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.
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Sunday, March 9, 2014
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.
Monday, March 3, 2014
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?
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?
Thursday, February 27, 2014
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.
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.
Friday, February 14, 2014
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.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
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.
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.
Thursday, February 6, 2014
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.
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.
(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.
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