Meeting+Notes+12-15

Meeting Notes 12/8 We had a panel of 4 students and the following is a summary of their responses to questions posed by our Action Team. Student #1: 10th grade. 9th grade was great- had supportive teachers very willing to explain/help. Is LEP- moved to the country 2 years ago with no English exposure. Likes being taught like native-English students. Teacher is great help; lets students visit during lunch, take books home, has them ‘hang out’ with non Spanish speakers which has been a great help. His plan when he moved to the U.S.: learn the language in 8th grade, focus on academics in 9th. Just learned what a GPA is 2 weeks ago. Not sure about plans for after high school- likes being able to take electives from different areas to see what he’s interested in. Student #2: 12th grader. 9th grade was too easy- spoon-fed. Got much harder in 10th; junior year was toughest (AP classes). Senior year is a lot easier, and students are talked to as adults. Wants to major in Communications- Media/TV, can not get into some of the colleges on her list (they require portfolio of work/video, and H.S. does not have a broadcast course). ‘Accidentally’ was placed in a journalism class that she didn’t originally want- but course eventually led to her wanting to pursue Comm. Degree. Struggles in math, but takes advanced c lasses in that area to learn more (better teachers, more behaved students- reg. classes have students that don’t care). To reach struggling students, suggests placing with teachers with lots of enthusiasm. Favorite teachers were those that created positive relationships with her. Cited College Forward program as big/only help to preparing for college. Student #3: 12th grader. Likes her upper-level courses because they offer life applicable lessons. Likes teachers with enthusiasm. Want to major in Aerospace Engineering- no program offered at her H.S. Wished there was more college prep. help (apps.), more access to counselors, and more variety in courses (has found it hard to take the electives she wants). Too much TAKS emphasis/pressure- even in upper-level courses. Best teachers have taught individualized, helped with weaknesses, scaffolded instruction. Would like a Personalized Education Plan that has students look at perspective colleges/majors and work back to H.S. course selection. Student #4: 11th grader. Feels M.S. did not prepare him for H.S. Found 9th grade hard, but by 11th has picked up grades and is taking dual credit/AP courses. Prefers the small numbers in AP- had 33 in a reg. English class. Wants to be a band director, feels well-prepared for such a career due to having numerous course options in music. Likes teachers that explain “how to use this in life”. Wished he would have understood how important 9th/10th grade is to college admission. When asked about mentoring, thought it would be a good idea and that students would probably be more receptive to other (older) students. After the student panel, the Team discussed the issues that needed further research and compiled the following list of research categories (name beside is the Team member that agreed to be the lead and will present the findings at our next meeting): · Personalized Education Plan (Marty Kanetzky- marty.kanetzky@gmail.com ). Will look into what this should look like (different elem/MS/HS?), post-graduation preparation, course selection, goal setting, etc. · Transition/Mentoring (Irene Jimenez). upper classmen, grads coming back, College Forward/AVID, community/teachers · Building relationships/engagement (Alisa DiPalma). best practices of successful schools/districts, learning walks, surveys, development of teacher profile · Class size/variety/structure (Linda Kaufmann). distance learning, pooling of resources, schedule ·  Real world/elective tie-in (Cyndie Holmes- cholmes13@austin.rr.com ). capstone/portfolio, mini-mesters. · Resources (Paulette Garza/Cindy Davis). twitter, blogs, community identifying skills needed Homework: Each remaining Team member will sign-up for one of the 6 research areas (please note: if you find something applicable to another of the research areas PLEASE feel free to post it/link on their research page). The sub-committee will then research together, and along the way post materials/links for the others to view. We will BRIEFLY report findings at our next meeting (approx. 10 min. per group). *END NOTES*