Liberty tomorrow

So we are going to Liberty tomorrow to work on e-portfolios, but the wild thing is that there has been this huge yearlong ordeal where Liberty has not been able to gain access to Google. It is completely restricted in their district.

The paradox here is that we are supposed to work on e-portfolios/Google sites, but don’t have access to Google. I just received an e-mail that Liberty has been granted one week of Google access in the labs, but are they only working on Google sites for one week? I hope the students are allowed ample lab time. I still feel as though I should plan for two scenarios: accessibility and inaccessibly just in case. The other thing: the class is split between two labs- ie M in one and I in the other. It is kind of a bummer that we can’t all be in one lab, but I am sure they are doing the best they can with the space they have.

Class: 11:50-1:22, meet in room 124 as early as 11:15.

*Liberty has a really nice and thorough assignment laid out, which I am going to print off one for me and one for M, tomorrow to take along.

• 11:50-12:10 Student’s may ask questions at any time.
  —describe e-portfolio’s- *what’s the point, who will see them, how you can use them for this class and after this class
  —show these exemplary portfolio’s and go through pages briefly- point out what is done well (I hope it is okay that these are both Liberty students from last year)
  http://sites.google.com/site/laceywilliamsinquiry/
  http://sites.google.com/site/eportfoliomelhedricks/
  —go over Liberty assignment (if this has not already been done)
  —show students UNST site where the goals are defined!!
  *****Is there any way we can do this first part in the classroom, with the group all together, AND THEN split up into the two labs?******
• 12:10-12:25 Step-by-step set up Google sites. Should only take 10 minutes, but 5 minutes added for buffer in case anyone forgot Google log in- warn them of 5 site a day maximum.
  —template set-up- be patient! If site doesn’t automatically seem to be generating, close it and go back through your gmail back into sites, it may be there.
  —add mahluma@hsd.k12.or.us
  satterfi@pdx.edu AND beckleyl@hsd.k12.or.us as owners
  —how to change website name and description under general settings
  —changing themes
  —editing pages
  —uploading documents
• 12:25-1:22 independent work time where we go around to help people who need it. This also is partially buffer time in case any part goes over or if there are a lot of questions. Students may use this time to:
  —personalize their sites
  —define goals and brainstorm which assignments fit under each goal
  —begin writing their final reflections

This much I know is true

I met with M today and we planned as much as we could possibly plan!

• 4/29 Westview @ Westview- go over e-portfolio rubrics which are found on UNST website, hand out e-portfolio consent forms, remind students what needs to be on e-portfolios, do activities with goals
• 5/2 Liberty @ Liberty- meet M at 11 at PSU, 11:50-1:22pm, bring camera, google is blocked but we must work on e-portfolio’s, so it is still up in the air! Do we do a hard copy version instead?
• 5/3 MRA @ PSU- 9:30-10:30 meet with Josh Fost, McNair Panel 10:45-12:15. Meet M at 8:55 at her office, pick up AV materials at 9am. Room Smith 294.
• 5/5 MP @ PSU- 9-11am CH 159. 11-12 lunch, 12-2 NH 450. I do morning, M kicks off afternoon with tech presentation. Ask Sybil to bring printed roster w/9 numbers on them.

Consider: how to maintain shared gmail account at end of year. 300 students may or may not be emailing the shared gmail- who will check it after June?

The beginning of the end

Right when I began feeling depressed because I hadn’t seen my mentees in such a long time, I am bombarded with visit requests. Here is what you have to look forward to, blogs about the following visits:

• 4/29 (this Friday) I visit Westview solo to work on e-portfolios (without actually having access to a lab)- I already emailed to confirm this visit, and need to just work on bringing activities and materials
• 5/2 (Monday) M and I will visit Liberty to begin e-portfolios (more details soon to come- M emailed them and asked)
• 5/3 (Tuesday) Marshall RA comes to visit PSU. Visit 9:30 to about 1:30. Panel with McNair scholars and meeting with a FRINQ. Not sure of the specifics though, there has been a lot of information going around.
• 5/5 (Thursday) Marshall Pauling comes to PSU. I need to email Sybil to confirm this. 9-2pm. E-portfolio work time, and maybe an activity relating to e-portfolios that is not just staring at a screen- maybe a group writing activity of defining the goals? Or maybe an innovative way to define the goals? Visually? Otherwise?
• 5/16 (Monday) Visit to MP. I need to email Sybil to confirm this. 9:45-11:30 they have poster presentations. Last time I went to this I was really impressed, so I look forward to going again.

Now if only we could get Roosevelt and Jefferson visits… I love that we are seeing everyone again! I am meeting with M on Wednesday and I will write you more details after our meeting!!

Summer possibility

Today M and I met with Yves to tell him about our idea for SRINQ to receive a summer component. I will outline in further details once we get them but we left the meeting thinking:

• Students could meet for 2 weeks in the summer (close to the beginning of their school year) for a sort of condensed term where they earn 5 credits of their year. This is great because they can get a load of time with the mentor(s) working on skills where students are currently lacking.
• Business as usual for fall and winter terms, except the mentor hired for these is a regular wage mentor (since there won’t be very many visits anyway and because now we know to what extent the mentor is utilized by the schools).
• No spring term because ANYWAY the seniors finish school in mid-May so why use a model that requires a month more than what they have?

After the meeting, M and I discussed some other neat options to look into, like for the last night or last few nights of the summer program, students can choose to stay on campus- M called the Housing Department and the Broadway Building has almost 50 available rooms at that time, with each room housing two students. Since we are a department on campus, we wouldn’t need to put down a deposit or anything- they just hold the rooms for us and only pay for the people who check in.

If we plan this out well enough now (and work into the first week of April), maybe this is the kind of thing we can be implemented this year. Fingers crossed. This is all still hypothetical, but I think if we make the case for how this can save the department money (LOADS) and time (and headache too) while also offering the students better quality, we may have a chance at change.

Confessions pt. II

In this installment of my confessions I will channel my inner optimist.

I believe that SRINQ could be a strong course if:

1. It were not a replacement for FRINQ/Freshman general education requirements. I believe if SRINQ were a college preparatory class for fewer than 15 credits (maybe 12?) it would not only MAKE MORE SENSE, but I also believe it would give the instructors more freedom, and allow them to put together a much “funner” curriculum.
2. There were more mentors. Ideally 1 per school, but reasonably I believe it would be okay with 1 mentor per 2 schools. The mentors could have more consistent face time with students and also have other mentor buddies to bounce ideas off of and commiserate with! Everybody wins!

I think the main thing here that we all need to look at ourselves in a mirror and ask: Are we honest-to-goodness reaching our goals through SRINQ right now, or do things need to change? In case you want some ideas, I drew some pictures below with notes of some of the goals I covered OH SO WELL in FRINQ. Let’s not give our SRINQ students, especially not our under-privileged and marginalized SRINQ students, any less than what we’d expect in a FRINQ course. If we cannot reach all of the goals, we need to surrender and come up with something new, innovative, and helpful for preparing SRINQ students to enter college and EXCEL, not to jump into second year courses and fail the expectations.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.