My writing piece about my experience at the High Tech High GSE, "Internships Aren't All About Careers", has officially been published on Education Week's Learning Deeply contributor blog. Check it out!
INTERNSHIP TO-DO LISTFor my internship, I was told it was best to bring a notebook around everywhere I went. And I did follow this recommendation throughout the internship, but I didn't always find it as useful to me. During meetings and interviews I would write things down in my notebook . But later I would transfer them into digital documents, that way I didn't look rude during these interactions. While using a notebook wasn't exactly efficient for me personally, I still needed to have a checklist, and since most of my work is on a computer, I created a daily checklist where I could link projects, quickly jot down reminders or events, and still have the satisfaction of crossing things off my list. HIGH TECH MIDDLE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SLIDESFor this assignment, I was told to prepare the slides for the last professional development class we were running at High Tech Middle. There was already an agenda and worksheets created beforehand, but I was asked to create the slides that would visually guide the class of the agenda, while my mentor was away at a meeting. In this assignment, I learned how to be effective with less words and visually engaging. EQUITY DEEP DIVE ACTION PLAN DATAAs I said before, a lot of my job is about collecting data. One common misconception people have is that data is always numbers, or what we call quantitative. However in Improvement Science we use both quantitative and qualitative data. We use qualitative data to address problems and create action steps, then we use quantitative measures to analyze how well our actions are improving the issue. Down below is all the action plans each school site created as a staff to address the problems in their school, after the Equity Deep Dive event. TEXTING PROGRAM FEEDBACK - SENIOR INTERVIEWSI did a few things in preparation to creating the text templates for the summer texting program. I read research papers on previous interventions, read excerpts from books, collaborated with the college counselors across the organization, and interviewed seniors who had completed the process. The texting templates were created from a mixture of what I know, college counselors know, seniors know, and colleges sugest you know. Below is the information I received from the two seniors, Asia & Lea, I interviewed, and the highlights are the main items I considered during revisions. HIGH TECH ELEMENTARY STUDENT AGENCY DATAI was tasked to create graphs for the student agency data High Tech Elementary had provided the improvement team briefly before the end of the day, and I surprisingly finished it all. I had to organize data in the spreadsheet from classes into grade-wide data, and later school wide data. Below are the graphs I created to represent the school's overall growth in each category of student agency from the fall to the spring. One thing I constantly was told over my internship, is that data must be correctly organized before you can analyze and draw conclusions from it. THE DEEPER LEARNING HUB BRAINSTORM DATAThe Center for Research is currently working with the Hewlett Foundation to possibly create a Hub for Deeper Learning that will provide resources and tools for educators to improve their practice. During a meeting with Hewlett representatives and some of our improvement team, they have tried to identify the needs of The Hub. As The Hub is just a concept, the improvement team is trying to figure out if this is what we really need or if their are already other structures managing the work that would go on in The Hub. While I was not able to attend the meeting, I synthesized the information and ideas they brainstormed on posters into a digital copy below. My internship project is composed of many components, all that relate back to my essential question: How does High Tech High support students through the college application process and through the first year of college? I chose this question, because it eventually became a main theme for the work I was doing the first week of internship with the HTH improvement team. I also wanted to focus on something that seemed relevant to me as a High Tech High student about to enter their senior year. I've also always wondered about how well HTH is preparing me for college, and these concerns I had for the system, I wanted to be a part of improving. I created five main components for my internship project:
Most of the projects I worked on are long term and will be implemented in the near future, so a lot of the work I did for them was developmental. This included reading articles, watching tutorial videos, video chatting with software representatives, interviewing teachers and administration, testing ideas out with students, and designing templates. Each component of my project is something I am passionate about and have always wanted for students and my peers. Before I had came into this internship, I wanted:
Internship Presentation of Learning SlidesHigh Tech High Media Arts NationBuilder Alumni WebsiteThe director of High Tech High Media Arts had asked us to create a platform for alumni to connect. My colleague had done some research about the features on NationBuilder before I had started my internship, and realized they suited our needs to create an alumni website. Once we got the okay to purchase the software, I got to be a part of designing the site. I helped choose the theme, pick the homepage photos, and write the text on the pages. What you see below is an exclusive page on the website, that is now on private. For now, we focused a lot on functionality and creating an initial website that can eventually grow as we build our online alumni community. As of now, High Tech High Media Arts students able to join the alumni community with just a personal email. Summer Melt Texting Program Sample TextsThe summer texting program is a way to hopefully increase the matriculation of high school graduates. Matriculation means that students are enrolling in colleges and not just being accepted. I recently learned, that the summer between the high school senior year and first year of college is where many fall of the wagon. It is a difficult process to apply to college, and it's just as hard actually getting to the campus and taking courses. There is many more requirements and paperwork students must complete at the right times, than just the SAT and college application, before they can even start taking courses. With the texting software we are using, personalized texts are going to remind students for the deadlines of the exact school they are attending and offer real time counseling support. In this project, I have gotten the chance to develop some of the text templates we might possibly use as we pilot the program this summer with High Tech High North County's graduating class of 2016. EdWeekly Blog SubmissionRight now I am still in the process of writing the EdWeekly blog post that will be submitted late June and published around August 8th. With the connections High Tech High has in the education world, EdWeekly has requested that we submit a few blog posts to them, and the Research Center has asked me to write a blog about Deeper Learning and my internship experience. I have waited until the end of internship to gather my thoughts and takeaways from the internship, but look forward to August and I will have a published blog on EdWeekly for you then. Click the button below to see all my scattered thoughts so far. Advice To Freshman VideoWhen I came into my internship, one of the things I learned was that High Tech High originally started as an equity project. A project that would try to level the access to education for all types of students, regardless of gender, race/ethnicity, and skill level. And looking back at the past year's data, the research team found that specifically boys of color were more likely to struggle in school. The improvement team had already sat down with a few seniors from High Tech High and interviewed them. My job was to edit the thirty minute interview into digestible footage. Below is both a summarized and extended version of the interview. Inclusion Team DataAnother part of my internship was collecting and copying down data. Every development meeting I attended, I was in charge of digitally record the information people wrote down, and summarized it. Most of the data I collected was qualitative rather than quantitative. However, the data sheet below was because one of my colleagues asked me to interview members of the inclusion team and get an idea of how the special education team functioned across the organization. Before I had interviewed some of the inclusion staff, we had no idea what the structures were like organization-wide. And in just after interviewing three people, we were able to find that it was drastically different at each school site and was very dependent on the grade level.
Later, the Inclusion Specialist team reached out to the research center to help them implement Improvement Science. So we sat down with them for a four hour meeting, where we got to the root of their problems and helped them develop some next steps to learn more about the issues. Looking forward we are now gaining better insight into what our systems look like across the organization and some of the issues we need to tackle next. Collaborating with the High Tech High North County staff using Design Thinking I have realized a few things at my internship:
Coming into this internship, I didn't really have a sense of a direction for a career path. I took the tools I had: my previous experiences, my work ethic, and an open mindset. And I'm not saying this experience suddenly made me realize what I want to do, but it has given me a little direction. It has also lessened the pressure I felt to pick "the perfect" major in college. During my internship experience, I learned that only the lifelong-learners are the successful ones. The ones who acknowledge that don't know everything, who do research on their own time, and are always striving to improve. Because even in the workplace, adults are still learning how to do things and adapt to the new technologies in their field. I realized that you could practically get by doing any job if you know how to problem solve. It doesn't matter if you don't know the content, but if you know how to access the resources around you, you can easily research and learn the content. I also learned that it's okay to switch majors or careers. I didn't realize until I started working in an office, how common it is to switch career paths. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 80% of college students change their major at least once, if not more. And the Bureau of Labor Statistics claims the average person will hold 10 different jobs before the time they are forty. All of my colleagues started in different job fields before becoming a part of the improvement team, and even before coming into education. And when I asked each one why the switch in jobs, they all said they wanted to do more for future generations. They all went into teaching before coming into the research center, but most studied a science and one majored in integrated studies. I also asked each of them how the skills in college prepared them for their careers, even after they switched. I learned that because of their science backgrounds it was easier for them to process complex information and follow protocols. The one who majored in integrative studies said that going into college he consciously chose a college that would teach him how to problem solve and navigate through life. And now he has knowledge in various areas such as Spanish, behavioral economics, statistics & analytics, and tech, because he knows how effectively access resources. However, all of my colleagues share on thing in common, a knowledge of Design Thinking. Design Thinking is a process which helps innovators define problems and implement solutions. And this is what makes my colleagues so successful at solving problems in their jobs. Previously I had taken a course in design thinking and immediately noticed an interest in it, and this internship experience has really reinforced my passion for it. I started to realize how Design Thinking methodologies are applicable to every job field, and now I want to pursue either a major in mechanical engineering or science, which both use Design Thinking. Moving forward, I also have gained a deeper knowledge of the college application and transition process that I could not have learned anywhere else. Creating these programs to support students pursuing college has indirectly been a way of troubleshooting before I experience it myself. I am so grateful to have had my internship experience, and the fact that I have felt comfortable making mistakes in a such supportive environment, makes me feel confident moving forward as I enter the adult world. It's my last week of internship, and while I am super excited for summer to soon start, I am also very disappointed to leave my internship. It's been a very fast paced few weeks, and I have enjoyed collaborating with my colleagues. I hope that the projects I am helping develop will eventually be implemented and benefit my graduating class and future HTH students. Feel free to click on the photos below or hover to read the caption. After three weeks here at my internship, I can finally feel comfortable saying I am part of the research center's improvement team. The improvement team was very welcoming my first day, and immediately introduced me as a member of the team in meetings and even included me in important team emails. I honestly was very shocked that they considered me as part of the team so early on. I didn't feel like my work was actually significant until halfway through the second week.
I did many tasks for each member of the team through the first few days. Recording and collecting data, attending meetings, and making copies. They asked me my opinion on things constantly, and for the first week and a half we were just talking about our visions for the upcoming projects. Towards the end of the second week, all we did was research: by watching videos and reading many articles and books. Now in the third week I am actually starting to delve deeper into the first steps of these big projects that will most likely be ongoing or implemented in the future. The team helped me to determine my passions within the work and also the skills sets I'd like to learn, in order to create my own internship project, which happened to consist of a variety of components. At this time of the year, the improvement team is figuring out what they want to work on for next year, so most of my parts have been in creating the vision and developing the initial pieces of it. For example, we want to launch a texting program for seniors to get access to college counseling over the summer, and my job has been in finding out the steps in the process, finding out what works and doesn't work for teens, thinking of the content of the texts that will be sent out, and researching a software that will allow us to fulfill the needs we identify. For me, a successful day means progressing through my tasks, getting things done for when my colleagues need them, and asking questions throughout. When I am meetings, I always force myself to have a question for the people I am with. Even when I have talked to my mentor or colleague about what we will ask the others in our meeting, I always push my thinking and engagement further by creating new questions during the meeting. The way I measure my success, is by my involvement in meetings, presentations, and events. The nice thing about always being on different campuses, is that when I am walking with my mentor or colleagues, I can always ask them about things that sparked my interest in a meeting, and they usually explain it or offer me more resources. The way I make my work meaningful to my workplace and education, is by always offering my perspective as a student. I have had the opportunities to attend many educational conferences, support teacher credentialing classes, and be a student ambassador, which have all came in very useful to my job. But I'm also glad that the people I work with don't see me as just a student, so I am able to offer both a professional perspective based on what I know and my more personal experiences as a student. As I develop these research projects with the improvement team, many projects are about preparing students for college, and they have definitely informed me more about the college application process and the obstacles I might run into. But I also think that the work I am contributing to these projects are meaningful, because they might actually be implemented for my graduating class. I am really passionate about both the summer texting program and alumni website we are creating, because I feel I am indirectly impacting my peers. The work we do might impact the decisions and paths students choose to take, and for me that is very exciting. If we implement our program and help a student who wasn't planning to go to college attend a college and open more opportunities for them, I see how these little things we do can definitely benefit society. I also think that my work on these projects has also overall changed my perspective on how I see people. From doing data collection, meeting more people in our organization, and being part of initiatives that help support struggling students, has made me develop more empathy for all the various people around me. Having this empathy, has also changed the dynamic in the office. Since I know my colleagues exhibit things like growth mindset and empathy, I feel confident asking questions and being very honest with them. They understand if I'm confused with one of the protocols or structures they use, and are willing to help me learn what they are. Having this open and honest environment has also allowed me to connect better with my colleagues on a deeper level. I feel comfortable asking them about how they felt when they picked a college major, how they found their way to this job, what hobbies they do in their free time, and what topics make them really tick. I've noticed that each member on this team is unique in their interests, but the same in that they all are life-long learners. And I think they have realized that same kind of endless curiosity in me as well. It's really great that not only am I leaving this internship having worked with awesome people, but that I have taken away some great career advice and summer reading lists too. Overall I am having a great experience at internship, and I just hope I complete all the components of my project. It's been two weeks here at the HTH village in Point Loma, and I can't believe I'm already half way through internship. Time flies, and I feel I'm just starting to dig deeper into my work. I hope that the next two weeks can pack in as much activity as the past two, and hopefully even more. Below are a few images I have taken, throughout my days at internship. Feel free to click through to view the image or hover to read the caption. Speaking up and advocating for myself was something I was scared I would struggle with when I started my internship. However, I think that since I identified it as being a possible weakness before my internship, it has actually become one of my strengths.
I can't think of one specific time so far when I advocated for myself in my internship, but rather it has been an underlying theme throughout. Being a naturally shy person, I thought I would not be able to voice my thoughts and feelings to my mentor. Since day one I've pushed myself to ask a lot of clarifying questions and have check ins very often with my mentor and colleagues. Luckily, I am in a supportive environment that expects me to have many questions. I have never felt uncomfortable or nervous to ask my mentor or coworkers questions, since I first established this ongoing dialogue on the first day of internship. Although, I am also quite stubborn when it comes to advocating for myself. I like to be very independent, and often times will take plenty of time before I ask for help. During my internship, there have been many times where I was given a task to accomplish, and my colleagues waited to see if I could figure out how to accomplish it. For example, I was told to combine two different data sheets with different types of variables. I wasn't told how to do it, however I was just given the hint to look up the term "v lookup" and watch Youtube videos. My coworker had said, I am here to help, but it's better for you to discover it first hand. So after an hour of watching videos and reading tutorials, I was able to learn four new functions on Google sheets and complete the task. Despite taking longer than it might take someone with experience, I was proud of my persistence, and I know my persistence shocked my coworker. And while persistence is good, it also has a flaw. Sometimes I took too long to complete simple tasks, that I should have already asked my mentor for help with. On my second day I was told to make copies for multiple documents for our big event later that week. Some of the documents were one sided, some had to become double sided, or stapled, or printed on a particular color of paper. My instructions were very clear yet specific. When I got to the copier room it seemed simple enough. However, someone before me had jumbled with the settings and none of my copies were printing correctly. I probably tried to adjust the copier settings for a half hour and ended up wasting a whole packet of paper (that got recycled), until I finally asked my mentor to help me fix the settings. Eventually I got the hang of the copier, but let's just say you should always print a proof copy before you print a load of them. Nowadays, I set a timeframe for myself when completing tasks. If I can't figure out how to do something myself in a certain amount of time, I ask for assistance. This prevents me from being too dependent and not wasting my time. Advocating for yourself can be a hard thing to decide with when you're trying your best to be a memorable intern. You don't want to be remembered as the awfully dependent intern, but you should also be learning new things from your mentor and be constantly challenged. I know I worry each day about if I'm too dependent, but I just have to remind myself that I'm not in my internship to know everything, I'm there to get a better perspective. So far the work I'm being given is meaningful work that is expanding my skill sets. Not having enough to do is a nonexistent problem for me. My colleagues always ask me what I'd like to do and what I have previously been assigned before they give me more work. It allows me to pace myself, but they also appreciate my input in what direction I'd like to go in and what I prioritize. And in order to keep track of things, I have been following the tip to bring around a notebook to all the meetings I go to. I haven't found it as helpful as I thought, but I have created a digital to-do lists where I am able to easily jot down reminders, change the order of priority, and link all the documents and work I do, since most of it is online. Now I can go back to any day and see exactly what I did and access what I worked on. I'm getting sick of dressing up and waking up early to be extra punctual everyday, but I know it'll benefit me in the long run. I'm really enjoying my second week of internship and I love working with my colleagues. Each one of them has a different skill set to teach me and it makes each day more exciting than the last. My internship project is composed of many components, all that relate back to my essential question:
How does High Tech High support students through the college application process and through the first year of college? I chose this question, because it eventually became a main theme for the work I was doing the first week of internship with the HTH improvement team. I also wanted to focus on something that seemed relevant to me as a High Tech High student about to enter their senior year. I've also always wondered about how well HTH is preparing me for college, and these concerns I had for in the system I wanted to have a part in improving them. I will be creating four main components for my internship project:
The advice for freshman video, is something that has already been filmed by teachers at High Tech High. It includes three boys of color giving their perspective of their freshman year and how they have became successful as seniors about to graduate. But they aren't type A students who always had it easy. They give an authentic voice to the video providing details on the obstacles they faced, including some of them repeating freshman year, and also what motivated them to persist. I recently learned that our organization initially was an equity project, however it is seen in our school's data, that we are not supporting boys of color as well as we should. This video was created in order to acknowledge and inform the struggles incoming freshman might face. Next is a text messaging program I am helping develop with the improvement team and college advisor at High Tech High International. We realized that many High Tech High students have struggled with the transition to college, and we wanted a way to follow and support our alumni. We hope to help HTH alumni by reminding them they still have a community rooting them on in college, by sending them text messages to remind them about important stages and milestones in the college transition experience. This text messaging program will alert students of things like making sure your FAFSA has been received from the college you are attending to how to get through college finals. Next is the Inclusion data I am collecting from all of our campuses. Each Inclusion program is varied at each site, and in order to improve and better support the system, we need to better understand how the programs are running separately. We have no idea what each program looks like, and we want to make a more uniform system for our Inclusion programs. So I am learning how to collect both quantitative and qualitative data effectively, to get a better oversight of the inclusion program. Once we know we can help the Inclusion specialist, whose role is to support students and provide alternatives so that more students can access the education. Next I am also helping design a website, where HTH alumni can connect. One thing we as an improvement team have researched is that if students feel a sense of belonging they are more likely to persist through adversity. We also noticed that coming from an alternative education like High Tech High creates a unique bond between students. We wanted a place for High Tech High students to connect with other students from other sites, as well as provide a space for them to network. To meet HTH students going to the same school or pursuing similar majors. Through this process I will be able to learn how to use Nation Builder, and have a big role in the overall design of how it turns out. Lastly, I am writing a 600-1,000 word blog post submission to EdWeekly. My mentor approached me about doing a blog post on my internship experience and what I've learned about Deeper Learning through the process, to wrap up my internship. It will then be edited by the improvement team, submitted, and hopefully published. I am very excited moving forward with my project now that it is finalized. And while it seems like it will be a lot of scattered tasks and work to be done, it will be very much like what members of the improvement team do on a daily basis. The reason I chose to do multiple components, is because Improvement Science requires and practices varying types of skill sets. I didn't want to only stick to one thing, because I felt I wouldn't have gotten the full experience of working in the improvement team. With each component I will be supported by a different member in the team and learn their specialities. Wish me luck! Below is a summary of conversations with my mentor about her work:
Daisy Sharrock, is part of a team that specializes in Education Improvement Science. Officially she works for the High Tech High Graduate School of Education under the Center for Research for Equity & Innovation (CREI). Her entire job revolves around improving our education systems in the High Tech High organization, and also collaborates with other schools to implement deeper learning in schools across the nation. She never just has one project going on at once. Whatever improvement means, she's working on it, and all at once. Her responsibilities range from teaching developmental classes to the staff in the HTH organization, to hosting workshops to educators to spread more equitable and deeper learning, to collecting data of our school's graduates, to analyzing the numbers and creating concrete steps to tackle some of our system's issues, and setting up programs to lessen the disparities between who attends college and who doesn't in the HTH organization. Although Daisy has a lot of work here at High Tech High, and enjoys it very much, she she originally grew up in British Columbia, Canada. After she graduated high school, she attended the University of British Columbia with a major in Biochemistry. Later she became a first generation college graduate. Daisy worked as a lab manager studying treatments for cancer, but later decided to form a web design business with her brother. She later decided she wanted to work from home, and was contracted to analyze data and write scientific papers for scientists. And later she found her way to High Tech High as a Math & Chemistry teacher. And eventually finding her spot on the CREI team. When I ask her, "Why did you switch from Biochemistry to Education?'. She says that the work she does here for the improvement center is not quite as different as one might think. She explains that the processes and protocols the improvement center uses are just like the ones used in science labs and engineering firms. They use a lot of scientific protocols to identify the actual problems in the system, not just the perceived problems, using data, and later use design thinking methods and diagrams to create detailed steps to approach the issues they've identified. I later learned that all of my other colleagues that are part of the improvement team, also came from a science background. They all kept saying that majoring in a science if you're unsure of what you want to do is a good decision, because a degree in science allows you do so many other types of jobs as well, because it requires very particular skills sets used in most jobs. With the past three days located here at the High Tech High Point Loma village, I have been able to learn more about the history of our organization, and the distinctions between the sites. I learned that High Tech High originally started off as an equity project, and the purpose of CREI, is to make sure we are always improving our program to provide equitable education. I have even gotten to meet some of the higher up officers in the organization, and how difficult it is to structure a meeting where these more vocal figures will let more quiet voices speak. Overall, I've had a great time in my first few day of internship and have appreciated everything my colleagues have taught me so far. |
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August 2016
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