Mid-semester Reports on Social Innovation In Education Internship Projects –
October 18th, 2011
Joe Eichner
NO Limits Theatre
NO Limits Theater is an after school theater program, functioning as of now at Banneker Middle School. The class contains 15 eighth grade girls, and will work to give them a creative, judgment free outlet wherein to express themselves. I think that theater will help these students to have a more open mind, make them more culturally aware, advance their empathies for others, and give them confidence in their identities and who they are. Also, it will transform their idea of what it means to be in the classroom, allowing them to express their voice and say exactly what’s on their minds. The program will hopefully result in a performance of some sort to be performed for family and friends, and furthermore, will work with Tulane’s Theater Department to provide students with a more professional theatrical model.
NO Limits Theater is an after school theater program, functioning as of now at Banneker Middle School. The class contains 15 eighth grade girls, and will work to give them a creative, judgment free outlet wherein to express themselves. I think that theater will help these students to have a more open mind, make them more culturally aware, advance their empathies for others, and give them confidence in their identities and who they are. Also, it will transform their idea of what it means to be in the classroom, allowing them to express their voice and say exactly what’s on their minds. The program will hopefully result in a performance of some sort to be performed for family and friends, and furthermore, will work with Tulane’s Theater Department to provide students with a more professional theatrical model.
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Colette Bolton
Inclusion Buddies
At this point I am very excited with the progress that Inclusion Buddies has had. All of my volunteers except for one have started working with special needs students on a regular and consistent basis. I have heard from teachers at Banneker that they are pleased with my volunteers and thy work they are doing with the special needs students. My biggest upcoming tasks will be finalizing the volunteer workshop date, planning the workshop, and obtaining test data about the students we are working with. Some of my volunteers are struggling with what they should be doing and would like more guided direction, which I will talk about with Ms. Johnson. I am finding that the Tulane students who have worked at Banneker and with students before have been able to jump right in without much direction, but the volunteers that don’t have much experience need a little more guidance, at least in the beginning. An additional goal for this week will be to check-in with all of my volunteers to see how they are doing and to hear any comments/questions from them.
Atticus Bieff
Work in Tulane University’s President Cowen’s Office in supporting his work with the White House Council on Community Relations (WHCCR)
My last assignment was to research different organizations that help each of the WHCCR’s four categories of at-risk youth. After completing this assignment, it turned out that the WHCCR’s changed their agenda and were no longer seeking such a deliverable from President Cowen's office. Instead, the Council wanted the President's Office to report on secondary-school education in general.
The direction for my internship is still up in the air because we are operating from one call with the WHCCS to the next because the WHCCS has not settled on what it wants from us. This week, my assignment was to research a potential keynote speaker for an event to be held in the Spring. However, it turned out that the speaker would not be needed so I will not have another assignment until I meet with my supervisors next week.
There is a meeting of the WHCCS on October 14th in Washington, D.C. that my supervisors will attend. Hopefully, after this meeting, we will have more direction and I can continue my work for the internship.
Hope Barnard
Ladder to the Sky
At this point in the process, working with Mr. Smith and with the help of George Martin has been much more effective than trying to work with the larger administration system at Banneker. I've developed the outlook that in this process, it's better to ask forgiveness than permission. I've learned that it's much more expedient to try to track down anyone I need to talk to during the school day than to email them. I've also learned how unavoidably time consuming this process is: identifying struggling readers, identifying their precise reading level to order workbooks for each, identifying each of their needs, coordinating with Special Education when appropriate, matching volunteers to students, and coordinating their meeting. If I were starting the process over, knowing what I need now in a way I didn't initially, I'd get as much of a head start over the summer as possible.
Where we are now: I got an email this morning informing me that our Youth Venture check has finally been mailed! I'll be pulling Mr. Smith's students from their English classes tomorrow to work through older versions of the workbooks we'll be using to determine which level workbook to order for each student After the check comes in, I'll order the workbooks we need. I'm also getting Mr. Smith's class schedule today so that we can coordinate our volunteers' and students' schedules.
Ellye Birnbrey
Ladder to the Sky Mid-Semester Report
At this point in my project, things finally are starting to get off the ground. I organized a googledoc of all of the volunteer time slots and set a date for our training session within the next week. Soon, all of our volunteers will be in Banneker working with kids. I think a few things really slowed us down until now. We were waiting on the money from our grant and were waiting on an okay from Banneker. We were waiting for something to really give us a head start until we realized that it was up to us to make our own head start and get the ball rolling. We also decided to work with only Mr. Smith's class, which really helped us. Once we chose a small sample group we were able to stay more organized and have better communication. I think it is really important that we always assign goals and tasks with exact due dates. Hope and I are really trying to time manage, and I think we are becoming much more successful at that.
Ladder to the Sky Literacy is a program for the children of New Orleans who have unfortunately been sliding through each year without being given a real chance for success. These are students in 6th through 8th grade who are reading drastically behind their reading level, many at a 1st or 2nd grade level. Our volunteers work individually with these students twice a week to build confidence and increase morale about learning and reading. Our goal is not only to increase their reading levels by at least 2 grade levels, but also to change the way they think about reading and learning through positive reinforcement and support.
