Art by Winnie Chang from California High School in San Ramon. Photo by Jennifer Wadsworth.
This Friday, April 12, is the deadline for The Artistic Discovery Contest, an art competition initiated by Congressman Eric Swalwell that is open to all high school students in California's 15th congressional district. Winning artworks will be displayed at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. For more information and to submit your artwork, visit Congressman Swalwell's web site. We encourage you to have your students submit works to the competition! Show our nation what Northern California's brilliant, creative young minds have produced in the classroom and beyond. The 15th congressional district covers part of Santa Clara County, including Los Gatos and Cupertino.
Last week's Do Now looks that the high school drop out crisis in America. Students from all over the country presents reasons they felt their peers are dropping out.
The conversation began with some grim statistics:
More than 20 percent of California high school students drop out of school before graduation, according to 2009 state education data. To get a sense of just how many, imagine sitting in your math class and counting out every fifth student sitting in class with you. In a class of 30, that would be six students.
Of course, 20 percent is just the average dropout rate in California. Some schools have a much lower rate, but for others, it's much, much higher. And in many cases, it's low-income areas with large minority student populations that have some of the highest dropout rates.
For instance, in 2009 more than one third of California's African American public high school students didn't graduate. That's far above the rate for any other ethnic group. Hispanics had the second highest rate, at 27 percent, according to the state's data.
Below is the conversation along with narrated slideshows from teachers from the Bay Area.
More than one out of five high school students in California drop out of school. Answer one or more of these questions: What do you think is the biggest reason why so many students don't make it to graduation? Do you know of someone who dropped out? What do you think was the cause?
Introduction
More than 20 percent of California high school students drop out of school before graduation, according to 2009 state education data. That's a lot of students! To get a sense of just how many, imagine sitting in your math class and counting out every fifth student sitting in class with you. In a class of 30, that would be six students.
Of course, 20 percent is just the average dropout rate in California. Some schools have a much lower rate, but for others, it's much, much higher. And in many cases, it's low-income areas with large minority student populations that have some of the highest dropout rates.
For instance, in 2009 more than one third of California's African American public high school students didn't graduate. That's far above the rate for any other ethnic group. Hispanics had the second highest rate, at 27 percent, according to the state's data.
The dropout rate differences between school districts also varied greatly. In Oakland, for instance, the dropout rate in 2009 was 40 percent, one of the highest in the state (up from 28 percent the previous year). But directly across the bridge in San Francisco, the rate was only 9 percent (down from 18 percent in 2008).
Check out three of our favorite resources focused on visual arts in education:
Red Studio is the Museum of Modern's Arts interactive and collaborative project with high school students in New York City. Exploring "issues and questions raised by teens about today's modern art, working artists, and what goes on behind the scenes at a museum," the site features interviews with artists and opportunities to make digital art. The image above was creative in Red Studio's REMIX interactive collage tool.
Art Babble is like YouTube for art videos. This site was developed by the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and features videos from partners including KQED, PBS's Art:21, The San Jose Museum of Art, Yerba Buena Center of the Arts, and many more, including national and international organizations. Videos are organized by medium, location, themes, and time period. There is a special section specifically for educators with classroom-appropriate videos and resources.
Art Education 2.0 is a Ning networking web site initiated by professor and educator Craig Roland. It hosts a robust collection of resources and offers many opportunities for idea sharing and networking among fellow arts educators. Membership is free, and there are currently over 12,000 active members who upload ideas, videos, and photos to share with their global community of colleagues.
The PBS series, America Revealed, uses beautiful and breath-taking aerial photography to provide an otherwise unseen view of America. It uses original data visualizations to demonstrate how our systems work.
Enhance your English, social studies, math, health, science, and environmental studies curriculum with video clips and supporting classroom materials in PBS LearningMedia from this thought provoking series.
Please welcome digital media teacher Matt Koons to EdSpace. We met at a KQED Education event last fall, and I wanted to hear more about his students' music production projects, which reminded me of our inspiring KQED Spark videos about young music-makers such as the students from they Bay Area Unity Music Project, and singer/songwriter Lauren Shera.
Not the most uplifting way to start a blog post, huh? It's all true, though. And few people are more aware of it than the teachers and students on the front lines.
On March 13, teachers, education advocates, and a number of students filled the theater at Laney College in Oakland to address the problem, ask important questions, and share thoughts on how best to tackle this ongoing crisis in American education. The forum was part of American Graduate: Let's Make It Happen, an initiative spearheaded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), in partnership with America's Promise Alliance and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Local public radio and television stations (including KQED) in 20 impacted "hub markets" where the high school dropout crisis is most acute, are convening teacher town hall events to raise awareness of, and bring attention to, the issue.
Moderated by Snap Judgement host Glynn Washington, Tuesday's event centered around a panel of seasoned Oakland educators who spoke passionately about the extent of the crisis from their unique perspectives. While specific opinions and suggested courses of action varied widely, all participants were united in their insistence that a whole generation of young people are being left behind, and that urgent change is desperately needed.
Below are some of the overarching themes that shaped the discussion:
Strong student/teacher relationships are crucial
Students need to know that teachers care; that they know them; that they listen to them
Teachers must create support systems for their most vulnerable students, and provide lasting mentorship
Teachers need to encourage creativity/critical thinking among their students
It’s the role of educators to spark students’ minds, help create change
Much of today's conventional educational approaches focus too much on basic skills, and not nearly enough on creative skills and real-world job skills
Teachers are critical to student success, but there is often too much responsibility placed on them. The community support factor can't be ignored.
There is a serious lack of stability in the teaching force, and this directly impacts the stability of students; teacher dropouts encourage student dropouts
Teachers have questionable access to basic resources, which affects the length of their teaching commitment
There is a lack of consistency in the educational system; a constant flux in procedures, goals and approaches makes it harder on everyone
For many students entering high school, success is predetermined (there is still an unofficial form of tracking at play)
In many cases, students need to be taught “how” to be in school and "how" to learn; it shouldn't simply be assumed that this is inherent knowledge
There is a lack of relevance/meaning in most standardized curriculum; this results in a lack of student engagement and retention
Too often ignored in the education debate are the crucial impact of poverty, nutritional health, and basic resources on educational achievement
Applications are now open for the 1st Annual KQED Science Youth Media Festival, hosted at California Academy of Sciences on June 10, 2012, 3-5pm.
Deadline for submission: April 15, 2012
The theme for this year's festival is Nature and Environmental Science. We are looking for videos produced by youth who are either in middle school or high school about the following topics:
wildlife
water use
oceans
pollution
cultural connections
restoration
sustainability
environmental justice
We are accepting submissions from youth who have made digital media projects either in school, an after-school program, summer program, or independently. The project format must be self-contained and able to stand alone. Presentations such as PowerPoint, Prezi, etc. will not be accepted. The projects must be published on a video hosting site like YouTube, SchoolTube, or Vimeo. The length of the projects cannot exceed 15 minutes and they must have been produced AFTER April 15, 2010.
Youth whose entries are accepted to the festival will receive iTunes gift cards. Grand prizes include the possibility of the showcasing the winning videos on KQED QUEST, a two-day internship with QUEST’s production team, and Apple mobile devices.
SUBMISSION
Before submitting your project, be sure to post the video on a video hosting site like YouTube, SchoolTube or Vimeo, and make sure that your video is public (we will not be able to view or judge a project that is set to private). To submit your project, fill out our online entry form below. Be sure to read the guidelines before filling out the form. You can download a copy of the entry form HERE to review it.
Submission Guidelines:
KQED Science Youth Media Festival is to showcase the work of middle school and high school students (ages 13-18). If you are younger than 13, please have a parent, teacher or instructor submit your project. All communication will be sent to the email listed in the form so please be sure it is active and checked often.
Teachers: For classroom projects, please submit only the "best" one or two to the KQED Science Media Festival for consideration. In other words, if your students are creating similar projects on air pollution, please submit only one or two projects to the Festival.
Create and keep a complete, high-resolution copy of your project, as this is required for all winning projects.
Entries must be received by 11:59pm PST, April 15, 2012.
Entries must represent work that was completed after April 15, 2010.
Please note that a completed materials/appearance release will be required for entries accepted to the KQED Science Youth Media Festival. This form must be printed and signed by the youth and his/her parent or guardian.
All entries must be submitted online using a preferred web hosting partner or other media hosting provider (e.g. SchoolTube, YouTube, Vimeo, etc.). All entries MUST have a valid, public URL that our judges can access.
Usually, we hear about how teens should not give into peer pressure, but for Fatima, it was peer pressure that influenced her to apply to college. Her friends were the only support to keep her motivated and persevere through the challenges she faced at home. In her film Fatima, co-produced by William Tatlonghari and Eric Lopez, Fatima explores the challenges of growing up with her single mother who walked out on her abusive husband taking Fatima with her. At times, they had to live on the street, struggling to make rent and keep a roof over their heads.
In her film, Fatima explains, "Living with my family has really motivated me in getting out of my house and out of the family that I live with." Although a little unclear, she had issues with her older brother, and that frustration and anger helped her to motivate, succeed, and "beat him in life." Through her adversity, Fatima was able to do well in school and enroll at San Francisco State University.
This is the second video presented from the twelve that were produced at Philip and Sala Burton High School in Bayview. These films were part of Project VoiceScape, a partnership with Adobe Youth Voices, PBS, and POV that is aimed at encouraging middle and high school students nationwide to use digital media tools in creating compelling stories about issues and concerns important to them. At Burton, the students all picked the theme of college access as a focus for their films. The concept references financial struggles, immigration issues, lack of support, fears and anxieties.
KQED Education also worked with students from James Lick Middle School. All of the work was done in partnership with the San Francisco Ed Fund's Peer Resources program. They explored topics like depression, immigration, graffiti, video game addiction, domestic violence, and race and discrimination. Students produced incredibly poignant films about social issues that personally affect them. Through this personal lens, these films aim to express issues subjectively and do not attempt to hold any sort of objective journalistic integrity. These films also do not represent the opinions of any of the partnering organizations.
And without further ado, here's the film Fatima, produced by Fatima Parayno, William Tatlonghari, and Eric Lopez.
To Shaq, it was not an ordinary chemistry class at San Francisco's Burton High School. That cold spring morning, he had a plan. He was going to film a drug scene in the middle of the lesson. He had his props ready - a small mirror, a dollar bill, and powdered sugar. He sat there prepping the scene on his desk while the teacher posted material on the chalkboard, unaware of the shenanigans occurring in the back of the class. Shaq then took out his flip video camera and began filming without any disruption.
When presenting the footage to his Peer Resources class the following week, it was obvious that the teacher had no clue what was going on. It could have been the real deal. And this aligned perfectly to Shaq's point in his film We Need Help that he co-produced with his classmate Stephanny. The film is about the lack of support high schools have for at-risk youth. To Shaq and Stephanny, most teachers do not know how to read the signs for help from youth who are in need of some kind of intervention. Or maybe the signs are clear, but there are a lack of resources or methods put in place. In any case, the film explores this critical issue through the lens of two fictional characters. One is a drug addict; the other is a pregnant teen.
This is one of twelve student films that were produced at Philip and Sala Burton High School in Bayview. These films were part of Project VoiceScape, a partnership with Adobe Youth Voices, PBS, and POV that is aimed at encouraging middle and high school students nationwide to use digital media tools in creating compelling stories about issues and concerns important to them. At Burton, the students all picked the theme of college access as a focus for their films. The concept references financial struggles, immigration issues, lack of support, fears and anxieties.
KQED Education also worked with students from James Lick Middle School. All of the work was done in partnership with the San Francisco Ed Fund's Peer Resources program. They explored topics like depression, immigration, graffiti, video game addiction, domestic violence, and race and discrimination. Students produced incredibly poignant films about social issues that personally affect them. Through this personal lens, these films aim to express issues subjectively and do not attempt to hold any sort of objective journalistic integrity. These films also do not represent the opinions of any of the partnering organizations.
And without further ado, here's the film We Need Help, produced by Shaqur Hill and Stephanny Castellanos.
Stay tuned for some more highlights and examples of students' films.
Do Now is a weekly activity for students to respond to current issues through the use KQED's award-winning online media resources and social media tools like Twitter.
