Mikva Education Council Research Reflections

Do's and Dont's on School Culture

2009-07-29T19:34:00.000-07:00

Do's
1. Do have a small welcoming environment.
2. Do have a small classroom with a mix of both hands-on activities and lectures.
3. Do make it a norm to know all the teachers, even if they don't teach the students.
4. Do let all students know that everyone in the school has high expectations of them.
5. Do create an environment in which it's cool the be engaged in school activities.
6. Do tell students to self discipline so others don't have to.

Don't
1. Don't ignore school fights. Both the administration and students should reflect on why the fight happened and how it can be prevented in the future.
2.Students: Don't put down the students who aren't on your academic level.
3. Don't ignore student voice.
4. Don't praise "A" students and ignore the students with low grades.
5. Don't be closed minded to views different from yours.

2009-07-24T12:39:00.000-07:00

yes yes yes yes yes!!!!!! I MADE IT!!!!!! I'm finally on the blog..... it took a minute but I'm HERE now.... I am like so happy now!!!! LIKE OMG, LOL, ROTFL, THIS IS SO GREAT..... can't wait 2 do wateva this site does best, lol

Reflection July 21

2009-07-23T20:26:00.001-07:00

Tuesday July 21 the education council did not have work today. But I still came into the office to work because I had a presentation later for the safety council. Me and Antwan went through the Recommendations from the first 9 days and put them into buckets, but before was finished we was ask to come in and join the safety council while the talked about the youth violence survey. We worked in groups of two and answered various questions about the survey so the Safety Council could get ready for there presentation to the media. Later that afternoon I had a presentation to the Safety Council with two of my friends form school about the Brotherhood and our sister group Sister 2 Sister. We had fun doing it and it was a great experience and atmosphere in that room. The students had lots of questions and looked to see how we were addressing problems within our school.

Reflection July 20

2009-07-23T20:09:00.000-07:00

Reflection July 20, 2009. Today was a very productive day. Our group was able to create its on Graduation requirements for our school. Our group thought it was necessary for students to take 3 years of science but they would take environmental science and biology. But the 3rd year of science they would get to pick. Also we would keep the 4 years of English and extend math to 4 years. The hardest thing we did today was read the article Can the American High School Become an Avenue of Advancement for all? This article had a lot of information to offer our group.
Even though we didn’t have to read the whole article all at once each group read a different section and we reported back to the group. For my group I read the biggest part. I knew my team was counting on me to give them info. I really dissect the part of the essay I read. Our part of the essay talked about finding an accurate way to track students. In the United States 77% of students graduate from high school 1/3 of them go on to graduate college. Only 8 percent of high school students spend more than 10% preparing for classes. So from reading the article there is no way to accurately track students across the country. About 1/3 of all highs schools graduate all of its students. So when we look deeper 28 percent of high school graduates have to take one or more remedial classes

Reflection July 16

2009-07-23T19:27:00.001-07:00

On Thursday July 16 we went to North Lawndale to meet Umoja another youth organization. Honestly they had a big goal of trying to create a grocer store for their neighborhood. They believe the citizens of there communities should not have to travel to other neighborhoods to grocer shop. And I thought back from walking from the train station into North Lawndale I did not see any stores you could go and grocer shop at. They have students from different schools and they are really determined to reach there goal. I’m also very interested in keeping in touch with them and and doing some more networking.

showtime's blogging purposes

2009-07-21T08:39:00.000-07:00

"showtime's reflection"

yesterday our group got a lot done. we quickly learned that in order to get work done we need to work together and respect each each others opinions.
The refections that i write on the blog will not only talk about what i've learn, my reflections will talk about the progress of our group.

Reflection July 15

2009-07-15T19:48:00.001-07:00

Today was a very unique day. We did 2 different scenarios in small groups about the types of leaderships and different leaderships styles. From looking at this info I have a very unique leadership style. I incorporate a lot of these things and I have also taken apart in the many different types of leadership opportunities. I’m more of democratic I like having my whole team involved, but there will be times when you will assign roles and don’t care about feed back from the other teams members which is laissez faire. And also autocratic is when you have a group of people and you lead them and help them put there skills together to finish a given job. So I have been in all these situations at some point in my career, but I would rather have the whole group involved and get there input.

Also we looked at what type of leaderships have you been involved in. There was delegating which involves a leader and he has a follower who may have more leadership’s skills than him. This is hard for me I have a lot of energy and try to find a way to get myself to be involved. Also it’s not bad directing others. I have fun with it, and I’ve seen good results form it. The one situation of leadership I have seen the most is participating/ supporting and coaching. I try my best to interact with younger students so they can see the potential within them. Also some people want to do things and step up to be leaders but the need guidance and they need for someone to teach them the skills

But today was a great start for organizing our schools. We decided on what should be included in a teachers work description. We thought the teachers should offer support to the students in and outside of class, and have positive parent relationships. Also we discussed of having teachers work four class periods a day so they would be able to mentor students. Also I suggested to the group our school having seven periods and one double period. One of those seven periods is extended for science classes. Everyone in the school would take science at the same time. But were in the beginning stages but I feel my group has offered some great input for all parts of the school. One thing we need to work on is our communication. We listens to each others ideas but I need to listen harder because a lot of my group members talk really low and soft so I cut them off a lot but I think they could do a better job in speaking up and projecting there voices.

the letter that was sent out

2009-07-15T06:21:00.001-07:00

We are the Mikva Challenge education council representing Chicago Public High School students. Mikva Challenge is a nonprofit organization that allows students to get involved in their communities as well as politics. It is made up of 15 high schools students from all around Chicago. Our job is to make policies for the CEO of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to review. In our last meeting, Ron Huberman (CEO) wanted us to come up with various ways that we would ‘reinvent high schools,’ so we as a group thought that it would be helpful to ask our fellow students for their opinions.

You will be participating in the process of making CPS high schools better. We came up with a survey for students to take so that we can get facts on what in high schools works and doesn’t work. We would appreciate if you took the time to complete this survey so that we may take the information and change Chicago public high schools.

Yours truly, THE EDUCATION COUCIL

Reflection July 13,2009

2009-07-14T09:28:00.000-07:00

Today was pretty cool. We got to really test our communication and team skills. The council is broke up into three groups. Each group will be responsible for creating their own Cps High school from scratch. We can put anything into these schools if we fill it fits. My group started off by Creating a school caked Unique Learning Academy one of our schools goals is to promote positive and strong student teacher relationships. Also our group worked pretty well with coming up with a mission statement and how we would reach our mission statement. We think the teacher should be available after school and that the teachers should be out going.
We played Jet Fighter it was a very difficult game. I had the job of playing B. My job was to communicate with the whole group. Even though I felt that I did an ok job I caused my team the while mission. Termaine who played A had the mission and he didn’t really tell me what it was. Me being the type of person I am I took a guess and go the rest of the group involved. I was close but me and my organization in that game I misplaced Diana’s note and the note had the last clue for us to finish the mission. But if we would have had 3 more minutes we would have completed the mission.
Also the guest speakers offered great feedback for us to think about what resources to put in our school. Also I kind of had a second thought about what limits should there be to extracurricular activities. I’m doing a small sort of research problem to find out what’s wrong with Kenwood. Someone told me the clubs. I thought and some groups turn into cliques and this separates the school. I have not fallen in to this problem even though I’m a highly active member of my school. But for those who are not in clubs feel this is a problem, I really respect their Opinions and feedback. Now I have to think of a way to try and reunite the school.

Whats happening in your school?

2009-07-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

Dear High School Students,

We are the Mikva Challenge education council representing Chicago Public High School students. Mikva Challenge is a nonprofit organization that allows students to get involved in their communities as well as politics. It is made up of 15 high schools students from all around Chicago. Our job is to make policies for the CEO of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to review. In our last meeting, Ron Huberman (CEO) wanted us to come up with various ways that we would ‘reinvent high schools,’ so we as a group thought that it would be helpful to ask our fellow students for their opinions.

You will be participating in the process of making CPS high schools better. We came up with a survey for students to take so that we can get facts on what in high schools works and doesn’t work. We would appreciate if you took the time to complete this survey so that we may take the information and change Chicago public high schools.

Yours truly, THE EDUCATION COUCIL

P.S. here is the link to the survey. Please only take the survey if you are currently enrolled in a CPS High School.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=H_2bhCDTqxcpJkpfc6w9YacA_3d_3d

Reflection for July 13th

2009-07-13T17:39:00.000-07:00

So I think today was a major change to what we usually do at the office. I really like the school committees a lot! I believe that as a smaller group, we can get more things accomplished and be more specific on our recommendations now that we have two topics to mainly focus on.

I now there is some tension in my group, but I know not every group is perfect and will clash at some point. As we work together more, I believe we will adjust to the culture of the group and eventually make it function like it should. There are people in the group that feel left out...SPEAK UP! seriously, tell us what's on your mind, stop me from talking...make any signal possible to get the other group members attention. Everyone's input is soooo important! I hope the group will work better tomorrow!

I enjoyed hearing from our guest speakers today. They both had different experiences as a member of a high school. Resources are truly important for students to improve academically but also become more knowledgeable about the class, project etc..

I don't believe the LSC is a trustworthy resource. It may be composed of teachers, community members, parents and a student representative but sometimes it is not the best choice of school decision making. I feel that my school's LSC overpowers the school and the student rep doesn't really have a say in the meetings, whats the point of a student rep then? Students are the ones who use the resources, get taught, participate in extracarricular activities and deal with the schools staff and administration...shouldn't we be entitled to voice our opinions in the LSC or create something similar to one but just composed of students? I strongly believe so.

Beloit

2009-07-13T17:26:00.000-07:00

I can honestly say that the trip to Beloit was an eye opener for me. On a personal level, I am looking for small Liberal Arts colleges because I love the small school atmosphere and because it majors in liberal arts (best of both worlds!). So I'm taking Beloit into consideration when I'm applying to colleges in the Fall woo!

I really think that this trip helped me get to know a lot more about the new board members. I was able to bond with them, work with them and just chill and have fun!

The workshops on Monday and Tuesday also helped me create research questions and brainstorm on how the actually put them to use...and look at us now we have a REAL SURVEYYY! Woo!

I would have liked more time to have worked on the survey questions and the "buckets" but I think the outcome was better than I expected!

I'm looking forward to the results of the surveys and it will surprise Ron Huberman!

Reflection for Thursday July 9, 2009

2009-07-11T15:39:00.000-07:00

Thursday was a good day. I had a big input on some things we did. I think he group worked pretty well because the beat some expectations and time limits we set aside for the group. One When we played Natural Disaster all the groups was divided up evenly but i think what genders dominated the group had a big impact. With our group we had 4 males and 2 females. This played off because we looked to save more females. While with the 2 other groups they had 5 females and 1 male. The males of the other groups had a hard time trying to save who they wanted. Alex could not believe the group picked the male police officer and not the female one. But the funniest thing of the whole activity is Termaine wanting to save the 18 year old aspiring model.

We did a quick presentation on Survey Monkey. So the whole group would be familiar with the website. Once we got down to editing our survey The group worked pretty well. There was some great revisions made to the questions. All the groups worked and discussed to put what they wanted to get from of each question. They we started working on putting the survey on the Internet, finding ways to distribute it and writing an introduction to the survey and blog. I think the group they input ed the survey onto the computer did a wonderful job they worked quick and they were a head of the other two groups i honestly felt they got a lot done. The group that wrote the introduction o the blog did a terrific job. The Intro was wrote so well. Thumbs up. My group had to ind ways to distribute the surveys. I had a lot of ideas. I came in Wednesday ad shared my Ideas with Jelani ad Jessica. They said i need to work with hat group and hats what i did. think the best way to start distributing the surveys is to get the info to the School that we funded last year for the Peace Projects. Also it would be good to Make a Facebook group and get the link to all of our fiends and others that attend Cps Schools. And last my whole group was very comfortable with going into schools and passing out surveys we know that it would cause more work but i am willing to put it in the computer. I'm also willing to do what ever it takes to make sure that we have good recommendations and also make sure our group makes progress.

Scott Joplin

2009-07-10T17:48:00.000-07:00

I graduated in 2006 from Scott Joplin Elementary School. I thought it was not a bad school. It was a major step up from my my previous elementary school which was Charles S. Deneen Elementary school which for the 3 years i attended my scores dramatically dropped. Once transferring to Joplin it was a major reason for where I'm at today. My reading scores were always above average and that was because i read a lot of challenging books, but my math scores significantly dropped. But Once transferring to Scott Joplin in 7th grade my math score went up 40 points to give me the highest score in my class and reading score went up 15 points. I was really satisfied.
But reviewing this Making the transition has me thinking. The school i went to was Actually the 2nd school in the district academic wise and the only school ahead of it was a selective Enrollment Elementary School. From the report the school has a 58% graduation rate after 5 years and 37% dropped out. So i thought to try and find an reasonable explanation for this. I actually think this a good school to go to. So from going to the school whats happening on the inside is great all the teachers are really working towards helping the students graduate and the have high expectations. Now the graduation rate from Scott Joplin School itself is above 80%. But you have to think of what school the students go to and what roles the environment play in helping the students. The report also is very accurate with its info. With my class it says 7 people went to Urban Prep and that's true. It also says one person didn't show up to high school and that's also true. we had one girl who was in my 8th grade class she was very sick and missed half the school year when she came back she had a brain tumor and she needed help moving around.

But here are some conclusions that i made form attending the school and living in the neighborhood. Despite a good majority of the students graduating form Elementary school some decide to do what they want. The report to mention how many students attend the Neighborhood school which is Hirsch. There is a large number of students who do because they do not get accepted into any other school. A majority of this number is the male students. There is a major issue with a male dominance for being in gangs and not giving in to others demand.

A lot of the students who went to Joplin are affiliated with gangs but those who go to the neighborhood school start off the school year and don't finish. While attending some schools they get into alot of fights and after so much fighting you get tired of i and stop going. But there is not a real way to explain these numbers. It is a ruff neighborhood divided between 3 different gangs and some do what they have to do to survive even if it means breaking into to people houses. But i also think since some students got to high school there was nothing to look forward to. They didn't have those close teacher relationships and they didn't meet some academic requirements to play on sports teams they were use to playing. But i honestly feel no two schools offer the exact curriculum or education to its students. And also another issue is how well the surrounding community of a school is doing and how much resources they are able to put in their school.

Education Council

2009-07-09T12:31:00.000-07:00

Welcome!

We are the Mikva Challenge Education Council representing Chicago Public High School students. Mikva Challenge is a non-profit organization that allows Chicago high school students to get actively involved in their communities as well as politics. The Edcucation Council is made up of 15 high school students from all around Chicago. We serve as the Student Advisory Council to the Chief Executive Officer of Chicago Public Schools, Ron Huberman. Our mission is to promote student voice through policy-making.