To wrap up my internship experience I now will be presenting to a group of class mates, teachers, and my parents on June 18th.These presentations are called P.O.L's, meaning presentation of learning, and these presentations take place of large exams that most public schools do at the end of the semester. The reason why we do these presentations instead of exams is because High Tech High recognizes that test cant completely show that the student has retained the subject entirely, so we present instead. 
     My presentation is dedicated to my internship and what I have learned while working with the England school system. On this blog post you can find all of my resources compiled into this one post.

First day of internship:
     Design workshop at the High Tech High Point Loma campus on Friday, May 24th,

Second day: 
     Visited the charter school Kipp Adelante in downtown Sand Diego. (Link below)
                                               http://www.kippadelante.org/

Resources for England experience:
    Ken Stimpson schedule compared to HTH: https://sites.google.com/a/hightechhigh.org/pbl-resources/project-tuning/schedules
    
    England projects/Trip details: https://sites.google.com/a/hightechhigh.org/england-projects/

    Our mentor Chris Wakefield: https://sites.google.com/a/hightechhigh.org/9th-grade-math-physics-projects-hthma/

    

Saturday the 15th of June:

      It's officially our last day in England. Dean's and my train from Peterborough to London left around 9am so we all got up pretty early to make it there on time. It was hard to imagine that not only is my internship over, but I have to leave this awesome host family as well... Looking back on all of what I  have done while in England simply puts a smile on my face. I personally am the type of person who loves to meet new people and experience new things.  So when I found out about this internship, I jumped right on it and busted out an awesome cover letter and resume, and prepared for the skype interview. From the beginning, the internship shaped me into the professional student I know I am. Personally I can't wait to see what will happen as a result of this internship in the years to come because I think even bigger and better things will come from it. Thank you, Chris Wakefield and the Innovation Unit, for allowing a group of high school student to really show just how professional we can be, and allow us to express all of our great ideas to the different school that each group visited. Another big thank you to the the Ken Stimpson School and Andy O'Neil for bringing us into your world and letting us experience an internship that will forever help me personally with my school experience and the rest of my life. I hope that anyone who looks at this blog can have one big take away from my experience and that is ...  you can do anything you set your mind to because I believe everyone can be and do great things.

Thank you all,
Sydney Alpert

Monday the 10th:


       Today was the first day without Megan and also the day our mentor, Chris Wakefield, arrived. We kicked off our week with him helping form projects for the three teachers who we would be working with for the rest of the week. Right when school started we all sat in a conference room in the main building getting to know each other. The three teachers were a geography teacher (Ms. Brighten), history teacher (Mr. Carter) and music teacher (Mr. Norman). What we talked about for the first part of the day was about project-based learning, ourselves, our best learning experience, what makes good learning, and some simple small talk. This was a great way to really see just how hard it is to be a teacher in the English school system.  The reason I say this is because the way the entire school is set up. All English Secondary schools (our middle and high school) tend to be set up in a way where students and teachers have a different schedule each day.  Not only that, the teachers don't specifically teach only one grade level -- they can teach up to four grade levels in one day! So by the end of the week, the students have seen up to 15 teachers and the teachers have seen up to 200-300 students. What I noticed the most about this set up was the teachers were totally worn out by the end of the day and the students were completely confused as to where to go and which subject was up next. I personally would like to have the classes they do, like psychology and music, just not with the schedule they have every day. I personally am not sure just how they would fix this issue because they can't just completely change it over the course of this year.  But I think they are on the right track by bringing us in and really listening to the HTH way of learning which could help them in many ways.
       We took a lunch break to eat but right after we were back to work to start forming the projects they would implement next year. I personally was working with Ms. Brighten, the geography teacher, on make a project that ties into the project she is currently working on with her years 7, 8, and 9 about Africa. The project is to have the students work in groups of 4-6, with each group making a book about Africa.  Since she noticed the excitement the students had with this project, she is going to use the same idea next year when they learn about South America. For the rest of the afternoon we worked on the project work sheet, which explains the the entire project, poses the essential questions that they will be answering, and planning out just what the class schedule will look like through the whole course of the project. Because High Tech High is known for its critique sessions, we all sat down towards the end of the day to do a project tuning.  This exercise helped us fine-tune the project and change anything that the group thought wouldn't go so well. Then, it was time to head home. It was a great way to start the week and it personally showed my passion towards creating new and exciting things.

Tuesday the 11th:

     Today was the last day Chris will be at Ken Stimpson. So all day Dean and I worked with the teachers and students on their projects. For the first part of the day Chris had arranged for a group of students to sit in on two final project tunings. This was something new both for the teachers and the students as well, because most of the time both the students and the teachers barley knew each others' names. So this project tuning process was a great experience for the teachers to be able to get to learn the students' perspective on, not only what they want to learn, but on the project itself and how it would unfold. All the project tuning sessions lasted up until lunch and then afterward we started our prototyping. The students stayed with us for the rest of the day and were the ones who made the prototypes. Ms. Brighten and I were really excited to see how they would like it and if it would work as a project.  By the end of the first hour and a half, we realized it was a great project idea. We then all gathered back in the conference room to debrief as well as go over what the students had accomplished. If you would like to see the other teachers' projects, they are posted here on this website which has all the information about the trip as well.        
                        https://sites.google.com/a/hightechhigh.org/england-projects/
     It was an over all great ending to Chris's visit.  The entire group got a ton done in only two days and the teacher/student barrier is slowly breaking down!!


Wednesday the 12th:

     Cambridge!!! Today was the day when Dean, Caroline, Bradley, Mikalah, and I went to Cambridge for the day. We left the school around 9am in the school vans for about a 40min drive to the heart of Cambridge. We parked on the outskirts of the main university and then walked for the rest of the tour time. Mr. O'Neil was our tour guide for the day; he took us to a ton of the individual colleges that the campus has. He also allowed us to go to the top of one of the bell towers that had a great bird's eye view of the entire city. After walking around for a bit, he let us shop a little at the street fair that was there for the day. It was fun to hang out with Caroline and shop together.  We even got Starbucks to cool off because it turned out to be a really nice day. We arranged to meet up with Mr. O'Neil for lunch. We went to the Eagle Pub where I had a really good fish and chips. It was a really interesting and cultured pub because it was where the scientist who discovered the DNA strand first announced his findings right at the bar. Once we had all finished it was time to leave beautiful Cambridge and head back to school.
     When we got back to Peterborough we had an hour or so to just hang out.  When the school day ended we went to meet Lizzie at Tescos to get  ride home. We got home and all us girls decided to go on a walk/jog with one of their dogs, Bear. There is a lake really close to their house so we walked there and spent about and hour walking around; we even made daisy chains that we then put on Bear. We had tons of fun just running around and it even began to sprinkle a little. We headed home after a while to come back for dinner which was pasta with prawns.  Dinnertime was hilarious because by the end of dinner we were making the prawns into puppets .... hahaha!   Looking back on it now, it had to be one of the  funnest dinners that we had because Dom turned his into a ninja, and we were all just goofin' around. After dinner us girls went into my room, technically Becca's room, to watch a movie and do our nails to cap off the night.


Thursday the 13th:

       For our second to last day at Ken Stimpson, Mr. O'Neil let us sit in on more classes and pretty much just let us say our goodbyes and have time to work on whatever we needed to. The best part about all the classes that we had a chance to sit in on was that all the kids knew who we were, so we had quite a few people to say good bye to. After lunch Dean and I went to Ms. Brighten's room to finish the day and get to know a few of her classes which was nice because they all are a great bunch. The main thing I was looking forward to all day was that Caroline, two of her friends, and I were going to head into downtown Peterborough after school to do a little shopping. We took the bus from school to the bus stop in the central part of town. We walked around hopping from shop to shop.  For dinner we had noodles from a noodle shop. All the stores stay open until 8pm and the buses leave around then too, so Caroline and I hopped on the bus and headed back home. Once we were back I packed up my suitcase so that I was free the next day.  Then Caroline and I watched a movie on my laptop and re-did our nails until we had to go to bed.


Friday the 14th:
    
     Well today is the last day.  Wow,  that was quick!! Mr. O'Neil was kind enough to drive Dean and I over to the Peterborough Cathedral in the morning to be able to see it before we left. Once back at school we had time to just chill in the teachers' lounge and talk to teachers which was tons of fun because the staff at Ken Stimpson is great!! At lunch we said good bye to the lunch staff who are just an awesome bunch of people and I hung out with all of Caroline's friends one last time. Then after lunch we sat in on Bradley's psychology class for the rest of the day. This class was a great way to top off the two weeks because it's a class I wish I could take.  It was nice to see how everyone at Ken Stimpson is so eager to get to know visitors as well as welcome them into their classrooms. At the end of the day I ran to say goodbye to Ms. Brighten and then I left to head home for the last time. I met Dom and Matt at the parking lot and on the ride home Matt surprised both of us by picking up the boys for one last night with everyone. When we got back to the house, Caroline and Lizzie were still at the stables so Becca and I watched a scary movie.  Then we went outside to scooter and hang out with the boys until everyone got home. For dinner we ordered a few pizzas and afterward, us girls ran to the store to grab some popcorn, soda, and sweets to eat while we watched a family movie, which was "Red". During the course of the movie all the boys slowly went to bed.  After the first movie we watched "Get Him to the Greek". After the movie it was time to have my last night in the Hallam household.

Saturday the 8th of June:


               As you know now the Hallam household has a total of 7 kids (including me).  This, of course, caused for a very exciting weekend...To start the day off I hung out with all the boys in the morning and then towards the afternoon, all the girls -- Lizzie, Caroline, Becca and I -- went to the stables to finish out the day. Since it would be my last time, I just had to ride at least once.  So once we got there we groomed and saddled up the horses. I rode Irish, Caroline's horse, who was a great sport the whole time. We rode into town while Caroline walked along side just in case he got spooked. After the ride, Lizzie and Caroline had to finish their chores so Becca and I took a walk back into town for some sweets. For those of you have never visited England, everything is pretty much within walking distance and not only that, there tends to be great little walking paths throughout the gorgeous scenery. It only takes about 20mins on foot and 15min on a bike to get to the stables, or it seemed, to get anywhere. On the way back though Becca and I stumbled upon an adorable foal with his "mum" in a field right next to the foot path.  What a great sight to see and we even got to feed him some grass. After the walk back we helped clean up the dinner feeds, which meant  washing the buckets down and then preparing the mornings feeds as well. We ended all that around 7pm and then we headed home for a nice pizza dinner. After dinner we all had planned to watch the first part of "Britain's Got Talent", and when that was over, I headed off to bed.


Sunday the 9th of June: 


       Today I slept in a nice while and then I woke up, had some cereal and hung out with the boys and Becca for the rest of the morning. It was fun to be able to hang out with them and let the "child side" of me come out for a while which I rarely ever do.  Then around lunch time we all headed to down the the river to see Matt's new boat. Since it rains a lot there, almost all the boats tend to be house boats which have a cabin area with a stove, sink, toilet, and a resting area. Their boat, painted blue and white, had all of these things. It was nice to just float down the river either in the lounge area or sitting at the front (the bow) of the boat to catch some sun. Halfway through the trip we pulled over and all us girls walked to ASDA, a grocery store, that was really close to the river. We got some tea, biscuits, crisps, soda and some donuts. Then we were off to head back down the other side of the river; I even got a chance to take it for a spin. We were on the river for about 3 hours or so and since it was Sunday, after we docked, we had to drop off the boys. Once back at the house all of us kids hung out in Dom's room for a bit and I showed them a few of the pictures that I had from past trips and of what California looks like. Then around 7 or 8 it was time for a nice lasagna dinner with garlic bread.  Usually Hallam family dinners wear me out -- because there's so much talking and laughing -- so after I went to bed.

            For this first week at the school Megan, Dean and I mainly went around to all sorts of classes, such as math, humanities, and art, getting a chance to see just how a class works and the way the schools schedules were set up.

Monday the 3rd:
       We started the day by meeting Andy O'Neill, who we report to each day. He briefly gave us a tour of the staff's main offices such as the principals office, staff lounge, and where we would check in each morning. After the tour, Megan, Dean, Mr. O'Neill and I headed up to the staff lounge for some tea and biscuits (an English snack) and to get to know each other a little better. After about a half hour of chatting, he had arranged for us to be able to talk to a few of his geography classes. In these classes the students had a chance to ask us questions about life in the US and to explain why we were there visiting the school. This group conversation gave us, as well, a chance to see just how different a typical day is for the Ken Stimpson students compared to us American students. You see, they don't have middle school so years 6-12, or to them 7-13, are all in the same school.  As for their class schedule, it changes every day meaning they have about 13 classes during the week with a different teacher pretty much for each one. When they learned that we have approximately 5 classes and pretty much the same classes all week, they were shocked and even said "That must be boring". These class conversations were a great way to break the ice with all the students because then for the rest of the week we would constantly be getting "Hello" and "Hey" from pretty much everyone who walked past us. At the end of the day I met back up with Caroline and we went to the stables where they keep their 4 horses. I was able to help groom her horse named Irish and then after we met up with Megan and her host, Mikalah, we had a Birthday dinner that was planned for me at a local pub. Yes, my first day at Ken Stimpson and with my host family was my birthday!  It was an awesome way to kick off the two weeks that I will be spending in Ken Stimpson and Peterborough as a whole.

Tuesday the 4th:
      For the second day it was pretty much the same; we sat in a few more class conversations. But right before lunch we had an awesome opportunity to go to a recording studio with a group of kids and their teacher. At the studio we learned about the project that they had been working on. The project was to make a song with sounds of nature so they were using the studio to do the editing. Between editing, we all got to have a jam session.  Megan was on the keyboard, Dean on the guitar and I was on a cajon drum. After two hours at the studio it was time to head back to the school and then head home. Once at the house I got changed and we headed to the stables where I hung out with Becca and Dominic who were running around just like little kids do, which was a fun way to get to know them! 

Wednesday the 5th:
       Today we simply sat in on more classes and observed all different grade levels/classes. We also  spent time getting to know our hosts friends and the school campus because it is so different from the High Tech High campus that I am so used to. Ken Stimpson as a whole has about 5 buildings which are all pretty much two stories tall and since it snows in the winter, everything is indoors. The hallways aren't one flowing unit because they are full of fire doors, so about every 20 steps you take you have to open another set of doors. Another feature the school has is a gym and library that is open to the public, so throughout the day you have people from the community coming to the campus. Also the kids in post 16, their 11th-12th, can go to Tesco, a grocery store, right next door for lunch. Megan, Dean and I have wandered over there a few times. At the end of the day we headed home and around 7pm Caroline, her friend Joely and I went to the movies to see "The Purge".

Thursday the 6th:
        For our fourth day at Ken Stimpson, in the morning, we had a chance to sit in on an art class which was tons of fun because the art teacher was hilarious. His class was working on self portraits  but by the end of the project, their pictures looked like a bunch of different shapes forming their faces. Because he is an awesome teacher, he had us participate in the activity so he quickly took our picture and then we traced over our face with parchment paper to make a rough draft of a self portrait. After lunch Mr. O'Neill gave us the rest of the day to spend with our hosts.  Since it turned out to be a nice sunny day we went to the back courts to play some FOOTBALL!! This was tons of fun and by the end of the day we all really got to know each other. After school was out I met Caroline, her mom and Dominic in the car park to head back to the house. Once at the house Caroline changed and then we went to a BBQ that a group of her friends were having to celebrate their exams coming to a close. They cooked pretty much everything from hamburgers to skewers and we all just chatted and listened/danced to music.

Friday the 7th
       For the end of our first week at Ken Stimpson we started the day again in the art class participating in another art lesson on the famous splatter artist Jackson Pollock. For this lesson he had the class blindfold themselves, get three pastels that they will then draw with to music on a big piece of construction paper. As you can imagine all the papers ended up being a scribble art piece full of different shapes and lines that really showed the sounds and melody that he had played. The next part of the lesson was to do the same thing but without the blindfold and with charcoal and chalk. This paper looked completely different because we could see and imagine just what we were about to draw. Once the art class was over we moved on to a science class where we helped different groups with an experiment. The experiment was to watch the temperature of ice as you heat it over a 10min span of time. Then at the end of the experiment, record their findings in a graph that plots the growth in temperature. Once that class was over it was time for lunch, which we usually got from their cafeteria.
     After lunch, Mr. O'Neil gave us more free time to hang out because Megan sadly had to cut her trip short because of family issues. So we walked to Tesco's and picked up some popsicles that we ate in the school's field and basked in the sun for a while. At the end of the day we all took group pictures with all the students we had met over the corse of the week. After we all said our goodbyes, we met Caroline's mom in the car park and then we were off to pick up her three younger stepbrothers who come to stay every other weekend. Their names are Harvey, Kenzy, and Riley. After we picked them up, we headed back to the house and got changed.  Off to the stables, where I hung out with Becca and we biked into town to get some sweets. Around 7pm we left to go pick up dinner, KAKFAHSAH (AKA KFC), enough to feed every one!! Now dinner/tea time with all of them was tons of fun because they all are just a hilarious group -- hahaha -- we have this joke where we say "Maayo" that was started by Riley, the youngest, when he put mayo into his ketchup and then turned to me with the straightest face and said "Mayo?" and for some reason this caused the whole dinner table to start laughing. After the comedy show dinner ended, we all gathered around the tv to watch a movie with popcorn and sweets.
     

              Well today is the day that we are all went off to our schools to meet our host families. We met as usual in the lobby where we had a quick breakfast. Then we were all off to the train station to pick up our tickets and drop off the group of boys who will be staying in Bristol for the next two weeks. After they got onto their train, the six of us who were left, headed to Kings Cross Station, which is famous for platform 9 and 3/4 from the Harry Potter movies. After taking a few pictures we rushed to our platform to catch the train to Peterborough!!! It was only about a half hour ride through the country side which was so green and gorgeous. Then it was our stop -- Megan, Dean and I got off and thus our Internship really started to feel real.
               We made it to the train station's main doors where all of our hosts families were waiting for us!! After a quick hello we were all off  to our host family's homes. Caroline, who is the same age as me, her dad Matt and younger sister Becca picked me up. Their house was about a 20min drive from the station and once there we chatted and I met Lizzie, her mom, and younger brother Dominic. After an hour or so we went to the grocery store to pick up the week's groceries and when we got back, it was Dominos for dinner and then a nice lazy night watching "Britain's Got Talent". It was a nice introduction to the family and a great way to kick off my two week adventure in Peterborough.

         Technically, this was the first full day in London that we all had together, which was really exciting. We started off the day meeting in the lobby around 9:30am; then we were off to breakfast just a block away. It was nice because the street right next to us had a ton of shops and a currency exchange which was very important to visit! Once we had usable money, Megan, Dean and I went for a traditional English breakfast which was eggs, toast, a tomato, mushrooms, and a pot of tea. After we finished, we met back with the group in front of the tube-stop (the underground subway) to catch the next train to the British Library. The cool part of the British Library was all of the original documents such as the Magna Carta, notes by William Shakespeare and lots of original letters and notes from many famous English writers. After about a half an hour there at the museum, the group was off to Camden Market, which was a short tube-ride to the heart of Camden.
        What made this market so much fun was simply the environment and the amount of vendor stands that were full of everything from vintage clothes to works of art. If you can picture a street fair with a twist of a fun Sunday morning market, that is pretty much what it was. The group broke up into smaller groups again (me, Megan and Dean) and from there we walked around almost the whole market simply taking in the sites and the shops. The weather was becoming nice and sunny and perfect for walking around.
       After the market we all went to the British Museum to walk around for two hours to see all the amazing artifacts that the government has collected over the years such ad the original Rosetta Stone. Surprisingly for this time of year, it was getting really hot.  A lot of places don't have air conditioning, so Megan and I decided to sit on the steps right outside the doors of the museum to people-watch until it was time to go. Once the two hours were up, we all headed back to the hotel for some down-time.  Megan and I weren't ready to rest so we decided to walk to famous Hyde Park right down the street to enjoy the lovely day it turned out to be. The time in the park lasted about an hour and a half, then we all met back in the lobby to head off to dinner at Brick Lane.
        Brick Lane is know, for its good Indian food and beautiful artwork.  Megan and I walked down the street until we were approached by a restaurant scout who was in charge of getting people in to dine. After talking for a few minutes, we bargained with the scout for a good price for dinner which ended up being around 10pounds and extra for a drink.  But heck, 11pounds for the both of us together was a deal (around $15 American)!! Once we finished we met back up with the group to go graffiti spotting. What wonderful graffiti -- took lots and lots of photos of the amazing artwork.  After about two hours of that we all head back to the hotel for a well needed sleep.

             For our third day of internship, we didn't do a lot of internship related things because we all were on a 12 hour flight from San Diego to London! Once we landed at Heathrow Airport in London, the group of 9 of us students met up with our mentor, Chris Wakfield.  He was waiting for us right outside of customs.  The trip through customs was surprisingly long because the officials  thought it was crazy that a group of student were visiting to attend British schools!  Hahahaha! Once we passed through, Chris was waiting for us all with our tube-passes (aka subway). Next we all went to the station to catch our train to the hotel. Once off the train, we walked a few blocks to the hotel which was located right next to a beautiful park named Hyde ark. The hotel where we stayed was named The Central Park Hotel. Luckily, my roommate was my close friend Megan.  Our room was on the 5th floor with a nice view of the building directly across from us.
           After we got settled and changed we all met in the lobby to head out for a nice walk around the park. It was fairly chilly but none of really cared because it was just so exciting to experience a new city, in a foreign country, far from home!!! We all walked around taking pictures for about an hour or so. The park eventually put us right in front of Buckingham palace where we all had tea and crumpets with the queen (just kidding :D). After we were all done taking pictures of the palace we walked to Chinatown and then to dinner, which was an authentic English Dinner. Megan and I both ate sausage and mash (mashed potatoes) and I had a sparkling rose lemonade which was exciting. 
           Once we all finished we left for the bus stop; so exciting because in London all the buses are double decker so of course we all ran to the top. The bus put us pretty much in front of the hotel where we all split up to head off to our rooms to go to bed and soak up the fact that we were really "Across The Pond".

          For the second day of the internship we all weren't quite in England yet, but we had the chance to vist the Kipp Adelante Middle School in San Diego. Now you see I come from a charter high school which is designed around project based learning named High Tech High. The reason why we visited this middle school was to see a different perspective on charter schools and to become comfortable with working with kids and teachers. 
           We started the day off by getting to know what the main objective of the school was and to learn how to explain just why we were visiting the school. The reason why this school is so unique is it gives the opportunity to low income families to send their kids to a school that will help set them up for high school and college. What I most enjoyed about this visit was simply being able to see this other perspective of schooling which aims to not only helps the students who are attending but the community as well. After our introduction and debriefing about the school's mission, our group was split up so that we could each sit in on different classes to see what a typical class period was like. Once the class periods were over we got the chance to have a conversation with a group of 8th graders. After that meet up with the 8th graders, over school was adjourned so we all said our goodbyes.  Off to London the next day!
       If you want to know more about the school here is the link for the Kipp Adelante school: 
                                                          http://www.kippadelante.org/

            For my first day of my Junior Internship, I wasn't across the pond quite yet.  First our travelling group of 9 students taking part in Innovation first had to meet and see the perspective of what teachers do every day (not our teachers, but others). What this first day entailed was for all of us who were travelling to England participate in a Stanford College Design Workshop at the original High Tech High in Point Loma, CA. This workshop was tons of fun simply because it was all about Design Thinking. Now if you haven't heard of that term, it means to design a product that will work efficiently for a large consumer base. This workshop lasted pretty much a whole school day (9am-3pm). We stared off the day in a classroom where we all were given a presentation about design thinking and we were asked what we thought it was. Next we were introduced to a teacher who worked at the middle school right next door. He wanted us all to visit his class to critique a critique his class was doing. 
           After an hour or so we all went over there to his class.  We just watched as the class participated in reviewing each other's stories and picking apart what could be changed. After that we all went back to the room and broke up into groups to start coming up with other ways to possibly conduct the critique. My group, which was just Katie and I, came up with a collaborative group idea that would mean the kids would sit in a group and pitch their stories to each other and then go over beforehand things that needed to be changed. Once we had this plan, we worked it through with a group of students to see if the process would go smoothy.  We noticed that it had a few rough spots but overall, it was a good idea. Now that we had worked it through, we pitched our ideas to the teacher who loved all the ideas that we came up with.  He said he was going to use them the next time he has a critique session.
          This was a great way to kick off our internship simply because it was a chance to see just how much fun teaching is and it showed me personally how creative I can become if I just let my mind go.