Here it is below:
Because of our work differences compared to other internships, our physical project in England was a poster describing the culture of High Tech High and what makes it. This poster will be up in the school for teachers to see and reference off of. Here it is below: Below are my two video projects I worked on at HTeNC. The first is a small video about what makes a good day at school for the students. I didn't have too much time for this one, as the second video took up a lot more time (Because it was very important to the Kindergarten). The Kindergarten decided to do a Wild Kratts inspired movie. Each student had a certain animal they studied, and from there they filmed short videos about their animal's "power," such as a bee's ability to sting.
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As an intern in two "similar", but ultimately very different environments, I've come to appreciate the schooling I've received and the opportunity to travel. In England, I realized appreciation what HTH has done. I realized quickly that I wouldn't ever enjoy my learning in an environment other than project based at HTHNC. Watching what the kids at HTeNC do compared to what the children do in England is so mindblowingly different. Children at HTeNC are encouraged to have bigger goals that involve the community and improving both themselves and others. On the other hand, children in England are taught from a very early age to quickly finish exams as proof of their intelligence and learning. It will be really interesting to see how these two emerging groups will compare in the future.
As for how internship has affected my direction in life, it's only crossed out what might have been a possibility to me. I want to try other fields, instead of sticking to what I've always known: education. However, the future is still uncertain to me. Even with senior year quickly approaching, I don't have my heart set on any college, nor do I think I will until I've found what I want to do in my life. However, I want whatever I eventually do to be meaning For my first POL assignment blog post, I decided to use the prompt questions: "How did you make a meaningful contribution to your work place?" and "How was your work significant or meaningful to the world beyond school and your specific internship site?"
I felt like I made a meaningful contribution in both England and back at HTeNC by helping both promote change, whether it be revolutionizing the education system or protecting our natural environment. Back at England, I was a "consultant" for teachers, and my primary job was to help teachers get the hang of such a new teaching style, in hopes that their school would lay the path to better education in England. I made my work meaningful by taking their concerns and giving advice as seriously and accurately as possible, while also critiquing as best as I could. When I could, I would give as many resources as possible such as guides and websites they could access should they need help after I'm gone. Erina and I were there for the teachers, and as so, we devoted our work-time to them and their classes. As for HTeNC, I've devoted my time to perfecting their last projects that will be shown in an exhibition to the public. As so, this project just couldn't be rushed, and hours of editing, fixing, re-learning programs, and troubleshooting were dumped in. I feel like this really helped the teachers, as without an extra hand helping, they would have had to complete what I've done by themselves. My work was more significant to beyond the classroom in both internships. In England, Erina and I worked to help establish project based learning in a school, and hopefully the trend will continue to other schools. Walbottle wanted to students to enjoy their learning and be able to talk about it openly, something we at HTH do naturally. This goes beyond into the education system of England. It only takes a step to change to pioneer what could be a change in the entire system, especially with the support of teachers and students. At HTeNC, I hope by helping them finish up their movie and poster project quicker and edited well that they will get the publicity that was meant for the project. Their posters will be put up in parks and near ponds to help the public start caring about our San Diego environment and wildlife. All in all, I feel like my work in my internships was valuable and meaningful in the grand scheme of things. I feel like my work has helped boost changes both workplaces want As an intern at the HTeNC, I've been helping a kindergarten class finish up the year strong and being prepared for their exhibition. Every day, I spend a good amount of time editing videos, perfecting sound tracks, and filming/finding missing parts. I've also helped design posters for their exhibition, using the program GIMP. Below you can see the screen I end up seeing for hours on end each day. I work with iMovie and iPhoto primarily, as it was what was given as a resource to me. Below is the theme song to the movie. It's a little rough, a little silly, but with kindergarteners.. What else can you expect? It was challenging getting the kids voices to even somewhat match up to the background song, but I think it turned out pretty cute for this project. Today was my last day in Newcastle. I have a day full of traveling tomorrow. It's bittersweet, really. I've come to enjoy the presence of my host family and the staff at the school, but I am glad to be going home and back in the same time zone as my family and friends. Erina and I presented to the entire upper-level staff and leaders of the school in a really good, quick example POL. I hope our example will help them perfect their POL's which they're planning to implement next September. I'm really happy to see that we've made an impact and have helped. The staff have been so passionate and eager to try our ideas and I really hope everything works out for them. When I get home, I can't wait to share all my stories, candy, and experiences with everyone. I'm really glad I took the opportunity to come here and that I pushed through a little bit of homesickness. I won't miss the cold, but I will miss the charm of England. I would recommend this internship to everyone, as both an educational experience and a personal life experience. So thanks for all the chips and tea! Hopefully I will be back at a later date to share this culture with my family and friends. After a week and a half of being here at Walbottle, I've realized a lot about myself and this profession. English teachers are very hard-working and under a lot of stress, and I can understand now why many of them are pushing for reforms and changes in the education system. I, personally, would never want to work in an English school, as I feel like the pressure and lack of enthusiasm from students would be too disheartening for me. I have a lot of respect for those that can, though. The school staff went to expensive universities to get jobs that are under a lot of pressure and aren't always rewarding (however they can be). I've found that I don't think I would do well in such in environment, however I'm not sure how I would in the American system. If it's anything like it, I don't think I would want to do it.
I've also learned that while I don't mind speaking and interacting with large groups, I would thrive much better in environments where I can work with a small group of people closely, so I want to look for jobs where I can work with a close team. I also have found that I want to stay closer when I go away to college. Too much change is very stressful for me, so if I can stay home while transitioning to a different school, I think I'll be much happier and it'll be easier for me to get comfortable with the community. I feel like this internship was quite a learning and eye-opening experience, and I'm glad I had this early on before I chose my profession. I've found this trip to be full of experiences where I've had to show self-advocacy. Being by myself for the first time so far away from home is very stressful, and getting discouraged is very easy. I've been homesick my entire time here, although I've pushed myself to overcome and enjoy my trip as much as possible. More than once I've had to give myself time alone, time to catch up on duties, and time to just keep up with my concerned family. My mentor, host family, and other staff have given me a lot of support in efforts to make my time here the best, which I appreciate the most. Letting them know I needed that support was difficult and embarrassing at first, though, because I felt so naive and lost. However, I've come to realize that it was better for me to have done so, instead of making my trip miserable.
I've tried my best to follow the guidelines, and they've worked fabulously for me. I don't think we'll be forgotten mostly because the school is just so excited to have helpers from America. Our schedule sometimes gets packed with teachers wanting us to visit their classroom. I hope that we're leaving a good impression on the staff and students and that they've found our advice and critique to be helpful. Walbottle is a large public school in Newcastle Upon Tyne, England. Erina and I were assigned to this school by the Innovation Unit, and we're helping the school establish High Tech High and project-based learning characteristics such as critique, presentations of learning (POLs), and student led conferences (SLCs). Walbottle has a student body of around 1800 students, about three times as large as High Tech High North County. The teachers also have very different schedules. No one teacher is put with the same group of students. Some teachers have classes from years 7, 9, and 10, while other teachers may have different years. Each teacher has a subject they teach, and the school is divided into wings organized by the subjects. There is a humanities wing (geography, religious studies, and history mixed), English, math, technology, physical education, science, and an art department.
This is very different from High Tech High, which assigns teachers a subject and a team. That teacher only teaches students from that team, who are all in the same grade. This means that teachers as High Tech are able to make more personal relations with their students. We also have much fewer "classes," as some our subjects are more mixed and integrated. Day to day, Erina and I spend our days sitting in on classes and meeting with students. We are considered part of the staff, and as so, we work with the teachers rather than the students. Our primary job is giving advice and explaining High Tech High policies to teachers who wish to implement them. While in classes, we observe procedures, give students help acclimating to new types of learning, and give our own critique. We've had numerous meetings with staff and groups of teachers about POLs and SLCs and how to implement them both on a class scale and a larger, whole school scale. Erina and I work with Emma who takes us around to work with several teachers and school staff. We decided to ask her our mentor questions, as she was the closest thing we had to a mentor. We prompted her with these questions:
She answered with the following (some paraphrasing): "My job title is Director of Learning and New Technologies, and the main duties and responsibilities for me are to lead the school strategy for the improvement of teaching and learning. What that means is that my responsibility is to work with the students to get the learning and schooling that we want and to work with the teachers to make sure they well equipped and supported to be able to deliver that learning. She also monitors standardization of the school. "I've been here my entire career, this being my eighth year at Walbottle... I wanted to work with the younger and older students, and this school gave me that opportunity." "A typical work day is busy" Some days she teaches students, some days she has meetings with teachers, and some days she has coaching sessions with teachers. She has lunch duty, break duty, and bus duty and manages art, textiles, and technology. And on days she doesn't have teaching, she does admin work. "It depends on what you want to make of the job... Someone taking on my role would have to think differently and innovatively. There'd have to be a willingness to work hard and have long hours; be passionate. Some students just need a little cuddle because they don't get it at home." "I think I wish that I'd realize that anything is possible if you work hard... It took me a while to mature into wanting to learn. And I think back then I thought 'Oh, maybe I'm not bright enough,' but what is brightness?... The key for me is that whatever background you're from, anything is possible if you put the work into it." London:London is absolutely crowded. People are commuting and traveling constantly. It seems as if there's a lot of different types of people just melted in, and this is especially evident with the restaurants. Just trying to find something that isn't Vietnamese, Indian, or something exotic is a little bit of a challenge. Fish and chips stands are pretty much in every tourist destination. I think the closest equivalent in the US would be New York, especially with the flashing lights, extremely tourist-driven business, and busy culture. The metro seems to be a very popular form of transportation, but that doesn't mean the streets aren't crowded and hectic. Double level buses barrel through the streets, and they could care less if your foot is about to be crushed under their tires. It's quite frightening watching other tourists almost being plowed over. I suppose the way California works makes one feel very safe around cars, but I realise now it's purely a luxury. The place is also very expensive. Every meal is about $12 USD, which is ridiculous compared the the $5 fast food meals I'm used to picking up. Newcastle:Riding the train into Newcastle was absolutely a lovely experience. The English country-side was so green and well-kept, it felt as if I was looking into a photograph. Farm animals were scattered between the fields, and I enjoyed getting glimpses of them chewing on grass and aimlessly wandering about. When we finally got to see the city, I was amazed at the size. It was quite bigger than all the other towns our train stopped by, yet smaller than London. It was a nice feeling being in a more comfortable town. I felt much too unfamiliar in London. The buildings and streets in Newcastle were interesting too. I found it funny that the roundabouts really are more popular than they are in the US. It's not to say there aren't streetlights, but just on the way to work everyday is a couple of roundabouts. The school here is also very different. I find it very intimidating, but I'm excited to help students and teachers. Our mentor has packed our schedule with classroom visits and meetings.
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