Week 2 Reflection

The second week was an exam week. As an alternative school, SWW has a limited number of students who take regents exams - the only test required is the ELA, but others are given, including the Math A and Math B. However, in lieu of the state testing, SWW has implemented a portfilio process as part of its graduation requirements. This week was used to bring in outside community members to act as portfolio reviewers.

The outside reviewers were recruited through the SWW website and other means, and I also signed up to help on this even though I am currently student teaching. The process was especially instructive since I am able to participate from all points of view.

I particpated in a student's review on Tuesday, both in the preliminary discussions with my SBE and in the post review debriefing with the reviewer, in this case a gentleman who was a CPA, former engineer, and former teacher. The idea of the process is that the same reviewer will meet with the student again in June and comments and assess growth in their protfilio products (and personal growth also). Having an additional adult mentor, especially for students who may not have that advantage at home, is expected to provide significant motivation and committment.

On Friday, I met with two students for portfolio reviews, both 10th graders, a male and a female. There was a wide disparity between the committment, quality, and maturity of the two of them, and illustrates just one of the challenges of urban education. I am anxious for the next meeting to assess the level of growth and committment for both - will the idea of having an additional adult with expectations lead to growth in this student's achievement?

I also had a lot of time to read student submitted research papers, botyh for the TechKnow class and for a SWW requirement - the "Humanities Demonstration" paper. Both of these papers had clear guidelines for the paper's format, and it is amazing to see how difficult it is for some student's to follow it. We had time for several revisions throughout the week, and it is gratifying to see improvement with each cycle. The downside is that this was a special week with time for personal tutoring, and the one on one attention would not always be possible during a regular school schedule.

One of the other reviewers that particpated in the portfolio process is a professor in the UR English Education program, and suggested a writing workshop would be valuable. I plan to follow up on this idea and speak with her about her proposal.

On the planning side, I'm pulling together a unit plan on probability, and also planning for TechKnow. In that class, the students had an assignment for the break to create an accurate, engaging poster advertising a renewable fuel. We will wrap up the energy discussions on Tuesday with a lesson including the viewing of portions of "An Inconvenient Truth".