Part 1 - Worksite Reflection
How did you make a meaningful contribution to your workplace?  My assignment, as an intern under the Innovation Unit, was to help Ken Stimpson School to implement Project Based Learning effectively and correctly.  I was specifically paired with Mr. Robin Norman, the school's music teacher.  Over the course of three days, I helped him write up a twelve week program that he will be able to use with next year's 6th grade students.  The project is intended to help students become proficient with the basics of a musical instrument of their choice and be able to teach their peers their newly acquired skills.

How did your project go from an idea or inspiration to a final product?
  I started with two hours or so of simply getting to know the teacher I was going to work with.  This helped me to get familiar with his teaching style and the goals he was hoping to accomplish in the coming school year.  In particular, he wanted his early students to spend their first year with him simply learning an instrument, and he needed an effective way to support them in doing so.  I helped him think through a few different methods before we came to the conclusion that the best method would be to give the students class time for learning the instrument, supplemented with a homework assignment of blogging about their learning progress.  The final product would be a performance, and a tutorial for learning their instrument comprised of the information on their blog.

How was your work significant or meaningful to the world beyond school and your specific internship site?
  The teachers that my group worked with were incredibly passionate about getting project based learning into their school, all they needed was a bit of guidance to get started on the right track.  Based on their performance and enthusiasm during our stay, I think it is fairly obvious that the teachers are going to continue moving forward.  It was a great experience to help them reach for their goal of turning their lessons into something that could teach their students real life skills.

Part 2 - Going Beyond
What new appreciations did you develop while working as an intern?  It was a fascinating experience to be on the other side of the classroom, particularly in another country.  The English system is not built to accommodate children who can't learn from formulaic lessons and textbooks; the kids are simply written off as "low performing."  Having seen this, I gained an immense appreciation for the effort teachers in the High Tech system take to build relationships with their students and teach to their needs, rather than to arbitrary standards.

What qualities or characteristics did you see in the people around you that you want to develop in yourself?  I would be proud to be even half as passionate about whatever line of work I end up in as the teachers at Ken Stimpson were about their students' well-being.  Not only did they endure long hours, insane schedules, and an ever-present threat of evaluation, but they were willing to make time to stand up and make change for the sake of their students. 

How might internship influence the direction of your life?  This internship has definitely made me re-evaluate my previous considerations of pursuing a career in education.  Seeing the restrictions on the teachers in England made it clear to me that I would not be an effective mentor in just any school system; I would much rather work somewhere where I have the freedom to tailor my classroom's experience not to an annual test, but to the students themselves.
 
Spent today in Cambridge with Mr. O'Neill.
 
Created a second draft with Mr. Norman today, this time detailing 12 weeks' worth of music class. Link.

Essential Questions:
-          Which musicians do you admire?
-          How did said musicians get their start?
-          How did they approach learning music?
-          How do you intend to learn to play a musical instrument?

Project Overview:

Students will learn the basics of an instrument to be able to play a simple piece after a period of 12 weeks.  They will need to research musicians they enjoy admire and how they learnt their skillset.  They then will choose from a limited selection of instruments and songs to learn.  Having learnt these skills, they will then need to tutor others to the same level and perform their chosen piece in front of an informal audience. 

Deliverables:
-          Online blog with a record of personal goals and growth.
-          Performance of a recognizable piece of music.
-          Student generated tutorial book or video based on the method they used to learn their skillset. 
           This will be used to teach others to the same level.

Project Map:

Week One:
-          Introduce project
-          Set up blogs
-          Present options
            o   Guitar, Uke, Keyboard, or instruments identified in class.
            o    Song choices - http://www.guitarfriendly.net/easy-guitar-songs-for-beginners/
-       Homework – Answer essential questions

Week Two:
-          Analyse existing tutorials
-          Discuss tutorials in small groups (What they do well, what needs improvement)
-          Learn basic mechanics (Tuning, maintenance)
-          Homework – Write up discussion results

Weeks Three - Six:
-          Use tutorials to learn instrument of choice
-          Periodic check ins
-          Homework – Continuously record progress on blog (at least weekly)

Week Seven:
-          Buddy critique
-          Practice teaching methods to one another
-          Homework – Continuously record progress on blog (at least weekly)

Weeks Eight – Ten:
-          Fine tune skills
-          Be ready to perform
-          Think about tutoring plan (Best ways)
-          Homework – Creating tutorial video or workbook

Week Eleven:
-          Showcase progress
-          Begin implementing tutorials
-          Final round of critique

Week Twelve:
-          Final performance
-          Presentation of tutorials

Critiquing:

-          Use Kind, Helpful, Specific statements while critiquing
-          What works?
-          What could be improved?
-          Be constructive

Project Reflection:

-          If you were to do this project again, how would you make it better?
-          Do you think you will continue learning this instrument?
-          How can you further improve your skillset?
-          If you were to grade your group, what grade would you give them? What about yourself?
-          How do you think this project related to the real world?

 
Chris Wakefield arrived today so that Sydney and I could get started on helping three teachers develop project-based learning in their respective classrooms.  Today, during the prototyping phase, I worked with music teacher Robin Norman to create the following lesson plan for use with a year 7 group.
Instrumental PBL

GOALS

1.       To be able to perform a simple recognisable song on Guitar, Ukulele or Keyboard
2.       To understand the technique associated with instrument (e.g. tuning a guitar)
3.       Ability to tutor others to same standard

STARTING POINTS

1.       Show examples of tutorials.
    a.       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWmn21knRKM
    b.      http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6FVMHcy5LnzWgHLdb2WdM96xL3fBv2Mw
    c.       http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4652B349B338C8AB

2.       Write-up detailing –
    a.      Which instrument chosen
    b.      Why?
    c.       What their best approach is?
            i.      Tutorial Video
            ii.      Mentor
            iii.      Book

3.       Brainstorming Skillset within group to ‘id’ stronger students.

4.       Bring in and critique tutorial material of any type.

5.       Show demo of progress report/blog. (www.RNNtutorial.weebly.com)

MOVING ON

1.       Set-up progress blog (www.weebly.com)

2.       Preparation of instrument (e.g. guitar tuning)

3.       Set and record personal goals with realistic timeframes.

4.       Research appropriate material to perform (RNN to make list)
    a.       http://www.guitarfriendly.net/easy-guitar-songs-for-beginners/
    b.      http://guitar.about.com/library/weekly/aa071200e.htm
    c.       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcPhKVAshMI

PROJECT ‘BULK’

1.       Instrument Technique

2.       Learning individual sections of piece and then ‘putting together’

3.       Building their own tutorials
    a.       Book
    b.      Video

4.       Blog kept up-to-date as homework

SELF AND PEER ASSESSING

1.       Using class skillsets to aid

2.       Present blogs to each other for critique

3.       Regular opportunities to explain and show week-on-week

4.       Showcasing created tutorials

LESSON TIME

1.       Instrument Work

2.       Peer Assess

3.       Set goals for next lesson.

HOMEWORK

1.       Self Assess/Blog

On another note, I'll have pictures up as soon as I get back to California.  Having trouble with uploads where I'm at.
 
Worked in two science classes today.  One was with a “low performing” year 7 class, the other with incoming year 5s.  I’d like to know how they define low performing here.  From what I’ve heard, students are assessed regularly on their ability to gain information in a short period of time, often as short as fifteen minutes.  My guess is that the low performing kids are the ones that require hands on activities or individual instruction in order for things to sink in, teaching methods that just aren’t practical in fifteen minute chunks.  It really is unfortunate; some of the kids seemed perfectly capable right up until the lesson shifted from tangible experiments to worksheets. 

After school, my hosts took me to the local freerunning gym, had a great time there.  Almost managed to do a front-flip, but I need more practice.
 
More observation today.  Spent some time in some of their art and drama classes, which are part of the core curriculum here.  It’s sad, in my opinion; they get one hour of each per week.  Can’t see how they expect kids to become proficient in a subject like drama when there’s a week’s gap in between each lesson.  The teacher told us he sees upwards of 500 students each week, making it all but impossible for him to form any real relationships with individuals.  Makes me really grateful for HTH’s system. 

Got to have some time off after lunch; spent it playing football with Bradley (my host) and his friends.  Hadn’t had a chance to change out of my school clothes, so I ended up kicking a ball around in dress pants and a tie.  Still managed to score.
 
Spent most of today in classes, observing how things work here.  Mr. O’Neill, our contact at the school, had us sit in on two of his Geography classes so that his kids could ask us questions.  It really is fascinating when you realize how many preconceptions other people have about the US, California in particular. “Is it like High School Musical over there?”  “Are all the girls cheerleaders?”  Sounds funny to HTH students.  The kids here have crazy schedules – 13 classes and up to 17 teachers on a weekly rotation; some don’t even know the names of all their teachers, much less where to go off the top of their heads.  When they heard that we have the same 4-5 teachers every day, without fail someone would say “That sounds boring.”  They just couldn’t grasp right away that it would be new content every day.

 
Met my host family at the Peterborough train station, and we headed to their house in Ramsey.  Massively different from London, I must say.  Where London had high-rise Victorian architecture, Ramsey has fields as far as the eye can see, the skyline only broken by the odd wind turbine.  Nice place; the open air is refreshing.
 
I've been in England for four days now, and I've really been enjoying it.

I met up with eight other students on Thursday, and we jumped right into touring around.  Our contact, Chris Wakefield, started us off with street markets and museums, and we finished off with some traditional pub food.  The other days have been more with more of the same, with sightseeing and landmarks along the way.

Tomorrow morning, Monday the 3rd, Sydney, Megan, and I will be starting work at Ken Stimpson school.  We spent today getting acquainted with our host families, and I've had a great time.

More to follow tomorrow.
 
In preparation for our trip to England, Sydney, Megan and I visited High Tech High and Kipp Adelante along with students from other High Tech schools in order to get a better idea of what the three of us would be doing at Ken Stimpson in England.

High Tech High | INFORMATION DESIGN LECTURE

The team spent a day at High Tech High Point Loma learning the basis of Information Design and how to apply it during our internship.

Information Design: The concept of presenting information in a manner specifically tailored to the needs of the audience, using a process of observation, evaluation, and multiple trials of implementation.

After a brief lecture, we visited a classroom in the nearby High Tech Middle, where we observed a class's critique session.  Our first assignment was to take note of what worked well, what didn't, and how students worked around issues.

Some of the issues we noticed right away was that the students were often left with nothing to do, and they were confused by the seat arrangement.  Using this information, we broke into teams and planned a restructuring of the critique session, using methods ranging from quick rotations to in depth Socratic discussion.

The next step was to test the methods on an actual audience.  We modeled our plans just outside the classroom, calling out small groups to run test sessions.  After seeing the results of our ideas, we revised the plans and presented them to the classroom's teacher.

During the presentations, we learned that the teacher thought that all three of our completely different session plans were effective and useful.  This taught us that when it comes to the real internship, we will need to be open minded and ready to adapt to our audience in multiple ways.

Kipp Adelante | OBSERVATION PERIOD

At Kipp Adelante, we spent two hours experiencing a different sort of learning, so that we would be better informed when it came to working in England.

Kipp Adelante, one of the nation's Kipp schools, is a preparatory institution with a focus on helping underprivileged kids get through college.  As a result, the system they use is incredibly structured, with a notable emphasis on maintaining order within the building.  This was mostly accomplished by enforcing absolute silence in the classroom, and requiring the children to walk single file from class to class.  

During our observation period, I noted that it seemed that the lack of communication between students may be a detriment to their learning in the long run.  The teachers did not seem to facilitate any form of peer critique or cooperation, which made it so that if a student needed help, the teacher was the only available resource.

Based on this, it is my opinion that in order to build an effective growth experience for students, it is important to allow students to support one another in their learning.