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%