Reflections on a trade school fair

Earlier this month, Pete and Mary took students to a trade school fair at the school district's offices. Here are Pete's reflections on the experience:

Sometimes providing an opportunity, some moral support and even just being there can help students overcome their insecurities.

Before the Holiday break Mary and I took a few students to a technical and vocational career fair at the Main Office of the School District. These students had attended a Hispanic College Fair in October which I also chaperoned. On that day, these students wandered around a small gymnasium floor in a dizzying crowd of students from many different high schools. They didn’t really talk to any of the college representatives and seemed to grow disinterested quickly. I tried to encourage them, but we only had 45 minutes and our time was up quickly.

Some weeks later, one of these students expressed an interest in technical training, so Jen arranged this trip as an opportunity for those students who were looking for something other than a “traditional” college or university path. We left the school around 4 o’clock, and after a brief stop for some fast food, we braved the gloom and drizzle. We arrived before five, and I was surprised to see that many of the tables were empty.

I went with one of the students to talk to someone at one of the first tables we encountered about electrician training, while Mary gathered information from other technical schools for some other students who were not able to attend, and for our resource room. This student and I were able to get an application and useful information about the school and program. I think that having Mary and I close by gave the student more confidence to ask questions as well.

Another student was interested in careers in aerospace, so we encouraged him to talk to representatives from several different schools and I stood close by to provide moral support, while he spoke to the admissions person This same student even learned about other careers he had not considered, like computer technician and automotive specialist.

Interacting with career professionals, as an English learner, can be a very scary undertaking. I am glad we were able to support these students by giving them a chance to obtain career and training information that met their needs.

Words, words, words

One game that students and mentors have been playing recently is Boggle. What I enjoy observing about Boggle is how nimble it makes people's brains. It's like watching the beginning of a dance class, while people are stretching their muscles and warming up, and then fast-forwarding to the end of class, when everyone is jumping, bending, and flexing in beautiful ways.

Boggle consists of a set of small cubes (like dice) with letters of the alphabet printed on them. To play the game, you shake up the dice and then let them settle into a small grid. With an egg timer going, players then look at the grid and try to spot as many words as they can in the jumble of letters. Each player writes a list of the words that he or she spots. You can count any letters as part of a word as long as each one is somehow touching one of the other letters. But you can't reverse direction and skip over a cube while trying to spell out your word.

The Boggle grid is small. It can be confusing to look at, because the letters may be upside down or sideways. Many players start with easy words, such as cat or tip. Sometimes that leads to a longer word, such as catch. You can sometimes get more than one word from the same group of letters, such as rear and rare.

Boggle calls upon different kinds of talents. First of all, it helps if you know a lot of words. The more possibilities you have, the more words you can find. Second, it helps if you can visualize and rearrange letters in your head. Some players combine these two skills, and impress us by their ability to find quaint and fracture.

After the game, we review our lists and compare to see who found the most unique words. This is a good opportunity to share new vocabulary, such as nit and mite. We look forward to more Boggle after the holidays.

Work zone

Crunch time. Students have been hard at work in our room during the past week, powering through projects, presentations, and other assignments. Sitting at the computers, they tap away writing essays and letters, while on the other side of the room, they page through their textbooks and scribble homework answers on looseleaf.

School can be a lot of work, but the effort pays off. Students are learning new material, practicing English, and working together. By doing research and asking good questions, they are also setting a good foundation for the years ahead. Many students are preparing to make the transition from high school to college. Just last week, one of our students was accepted to Penn State. Other students are pursuing careers as electricians or cosmetologists. Their diligence and smart choices now will make a big difference in their futures.

Of course, we don't believe in all work and no play. So we'll celebrate with a party after school today. Candy canes and eggnog and gingerbread houses, oh my...

Holiday party

We will be having a holiday party after school in our room on Wednesday, December 19. Students and school staff are invited to come!

Mock interviews

Every Monday for the past four weeks, we've held a workshop on the job search process. Students have been writing their resumes, filling out job applications, and learning about interview skills. Yesterday, we had the culminating workshop, and it was a great experience for all.

The intention of the workshop was to have students practice the skills they've learned in a simulated job interview and receive feedback. Amanda and Michelle came down from the office to conduct the interviews, while Amy coordinate students. Students were asked questions about their goals, experiences, strengths, and weaknesses and were then critiqued on their performance.

This was not the first time we've held this workshop. Last spring, we held a career exploration series with a group of students. One benefit of part of an outside organization is that our colleagues there can lend us their expertise. Students had the opportunity to practice with someone they did not know well, which probably made the mock interviews more realistic.

One difference we observed in the workshops we held in the spring and this month: last time, we had about half a dozen students, all of whom were girls from one country. This time, we had about the same number of students, but they came from five other countries and three continents, and most of them were boys. This goes to show how universal the need for these skills are; after all, all of these students will eventually be in an interview situation, if they haven't already.

This workshop concluded our fall job skills series. We'll continue to help students with finding and getting jobs as they come to us.

Destination: Gettysburg

On Wednesday, I visited Gettysburg, PA for the first time. As a history major, I had an idea of the town's role in the Civil War and enjoy seeing places with past significance. This time, however, I was not there as a tourist, but as a chaperone.

Our high school's college counselor had arranged a campus visit to the college in the town of Gettysburg. I knew all of the students who were going, so I went along as well. It was a small liberal arts college that did fairly well in the national rankings. It had also just become SAT-optional.

It started as a cold, crisp day. As we drove down Interstate 76, we started to see flurries: the first snow of the year. By the time we drove past the town's cemeteries and historically preserved buildings, a layer of white already covered the ground.

At the college, we visited the admissions office and its multicultural student center. We also spoke to students and a professor, ate in the dining hall, and took a campus tour. A snowball or two was also thrown. Life there was very different from anything in our own city. I think some of our own students' eyes were opened, and I know mine were as well.

While I've spent much of my post-graduate life at schools and colleges, I have not been a prospective student anywhere in a long time. Thinking back to my own experience applying to college seven years ago, I only considered a limited number of schools. I definitely did not even think of applying to anyplace this rural or this far west. I'm not sure I had even heard of this college. Things worked out, more or less, but there remains the big "what if."

Knowing everything I know now, if I were a teenager again, would I have made the same choices? It is an impossible question, of course. For the sake of the students I work with now, the ones who will have to face those decisions very soon, I hope they make the right ones.

Our trip to the University of Pennsylvania

On Sunday, we took our second trip of the year to the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. Amy and I, along with a dozen of our students, were there to attend a celebration sponsored by a local Arabic arts organization.

We saw performances of Arabic percussion, singing, and dancing. Before the show, there were also demonstrations of henna, calligraphy, and drumming. Some students were familiar with the songs, while others knew little about Arabic culture.

After the celebration, we took some students on a tour of the Penn campus. Amy is a student there, and she had come up with an itinerary for us. Though it was cold, wet, and dark outside, we still got to see many different parts of the university: a library, a dining hall, classrooms, a dorm, and the bookstore.

All in all, this was a nice way to see students outside the school and experience new things. We are hoping to have more trips soon, perhaps on upcoming weekends, during the evenings, or on Fridays.