Roosevelt on the radio!

Our Roosevelt students were on the radio- in a discussion with Wes Moore, the author of The Other Wes Moore. Click here to download or stream online and listen! Below is the description of the webcast from the OPB website.

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Wes Moore
AIR DATE: Monday, March 7th 2011
POSTED BY: SARAH JANE ROTHENFLUCH

If you haven’t heard of Wes Moore before you likely will have by the end of this week. His book The Other Wes Moore is the Multnomah County Library’s Everybody Reads book choice for the year. He’s speaking at Literary Arts on Monday night. Stories about him will likely be in Oregon newspapers throughout the week. And he’ll be right here on TOL on Monday morning.

Wes Moore is 33 years old. He’s a Rhodes scholar, a decorated combat veteran, a White House fellow, a investment professional in New York at CitiGroup and, yes, a writer.

His book tells his story, and that of another man named Wes. Another man named Wes Moore, in fact. The two men are around the same age. They’re both from Baltimore. They both grew up without their fathers.

They saw their childhood neighborhoods – in Baltimore, and also for the author Wes Moore, in the Bronx – become hubs of drug use and death. And they both got in trouble with police at before they were teenagers.

But the other Wes Moore is serving life in prison for felony murder after killing a police officer.

The Senior Inquiry students at Roosevelt High School in Portland read The  Other Wes Moore. They compared it to Oliver Twist and The Wire, among other things.

We’ll broadcast this show live from the Senior Inquiry  class. When I spoke with them on Friday in preparation for the program a  couple of them wanted to know if they could ask Wes Moore “tough  questions.” I encouraged it. And look forward to hearing the resulting  conversation.

What questions — tough or otherwise —do you have for Wes Moore?

GUESTS:

• Wes Moore: author of The Other Wes Moore
• Students at Roosevelt High School

4/6

I have been a bit behind in blogging since our last visit, which was to MP two weeks ago. Don’t think I haven’t been busy though, I actually saw two of our schools last week (MRA and Roos) and we are getting two more this coming week (Jeff and MP). I must admit, things are feeling a little bit overwhelming. It is getting to that point in the year when I have seen and talked with some of these students multiple times and I don’t even know their names. Granted, I think it will be easier for me to remember names once I begin looking at e-portfolios, but still it is kind of embarrassing.

Last week I met MRA at the Art Museum for a tour, and I got the impression that they were wanting more mentor time. This got me thinking about how things could work in the future, because as it is, I have no contact with Liberty and barely any with MRA and Westview so how could we improve this?

Let’s say we still have six schools next year, schools A,B,C,D,E and F.
If we have two mentors, M1 and M2
M1 could be designated to A,B and C
M2 could be designated to D,E and F
In visiting their designated schools, each mentor could have a specific and consistent day/date each month they would visit each school on their list, so for example:
In November, M1 visits school A on the 12th, B on the 19th and C on the 26th, plus depending on how feasible it is, A,B and C could all visit PSU on different dates, either once per month or once per term (except for those schools, WV and Liberty that really cannot do more than 1 or 2 visits to PSU per year).

What would be even better is if there were three mentors for SRINQ, because then each mentor would be designated two schools:
M1- A and B
M2- C and D
M3 E and F
and then they can visit the schools remotely more than once per month, maybe twice per month plus however often the schools can visit PSU. They could be appointed as a regular mentor would in the case of only juggling two schools.

Now that the flood gates have been opened, M and I realize that we must set some strict boundaries so as to not drown. We are adhering strictly to the guidelines we have set forth: teachers must fill out a visit request form for both when they visit us and for when we visit them and it is filling up fast! We have been using it for like two or three weeks and we already have had to turn people away until January.

More mentors please!

—-

Now focusing on next week, we’ve got:

MP 12/14:
9:30-2, lunch at noonish
(Activities with mentor, this I believe and other engagement and community building ideas, learning stages activities and/or stages of community building, a visit from a transgendered colleague if it works)

Jeff 12/15:
9:45-12:30
(work on google sites, activities with mentor, guest speaker)
11:30-12:10 Deb Arthur/M11
9:45-11:30 (in progress)

Spending time with Roosevelt

Today M and I visited Roosevelt HS. It was perfect, honestly everything I could have hoped for. I am going to describe the event in full detail so stick with me, I might need to go to class and come back to this post.

One thing that was helpful for us is that we got a big chunk of time to spend with the class, it was 9am-11:30 and the time was flexible a bit since their school had a bunch of other stuff going on today- thankfully because we went over a couple of minutes.

The other thing that was nice is that I spent a bunch of time preparing new activities and thinking of SRINQ in terms of large group activities rather than FRINQ activities- because the reality is that in a mentor session, I used to lead groups of 12, which at the time was huge to me– today I led a group of 40. An essential difference that I realized when writing up our lesson plan last night was repetitive activities DO NOT WORK here. An example is the activity where you stand in a circle and play a name game where you introduce yourself and everybody else that came before you in the circle. With a group of 12, that means (excuse my terrible math skills, wish me luck on the GRE) we will only hear the names a total of about 100 times- in a group of 40, not only does that kind of game drag on but that means we hear their names about FOUR HUNDRED TIMES. Talk about a head ache. Great way to make everyone hate you right away.The activity we did which I described in the last post, the Two Extremes game with the list of “stand over here if you prefer this, over there if you prefer that” worked really INSANELY well.

Note for future mentors and for myself in the future: try and give the faculty a heads up (“so we are going to be doing an activity which involves people getting up and moving around”) before you get there, because what happened with us is we told them when we got there, and one faculty needed to go and check in the library if we could use that space, and they were wonderful and supportive so it wasn’t a big problem, but the less I inconvenience anyone the better.

Note #2: we had them in a big circle go around just once and say everyone’s first and last names. Did we remember them all? Not necessarily, but it helped us learn a few, while emphasizing to them that we are not going to treat them as just another number- they are valuable human beings to us!!

So yeah, we ended up using the big space in the library for about 40 minutes and then going back to their classroom. That is where we then did our presentation where we added in a slide about HOW THE CREDITS TRANSFER. Um yeah big huge little detail that I am thankful M remembered.

Note to self: share that info with all of the other students at the other schools.

After our presentation, they OAMed themselves, then we had them write questions on pieces of scrap paper about anything they want to know about college, college life, rigor of work, etc. I collected them and then we went into Google Sites, got them set up there and finally we went through and answered about half of the questions. I sped through all of those other elements because they were awesome and worked out well, but were not extraordinary. I want to focus on the Q&A and type out all of the questions we received because that is way more important, asking them what is on their minds.

Questions received:

• How can I apply for scholarships?
• Do I have to pay out of state tuition if I am not born in the US?
• How supportive are admissions counselors when it comes to transferring credits from high school/college courses, helping schedule classes and doing all the essential things for freshman college students?
• How will finals work if we are on semester and PSU is on quarters?
• Will the credits transfer to out of state college? (We had already explained this one, but we must not have been very thorough or clear)
• How well does senior inquiry prepare you for the complexity/enormous load of college work?
• How are the chemical engineering and graphic design courses at PSU? What’s the difficulty of the classes?
• Will college be easier with all 15 credits [from SRINQ]?
• Is the Rec center available for us?
• How do you know if the college you go to is a right fit for you?
• What is the rigor of the work that needs to be done?
• What sort of things would we be able to discuss with you during this course? Is it restricted to this course or could it be to college too?
• Will the 15 credits transfer to a community college? (I thought we answered this but it sounds like we needed to be less general and more specific- newsletter idea!)
• Do we have access to the fitness center/pool if there is one because we are students?
• If you’re a full time student, how many classes do you take a week?
• What is the hardest thing about college?
• Do you have to know your major before you come to college?
• By taking this class are we gonna be pushed to go to college?

All VERY GOOD questions. Rather than trying to figure out what to talk to them about, just ask- they have such good questions, and I remember not knowing the answer to ANY of these when I was a senior. Thanks for the reminder, mentees!

I’d like to make it more clear to them that we are able to answer any questions and offer support in any way. I know this is dark, but especially with the whole issue of identity and the suicides in the recent weeks of the students who were bullied across the country because of their sexual orientation, I want them to know that we are here for them!

Visit=success.

They visit us, we visit them: Jefferson, Marshall RA and Roosevelt

(insert reflection from last week here)

Tomorrow we are going to Roosevelt, there are about 44 students and we have 9-11:30 with them!

What to cover:
-Google sites (ask ML about laptops)
-Give them a couple of breaks
-A lot of activities- move around
-PSU’s relationship with OUS, how credits will tranfer (add to ppt)
-bring candy?
-a few large group activities and small groups activities
-OAM unless they don’t get registered after all… plan for both scenarios

Activity Ideas:

• Commonalities and Uniquities
  Form groups of five to eight people and give them two sheets of paper and a pencil or pen. The first part of the activity is Commonalities, where each subgroup compiles a list of the things they have in common. In order for it to make the list, it must apply to everyone in the subgroup.  You want to avoid writing things that people can see (e.g. “everyone has hair,” or “we are all wearing clothes”).  Try to get them to dig deeper. After about 5 minutes, have a spokesperson from each subgroup read their list.
  Then, depending on your goals for the session, you can have half of each subgroup rotate to another group for Uniquities or you can leave everyone in the same group. On the second sheet of paper have them record uniquities, meaning that each item applies to only one person in the group. The group tries to find at least 2 uniquities for each person. After 5-7 minutes, you can have each person say one of their uniquities or have a person read them one by one, having others try to guess who it was. (Again, you want to go beyond the superficial, avoiding those things that people can readily see). This is an excellent team-building activity because it promotes unity, gets people to realize that they have more in common than they first might realize. The awareness of their own unique characteristics is also beneficial in that people can feel empowered to offer the group something unique.
• For this game, you need packet(s) of marshmallows and packet(s) of spaghetti.
  Split the group into two or more teams.  Generally between 4-8 is the ideal team size.  The goal is to see which group builds the highest tower using only the items provided. The towers must be stable.
  It is fun but covers many competencies i.e. team work, communication, problem solving, leadership. It allows participants to use negotiating skills and improve their general communication…they also learn the benefit of planning.
• Get everyone to stand up, then read through the following list.  The last person standing is the winner!
  Sit down if you have eaten chocolate today
  Sit down if you are wearing purple
  Sit down if you were born in September
  Sit down if you have blue eyes
  Sit down if you are the youngest child
  you have broken a bone
  gone for two weeks without a shower
  can speak more than two languages
  etc.
• A game of two extremes!  This is a simple ice breaker to get people up and moving and sharing their preferences or views on topics.
  Create an imaginary line from one end of the room to the other.  Instruct people to move to a point on the line to indicate where they stand on a particular issue.
  For example – move to the left hand side of the room if you like chocolate, the right hand side if you like strawberry.
  If people don’t have a strong opinion they stand in the middle.
  Continue with other examples / extremes:
  Morning person or a night owl?
  Rather go to a Big party or stay in with a few good friends?
  Prefer the Rhythm/Beat of a song or Lyrics of a song?
  Would you rather go to a play or a concert?
  Do you prefer Sweet or Savory?
  Would you rather do homework or do the dishes?
  Prefer communicating in person or over the phone?
  Prefer Facebook or Twitter?
  Are you an outdoorsy person or a homebody?
  Prefer snow or sunshine?
  Would you rather be good looking or smart?
  Would you rather be taller or shorter?
  When you are stressed out, does it help you to be by yourself or to be around people?
  In the classroom do you prefer lectures or hands-on activities?
  Do you prefer reading or watching movies?
  Interested in arts/literature/humanities or math/science?
  Ideally would you like to stay in-state or go out of state for college? 

  When everyone chooses a position, read out the next one and everyone moves again.  Kids love to express themselves so this is a good game to get them to explore and express their opinions on some things.

• name association game (it will be easier for them than for us!) First person says: “Hi my name is Safa and I know three languages”, next person “This is Safa and she knows three languages, and I am Melissa and I lived in Australia a few years ago”, next person “Safa knows three languages, Melissa lived in Australia, and my name is Michael and I know how to surf”, and so on. we go all the way around in the circle.(This would get SO OLD with 44 people)
• I’d like to give the students some time to write on a piece of paper that we put in a fishbowl what they are nervous about in college, and college level courses, college life, etc. This is the time some people might be applying to schools and SAT’s so let’s plan a short Q&A period. We give students scrap papers and they write something they are nervous about or something they don’t know the answer for, we collect the anonymously, they go on a ten minute break, then when they return we answer their questions.

9-10:15, 10:25-11:30 Body, Mind, Soul model

OAM Affirmative Schedule:
9-9:05 M and I introduce ourselves
9:05-9:10 get in a big circle and have everyone go around and say their names just so we can at least hear them!!
9:10 to 9:25 -play A game of two extremes
9:25-9:55 Our PPT presentation
9:55-10 in partners or by yourselves take 5 minutes to write down questions or concerns you have with college, college life, college level coursework, etc and we will answer them after the break.

10-10:10 BREAK, walk to computer lab

10:10-10:25 Answer questions/discussion
10:25-10:45 OAM Process in lab
10:45-11:30 Google Sites Presentation (have example sites ready to share, discuss importance of these portfolios, help them set up and invite Roosevelt’s gmail as an owner)

**The other option, if they are not registered and we cannot OAM them is to have the same schedule, except after we answer questions, we do google sites and in the last 20 minutes we have another activity, such as Commonalities and Uniquities.