Showcasing Student Projects

Students are comfortable with Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, so we decided to challenge them to use those skills in creating community projects that addressed issues they were interested in, and to share their processes and outcomes with a larger audience online. Keeping the tenets of cultural proficiency in mind, the team wanted to ensure that we provided all students with equitable access and opportunity to learn via technology. To this end, and with the help of the TIIP program, we purchased two flip cameras and a lap top mobile lab of 30 computers to assist students with research, blogging, and development of their multi-media projects showcasing the civic action that they undertook.

Across the street from our high school is a city park. Students cross through this park as they make their way to our front entrance. The traffic from parents dropping off students in front of the school is very thick at times and the students and drivers sometimes do not watch out for each other. The students have taken data (number and video of cars that pass through this area in the morning, number of students who cross the street legally and illegally, time of day where this is most serious, etc.), and posted an on-line survey via facebook and our school loop system asking for student input on this subject.

They have enlisted the support of our PTSA and the local city councilman. With the lap tops they were able to make a power point with a video about this and plan to show it to our next city council meeting to get the city to draw a cross walk in the area of concern.

In recognition of Earth Day, one student group took on the task of developing a gently used clothing and old cell phone collection after they researched the needs of a women’s shelter in our community. They organized a campaign with ASB and contacted the City of Long Beach Recycling Specialist for collection boxes. By the end of the drive, the students had collected 9 large containers of clothes, shoes, purses, and some cell phones. They distributed these to the Long Beach Women’s Shelter. Besides blogging about their progress and success of this project, they also made this campaign public as they created and posted a video of interviews done with staff on this topic and a power point of their project on the school website.

Another group was concerned about the seeming lack of mental health services for teens on campus. They researched what other schools are doing, current legislation about such programs, and posted a student survey on facebook/schoolloop to gather data from students on campus and learn more about their experiences with receiving mental health services. They contacted the Long Beach Mental Health Clinic and are working with them to develop an awareness campaign on campus about what is available to teens without insurance and how to access services. They created a Prezi and posted this on the school website.

This project was initiated by a couple of students who were very interested in the public debate that occurred during the year that centered around the questions of the right to marry for gay and lesbian couples. They realized that the discrimination they read about, and in some cases witnessed against gays and lesbians, was also evident at our school. They decided to raise awareness of this type of discrimination and to seek out the resources available to students who are victims of bullying. Using the resources we have on our campus and researching district policy, this student group created a video and a Prezi presentation that was given to teachers in our small learning community to show to their students for the Day of Silence (a day in May when students show support for those who have no voice or who have been discriminated against and bullied by adhering to not speaking the entire day to show solidarity and support).

10th Grade Linked Learning Project: "How do we make our campus more tolerant?"

The 10th grade curriculum includes students reading "Night" in their English class and learning about the Holocaust in their Modern World History class. As a Special Education department, we decided to have our students try a cross curriculum project, incorporating "Night", the Holocaust, Life Science and Building Bridges Camp. The project began in October of 2012 with the teaching of the 6 pillars of character. Students created posters for each characteristic in their English classes, followed by the reading of "Night" and learning about the Holocaust. 14 out of 31 students attended camp. Students then created power point presentations showing what they learned. Those that attended camp created video testimonials of their experience at camp, encouraging other students to attend. The culminating activity included showing their power points and video clips to their classes, the principal and other SPED staff from the district office. The power points and video clips will be used to recruit students and staff for future camps.

Professional Development

Team members attended the Computer Using Educators Conference in Palm Springs, California in 2012 and 2013. From this conference, the team was trained in:

1. Using blended teaching/learning techniques to motivate reluctant learners ("Blended Learning in grades 4-12: Leveraging the Power of Technology to Create Student-Centered Classrooms, by Catlin R. Tucker)
2. Using Google Earth to create content based projects (Setting the context for historical events and 'mapping' them in Google Earth)
3. Google Workshop for Educators: a hands-on training of everything Google such as Google sites where students can create their own websites to showcase best work; Google Drive, where students can house their work in the Cloud and access it from anywhere without having to use a flash drive, and Google Groups where students develop discussion groups and inform/debate/clarify their views on teacher directed topics.

What we learned: From the training on these applications/strategies, the Cabrillo Team was able to engage more students in their learning. Students were more willing to attempt and complete assignments when they were given training and then put in charge of their learning via the technology. They also saw more relevance of their learning as they researched their concerns in the community, using the lap tops, and developed a plan for change, using the mini-cameras and desk-top presentation applications such as iMovie and Prezi.