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Students Graduate High School with Much More Than a Diploma

10/20/2015

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PictureFoshay Tech Academy senior class pose at Ignited following their presentations
As a high school teacher, I think about what happens after my students graduate from the three year Tech Academy program I run at Foshay, a K-12 span school in South Los Angeles. Foshay’s graduation rate is among the highest in the district with over 95% of the students graduating in the last four years. This fall more than 90% of my 2015 graduates were first generation to attend college.

I am determined that the three years I share with my Tech Academy 10th-12th graders must count for something more than a certificate at graduation and a hug goodbye. There is a growing economic gap in the US and as a teacher I concentrate on the skills, experience and proof my students leave high school with so that they can use it to their advantage to get jobs and scholarships and create opportunities for themselves.

Since 2010 I have moved all of my students to online digital portfolios and resumes that they begin in 10th grade and manage and update every semester. This trend of portfolios is reaching the colleges and make all my students more competitive and prepared for their future. The juniors take programming courses that give them official certificates of completion and the seniors do a capstone marketing campaign where they form business teams that tackle a community issue. The teams  build a prototype and then launch a marketing campaign to build awareness.

Every year the capstone project goes through a new iteration to make it stronger.  Over the years I have built in scaffolding deadlines for practice presentations, drafts of posters, and producing a marketing event to test the viability of the campaigns. These deadlines keep the groups on task and on time but it also eliminates the restlessness the students get in the middle of the project. Students are used to short spurts of work and then move onto the next thing. They need to learn endurance and how to work on a single idea for a long stretch of time - also known as a job.

For 2014-2015 school year, the teams formed in the Fall when each individual pitched an app idea to a team of software developers. The judges selected the top seven ideas and teams were formed. Each team got a mentor to conference with every other week to help brainstorm and troubleshoot their plans.

It was challenging to add the app building component because it took a long time to define the concept and flesh out a wire frame model to see how the app would look. However the process did build communication and problem solving skills. Every group successfully pitched their work, applied for the Verizon App Challenge and four groups presented their app ideas at the SET Awards -  an annual event from the Entertainment Industries Council that are presented to media for accurate and impactful entertainment portraying and promoting the fields of science, engineering, technology and math.

When second semester began the students got to work getting their message across to their core audience. The campaigns involved a poster ad, 30 second commercial, social media campaign and an event that took place on campus three weeks prior to the presentation. Every team wrote press releases to announce their efforts to the media.

So when the class of 2015 graduated they each had a digital portfolio of work samples that included graphic design, programming, original sites hand coded in html, an updated resume and proof of a complete marketing campaign that they had a key role in executing. I have already received letters, emails and visits from the recent graduates to tell me that they have received internships and jobs at college based on the strength of these portfolios. They have told me that they are comfortable in their programming courses because of the strength of their foundation in the Tech Academy.

I know that when students graduate from the Tech Academy and they fill out an application or partake in an interview they are prepared and ready. They have answers when they are questioned:, “What is a time you had to work with others? What is a challenge you had and how did you overcome it? When were you a leader and what did you do?” The students have proof of experience and success. That is what happens when a student spends three years in the Tech Academy.

​Click here for Part 2:
Students Reflect on the Capstone Experience

Students Explain the Projects

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ANALYZING THE TECH ACADEMY SENIOR CAPSTONE PROJECT: THE BEST WORK DOES NOT ALWAYS WIN, SOMETIMES IT IS ABOUT THE HEART

10/19/2015

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Picture
The final senior capstone project for the Tech Academy is an ambitious project that made the students use all the skills they had learned in the Tech Academy the four previous semesters. This project challenged their graphic design, web design and programming skills. However, it also taught them the importance of time management, public speaking, teamwork and communication. This second group of skills are the soft skills they will need to navigate the world and follow the opportunities. These soft skills are confidence building and are what is needed to gain recognition for awards and jobs in college and careers.

Every team delivered a complete presentation about their ad campaigns that was well thought out, mature, professional and innovative. In fact, the judges at the end had a heated debate over the best team. Project ideas  included: Foshay Buddies - an app to pair up upperclassmen with middle school students who needed a friend; Foshay Calendar - an app to better the school calendar to keep people informed; Shake a Goal - an app that puts a fun spin on a to-do list to help fight procrastination; Speak it Out - a game and tips to help students gain confidence in their public speaking; Project: CleanUp - a social media game to encourage students to clean up the trash in their school and  Inner Beauty - an app with motivational tutorials and tips to help people build their confidence and feel beautiful.

The judges debated the winners. They had rubrics for scoring but did not want to reward based on sheer points. The judges advocated to vote on passion since that is what really happens in the world of advertising. Metrics are great but they wanted to address the feelings as well. They were torn between the Foshay Calendar team  and Foshay Buddies.

The Calendar team realized the school had an underused tool and they took the initiative to create a system for more people to add items to the calendar and then held a marketing event in addition to launching a social media campaign and designing posters with the QR code to the calendar website to get people to know about the calendar and begin using it. The judges at Ignited were impressed with the outcome and amazed that the team included metrics about the results before and after their campaign about teachers and students using the calendar. The issue the judges had with the presentation was that there was no emotional connection stirred when it came to the calendar.

On the other hand, Foshay Buddies stole their heart and as a result won them over. The premise of the Foshay Buddy team was that there are too many students at our school who need a positive role model in their lives. The team collected names and turned it into the dean’s office and counselors so there is now a list of students that can be called upon to be a buddy for students struggling to connect and feel safe and supported on campus. At the presentation the team used the buddy wheel they invented to get unknown pairs to team up and do an activity to help form a common experience.

This was a lesson in how the “smartest”  or those that “best play by the rules” don’t always win, personality and heart count for a lot. At the end the students reflected back to the reason why networking, and smiling is so important. People respond often with their feelings not with straight up data. The judges also respected that instead of doing an anti-bullying campaign the Buddies team created a positive proactive approach to respond to people who are hurting.

After the presentations and awards the students shared what they gained from the experience. Student after student stood to say that they had joined the Tech Academy to learn some computer skills - maybe program something and design a website. Then they ALL said that what they gained in addition to technical skills was confidence in themselves and learning to trust others. By being a cohort for three years they gained a family and a place that was theirs on campus. One student who was polite and quiet for two years said that he found his voice this year as a result of the academy and this project.

Click here to see the videos of student reflections::
Mario:
I can only say that my group did so well and beyond our original plan. My group spoke with confidence and went with the flow to make our judges understand and we ended as runners-up. Our Foshay Calendar will always be used. I have learned a lot on this project. This project covered the whole school wide learning goals. It was the best experience I have ever had in the Tech Academy and I am so proud of every single team and my partners who worked so hard in this project."Hard work pays off" as they say.

Darwin: I will promote myself by listing the problem we addressed, what we did to try to solve the problem, and the steps we took to organize the social media campaign and the event. The biggest takeaway from this experience was how to work efficiently with other people. - Darwin


Martha
I felt that we did better than we thought it was going to be because we were more confident. I will use this by explaining what I did in my group and overall what we did to make our campaign successful. I learned that in order for us to be successful we had to work together even though we had our own individual jobs and learned that this connects to the real life.



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    Leslie Aaronson

    Former Technology Teacher; LAUSD Teacher of the Year: Strategic Director for K12 Initiatives at NCWIT; Manage Girls Build; Mother of two girls

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