Senior Project Reflection...#2?

(1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your Block Presentation and/or your senior project? 

I am most proud of the general amount of effort put forth into my senior project.

Why?
I attempted the AE in my senior project as I saw it as an ideal challenge. My presentation has been worked on for a while, and I had been constantly refining my various components before I turned them in.

(2) Questions to Consider

a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Block Presentation (self-assessment)?

AP+. (It's the highest I could get.) :c

b.     What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project (self-assessment)?

P/P+.

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?

My entire senior project inspired some very creative ideas that I could not have come up with my own. It exposed me to real life situations and to obtain an extremely helpful mentor who will continue to help me in future endeavors.

(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would have you done differently to improve your senior project if you could go back in time?

I would have put even more effort into my senior project, because I felt I did well, but did function to my absolute fullest potential. Also, I would have made a better website. Look at Independent Component 2.1.

(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors?   Be specific and use examples.

It has been extremely helpful to me because it has helped inspire creativity, allowed me to learn code, enlightened me about real world educational situations, and has given me a mentor that will continue to advise me in the real world. Additionally, it has allowed to fully understand the educational system that I will be partaking in, and it has led me to admit skepticism and realize why it is so important.

Senior Project Reflection

(1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your Block Presentation and/or your senior project? 

I am most proud of the amount of work I put into my presentation in general, and the amount of effort put forth into my senior project.

Why?
I almost attempted the AE position in my senior project, as I saw it as an ideal challenge. My presentation had been worked on for a while.

(2) Questions to Consider

a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Block Presentation (self-assessment)?

AP.

b.     What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project (self-assessment)?

P.

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?

My entire senior project inspired some very creative ideas that I could not have come up with my own. It exposed me to real life situations and to obtain an extremely helpful mentor who will continue to help me in future endeavors.

(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would have you done differently to improve your senior project if you could go back in time?

I would put even more effort into my senior project as a whole, and rehearse my presentation more fluently, adding more content.

(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors?   Be specific and use examples.

It has been extremely helpful to me because it has helped inspire creativity, allowed me to learn code, enlightened me about real world educational situations, and has given me a mentor that will continue to advise me in the real world. Additionally, it has allowed to fully understand the educational system that I will be partaking in.

The End!

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." 

- Mark Twain

Alas, it is nearly the end of our high school careers, and I have now completed my senior project in its entirety. I have completed over 65 articles of research averaging 26 pages each for a total of nearly 1700 pages. I have spent 50 hours alongside my mentor who has helped guided me on my mission to find the problems in education, and another 65 hours completing independent components - projects I have assigned myself.

The infamous senior research project has opened my eyes into the world of inequity. Education suffers from a myriad of problems, and multiple sources have pointed out potential solutions. Awaiting the technological classroom revolution, formfitting our curriculum to suit workforce needs, and giving more welfare programs to the disadvantaged have all been on our agenda - But none of that solves the problem.

According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the wealthiest students in America on average receive 4-6 times the individual student expenditures that disadvantaged students receive. This hugely increased amount of resources gives a large disadvantage to students who actually need the federal and state support. In this way, inequality has played a huge part in education, and has to be resolved before anything can be done with our educational system.

If we eliminate relative inequality in America, we will not only solve the crisis of our educational system, but also of our slumping economy, damaged workforce, and hurt society.

Mentorship

Content:

    Literal

My mentor is Donald Bower, at Edward Jones' Financial Advisory.

    Interpretive

     What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?

 The most important thing I have gained from this experience is how the financial world operates. This both helps me towards Senior Project in answering my essential question, and for furthering my future endeavors in the subject of Finance - I plan to achieve a Finance minor.

   Applied

     How has what you’ve done helped you to answer your EQ?  Please explain.

I learned a lot about school funding and expenditures, which is a very large part of my topic, especially pertaining to my third answer relating to socioeconomic inequality. My mentor had assigned me a research project where I was a theoretical school, and I had to allocate my funding wisely. Doing this was a large part of truly grasping my third answer of "To ensure students are granted equal educational opportunity" because it gave me the research backing needed to truly comprehend the facts that make my answer possible.

Exit Interview

Content:

(1) What is your essential question and answers?  What is your best answer and why?

 

My essential question is "How can a nonprofit best promote high school education to socioeconomically disadvantaged teenagers in Los Angeles?" My first answer is "To push for a reform in education that emphasizes workforce training. My second answer is "To support teachers with effective technology integration within educational environments." My third answer is "To ensure students are granted equal educational opportunity." My best answer by far is my third answer, because educational opportunity is extremely dependent upon socioeconomic status. Improving the educational opportunities for those who do not necessarily have high economic status will repair the wide gap between the wealthy and the poor. Unless this gap is repaired, technological implementation or effective workforce training will not be effective.

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

 

Lots and lots and lots of research.  I had to think a lot about the underlying problems of education, being that it's so integrated with everything else. I considered technology and its enormous on society, and I thought maybe it could be used effectively. I considered utilizing an education based on the workforce, and that wasn't quite right. In the end, I had to acknowledge all the factors of society and education, and I soon considered that the socioeconomic gap in our society - the widening gap between the rich and the poor - was to blame. All of this was backed by outside research.

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

 

 The biggest problem I had faced in answering my essential question was the integration of all aspects. Education is a very big field, and has a lot to correspond with the health of the economy, the integrity of the workforce, and societal well-being. This made it very challenging to form good answers because I had to acknowledge all aspects of the problem.

 

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

 

Both of these articles are by very prestigious institutions, contain great citations, and provide very good insight into my third answer.

Duncan, Arne. "A Blueprint for Reform." United States Department of Education, 2008. Web. March 2010. http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/blueprint/blueprint.pdf

 Brown, Cynthia. "Ensuring Equal Opportunity in Public Education." Center For American Progress, 2008. Web. June 2008. http://www.broadeducation.org/asset/1128-ensuring%20equal%20opportunity.pdf#page=1&zoom=auto,0,800

Independent Component 2

"Education is the most powerful tool you can use to change the world." 

- Nelson Mandela.

LITERAL
(a) “I, Adrian Gallegos, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.”
(b) My source that I have used the most that can be referenced is the following: Means Barbara. "Technology and Education Change: Focus on Student Learning." SRI International, 2010. Web. 2010. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ882507.pdf
(c) I have completed the log.
(d) I have completed a mock grant iniative, in which I have chosen International Polytechnic High School as a hypothetical school, and I have established a grant in which a specific amount of money goes to specific causes. I have chosen to use the hypothetical grant for a more rigorous math and science program, and I defend my reasoning.  
INTERPRETIVE 
The mock grant proposal definitely took 30 hours of work to research, write, and assemble in its entirety. It is similar to a large research paper, and required lots of research, editing, writing potential educational plans, looking at other schools as models, and finally assembling all of my materials.
APPLIED
This component helped me answer my essential question because writing a grant proposal is one of the primary aspects of a nonprofit, and understanding what a nonprofit organization has the power to do is an integral aspect to my Senior Project.

My full independent component can be found at this link.

*I suggest downloading it to avoid formatting errors found in Google Drive. 

Post Spring Break!

Over the break, I have found something markedly interesting about my topic. As it turns out, education has an even larger correlation with socioeconomic status than I have previously thought.

According to Laura Post's article "Inequality in Teaching & Schooling", by Stanford University, there is almost a linear relationship between the median amount of income per household to the mean performance on standardized tests and G.P.A. In addition, high-income white students outperform all students of all other given ethnicities on all areas of achievement. The wealthiest schools on average, have individual student expenditures 4-6 times more than low income schools. One of the infographics can be found below.

Before this read, I was under the impression that income and social inequality were social constructs that were behind us in the past, but I now understand that they still pose extremely large threats within our society, and will continue to hinder our progress if we don't do something. This might also make for an interesting turn in my senior project. Hmmm...

Third Answer

Content:

EQ: How can a nonprofit best promote high school education to socioeconomically disadvantaged teenagers in Los Angeles?

Answer #3: To ensure students are granted equal educational opportunity.

Detail 1: In the United States, schools are funded by property taxes. In lower income areas with lower property taxes, schools are of lower quality.

Detail 2: The top 10% of U.S. schools only accept about 9% of their students from the bottom 2 income quintiles,

Detail 3: Family resources are one favor in educational inequity - 15% of white students, and 10% of asians are raised in single family homes, while 27% of latinos and 54% of african american students have only one parent.

Source: Holsinger, Donald B. "Inequality in Education: Comparative and International Perspectives." CERC, 2007. Web. 2008. http://sociologia.davidjustino.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/HOLSINGER2008_inequality_in_education.pdf

Conclusion: As many educational equality reforms have existed in the United States, educational inequality by socioeconomic class is still a very big problem.

Educational Variance - A hardship!

 "The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet."

 - Aristotle.

The more I research into the United States' complex educational system, the more I question. The most outright current problem with it is that none of it is unified. Going over from California to Nevada may result in a change on any given test of up to 15 mean percentile points, according to the Economics of BA Ambivalence, by the University of Minnesota.

Each state - in terms of education - seems to function independently of its neighbors, with Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia having the lowest median standardized test scores, while Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Maryland have the highest median scores.

This variance proves to be a major problem in my research because when research papers often compare the United States to other countries, it allows for the extremely low scoring states to bring down the overall average and therefore adds a large error to the results. From now on, I must keep this in mind in order to accurately compare other country's results to the United States. On the other hand, I think this educational variance is what speaks for itself in terms of the United State's overall educational performance.

Fourth Interview Questions

Content:

Post 20 open-ended questions for approval you want to ask an expert in the field of your senior project.  The focus of your questions should be on your many answers.

1st answer: To push for a reform in education which emphasizes workforce training.

2nd answer:To support teachers with effective technology integration within educational environments.

3rd possible answer: Something having to do with international competition/future job markets.

4th possible answer: To clarify existing societal misconceptions. [needs immediate rewording]

1. In your experience, how does a solid education affect an individual to be a functioning member of society?

2. In your experience, how does an individual stemming from a lower income environment differ from an individual stemming from a higher income environment?

3. As the United States as a whole, how can we best ensure our students can compete against other nations?

4. As the United States as whole, how can we best ensure our students are prepared for the future job markets?

5. How may future students be best prepared outside of formal schooling?

6. In your experience, what separates successful teachers from unsuccessful ones?

7. Following those traits, how can these tactics be employed to create more successful teachers?

8. In your experience, how do students respond to "busy work"?

9. In your experience, how do students respond to work they find applicable to real life?

10. In your experience, how do students who learn in collaborative environments differ from individual learners?

11. In the future, what are some of the potential ways you can see technology shaping education?

12. What are some of the potential ways you can see technology shaping society?

13. In your opinion, how may technology be successfully implemented within classrooms?

14. In your opinion, how may technology be misused within classrooms?

15. How can we best teach our students while still giving them the abilities to function within an increasingly rapid-paced technological society?

16. What existing misconceptions do teachers have that affect students today?

17. What existing misconceptions does society have that affect students today?

18. What do you think society's general opinion about our youth is today?

19. If you could change any opinion of society today about your youth, what would it be and why?

20.  How can the United States best be changed to improve modern education and equity for all?

EQ Answer #2

Answer: To effectively integrate technology within learning environments.

Detail 1: Teachers who use technology effectively in classrooms are rated as being overall better instructors.

Detail 2: 73% of students believe an effective use of computers and other learning aides within the classroom would improve their learning environment.

Detail 3: 67% of students believe their teachers hav an ineffective use of technology that should be improved.

Backed by Source ID#34 and #35.

Valentine's Day!

 "I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

This past month has been very busy. I have recently gotten into negotiations with my mentor regarding the mentorship hour count which shall come very soon. We both reached consensus on increasing my overall count of hours by my participation in a financial research project, aimed to simulate the management of a theoretical organization.

In addition to my mentor's research project, which shall be due on the first week of May, I have been wanting to integrate my new found fascination with technology into my year long project of education. I have been formulating a second or third answer for quite a while now, and may later integrate some sort of technology into my project. After all, technology and education go hand in hand with each other as both are very rapidly expanding fields.

Independent Component 2 Approval

Content:

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

For the next 30 hours, I will role-play completing a mock-grant proposal for a socioeconomically disadvantaged school, justifying funding for equipment.


2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

I will submit the mock grant proposal, and the evidence of 30 hours will be found in my Independent Component 2 Log.

3.  And explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

The main objective of a nonprofit would be to write grant proposals. Since my EQ has to do with nonprofits, it would allow me to explore the nonprofit aspect of my project more, and would allow a more in-depth view on these organizations.

Independent Component 1

LITERAL
 
(a) I, Adrian Gallegos, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

(b) Cite your source regarding who or what article or book helped you complete the independent component.

My two sources most important to this component was Source ID#16 - "The Fluency Development Lesson Gets Graphic." by Belinda Zimmerman, and Source ID #19 - "The Case for Graphic Novels" by The Communications in Information Literacy Organization.

(c) Provide a digital spreadsheet (aka log of the 30 hours).   Post it next to your mentorship log.
Done.


(d) Explanation of what you completed. 
For my Independent Component, I have completed the beginning phases of a professional comic book production.  
 
INTERPRETIVE 
Defend your work and explain how the significant parts of your component and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work.   Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.

I have completed about 32 hours of my Independent Component. My original plans were to produce a full, professional comic book structured around Personal Finance, but I have undermined the amount of work that goes into producing the average graphic comic. Planning phases, and various elements going into pre-production alone account for nearly 8 hours of work. I have timed myself doing pages, and average a little less than 1 page every 2 hours. I have worked with others on this project, but to maintain consistency, a majority of the content was unused. Every page was created from scratch on Adobe Illustrator, including the text. I am remorseful that I have not completed the entire comic book within 30 hours, but shall continue working on it throughout the year in order to finish something that may enlighten students how to effectively manage their money - a skill essential to surviving the real world - without a lot of unnecessary technical jargon.

A delightful screenshot of the beginning pages.

 

APPLIED
How did the component help you understand the foundation of your topic better?  Please include specific examples to illustrate how it helped. 

This component helped me understand the foundation of my topic in a lot of ways. It has enlightened to the amount of resources out there which are already dedicated to teaching people - especially students that fall under the category of my essential question. However, there aren't enough good resources - That is; A lot of educational resources exist, but little to none of them are engaging or easy to understand, especially when the target audience usually aims for a general understanding rather than a scholarly pursuit.

Lesson 2 Reflection

Content:

1. Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your Lesson 2 Presentation and why?

I am most proud of my poster. I will cry if my EQ is changed.

2. Questions to Consider
       a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 2 Presentation (self-assessment)?

      I would give myself a P.

       b.     Explain why you deserve that grade using evidence from the Lesson 2 component contract.

I did what was required on my presentation, and I made everything look professional and well done. I also met time. My activity, poster, and presentation have all met the requirements, and served their purpose well.

3. What worked for you in your Lesson 2?

Everything. I graphically designed and printed the poster, which came out great! I was initially afraid the activity was too long, but it actually worked out with the students, and my talking portion of the presentation went swimmingly.

4.  (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your Lesson 2?

Provided it could only be used to change my 30 minute presentation for some odd reason, I would just rehearse a little more, and perhaps change a few fonts so that they were bigger. I felt most of my presentation was well done.

5. Finding Value
What do you think your answer #2 is going to be?

It's still a work in progress, but I am considering incorporating my new found skills of web design into this. Perhaps something like "By offering young teens an opportunity to work interdependently online." Again, a work in progress.

Third Interview Questions

Content:

Post 10 open-ended questions for approval you want to ask an expert in the field of your senior project.  The first question should be your essential question and the other nine must be about the foundation of your essential question or help you answer your essential question.

1. How can a nonprofit best promote High School Graduation to socioeconomically disadvantaged students in Los Angeles?

2. In your experience, how does a solid education affect an individual's ability to be a functioning member of society?

3. In your experience, how does an individual stemming from a lower income environment differ from an individual stemming from a higher income environment?

4. Within a business or organization, how does one best satisfy its clients?

5. How can an individual best promote an idea to a client?

6. In a community aiming to progress itself economically, what issues must it address first?

7. What powers does a nonprofit [business] contain that may affect the behaviors of its consumers in modern society?

8. In your opinion, what issue is the United States facing that currently limits the job market and economy?

9. How can the United States as a whole, best prepare its labor force for the future job market?

10. How can the United States as a whole, best progress society so that the aforementioned issues are resolved?

Blog 11: Mentorship 10 Hours

Content:

1.   Where are you doing your mentorship?

I am completing my mentorship at Edwards Jones' Financial Advisory.

2.   Who is your contact?

My contact is David Bower, a financial broker.

3.   How many total hours have you done?

I have completed 11 hours.
  
4.   Summarize the 10 hours of service you did.

The service I have completed so far has mostly involved observing and talking to my mentor about what his job entails, and how he works with clients both on a personal and intellectual level.  I have learned a lot from him about how to deal with clients, and how working in any financial field is both extremely competitive and structured. Of course, we have many future plans ahead of us.

Senior Project, The Holiday.

1.  It is important to consistently work on your senior project, whether it is break or we are in school.  What did you do over the break with your senior project?

Over Winter Break, I have completed a number of pages in my infamous Independent Component - the Comic Book of Business, and I have completed over a day's worth of mentorship under my mentor, David Bower, asking him various questions pertaining to my independent component as well as assisting him in any way I could.

2.  What was the most important thing you learned from what you did and why?  What was the source of what you learned?

The most important thing I learned was the art of creating visual elements, and effectively implementing both educational and entertaining elements together. The source of what I learned was the result of experience messing with designing my comic book in Photoshop, stacked with a list of resources my mentor had given to me.

3.  If you were going to do a 10 question interview on questions related to answers of your EQ, who would you talk to and why?

I would ask any questions about my topic to my mentor, David Bower, because he has been an enormous help with my project, and is very educated in not only his own topics of business and administration but also in the realms of education; He has a very unique perspective, and I would enjoy the chance to be able to explore his perspectives further.

Post New Years.

 "The more that you read, the more that you will know. The more that you know, the more places that you will go."

- Dr.Seuss

 

This January, I had been suggested by an unknown soul to continue on my mission of education by looking at the world's leading examples, and comparing them to ourselves. My search has led me to examine the educational systems of Finland, Singapore, and China. So far, Singapore and Finland seem the most likely candidates, but Singapore has major problems with income distribution, and I would not like to further complicate my issue. Finland has its own distinctive cultural problems, but I feel it has more to offer because of its unified and exemplary education.

"Learning and Competence 2020: Strategy of the Finnish National Education Board" was a recent article I examined, and it revealed stirring revelations of Finnish success. As it turns out, the recent successes have only really taken place in the past 10-20 years, as the system was barely implemented in the 1970s as part of a cultural reform. Finland still has strong cultural stigmas within its culture that may hinder its educational system from staying the world's best in the future.

Finland owes multiple things to its success. All teachers require a Master's Degree, and the teaching profession is a very competitive, prestigious field viewed in the same way that we currently view lawyers and doctors. In addition, it seems to be fed by the demands of the job market. In other words, if the demands of the market changes, so do the curricula of the children in the Finnish system.

Overall, my holidays were fantastic. I learned a lot about foreign educational systems, and how we may be able to implement them here. Cheers!