Zoë Randall Teacher Leadership Digital Portfolio
School Setting
At High Tech Middle Media Arts, a San Diego charter middle school serving students in grades 6 through 8, I have the great privilege of being the multimedia teacher, offering a curriculum in communications, media literacy, graphic arts, video production, and photography to our 300+ student population. Not many schools in the San Diego Unified School District offer a course in multimedia to their middle school students, so in a sense it feels like paving a way for teaching the future.
HTMMA belongs to a family of charter schools, collectively known as High Tech High. Our schools in total serve a diverse population of students from all areas of San Diego County through a lottery-based admissions procedure. Students at our schools are chosen through the "luck of the draw" based on zip code, parent info session attendance, and an application of intent to join our schools. In this way, we enjoy a more diverse student community without the pretense of a merit-based system, while also creating a more natural reflection of the community. As seen below in Figure 1, we share a community of learners who are diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, English Learners and free and reduced lunch students. We are working towards a demographic model more aligned with the San Diego Unified school district through continued use of a zip code lottery for our admissions process.
HTMMA belongs to a family of charter schools, collectively known as High Tech High. Our schools in total serve a diverse population of students from all areas of San Diego County through a lottery-based admissions procedure. Students at our schools are chosen through the "luck of the draw" based on zip code, parent info session attendance, and an application of intent to join our schools. In this way, we enjoy a more diverse student community without the pretense of a merit-based system, while also creating a more natural reflection of the community. As seen below in Figure 1, we share a community of learners who are diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, English Learners and free and reduced lunch students. We are working towards a demographic model more aligned with the San Diego Unified school district through continued use of a zip code lottery for our admissions process.
Today, there are nine schools in the High Tech High charter organization, which has expanded from the Point Loma campus to North County and Chula Vista. Of those, three are middle schools, which like all of our schools are founded upon three common design principles: Personalization, Adult-World Connection, and Common Intellectual Mission. We base our philosophy on these principles in hopes of offering the most complete support system to all students on their academic pathway towards higher education.
Personalization ensures that teachers know their students, and in knowing them can provide the best education and meet the needs of all learners. In addition to their teachers, every student has an advisor who acts as their personal adult contact with whom they can share what's going on in school and outside of it. Advisors make a home visit to every new student to create a personal connection instead of just an academic one.
Adult-World connection offers students a taste of real-world systems through project based learning. Like a business, students manage their responsibilities, work in teams, and follow real-world procedures. When I teach video, they learn the steps of pre-production, production, and
post-production just like any professional videographer. Teachers invite guest speakers and experts in the field, and they commit students to doing more outside of the classroom, such as service learning in the community.
Our common intellectual mission gives students a chance to work to their highest expectations without a tracking system so that all students can achieve success of the highest nature. As a project based learning school, we offer curriculum to students which integrates them in real-world contexts, so that they feel like they are part of the process of learning instead of just receivers of content. Through projects, students follow a path, take a journey, and discover through an exploration of their world. Students also share these journeys in the form of public exhibitions as well as on their school digital portfolios, a public website space created by all students in HTH from 6th-12th grade, to display their work.
Although there are now three middle schools in the High Tech High Village, two in Point Loma and one in San Marcos, HTMMA distinguishes itself as a communications-based, media-oriented school. Our school offers an exploratory program which runs on a semester cycle to offer a year's worth of instruction to all students in the disciplines of Art, Drama, and Multimedia. Each year, all students take a semester-long course in two of the three courses available. There are now two multimedia programs serving the middle school level, one at HTMMA and the other in San Marcos, and helping our digital natives become better at expressing themselves and gaining understanding through various media. Exploratory courses fulfill visual and performing arts standards as well as NETS technology standards and offer instruction to each grade-level for one hour per class. Our class sizes average at 28 students, and the students are divided in teams.
In addition to their exploratory courses, the students are also enrolled in their core subjects, Humanities and Math/Science. These are each two-hour blocks that are taught by team teachers who work together to integrate instruction. There are two teaching teams per grade level, making a total of six teams in the school. These classes integrate the use of technology in the classroom and Web 2.0 practices into their curriculum, and often collaborate with the exploratory teachers to create major exhibitions of student learning.
Students receive a secondary path of learning that fulfills a more social-emotional context in their advisories and x-block. In advisory, our students are building service learning skills by spreading out into the community to perform various clean-ups, support for other schools, and humanitarian acts. Each week, advisories, which are made up of mixed students in 6-8th grade, meet three times to participate in a variety of activities geared around bigger issues around school such as cyberbullying, racism, and community. Following an advisory model called CPR, Circle of Power and Respect, students are greeted each time they meet in advisory, participate in a sharing protocol and group activity, and hear school announcements. We also meet once a month for a Community meeting, a forum where the whole school joins together on a certain theme or activity.
X-Block is offered every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon for one hour of instruction that provides a more relaxed context for students to get physical education or develop skills in areas of music, crafts, or dance for example. It is also a time to offer study skills and support to struggling learners. In the effort to offer various opportunities at my school, I've taught x-blocks such as Beginning French, French Cooking and producing the school Yearbook.
As students enjoy many opportunities for growth, teachers at our school also gain valuable experiences for professional development and collaboration. As teachers, we are encouraged to work together, to join with other schools on projects and to share our teaching practices with our colleagues creating collective resources and opportunities. HTH is also the first to offer an adult-learning program through their Graduate School of Education which offers a Teacher Intern and Induction Program, Leading Schools Certificate Program, and Teacher and School Leadership Masters Programs. Thus, teachers work as practitioners, observing other teachers, reflecting upon their own work, joining in study groups, planning community meetings, facilitating staff meetings, communicating through the use of digital portfolios and making connections with the educational community at large.
Personalization ensures that teachers know their students, and in knowing them can provide the best education and meet the needs of all learners. In addition to their teachers, every student has an advisor who acts as their personal adult contact with whom they can share what's going on in school and outside of it. Advisors make a home visit to every new student to create a personal connection instead of just an academic one.
Adult-World connection offers students a taste of real-world systems through project based learning. Like a business, students manage their responsibilities, work in teams, and follow real-world procedures. When I teach video, they learn the steps of pre-production, production, and
post-production just like any professional videographer. Teachers invite guest speakers and experts in the field, and they commit students to doing more outside of the classroom, such as service learning in the community.
Our common intellectual mission gives students a chance to work to their highest expectations without a tracking system so that all students can achieve success of the highest nature. As a project based learning school, we offer curriculum to students which integrates them in real-world contexts, so that they feel like they are part of the process of learning instead of just receivers of content. Through projects, students follow a path, take a journey, and discover through an exploration of their world. Students also share these journeys in the form of public exhibitions as well as on their school digital portfolios, a public website space created by all students in HTH from 6th-12th grade, to display their work.
Although there are now three middle schools in the High Tech High Village, two in Point Loma and one in San Marcos, HTMMA distinguishes itself as a communications-based, media-oriented school. Our school offers an exploratory program which runs on a semester cycle to offer a year's worth of instruction to all students in the disciplines of Art, Drama, and Multimedia. Each year, all students take a semester-long course in two of the three courses available. There are now two multimedia programs serving the middle school level, one at HTMMA and the other in San Marcos, and helping our digital natives become better at expressing themselves and gaining understanding through various media. Exploratory courses fulfill visual and performing arts standards as well as NETS technology standards and offer instruction to each grade-level for one hour per class. Our class sizes average at 28 students, and the students are divided in teams.
In addition to their exploratory courses, the students are also enrolled in their core subjects, Humanities and Math/Science. These are each two-hour blocks that are taught by team teachers who work together to integrate instruction. There are two teaching teams per grade level, making a total of six teams in the school. These classes integrate the use of technology in the classroom and Web 2.0 practices into their curriculum, and often collaborate with the exploratory teachers to create major exhibitions of student learning.
Students receive a secondary path of learning that fulfills a more social-emotional context in their advisories and x-block. In advisory, our students are building service learning skills by spreading out into the community to perform various clean-ups, support for other schools, and humanitarian acts. Each week, advisories, which are made up of mixed students in 6-8th grade, meet three times to participate in a variety of activities geared around bigger issues around school such as cyberbullying, racism, and community. Following an advisory model called CPR, Circle of Power and Respect, students are greeted each time they meet in advisory, participate in a sharing protocol and group activity, and hear school announcements. We also meet once a month for a Community meeting, a forum where the whole school joins together on a certain theme or activity.
X-Block is offered every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon for one hour of instruction that provides a more relaxed context for students to get physical education or develop skills in areas of music, crafts, or dance for example. It is also a time to offer study skills and support to struggling learners. In the effort to offer various opportunities at my school, I've taught x-blocks such as Beginning French, French Cooking and producing the school Yearbook.
As students enjoy many opportunities for growth, teachers at our school also gain valuable experiences for professional development and collaboration. As teachers, we are encouraged to work together, to join with other schools on projects and to share our teaching practices with our colleagues creating collective resources and opportunities. HTH is also the first to offer an adult-learning program through their Graduate School of Education which offers a Teacher Intern and Induction Program, Leading Schools Certificate Program, and Teacher and School Leadership Masters Programs. Thus, teachers work as practitioners, observing other teachers, reflecting upon their own work, joining in study groups, planning community meetings, facilitating staff meetings, communicating through the use of digital portfolios and making connections with the educational community at large.
Classroom Setting
I am a multimedia teacher at HTMMA and I teach 6th graders in the fall semester and 8th graders in the spring semester. My class is taught in a lab fitted with 13 G5 Macintosh computers and 2 I-Mac computers. This offers each class about a 2:1 computer ratio. The programs I use teach students skills in word processing, video production, photographic manipulation, graphic design and web design. With only an hour per lesson to teach the complex processes of multimedia creation, I divide the class time to offer hands-on instruction, lecture or tutorial, and reflective practices, such as journaling. Students spend about 30 minutes a day on the computer or in a hands-on project. The rest of the time is for first thing focus (a beginning
exercise in reflection) direct instruction, student planning, group planning, and/or layout or
pre-production depending on the project. Students work individually on projects such as
creating their digital portfolios, or in teams, making a video or poster. The content I teach
falls under the main umbrellas of media literacy, communications, and visual arts. Students are building valuable critical thinking skills, 21st century skills, and creating visual art with the aid of a computer or digital technology. I have a cabinet of resources, including digital cameras, digital camcorders, a green screen, tripods, dollies, and audio equipment which allows students the facility to use real-world professional technologies in the classroom.
Through the use of technology, students learn to make professional work, using professional standards derived from real world professions. My hope is to inspire students to work towards careers in the visual arts, and to recognize that these skills will help them grow in any field, but are also a recognizable field in themselves. Through teaching a class such as multimedia, students open up to the possibilities of becoming film directors, game designers, graphic artists, videographers, photographers, computer programmers, and engineers. I always say, they are in control of the media, not the other way around. As producers of content and not just mindless consumers, I hope they will gain insight into how to reach out to the world through their creativity.
exercise in reflection) direct instruction, student planning, group planning, and/or layout or
pre-production depending on the project. Students work individually on projects such as
creating their digital portfolios, or in teams, making a video or poster. The content I teach
falls under the main umbrellas of media literacy, communications, and visual arts. Students are building valuable critical thinking skills, 21st century skills, and creating visual art with the aid of a computer or digital technology. I have a cabinet of resources, including digital cameras, digital camcorders, a green screen, tripods, dollies, and audio equipment which allows students the facility to use real-world professional technologies in the classroom.
Through the use of technology, students learn to make professional work, using professional standards derived from real world professions. My hope is to inspire students to work towards careers in the visual arts, and to recognize that these skills will help them grow in any field, but are also a recognizable field in themselves. Through teaching a class such as multimedia, students open up to the possibilities of becoming film directors, game designers, graphic artists, videographers, photographers, computer programmers, and engineers. I always say, they are in control of the media, not the other way around. As producers of content and not just mindless consumers, I hope they will gain insight into how to reach out to the world through their creativity.
