to find him and will have to talk to him about next week.

Bring your daughter to work day

So this morning I thought I was a little too good for Karen because I decided to leave her in the trunk and try to get to school on my own. I thought about bringing her into the car just in case I got turned around, but I guess I was confident in my abilities and decided against my best judgment. Sure enough after getting on the 90/94 freeway and then the 55, I made one wrong choice and got turned around. With the help of my mom looking on map quest I got back on track and was at the school in no time. Today Mr. McCain asked me to help two girls who had turned in their research paper twice and continued to receive not-yets. He explained that they might be a little frustrated about the idea of redoing their paper, but the individual attention would be helpful. One paper was about the Rwanda genocide and the other was about Columbia. Mr. McCain explained the expectation of the paper and the background information on the two conflicts. It was a great learning experience because before today I wasn't familiar with either event. The new information will be useful when working with the students to revise their papers. After my talk with Mr. McCain, I read the paper about Rwanda before finding out that the student was not going to be there today, but I can help her on it when she returns. The rest of the morning, I helped some students with math and with their research papers. After lunch, I was planning on observing some math classes, but Mr. Woodard informed me that the seniors were gone, the juniors were testing, the 7th & 8th graders were on a field trip, and it was bring your daughter to work day, so basically there weren't any students in the building. At that point I decided to call it a day and catch up on some much needed rest.

1st Day with Seniors!

I arrived this morning and met Mr. McCain, who teaches 12th humanities and leads the senior projects. He filled me in on what’s been going on and the different projects the girls are working on. In order to graduate from YWLCS, seniors must complete a senior presentation on either their senior project or an academic portfolio. Those students who didn't submit a proposal will have to complete an academic portfolio. There are 46 seniors and 18 of them are required to attend school for the next three weeks for one reason or another. Those 18 girls could fall under one of the following categories: guided with a project which means they submitted a proposal but need additional help to complete it, guided without a project for girls who for no apparent reason failed to turn in a proposal, but are in good standings academically, guided academic for girls who need to finish class work to graduate, and guided academic with junior classes for girls who needed to retake a junior class to graduate. I introduced myself to the girls, explaining why I was at YWLCS and how happy I would be to help them with their work. Shortly after they got to work, Jasmine asked me to edit her 10 page research paper. On top of the academic portfolio, the girls were assigned a 10 page research paper from Mr. McCain and some girls didn't do a very good job. McCain was explaining that there was a correlation between those who didn't do so well on the paper and those who were required to stay in school. Before they get working on their portfolio, they are to finish their paper. Jasmine’s paper was about the war in Darfur between the Tutsi and Hutus. I found it difficult to edit her paper because I am not very familiar with the events going on in Darfur. I also didn't want to be too discouraging or change to much in her paper. It took me quite a while to grade and when I returned it to her, I let her know to look it over and take any of the suggestions she wanted and to let me know if she had any questions. I helped one girl with her introduction for the academic portfolio and another girl with her paper. In between helping girls, I had the chance to talk with Mr. McCain to learn about their transcripts. Grades are not traditional, instead of getting an A through F students either get a high performing, proficient, or not yet. If students receive a not yet they are required to make up work or retake the class. To graduate, students need an 85% overall in their classes. This is similar to a GPA, I believe. This prevents students from barely passing every class and being able to graduate. Students who are unable to graduate in four years have the option of taking summer classes to graduate or returning for a 5th year. I asked Mr. McCain where these girls would be without YWLCS and he said it was hard to say but in a large public school he imagined them not still being in school. It seems class size and individual attention make the most difference when it comes to at-risk students staying in school. I am so excited to have a home for the next three weeks and I am thrilled to helping in any way possible. After lunch on Wednesdays the students get to go home and teachers stay for professional development. There was an all staff meeting at 1:40 followed by a content meeting. The all staff meeting was very short and only addressed the issue of contacting advisees parents about down slips. After the staff meeting they switch off every week meeting with content or academy. YWLCS is split into three academies, 7th-8th make up the middle academy, 9th-10th make up the junior academy, and 11th-12th make up the senior academy. Today the 6 math teachers met for content. They discussed taking the opportunity to observe each other to provide feedback and also observing another school who use the IMP math curriculum. Data in the form of report cards was handed out to see where improvements needed to be made. It was during this part of the meeting when I realized how far behind these students are compared to the other schools I've been to. I understand that Chicago Public Schools are in bad shape with an outrageous dropout rate of something like 67% and so I guess it doesn't surprise me that a charter school isn't in great shape either. Many of the students transfer in from public schools and so their understanding is limited. 7th graders at YWLCS are learning about pentagons, quadrilaterals, hexagons, and octagons which is what I taught to the 5th graders at KIPP. 11th graders are just being introduced to x & y intercepts which the HTH 8th graders were learning about 3 weeks ago. I was shocked to say the least. Now this is just an observation, not a conclusion based on research but it blows my mind how poor our education system is in this country. How are we not all on the same page and a great page at that. After discussing the trends in the data, the teachers went into the computer lab to learn some basic knowledge on Geometry Sketchpad. The program could be useful to have the students learn interactively. Today was a great learning experience and I am excited to help some students with math tomorrow!

The Calumet River

Starting in 7th grade, every girl goes on a field trip to the river once a year until they graduate and today was the 10th & 11th graders day to go and I was lucky enough to go with them. I met them at the Flat Foot Lake around 10:00 to begin taking samples of the water. The 11th graders did a comparative sample between the Flat Foot Lake and the Calumet River. The girls were broken into groups to complete the organism and water sample tests. I made myself useful by working with a girl who was part of a two person group. They decided to split up the tests so they could get done faster so I helped Chloe by recording what she found in the lake. The girls wore big boots that went all the way up their legs so they could get in the water to find organisms. The organisms were separated into different categories based on their tolerance for pollution and so based on the organisms found, the girls could determine the cleanliness of the water. After finding lots of organisms at the lake, we drove to the river where the water current and predators made it hard to find organisms. The afternoon was spent on forest restoration and a nature walk. The girls walked around picking up trash, pulling garlic mustard (a plant that does not belong in the forest and is taking up valuable space), and tearing down grape vine from the trees. Participation seemed optional which I found rather interesting. There was a group of girls who pulled the weeds and picked up the trash and a group who sat around doing nothing, but teachers nor students commented on the laziness. After restoration, the girls sat by the lake to think about their writing assignment for humanities class. Each girl chose a different perspective i.e. mother nature, an elementary school teacher, an alien, or an author to write about sights of the lake. From this data at the river, the girls put together a presentation for the science fair in two weeks. I came at an exciting time to catch the beginning of so many things. The teachers and girls are wonderful and it will take no time at all to feel at home at YWLCS.

My First Day @ My Last School

Upon arriving in Chicago at 10:00 Sunday night, my host asked if I knew anything about the school I was to be observing. I told her, yes, that it was all girls, leadership charter school and they knew I was coming. She was concerned because she heard from a friend that this school was in a bad neighborhood and that I was to arrive and leave early and not allowed to take public transportation. At this point, I'm kind of freaking out, thinking I don't know how long I will be staying in Chicago and I'm really surprised that my contact person didn't mention anything about this. After looking into the situation a little further we found out that we weren't talking about the same schools. Thank God. Betsy, my host, had found a school in the 8100 block on south Calumet and my school is in the 2600 block on south Calumet. Big difference. So on Monday morning I started my day by getting out of an incredibly tight parallel parking space and then teaming up with Karen, my G.P.S. system. Just in case you were wondering, Karen and I have a great relationship right now and I would consider her one of my best friends. She received this title after helping me navigate the crazy Chicago streets at night. Just as a side note, Chicago drivers are crazier than San Diego and San Antonio drivers combined. Speed limits are simply suggestions by which I mean, traveling at a speed of 15 over the limit qualified me for the far right lane, as in slower traffic, stay to the right. I guess they figure cops have more important things to do, which kind of scares me. Anyways back to my day at YWLCS which stands for Young Women's Leadership Charter School. I met with Mr. Tapia first thing in morning and we took care of some administrative business before he showed me around the school. The school is 7-12 and specializes in math, science, and technology. The student population is made up of 70% African American, 15% Latina, 14% Caucasian, and 1% Asian American with 80% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunches. Mr. Tapia informed me that I would be working with Mr. McCain on senior projects and observing Mr. Woodard's math classes. It was nice to be given specific direction because it helps to alleviate stress and acclimate faster. We stopped in a senior project meeting where Mr. Woodard was addressing the seniors who had to remain on campus or at least check in for their senior project. As I understand it now, throughout the year, seniors work to develop an idea and proposal for their final project. Students who had good proposals and needed no additional help or guidance on the project are not required to be in school for three weeks starting today. Those seniors who failed to create a proposal, need additional help, or need to make up a class, are required to attend school from 9:00 to 12:50 each day. As I learn more about the projects I will fill you in. After walking around with Mr. Tapia, I observed Mr. Woodard's 11th grade math class where they were learning how to eliminate a variable to solve a system of equations. His teaching style is traditional and his management is wonderful. The girls were calm, mature, and focused. Everyone seemed engaged and willing to participate. I look forward to being in there to help out and possibly teach a lesson. Lunch consisted of driving around the streets of Chicago, returning to the school with no more in my stomach than when I left because getting food would have required me to park my car which seemed a little daunting. After lunch I met three female math teachers in their weekly math meeting. There are six math teachers at YWLCS and three were missing for the meeting today. The meetings consist of one teacher presenting a lesson to the other teachers and receiving feedback and suggestions. The teacher presenting today teaches 7th grade and her lesson was about percents. She was going to have them work with percent bars to understand part and whole relationships without teaching them the cross-multiplication rule. For the last period, I observed a 7th grade math class and boy was that an experience. The teacher warned me about their energy, but not about their lack of attention or focus. I can't say that the teacher had the classroom under control once. They didn't even get to the objective for the day which was passing back their quizzes and correcting them. The students were supposed to be working on some story problems, but the only group that was on task was the table the teacher was standing at. I decided to start walking around to try my luck at getting people on task. The girls were pretty receptive to my help and to my suggestion to work. I was able to explain the problems to some of the girls and interact with them on a one-to-one basis. I am excited to be at YWLCS and I believe it is the perfect place to complete this experience.

The last couple of days

Friday and Monday were pretty uneventful for me, but busy for everyone else. Everyone is getting ready for exhibition night which is this Thursday. Unfortunately I will not be able to attend because I am leaving tomorrow. My days consisted of walking around asking questions about all the projects. I found out that the other team of 8th grade students is doing a look throughout the decades. Groups of five are focusing on one decade in the 1900's and building scenes that resemble their decade. Each student will be dressed up with a prop, ready to discuss their topic of either the science, social, political, pop-culture, or economic events of their decade. Today went pretty fast because I did a little bit of observing and a lot of helping. I observed Mrs. Strong's 6th grade math class work on percents. She decided to split them into two groups allowing the high students to challenge themselves and the average to low students work on the basic information. Then I sat in Dan's class, as they had a democratic discussion about exhibition night. They decided if they wanted to wear all black and if they wanted to have a silent auction to auction off their graph-it art. The students decided to have the auction to fundraise for their 8th grade promotion. For the remainder of the class they worked to finish collecting and graphing their data for their linear relationship project. I was lucky enough to help one student pick out the two hovercrafts they are going to use on Thursday night to give rides to the parents and children as they come in. I am so happy I was able to see how they worked. With a leaf blower in hand, sitting perfectly centered on top of the board, I cruised across the cement. After X-block and lunch, I observed the other 8th grade team's teachers as they quizzed their students‘ knowledge. It was great to get a summary of the century in a matter of 60 minutes. At the end of the day, I helped Dan's class put up black table covers around the walls of the room to create their art gallery for Thursday. Tomorrow I plan to meet with my contact person one last time and say goodbye to all the wonderful people I have met in the High Tech Community. I will start my last transition next Monday in Chicago at The Young Women's Leadership Charter School.

For 1st period, I sat with Dan and Erin who were discussing the new plan for exhibition. Their battery projects won't be done in time for exhibition which is next Thrusday, so they decided to display their graph-it art projects and then collect research on a linear relationship such as shoe size and height to graph. There are multiple lessons that Dan teaches along with the battery project and he wouldn't have time to teach the necessary concepts for the students to fully understand how their project works and if you try to rush them, they get stressed and just want the answers to how to make their project work which defeats the whole purpose. Then the three of us started talking about all the cool projects and Dan explained that his major teaching goal was to make math and science interesting. He said he plans his lessons by assessing if the activity will turn the kids off to math/science or keep them turned on. What a great goal. While we were talking, Mrs. Strong came in a little stressed. She had given a quiz over percents yesterday and she felt that she left more students behind than usual. She was going a little faster to try to get them more prepared for the STAR test in a week. Dan reassured her that she shouldn't worry about the test. "Just think, do we want them to learn it or perform well on some test," Dan said. He told her to just slow down and let the high students move on through independent discovery on an internet math site and provide review for the rest. The rest of the day was standard with little excitement.

La Presa Middle School

Today I took a break from HTH and visited La Presa Middle School in La Mesa. I am staying with the director of the camp I worked at last summer and her husband who teaches history at La Presa. I thought it would be interesting change of scenery and I wanted to watch him in action. A little background information, La Presa is a public middle school and has a terrible reputation in the district. San Diego school districts are separated into levels of school so La Presa is in a district with other middle schools and a few elementary schools. La Presa has a student population of 1,000 of whom very few are white. Parkway, another middle school in the district is predominantly white, affluent families. I find it interesting that in the same district there are such different schools. The facilities and funding are much different, but the student demographics definitely are. For 1st period, I observed Josh teach an 8th grade history class about the Bill of Rights. The class contained 41 students whom Josh managed extremely well. Josh lectured for probably 45 minutes which is a long time for 8th graders to stay focused, but they did a really good job until the end. After attending HTH, I can't help but wonder how these students will use this knowledge in their life besides getting a good grade in history. 2nd period was spent in a 6th grade math class of which the students were all girls. Crazy! I didn't even notice until a good 10 minutes of observing. I was only able to observe for a little while because their class is separated by lunch. I was able to ask the teacher a couple questions as we walked to lunch. She told me that she and her partner decided to split their team into single-sex classes so she has all girls in the morning and all boys in the afternoon. She loves it, eventhough a whole class of boys is a little tiring. After talking to Josh about this, I questioned the issue of a public school allowing and creating a single-sex classroom without parent choice. A little sketchy but it seems to be working with little resistance. After lunch and advisory, I sat in an ELL class that was learning about the characters in their new book, "The House on Mango Street." The teacher used a technique called gaping to create visual images of the characters inside the students' heads. She drew and had students draw pictures of each of the characters to help the story come to life. She explained to be that her students were CELT 3 students. CELT stands for the California English Language Test and students take it at the beginning of the year to determine their level of need. CELT level 1 and 2 are provided instruction in both English and Spanish as they learn English. The CELT 3 students can speak English, but need a little extra help making the transition in reading and writing. For the final period, I returned to Josh's room to observe a 7th grade social studies class as they did a gallery walk around the classroom reading excerpts about Chinese achievements. Josh prefers this method because it gives the students a chance to move around and gives them a break from listening to him lecture. I enjoyed the day and I am happy to have observed in a San Diego public school.

Different Perspectives

Today, I attended the weekly teacher meeting before school which consisted of recognizing coworkers, going over calendar or upcoming events, and discussing any necessary orders of business. The most interesting topic discussed was the issue of taking advisory classes over to get Starbucks. It has become a favorite activity for many students and the teachers who choose not to take their advisories brought up the pros and cons, proposing to decide as a staff to eliminate Starbucks runs. Other teachers agreed that it was unhealthy, unfair, and a poor way to bond with their advisories. They decided to have at most one more Starbucks run and to ban them next year. I really enjoy the staff at HTM. They are all pleasant, forward thinking people. After the meeting, I headed over to the high school to observe Amy teach about trig identities. After class we talked about the class and I explained how much I am learning about the material in her class, more specifically why trig functions are the way they are. We shared the commonality of growing up not being taught the 'whys' and even worse, not asking. She mentioned realizing in college how little she knew and then really began searching for the why as a teacher because she didn't want to teach something she didn't understand. It was encouraging and inspiring to hear her say that. After our little chat, I had a chance to talk to Mrs. Strong about her masters program before 2nd period started. She is in her first year of a two year masters program that HTH offers. This is the first year HTH has offered a masters program and it is free for HTH community teachers. In this first year, she is doing all the course work and preparing for the research part of next year. She is conducting research on how students feel about open ended questions and how well math methods transfer to different situations. Her class today consisted of applying their knowledge of percents to a difficult opening assignment, checking their homework, and competing for a prize by completing a math worksheet. During advisory today, I chatted with my good friend Becky, the tutor, whom I have decided I would love to meet with every week to discuss education. She has such interesting views on education and raising her children. I was asking her about her job and family and she informed me that she teaches a night class a couple nights a week which works out well for her because she doesn't like putting her kids to bed because she doesn't like telling them what to do. At first, I was taken aback by this comment. I thought really and she said well do you? I said, "I don't have kids but I don't mind telling other people’s kids what to do." After taking some time to absorb her idea and allowing her to explain her reasoning, I warmed up to it a little. I see value in raising inquisitive children who ask why, but I also see value in teaching children that some things you simply have to do. I don't think parents should raise robots that simply fit into society’s mold, but I also think damage can be done if they are too socially different and become outcasts that can not function inside society. Aside from her parenting style, Becky informed me of a school in Mass. that is completely democratic, meaning students decide what they want to learn. If they decide they want to learn algebra, there are teachers there to teach that. I quickly gave a negative response to this idea until again I took a minute to think about what it meant. Becky explained that if we wouldn't smash the curiosity to learn in kindergarten, then people would be interested in learning based on a need for knowledge. She asked me if I would want to learn, if someone wasn't making me learn. I answered that now I would, but as a teenager, I don't know if I would have. I believe she had a very valid point. Why should the government or a board of educators get to decide what is important to learn. Just some interesting issues to chew on. During 3rd period, I helped with the 8th graders projects and during 4th period I observed Ms. K. During 5th period, I went into the art room for the first time and sat down to talk to the art teacher. These students do the coolest art projects. I will have to take a picture of them to show you guys. We talked about the different projects and also about the failing public education system that seems to be hopelessly spirally downward. Today was full of wonderful conversation and food for thought. Let me advise anyone who is interested in taking an adventure such as mine to allow more than 5 weeks at each location. Just when these people begin to open up to me to have a conversation with me as a colleague instead of an observer it is time for me to pack up and move. I would rather experience it in the last week and a half then not at all but I will miss these people and our conversations.

Monday Monday full of sunshine!

In Amy's class, the students continued exploring the graphs of different trig functions on geometry sketchpad. She had them graph each function along with its reciprocal to try to explain the reason for the different look in each function. I have never explored why the functions' graphs look a certain way, so its a wonderful opportunity to take notes about the lesson to be able to possibly teach it in the future. In period 2, I observed Mrs. Strong teach 6th grade math. I have observed her class before, but both times were when science was going on. She is getting her masters and attempting some really cool research on how the students explain and learn things on their own. This class today reminded me of Joyce's class at KIPP because the students were doing all the talking to reach the major concept of percents. The students decided that percents translated to "out of 100" as they brainstormed where they had seen percents in real life and then discussed what the word meant. Mrs. Strong led them to connect ratios and percents by realizing a percent is simply the number over 100. On a classroom management note, Mrs. Strong is so full of energy and it seems to get the kids hyped up almost to the point of no return. They begin shouting out unrealistic answers and acting obnoxiously. I think she reinforces their behavior too much by being so up beat and nice. After advisory and lunch, I helped the 8th graders with their battery projects. Some students are building candy machines, baby mobiles, cookie wrappers, carousels, Ferris wheels, cupcake sprinklers, and a jewelry boxes. One of the girls who is making the carousel explained to me that she has been in an engineering group outside of school since the 4th grade. She impressed me by explaining how the gears on their motor work to slow down and speed up their carousel. It is fun to walk around to check in with the students and see what aspect of their project they are working on for that day. In 4th period, I observed Ms. K's class as they learned the third test taking strategy of estimation. They went through a couple of examples as Ms. K led their thinking. They also received their homework problem for the week and then had time to complete any unfinished work. As I worked around, I saw a girl struggling on her Study Island test which involved exponents. I asked her if I could help her and then sat down to better explain the concept. We got out a scratch piece of paper and worked on a couple of questions. For 5th period, I headed back to Dan's class to work with the other class on their projects. In the last 15 minutes I was able to help another student one-on-one with his x & y intercepts homework. I love having the opportunity to observe the teacher teach the material and then attempt my own version of the same material. My favorite part of the day was working with those students one-on-one!

Friday Bonanza!

After attempting to find a more exciting 1st period class, I ended up sitting in Amy's class reading the rest of Savage Inequalities as the students took their quiz. During 2nd period, I sat in on a 6th grade math lesson being taught by a perspective teacher. The application process to work at HTH is intense and includes teaching a lesson, interviewing with teachers and students, as well as other requirements I'm not yet sure of. The applicant was a young women in her 20's full of energy. Her lesson consisted of reviewing the knowledge the students had about proportions and ratios and then playing a game. The students seemed to like her and behaved very well. Before the class, they told Mrs. Strong that they were going to act up and see how good she really is, but that plan must have fallen to the wayside when they realized how cool, nice, and fun she was. Other HTM teachers walked in and out to observe her lesson and evaluate her as a teacher. It is my understanding that directors, current teachers, as well as students are a part of the hiring process. They ask for student feedback as far as how well they like the teacher and if they were an effective educator. After advisory and lunch, I helped with Dan's math class. One student took her yellow belt test for the third time, some students learned the new orange belt material, and the final group learned the last of the orange belt material and will take their orange belt test on Monday. Dan's goal is to have all of the students achieve their orange belt next Friday because the following two weeks are hectic and little math will be taught. I helped monitor the student taking her test and answer questions after Erin taught the new orange belt material. In Ms. K's class, after completing the opening assignment students volunteered to explain the homework for the week. The final part of their homework involves listening to their peers present and recording the new or useful information they did not think of. The last half of class was spent taking a quiz on solving equations. There were 6 problems and the students were required to choose 2. So many choices at this school! For the final period, I went back to Dan's room to help the students on their projects. Some students' projects are coming along wonderfully while others wanted to start their Friday a little early.

Great Teachers

Yesterday was a half day and pretty uneventful. Amy's class was reviewing for a quiz on Friday and the 8th graders were working on their projects for exhibition. It is fun watching and helping them with their projects because they are building inventions and testing ideas. Their project must include a motor, a battery, and a switch. I am learning right along side of them and I love it.Today was a wonderful day full of professional discovery. It began as usual in Amy's class as the students reviewed for their quiz tomorrow. Instead of observing Dan's class today I worked on Study Island with some 8th graders in the tutoring room. Study Island is an online website full of multiple choice math questions aimed to prepare them for the STAR test in two weeks. The students are really eager to simply guess instead of taking their time to solve the problems. Becky, another tutor, was in the room helping as well and I learned a couple of valuable things from her about how to explain certain math rules. I was a student, unfortunately, who didn't care why it worked and so as a teacher I really need to work on discovering the why to better help my students. One of the most important things I've learned over this semester has been that if students understand the why, they don't have to memorize the information because it simply makes sense to them. Genius! Why didn't I think of that before? It was wonderful to tutor students one-on-one. Once every couple of weeks, the whole school meets for a community meeting and today a bunch of after school programs came to advertise their activities. Demonstrations for fencing, karate, self-defense, speed training, and film making were given and the students were able to ask further questions at lunch. After lunch I helped Dan's science class work on their projects. I'm learning it is difficult for me to tell students to "just try it out and see what works." I am inclined to give any help or knowledge that I can which I am coming to realize, really doesn't help them in the long run. It is harder to be the better teacher by guiding their learning and not simply shoving your knowledge into their heads. It’s best for them to explore their own ideas and use their failure to learn and formulate new methods. It gives them a sense of accomplishment and allows them to learn the material in a way that makes sense to them. I am in the process of strengthening this ability in myself. Going back to myself as a student, I really hated when teachers told me to "just figure it out, see what works," but now I see that those comments were in my best interest and had I accepted them I would be an even better thinker. After playing with the 8th graders, I went to Ms. K's peaceful 7th grade class where my lesson of guiding students continued. The students completed their opening problem which included an inequality equation. The students used their reasoning to answer the problem. The whole time, I'm thinking of the rules that go along with this problem:
-3x +2 < 6
a. x<3
b. x>-2
c. x<-2
d. x<-3
The students reason that it must be a negative number and then that it can't be less than -3 because that answer does not make the statement true. They narrower it down to b or c and decide that c is basically the same as d, so the answer must be b. For me, I subtracted the 2 and divided by -3, switching the sign because I divided by the negative. Ms. K provided little help and patiently listened to the students talk it out. I doubt the students even know the rules I used to solve the problem. For the remainder of the class, they worked on another online program to review solving equations. After class, I had a chance to talk to Ms. K about her style of teaching. She explained that unlike most students, her students can work and understand word and real life problems wonderfully, but when given the basic equation with no connection, they struggle. Ms. K did not teach solving equations like one would think. She introduced them to story problems to think through the method of solving the problem based on the information. She is doing her masters on whether an adult mentor helping students on their homework will improve the quality and completion of the homework. So those homework packets I was explaining earlier in the week, are expected to be done with an adult. Ms. K said she has met some resistance from parents who are not strong in math or who have little free time, but she keeps the problems doable and allows the students to work with any available adult or older sibling. After talking to Ms. K, I sat in Ms. DeAnna's 7th grade drama class and followed along as they read The Crucible. Today was wonderful and I am grateful to have this opportunity to observe and grow as student and teacher.

April Fools!

I began my day by introducing myself to Amy, the 11th grade math teacher, one more time and asking her if I could observe her for the next two weeks. HTH has so many visitors walking in and out of classrooms that the teachers don't pay too much attention to or energy on visitors. I figured I might as well talk to her a bit so she doesn't wonder why I keep showing up to her 1st period class. Today's class was just an extension from yesterday's sine and cosine functions. They went over the homework and then worked on manipulating the sine function equation to stretch and shift the curve. She used sketchpad to demonstrate the effects of each change. For homework, students converted radian measure to degree and predicted the graph of a sine equation using their new knowledge about shifting and stretching the curve. In Dan's class, students who have not yet received their yellow belts went out in the hall with Erin to work on their homework packet while the remainder of the class worked on another lab activity that required them to take down data and draw a graph. I floated back and forth between both groups to help answer questions. One of the downfalls of Judo math is that some students don't achieve their belt for many weeks and then fall further and further behind. Since this is the first year of Judo Math, there are many kinks to work out and this is one of them. For X block, I watched the play rehearsal. In the second part of Dan's class the students finished their sketches and material list for their exhibition project and then began taking apart a toy that sings and dances to understand how a motor works. The students had a blast taking apart these toy hamsters and turtles. What a great way to learn how something works! After a chaotic class full of students getting screwdrivers and asking questions, I observed Ms. K's peaceful 7th grade math class. She began class by walking around to take homework grades while the students worked on the opening assignment. They went over the opening assignment and then worked on test taking strategies. Ms. K explained to me that since they don't rush through material and teach toward the STAR, which is the California standard, there is material on the test her students have not covered so she gives them skills to make an educated guess. At the end of class the students got computers and worked on more STAR prep questions using a computer program called Study Island. My favorite part of Ms. K's teaching style is her patience. She really gives students a chance to respond and explain their answers. She also lets students correct and help students which I think makes them pay attention. Before the last period of the day, I introduced myself to Casey, who heads the tutoring department, and let her know I would be willing to help whenever they needed me. Since they have approximately 5 tutors hired to help students and aid teacher, there isn't much of a need for me, so I have had to push to find a significant job at this school. For the last period, I sat in a 7th grade drama class where students were writing a monologue. I enjoyed walking around, reading the students work.

1st day back

After an incredible two week spring break spent with wonderful family and friends, it was back to California to finish my last two and a half weeks at High Tech High. I began the day in 11th grade math with Amy. They were doing a lesson on the sine and cosine curves using sketchpad, which is a computer program for geometry. It was very interesting and I took good notes because I have geometry sketchpad and it would be a good lesson to use. The lesson helped students understand that sine and cosine weren't simply mysterious numbers that the calculator spits out, but (x,y) coordinates on the unit circle. After exploring on the computer they discussed their findings and then began working on a worksheet for homework. Next, was Dan's 8th grade math class. To get the kids back into the groove, Dan planned an interesting graphing activity to refresh their knowledge on slopes and equations of lines. The experiment involved timing the number of seconds it took a certain number of people to perform the wave. Opening game for the Padres is tonight so Dan wanted to practice before the game. They timed four, then ten, then sixteen, then twenty, and then graphed the results. Time was the dependent variable and the number of people performing the wave was the independent variable because time depended on the number of people. During advisory, the students shared their spring break activities, discussed their performance at the nutritional presentations before spring break, and strategize for the advisory Olympics at the end of the year. After lunch, the students finished up the wave activity by discussing the results and answering some questions in a packet. Next I observed Ms. K's 7th grade math class. She is such a calm soul and the students obey her every request. To begin she handed out their homework for the week which consisted of a four page packet of a real life problem that they are required to write out a prediction and solution. Today they were working on writing their own equations for word problems. She did one with them and then sent them to work on their own. I was attempting to help a boy who was a little confused with whole process. I came to realize that they didn't really understand how to solve the problems which I think would make it more difficult to write their own equations. I meant to ask Ms. K about that, but didn't have a chance. For the last period of the day, I sat in Mrs. Strong's 6th grade math/science class as the students worked on their national park preservation project for the exhibition in a couple of weeks. Students are in groups of 4 and each person has a specific job with specific tasks to fulfill.

Advisory Olympics

I watched the movie, Persepolis, with the ninth graders during 1st period. They just finished reading the book which is about a young girl from Iran who lived during 1970's and grew up around the turmoil with Iran. It was a French film with subtitles. Next I spent some time with Dan's math class, but they were taking an assessment for those still needing to get their yellow belt so it was very uneventful. During advisory today, each advisory class presented on a certain topic related to nutrition. The groups either had skits, videos, or power points and some of them were pretty funny. After lunch I headed over to the high school to watch the Advisory Olympics which are a pretty big deal. Each team has a country name, a flag, and a uniform. They introduced all the teams and then we walked to this huge field six blocks away. The four events were dodge ball, water balloon toss, the cucumber pass, and fact or crap. It was a great afternoon even though it was a little disorganized. The winning team won a pizza party during advisory. As you can tell, the day was pretty uneventful, but I couldn't be more thrilled that its over because that means I'm coming home for two whole weeks! Hopefully I will see most of you while I'm home and if not, have a great two weeks! After spring break, I will be returning to the wonderful city of San Diego to finish my last two and a half weeks at High Tech High.

Graph-it Art

I hung out the Darrell's class again this morning. It was a student's birthday so they were having a pot luck during class. Before they ate, they had to do two challenges. Darrell has his students work on their focus and concentration by making them stand with their hands at their sides and their eyes closed as he walks up and down the isle pointing them or making comments. The goal is to make it one minute without anyone opening their eyes or making noise. The 1st try they only made it 15 seconds and the second time they made it to 50 seconds. He emphasized the importance of being able to concentrate and block out distraction while taking exams. We then went outside to learn the importance of positive thinking. He had the students stand in a circle and attempt to touch their palms on the ground while keeping their legs straight. The first time around, very few people were able to complete the task, but after Darrell explained that they should close their eyes and imagine their palms touching the ground and when they thought they couldn't go any further to take a breath and go a little bit more, they preformed much better. Darrell explain the importance of imagining yourself achieving your goal instead of filling your head with negative thoughts. We went back inside to have our feast and review about circuits. Then I went to Dan's class which was being run by Erin today because Dan was running his son to the doctor. Erin didn't get any specific directions from Dan so she allowed the students to work on their graph-it art project, which come to find out is the coolest project in the world. For the past week, I have been hearing about this project but it wasn't until today that I learned the details. In art, the students learned about creating artwork with a point of prospective or with the looks of a horizon so for this project they drew this type of artwork using only straight lines. They enlarged their image onto a big piece of graph paper and then attached it to a black poster board. Then they used a needle and yarn to create their image on the front of the poster board. I took pictures of two of the coolest ones. In addition to the piece of artwork, they had to figure out the slope of 50 of their lines and 25 of them had to be different and then they will write equations of each line in their artwork. This project is not only an excellent use of both subjects but the final product is outstanding and could be sold. Advisory was in place of X block today so people could have one more day to work on their presentations. Dan's advisory had finished theirs on Monday so we walked over to Trader Joe's, which is all natural grocery store right across the street. After lunch, I went to Judo Math. Dan taught them the final way to find the equation of a line, point/slope form. Dan explained that they only needed to know one and didn't have to memorize all three. He explained there are always more than one way to do things and to NEVER let a teacher let them different. People think differently and what sticks in one person's mind, may not stick in another's. After math, I went to elementary school to help out for the afternoon. I was only there for an hour and a half, but I was ready to leave. I am so glad I am secondary because I don't think I could be an elementary teacher. I give credit to anyone who can. There is just a little bit too much patience involved. Having to remind students 10 times to sit on their bottoms and give a signal silently, is not appealing to me. While I was there, we went to library to hear a story and then the students checked out books. Thank goodness for people who can teach small children!

A Mock Trial

Today started out in Darrell's World with a 9th grade engineering class. They were putting together circuits using bread boards, LED's, 555's, and restrictors. By the end of the class, I had a basic understanding of how to put them together and I would have loved to put one together, but they were short on materials, so maybe tomorrow. Due to the shortage of materials, people had to work together, but one girl expressed her negative feelings about working with other people. Darrell's response was that there are people in the world, so you have to be able to work with them. This is the first time I have noticed resistance toward group work. To exit Darrell's class, students must firmly shake his hand while making eye contact. If either piece is missing, he will send them to the end of the line to try again. Next, I went to my regular 8th grade math class with Dan. The first hour was devoted to Judo math. A very interesting event happened right after their SAT Question of the Day which occurs at the beginning of class. A girl raised her hand to go to the bathroom claiming it was an emergency. She even raised her empty bottle of Vitamin water to express the urgency. With hesitation, Dan let her go and then proceeded to ask the class to "Show their Obie." Obie is a fancy word that means their armbands or Judo Math gear. They concluded that the girl who left possibly went to get a friend's Obie so she would not be shamed for not bringing hers. When she walked into class, Dan said, "Show me your Obie" and she raised her arm which had one black belt and one yellow belt. The other black belt and white belt were missing. Dan asked her straight up if she had went to get someone else's Obie. She answered, "yes" and was completely embarrassed and disappointed in herself. A couple students in the class made comments about it and she began to cry. Dan didn't punish her, he simply had her return the armbands to their owner. I think he thought she got the lesson and didn't want to make her feel worse. If the students lose their Obie, they must buy them for $1 each. Today's material involved equations of lines in slope intercept form and standard form. No incredibly interesting ways of teaching today. Next I returned to the drama X block to watch them rehearse. Their play is about two brothers who get their ears pierced which is against the dress code at their super strict school. One boy gets suspended, while the other one gets a slap on the wrist. This is as far as they have gotten. After lunch, I returned to Dan's class to play with electromagnets. He explained that electromagnets can be found in the junk yard when they use the electromagnet to pick up cars, carry them to a new location, and drop them. He expressed the importance of having a electromagnet and not just a magnet because the electric part enables the magnet to be shut off. The kids worked with a nail, wire coiled around the nail, a battery, and switch to create an electromagnet. After P.E., I spent the rest of the afternoon with Bobby's humanities class. Today they were having a mock trial for Jack, a main character in the book Lord of the Flies. They spent the last three weeks reading the book and learning a basic background on trials. It was very interesting and they did a pretty good job for such a complex process. There was a jury, defense, prosecution, bailiff, judge, and witnesses. The picture at the right is of the mock trial. Just another example of the wonderful projects and interaction that happens at HTM.

Braces are a great conductor of electricity!

I started the day observing Amy teach 11th graders about limits in math. I have noticed that in a lot of the high school classrooms, the students call the teacher by his/her first name. I have yet to ask any of them about it, but I think it would be interesting to hear their reasoning for the choice. I have also noticed how extremely patient many of these teachers are with their students' understanding. I realize that patience seems to be a quality that teachers must have, but lets me honest, certain teachers explain the material in one way and may get frustrated when their students' don't understand after they have explained it 3 times in the exact same form. Amy was explaining limits and derivatives which is complex material to learn how to manipulate let alone understand why it works, which seems mandatory at this school. She presented the material in many different ways and then checked for understanding. She reassured students that they did not need to master this concept and that it was okay if they were confused. I was impressed that she did not express a hint of frustration with herself or her students. I think this attitude allows for better relationships and room to ask questions. After 11th grade math, I went to hang out with Dan's 8th grade class, who were working on electric circuits. Dan gave them a battery, wires, washers, a nail, a switch, a light bulb, and a worksheet to provide them with a little guidance. They dug right in. I worked with one group as they connected the wires, battery, and light bulb to make a simple circuit. The circuits progressed in complexity as they added another battery, another light bulb, and a switch. They tested the washer and nail to see if they conducted electricity. Here's were the fun part comes in! Dan announced that someone should attach the wires to their braces to see if the light bulb would turn on. Sure enough, it did. Then they attached three people with braces to the wires and made a human circuit which is the picture you see here. You'll notice that the student on the right is holding the light bulb which is lit up. We then decided to make a circuit with the whole class. We all went into the commons with a wire to attach our wires to a piece of metal we were wearing. People were connected by braces, belts, earrings, and zippers. It didn't work with everyone connected and as we went through the types of connections we figured out that the zippers were breaking our connection. It was a great period of exploration and fun. Next I went to the drama X block and watched a rehearsal. It was very interesting. The drama teacher was full of energy and the students were great actors. I would love to continue attending that X block on Tuesdays and Thursdays. For lunch I went to Panera Bread with Erin and three other tutors. After lunch, Becky, one of the tutors, took me over to the elementary school to show me around. Incredible! Becky has a 1st grader at Explorer and she feels extremely lucky to have gotten her in. They have something like 300 applicants for 3 spots in kindergarten. We walked around the school looking at all the artwork and meeting some of the teachers. We stopped in her daughter’s classroom which is where I took a picture of this incredible tree house loft. Becky explained the one thing that sets Explorer apart from typical elementary schools is their second curriculum which involves social skills. They call it second step and it consists of teaching the students how to work cooperatively and solve their problems using words. They actually go to a class once a week to work on these skills. I love this idea because our society judges people based on social abilities, but they are not taught in schools. Unless you are very observant of excellent role models, you may struggle with relationships and not understand why. I would love to volunteer at the elementary school one afternoon a week to help in the classroom or read with the students, so we'll see how that goes. I then returned to watch the last half hour of Dan's class. He discussed series and parallel circuits. He explained that old Christmas lights are series circuits which is why when one light bulb is burnt out the ones after it fail to work because the burnt out one breaks the flow of electricity. Now they have made new Christmas lights with parallel circuits to avoid that annoying problem. I then observed 7th grade math taught by Kristen. She is a very calm spirit and reminds me of Mr. Young. She explained that her partner is completely opposite and full of energy so they make a great combination for the students. Her room has the beautiful artwork that was painted by students last year. This is just a taste of the inside of this school. Here is also a picture of the ceiling or lack there of. The ceilings have no tile and consist of colorful pipes and open space. For the last hour of the day, I observed 7th grade Spanish. Some of these students have been taking Spanish for a couple years now so their 7th grade class is comparable to our 9th grade class. At this rate, they will be fluent by 11th grade! Not a bad idea. That is all for now.

Monday Monday

I definitely felt the effects of spring savings! Anyone else? I think I yawned like 50 times today! My day went pretty fast and there was minimal wondering! I started out observing a 10th grade math/science teacher named Anne Duffy. She explained that they had just spent the last four weeks setting up the math concepts for this project and the next few weeks they would be creating their own pigment to paint. It was during her class that I realized how important it is for me to choose one or two classes and stick with them. It is harder to observe this school than most because the teachers don't teach everyday. They set up the projects and 80 different things are going on at once so they manage the chaos. The projects do most of the teaching. While Anne was explaining the instructions for starting the rusting process for their paint project, she was careful not to actually do one because she said she didn't want to do it for someone. I thought this was interesting because you'd think in the grand scope of things, it's only one person's work, but it was important to her that EVERYONE do their own, part of the whole discovery process, I guess. The other cool thing was that there were questions at the end of her explanation as you would guess, but the questions weren't about procedures, they were about why you take the piece of metal out of the vinegar and why they were using vinegar at all. Its all about asking why and truly understanding the process. After Anne's class, I went to Dan's 8th grade math class. Unfortunately they had already gotten their new belts for passing the assessment, but I can't wait to see the huge black belt ceremony. Only about half the class passed the assessment which made him a little frustrated, but he went ahead and split the class to let those who had passed move on to the next lesson. He had those who did not pass go out into the hall with Ms. Erin to work on a review of the old material. There were three students who stayed after school on Friday to take the assessment again in order to pass it so they could move on today. Impressive! Today's lesson was about intercepts and Dan presented it in a very interesting way. He began by asking what an interception was in football. He demonstrated for students who were unfamiliar with the term by throwing a mesh ball intended for one student, but intercepted by another. He then connected it to math comparing a line to the ball and x & y axis to the opponent who intercepts the ball. He drew lots of lines on this amazingly interactive computer program and asked what all those x intercepts had in common. The students concluded that all of them had a y coordinate of 0. Basically that was the whole lesson. The students got the concept very quickly and they began working on a worksheet to practice intercepts. After this class, the students went to advisory to work on their nutrition presentation for Friday. Dan said that some teachers are on a committee to make advisory more meaningful because they don't like letting the kids just hang out and it was at this meeting that the nutritional presentation was born. Dan explained that the students stay in the same advisory for all three years and their advisory teacher is kind of like their counselor or go to person. The advisory teacher even makes home visits to all of his/her students during the summer to find out what their home situation is like to better understand the student. For lunch, I went with my new friend Erin to eat in the plaza and it was wonderful to have company. After lunch I returned to Dan's class to observe the remainder of the math/science for the first class. The first class of the day is broken up by advisory and lunch and then the second last is for a straight two hours in the afternoon. For the science portion of the class, they did a lab on electric current using balloons to pick up pieces of paper and aluminum. After this class, they had P.E., but it is not at all what you picture in your mind, its modified High Tech style. P.E. consists of the students going outside and walking on the sidewalk around a slab of grass for 15 minutes. I'm not joking. It would be better named a break. The teachers go outside to monitor and make sure everyone is 'moving.' There is absolutely no structure, the students just walk with their friends around the grass. Now this would not fly at KIPP! I'm not completely against the idea, in fact I think it's a nice break for the students even though they just had lunch 60 minutes prior. I just think its hilarious that they call it P.E. To me P.E. implies changing clothes, stretching, and playing dodge ball. After P.E. I observed the other 8th grade team’s math class taught by Ryan. He was lecturing, first time I have seen lecturing at HTH, about the periodic table for the first hour and then the students had time to work on their chemistry presentations. I sat and worked with Hannah and Erika who are the sweetest girls. They are the best of friends and cracked me up when they typed simultaneously on the keyboard, Hannah pushing the buttons on the left side and Erika picking up the ones on the right! I think its a girl friend, to be that close to friends! lol. These students create pretty amazing power point presentations. They are great at surfing the net and finding excellent sites because not a day goes by that they don't use a computer. There are either desktops or a set of laptops in EACH room. Now that's high tech! Hope your Monday was good and I will be in touch tomorrow!

The Maze Master

Today started with another faculty meeting, every Wednesday and Friday. Before I begin telling you about my day, I must tell you about the teacher dress code at this school because I'm pretty sure it doesn't exist. Most teachers are in jeans and a small amount are in khakis. I have worn nothing, but dress capris and I am over dressed so on Monday, as hard as it will be, I will try to fit in a little better. While I was waiting for the meeting to start, I met the other 9th grade math/physics teacher Al. He was extremely friendly and told me I should look at the teachers' online portfolios and then email them to see what interesting events are going on. He also showed me his rubrics and organization for project development. He told me to come back and observe his classroom later in the afternoon to watch the students perform in a maze competition. The beginning of the meeting was filled with announcements about the robot convention and contract renewals. Then we broke up into small study teams to brainstorm ideas on certain topics. I joined the advisory Olympics meeting and discussed events for the Olympics. Each advisory is a team and it is a big event next Friday right before spring break. After the meeting I headed over to High Tech Middle and met Erin. She started out at High Tech Middle as a tutor and now will be taking over Dan's science classes because he is going to be taking over as director while the formal director is out on maternity leave. Confusing! Anyways, she graduated in May with a youth ministry degree and has found herself employed by High Tech Middle as a full time teacher. While we were talking, she was grading the 8th graders' hover-craft carrier projects. If I haven't mentioned before, High Tech High's major philosophy is project based learning which means they are constantly doing projects in every one of their classes. To learn about air pressure, density, force, and gravity, they were required to make a hover-craft that carried a student at least 30 ft. Their projects are amazing and each student can tell you exactly how and why the hover-craft works. By the end of these 4 weeks, I may be convinced that projects are the way to go. I then went to observe Bobby Shaddox who is Dan's team partner and teaches humanities. Erin was explaining that Bobby is more structured and strict than Dan and so I thought it would be interesting to observe the difference in teaching styles and student disposition. When I walked in, they were having a trial because apparently someone had broken Bobby's sunglasses the previous day and failed to come forward. Bobby called students to the witness stand and questioned them about their observations yesterday. It was a great way to get his point across and review for the quiz, which they took about the mock trial. I then wondered around a little more and spent some time in Jade's room and then in the resource room. All of their classes are fully inclusive, but they have two resource teachers, ten tutors, and a resource room to assist students with special needs. I then headed back over to Bobby's room for advisory which come to find out is a mixture of 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. They were organizing a skit for next Friday which had to include all 18 members of the advisory but last not longer than 2 minutes. Kind of a difficult task. After lunch, I met and observed Sara Strong teach 6th grade math/science. The students were gathering information on their groups' national park. Then I observed Dan's math class as they brainstormed ways to modified their Judo Math so students would be rewarded for completing the different levels without failing the placement multiple times due to lack of effort. Finally I observed Al's 9th grade team compete in the maze challenge. Let me see if I can explain this with as little confusion as possible. They split the team of 50 kids into four teams of about 12. Two teams were coed, one team was all boys, and one team was all girls. The challenge included figuring out the correct way to get across this grid. There was a grid with about 9 squares by 13 squares laying on the ground. The squares were big enough for the students to put both feet inside the lines. There was also a maze master who sat with the correct path through the grid. The first student would begin on a square. If they had chosen the wrong square, the maze master would say no and the student would return to the end of their team's line. If the student was on the right square, the maze master would say yes and the student would attempt to move to another box. Students would have to remember the correct path to successfully get 7 people across the grid. The whole process was timed and only one team completed the task at a time. They came back together at the end to perform cheers and find out who had won the challenge by completing the task in the shortest amount of time. It was very interesting to observe the team work and participation or lack there of. I am excited to get involved in more projects and competitions.

Judo Math

I started my day off in a meeting with Ben Daly. He discussed me possibly being able to take a class offered by HTH. A majority of the teachers are furthering their education by getting a masters or completing the certification process. After looking at the class schedule, there was no class that started and ended while I will be here, probably because their spring break is the last two weeks of March. He also advised me to observe different teachers for a week and then choose one that I would like to be my mentor. He thought this was a better idea instead of me wondering for a month and I completely agree. After talking with Ben, I went over to Dan Thoene's classroom where I found him preparing for this next class. A correction from yesterday, Dan is an 8th grade math/science teacher with a math background. Ben had mentioned some Judo Math program that Dan had designed so I was curious to hear about it. I didn't really know what questions to ask Dan so I just brought it up and he started talking about it. He got the idea from this Karate instructor that came to speak at the school and was explaining to the students that Karate helped to improve a person's whole life. A student asked the instructor how long it took to get each belt and the instructor told the student that it was different for every person. Dan made the connection between achieving different belts and understanding different math concepts and so Judo Math was born. It is based on four main topics with four sub-topics under each, so for the whole year the students will master 16 concepts. For each main topic the students begin with a white belt which is represented by a white armband like Lance Armstrong's LIVESTRONG bands. Once they have learned the first sub-topic they take an assessment or placement test with 10 questions which forces them to apply their knowledge to real-life situations. If they master the concept, meaning they get 8 out of 10 correct, they receive a yellow belt. They only take these placements on Friday and then they have a belt ceremony where Dan puts on this Chinese looking hat and presents the yellow belt to the students at the front of the class while saying, "Congratulations my student," in Chinese. After yellow, they receive orange, blue, and finally black when they have mastered all four sub-topics. After the black belt, if some students still haven't received their black belt, those who have can do some extra practice to receive a green belt and become sensas. So by the end of the year every student will have four black belts and possibly four green belts. The students are eating up the idea; they absolutely love it! They have been part of the whole process and since the idea is new they are still working out all the kinks. Dan also explained to me his theory for teaching 8th graders. He uses the buddy system. Unlike many teachers who feel that teachers should not be their students' friends, Dan has an opposite approach. He believes that if he is his students' buddy, they will behave and work for him because they like him and don't want to disappoint him. He says he is going to write a book and I told him he should attach it to his Judo Math package. He has already put a copyright on the name 'Judo Math' and the students are designing a logo in art. Pretty serious stuff. I told Dan that I should probably get his autograph so in three years when he is rich and famous and not teaching, I can say that I met him and talked with him about his idea. It really is a brilliant idea, I hope I have done it justice over the internet. After talking to Dan about Judo math, I observed his class and then went to lunch. After lunch, I began wondering again until I stopped in Darrell's room. Darrell is an engineering teacher and a great mentor to the students. He has come up with this idea called 'The Power of We.' He believes there are 3 P's acting on these kids' lives: their parents, professors, and peers. He has bought the .com and .org websites and is going to expand the idea to create on-line communities to enable people to connect. These teachers are so incredible, innovative, and inspiring to be around. I have met quite a few wonderful teachers so far in my short two days and I look forward to picking their brains on educational issues. As far as observing classes, the first week is always awkward wondering around not know when classes start and which teachers teach where, but that all seems to far in place.

1st Day @ High Tech High

I had a fabulous weekend hanging out with my mom and driving from San Antonio to San Diego. We spent Monday and Tuesday hanging out on the beach and touring San Diego. We went whale watching on Monday and it was incredible. We were fortunate enough to see south bound whales so we didn't have to spend as much time looking for them, but we were able to simply watch them. We also spent both evenings watching the sunset on the beach which is when I got this picture. Our time together went way too fast and I had to drop her off at the airport this morning before I went to school.
My mom and I had driven by the school on Monday which helped me today as I was a little more familiar with the area. There are 6 schools that make up the HTH village: High Tech High, High Tech High Media Arts, High Tech High International, High Tech High Middle, High Tech High Middle Media Arts, and Explorer Elementary. After I parked, I walked in to High Tech High with Brett, who is the director of High Tech High. We talked about my experience and where I had just come from and he commented on how different KIPP and HTH are. I attended a faculty meeting at 7:30 which was a great way to introduce myself and meet the staff. It was a little awkward at KIPP, not knowing who should introduce themselves first and then wondering if people knew who I was. During the meeting they discussed strategies to help ELL students as well as non ELL students with reading. The teachers discussed different ideas and then shared them with the group. The best idea I heard was to give students 10 vocabulary words at the start of the week, collect definitions and sentences of the vocabulary words on Wednesday, and then for a quiz on Friday have the students read a news article, then summarize the article and answer questions using the vocabulary words. At the end of the meeting Ben Daly, who I have been in contact with, walked in and asked me to stay so we could talk. Ben was the director of High Tech High last year and then became the overall director of academics for the whole HTH community. We talked about what I would be doing for the next few weeks, which I guess I get to decide. Its wonderful having the flexibility of deciding my experience but it is also a lot of pressure to plan my time and make sure I make the most out of it. I told him that I had taught a little at KIPP, but that at HTH I was interested in observing the high school and the middle school. He told me that if I wanted to observe for a little while that would be fine and then if I wanted to stay with a certain teacher to possibly team teach a subject I found interesting that would be totally fine as well. These next few weeks are going to be great. Both schools I have been to, have been extremely friendly, flexible, and welcoming. Ben took me around and introduced me to a few math teachers, two middle school teachers and one high school teacher. Then we walked over to HTH International to meet all the directors of the surrounding HTH directors. The HTH International building is even better than the High Tech High one. I hope to spend some time in this school as well. Ben had a meeting with the directors so he instructed me to drive to the San Diego Department of Education to have my finger prints taken. Even with the help of Karen it took me a little while to find it, but once I did it only took 15 minutes to start and finish the process. I returned to the school and observed Jade Moore teach the last part of a 9th grade math/science class. The class begins with time for warm-up where the students work at their own pace on their math packet. As I understand it now, the students work through packets and then take a quiz on the material until they earn a passing grade of 70 or better. The students teach themselves or ask a neighbor or the teacher to help them get through their problem. For third period I went into the art studio where amazing paintings were being created. The teacher is an extremely laid back guy who had jumped around the different San Diego districts fighting the system and trying to find a place where he fit. He jumped on board with HTH before in opened in 2000 and he has worked there ever since. Before lunch, I stopped by an 8th grade math classroom taught by Dan Thoene. He used some awesome gadgets on the computer to graph and plot point to help him teach slope. During lunch I walked the 75 yards to a small shopping center that has a market and a couple restaurants. After lunch, I returned to Jade's room to observe her class from start to finish. The students were learning about light and were presenting with a partner on a question of interest. Three groups presented today; one on rainbows, one on prisms, and one on how the eye works. The students seemed interested in their topics and the audience seemed truly engaged in the information being presented. I am so excited to be at this school to observe and learn about their way of educating.
Random Facts about HTH:
~1st year in session was 2000
~There are appox. 525 students at High Tech High (just the one high school)
~They wanted to keep the school sizes small, so they built more high schools and gave them slightly different names.
~There are two teachers on a team: a math/science teacher and a humanities or history/English teacher. Teacher A has 25 students for two periods to teach math and science while Teacher B has 25 students for two periods to teach history and English and then they switch. There are five periods in the day so the fifth period is for the two teachers to plan.
~The interior of the school is incredible, filled with glass. The idea behind it, being that learning is transparent and people should be able to see what's going on to jump if they would like. The walls are covered with students' projects. (I will have to take some pictures). There are computers in every single room, the water fountain is censored and the hand dryer is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.
~To fill the slots after the middle school students have been placed in a HTH high school, they use a random lottery. Ben said they ask for the students name, address, and free-lunch status. They want their school to be diverse and since San Diego is a very segregated city, they can get their diversity by choosing zip codes. Right now they have about 25% of their students who qualify for free-reduced lunch, but they would like to be at about 40%

My Last Day at KIPP: Aspire Academy

I can't believe today was my last day. The third week seemed to drag on forever, but now its over. My last day was just like any other. I observed Joyce teach a covering and surrounding lesson about area and perimeter. The students used small cubes to create a bumper car track. They had to determine how many rails were needed depending on the area and also on the shape of each figure. Eventhough the area was equal for two different shapes their perimeter may have been different. The students explored why this was true and concluded that some shapes were expanded and more sides were exposed creating a greater perimeter. There was another observer in the room today. She is a graduate student at Trinity University and was visiting KIPP to get some ideas for management. I told her she was in the right school and classroom. After block 1, I took the observer with me to Ms. Starr's class. After grading morning work and life work, they reviewed for tomorrow's life challenge by playing tic-tac-toe math. Each student had to work the problem on their own paper and then Ms. Starr would call on different students to answer the question to get that spot for their team. During lunch, I walked around with a group of girls to pick up trach around the school. I guess they get bored with the typical things to do at recess and so picking up trash seems like more fun. After lunch, I went in to help Travis teach block 3, 6th grade math because Joyce had a busy afternoon and was unable to do it. It went ok. The students were pretty wild and didn't understand the lesson very well. Its hard to use Joyce's lesson and teaching style because if you don't execute it correctly it could have a negative affect on learning. The teacher tries to guide the students' learning through their own exploring and participation, but understanding is lost in the process if the attempt to guide them fails. I have decided that I am very effective at helping students individually, but I need to work on the whole group learning process. At 3:00, I went to play scrabble with the 8th graders and I am improving. I scored 42 points on one turn! I was so excited. I am not the best scrabble player or the best speller (if you haven't noticed), so scrabble is good for me! Those 42 points were enough to win the game. What a great going away present! From 4-5, I peaked in the Karate room, stretched with the dance class, and said a lot of good-byes. I couldn't find the right words to say good-bye because it wasn't like I could say, "See next month!" or "Call me tomorrow", it was more like, "Have a great life, it was great to meet you." I will stay in touch with some of the people, but everyone else I don't know if I will ever see them again. I finally found Mark at the very end to say good-bye and thank him for the opportunity. He thanked me for coming and let me know that if the other two schools don't work out that I can return to Texas! So after 5 weeks, my first leg of the adventure is over and I had a great time. I have learned so much about KIPP and education in general. The teachers have been so friendly and have helped me feel right at home. I will miss everyone dearly, especially the kids.
~The weekend plan: My mom flys in tomorrow and we will drive to Phoenix on Saturday to stay with my brother and then get up Sunday morning to drive to San Diego. My mom's plane doesn't fly out until Wednesday so we will be enjoying each others company until then. I am so excited to see her and begin the next adventure. I hope you all have a great weekend!