The students that volunteer their time and knowledge on Reach a Student are eligible to receive community service hours. We are looking to expand our roster of academic and athletic mentors, interviewers, and video editors to help inspire and answer school-related questions. Join Us!
What Is Reach a Student?
Reach a Student is a website established to give students direct communication access to student mentors in various grade levels. Students will be able to reach out to other students and ask any questions they have regarding student and campus life. The site will also stream videos of students sharing their experiences at Windermere Prep as well as activities around campus. Find Out More
Our goal at Reach a Student is to help the students at Windermere as much as possible by providing tips and help from a student's perspective. Answering questions is a great way for students to connect and share with one another, however, the knowledge shared is limited by the questions asked. Blogging allows students to share their thoughts more freely and anyone can provide their peers with whatever information they think would be beneficial.
Since I believe that every student has some kind of insight that could be useful to others at WPS, anyone can contribute their own personal entries to the blog. I can even make your entry anonymous if you choose to. I also believe that the WPS teachers have valuable experience from when they were students (for example, how they faced and overcame an obstacle that a student might be facing today), so I reach out to all WPS faculty and hope you will contribute to our blog.
I remember when the first day the Turning A Page project was introduced to me in 8th grade I was
nervous. I wanted to end middle
school strong and so I decided to do something unique. I wanted to do something that no one
had ever done before, and so I chose the topic of fortunetelling and
mysticism. I recommend to students
who are looking to challenge themselves to choose a topic out of the
norm. By not choosing a hobby or
something that I was familiar with, I learned new things. For example, I learned how to read
fortunes and I studied the culture of gypsies and fortunetellers. I think that choosing a topic that you do not know well adds a completely new meaning to this project.
Many students may believe
that they can start working on the project only a few weeks before their TAP presentation. I think that it is really
beneficial to start working on TAP as soon as you can because it takes a lot of
time to make your presentation the best that it can be. It gives you time to ask the teachers anything that you may feel
concerned about.
Before you start writing
your TAP script, start by writing out an outline. I personally preferred making a list. I numbered the
list from 1-10 and then I wrote the class subject and explained how my
topic could be connected to the subject. It helped to color-code the different class
topics. For example:
1. Edgar
Allen Poe (A Dream Within A Dream): Explained connection #1
2. Edgar Allen Poe (The Raven): Explained connection #2
5. The Giver (Conformity): Explained Connection #5
6. The Giver (Colors): Explained Connection #6
After you make your
outline, you should show each of your teachers the connections for their class
to make sure that they will accept all your connections. Also, it may be helpful when thinking of connections, to refer to Edmodo and look at all of the folders for each
class. For math I went through the
textbook and read the word problems because they can help for inspiration.
While you are thinking of
connections, come up with your visual aids. You can make certain connections by using visual aids. For example, on my topic of fortune
telling, I used items such as candles, a crystal ball, and tarot cards. Visual aids are extremely helpful if you
know how to use them to your advantage. I made numerous connections to what I read on the different tarots cards. For example I had written:
In the picture of the sun tarot card, you see the planets
revolving around the sun. Galileo Galilei, an Italian physicist, astronomer,
engineer, and philosopher, proclaimed that the Earth and the planets in our
solar system revolved around the sun – a controversial idea at the time as the
common belief was that the planets revolved around the Earth. He was also known
for throwing two rocks of different sizes off the Leaning Tower of Pisa to see
if the heavier rock would hit the ground first. To his surprise Galileo
discovered that the rocks, no matter the weight landed on the ground at the
same time. As a result of his findings, Galileo theorized that objects of
different weights and masses would have the same amount of force pushing them
down.
It might be helful when starting to write out
the rough draft of your script, to print out your outline. While you type
different connections into the script, cross them out from the outline. By doing this you are making sure that
you include all of your connections into your presentation. When you are first writing up your
script, don't worry about making your writing perfect, just type an outline of
your presentation just indicating how each connection will be used. Once you finish the outlining, then go
back to finalize and revise it. With your finalized script, it is really important to time
yourself as you read it out loud to make sure that your presentation will fit the 15 minute time
frame. At first, my script was too long by several minutes and it took a long time to shorten my it down.
One VERY important thing
that I learned while making my script is that it is more about making the
connections than going extremely in depth on your actual topic. I struggled a lot with time because I
had long sections where I talked about my topic and very detailed connections. If you are struggling with time like I
did, first simplify the descriptions
of your topic before making big changes to your connections. Remember that you are being graded more on
the connections, than how detailed you were in explain the topic.
In your presentation, be
sure to think of a way to interact with the teachers. Your teachers do not want to hear a 15-minute long speech;
they want to feel as if they are being transported into the setting that you
have created. Think of how you can use the space that you are
given to your greatest advantage. Decorate your
presentation area by making it authentic to your project. For example for my fortune telling
topic, I decided to make a tent with a lot of gypsy fabrics and lanterns. I researched my topic to see how
gypsies decorated their space for fortune telling. I think the visual appearance was one of the biggest contributions that made my project different.
When you are at the final
stage of TAP where you are practicing the presentation, and you find it difficult memorizing the order of your script, it may be helpful to make a
few note cards with generalized bullets that will prompt you to remember what
to say next. Try to
separate your script out into different sections and take some time every day
to memorize each section one by one, this will make memorizing quicker. For memorizing, I found it helpful to read each section over and over again until I could say the written words without looking at the
script.
Nord Anglia Education will
be providing Windermere Prep student with access to their program known as The
Global Classroom. This program offers
students the opportunity to connect with other students from the other 40 Nord
Anglia schools spread around the world.
Global Classroom will
allow our students to experience diverse perspectives, new challenging
concepts, topics and ways of learning.They accomplish this by using 3 methods:
An Online Learning Environment
Students can connect with
students in other schools, debate with them and learn new concepts and
ideas. As Mr. Fitzmaurice described, a
student who was studying the effects of pollution on plants in China, could connect
with a student at one of the Nord Anglia schools in China and get a perspective
that you wouldn't find in a book.
In-School Activities
Students are challenged in
competitions to find new solutions to current problems that plague our planet.
Face-to-Face Events
These events bring Nord
Anglia students from across the globe to work on community service projects,
develop leadership skills towards instilling a sense of global citizenship.
I feel strong that
bringing Global Classroom to WPS will allow us to learn and experience new
topics and expand our global view. This
year Global Classroom offered an opportunity to students to travel to Tanzania
in Africa where they could volunteer to help the people there and have other
unique experiences.
As a student, I am really
excited to use The Global Classroom this upcoming year.
