Teachu2

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When I first started teaching, I created a summer program to combine academics, job skills, and model building. The inadequate funding was through the federal Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) initially, then through the Workforce Investment Act in the later years. This funding was supplemented by donors, both in the hobby industry and in a wide variety of local businesses, without whom we could never have given these students the supplies and support to suceed. In eight summers, 120+ at-risk high school kids worked in teams of 2-4 to design and build 38 R/C airplanes, 37 of which flew successfully. These students improved their average math scores three grade levels and their English scores 2.5 grade levels, not bad for a six-week program that didn't have a textbook! Funding dried up about the time I needed a break, so the program was shelved six years ago.

In May of last year, I was approached to resurrect the Model Airplane Designers program. There was no way to organize and mobilize the people and companies involved in the three weeks before the start of summer school, and I declined - but it got me thinking. In addition to being a full-time teacher, I run a small charter school for my district campus, and so I get to see a lot of struggling students' transcripts. In order to graduate, they must successfully complete two semesters of Algebra....

More to follow - dinner's ready!

ChuckW

Sounds like a good way to get kids to focus on math more if they can see an actual application for it. It won't seem nearly as boring if they take a project from paper to actually flying.

Teachu2

My Feedback: (133)

The project concept I've submitted for this summer is a 6 hour/day project, 4 hours of Algebra and 2 hours of kit building. This would fulfill the Algebra requirement, and the kit building opens the door to many practical applications of the math. It also provides incentive to DO the math - no kit building until the day's Algebra is completed. Peer pressure can be a wonderful thing.....

Why kits instead of original designs? First, in order to get two semesters of Algebra credit, they must have 120 hours of Algebra instruction. That leaves 60 hours, which isn't enough time. Second, the class will be ~40% larger than in the past. Third, the amount of tools, wood, supplies and incedentals required for original designs is immense. Fourth, I have amassed a substantial collection of kits over the years and will donate the needed kits - and I have multiple sizes of the same designs, which opens up an exploration of ratios, proportions, fractions, measurement......

Additionally, students will benefit from reading/following instructions....

Kits I have in mind (and on hand):
2 CGM Tiger 60s
2 CGM Tiger 40s
2 Midwest AeroSport 60s
2 Midwest AeroSport 40s
2 Midwest AeroSport 20s
1 TF Sierra as a teacher project/demo/class trainer.

Campgems

Trent, have you hooked up with a club in the Bakersfield area? There is some really good talent there that would probalby love to lend a hand.

Don

Teachu2

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I'm current/past president of two of the clubs in Bakersfield. Two of the LHSs have signed on, as well as several RC companies who have helped in the past.

It gets real messy trying to bring non-school people onto campus to help with students on anything more than a guest speaker basis. We will, however, be taking a day-long field trip to the flying field for test flights....

stevenmax50

My Feedback: (1)

You rock.  Is this what can be called thinking "outside the box'? 

Teachu2

My Feedback: (133)

My proposal has been approved! This will be a busy six weeks this summer.

Lnewqban

Congratulations, Mr. Combs!

Your ideas are brilliant and your students are very fortunated.

Please keep posts and pictures flowing into this interesting thread.

Teachu2

My Feedback: (133)

We had a pretty good year...

http://www.bakersfield.com/news/loca...-paid-to-learn

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

Any comment on the negative posts about the students getting paid to go through your program?? I do see a few problems with it myself but understand grant money.

Teachu2

My Feedback: (133)

I wish that there was no need for programs like these - that the students were all motivated by their mature self-interest and desire to succeed. While I'm at it, I wish their parents were both involved in their lives, and were modeling responsible behavior for them. That is not the case.

All of these kids come from low-income households. Many have no employed role model, and most of their parents are drop-outs, addicts, and/or current guests of the California Department of Corrections. Paying kids to do what they should have already done rubs me the wrong way, too - but it gives me a great tool to motivate these kids. I'm not just the teacher, I'm the Boss. These kids have all been suspended from school at some point - but getting suspended from work costs them MONEY!!! And the second time, they get fired!

Success is more powerful than home life, more addictive than crack, and a whole new experience for these kids. If we have to invest $1000 in a kid to turn them around - and I've seen it happen over and over - it's a whole lot cheaper than letting them fail. The prisons are full of people who never found out that they could do better for themselves. California spends nearly as much on prisons as on education. Many of these kids are on that path, and getting them to take on a complicated project and see it through to completion changes their view of themselves, their lives, and their dreams.

I'm a conservative in a liberal profession. I'm also a realist. This program is not new. Fourty years ago, it was CETA. Fifteen years ago, it was JTPA. Now, it's WIA. It will go on in some form, probably forever. The government will spend the money, whether or not I do this class - so either I do the class and help these kids succeed, or I don't and someone else gives it a shot. My project works, and so it gets approved time after time. There are 2-3x as many projects proposed as there are approved every year. If I don't step up, a program that wouldn't make the cut will. The kids will get paid the same - they just (probably) won't learn as much and won't be as ready to compete in the workforce.

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

Good reply, now you should post it on that page with the negatives posted. Too many people have no clue what grant money is and why it's there. I had to go through summer school twice but it was to advance a year, wish I could have gotten paid to do it but thems da breaks!! Would have been better then working at the burger joint. Grant money was used in our school for different sports programs, arts and music back in the 60s. Seems some of the school boards today have forgotten about them or the paper work is just too much for them to bother with.

Teachu2

My Feedback: (133)

Almost all grant money comes with restrictions - rules on how it has to be spent. This particular grant requires it to be spent in this manner.

GaryHarris

My hats off to you Trent. Trudge forward.