Senior Capstone MNPS 2015-2016

A Student Perspective How do students feel about Capstone? What does it look like from their eyes?

What is it? Experiential Learning – district overview Capstone Project – 4 component project that is based in research and real-world experience

Why do it? Philosophy State Requirement 21st century skills (4 Cs) Post-secondary connections

4 Cs – 21st century skills Critical Thinking Collaboration Communication Creativity

Background Pilot - 16 schools – 12 zoned and 4 magnet Varying amount of students at different sites Flexibility – looks different for each school Blended Learning and Virtual course Lead Capstone teachers meet monthly

Support Structure Lead Capstone Teachers Alignment Nashville High School A Team Blackboard and Capstone Portal Zoned schools – Academy coaches

What are Capstone Courses? AP Capstone (Hillwood and Hume Fogg) Approaches to Learning II (IB Capstone) Clinical Internship Theory of Knowledge II (IB Capstone) ISR IV (Hillsboro and Stratford) Senior Capstone Work-Based Learning (Hunters Lane) ***Updated annually

New courses for 2015 The state now has the following class that they developed from our Capstone course: Work-Based Learning Career Practicum (6105) where a mix of students could be in this course--students from different career clusters. Additionally, there are several Practicum courses that are aligned with the cluster, for example, see below: Manufacturing Practicum 5926 Construction Practicum 6160 Engineering Practicum 6141 Applied Arts Practicum 6158 Business & Entrepreneurship Practicum 6159 Human Services Practicum 6138 Programming & Software Practicum 5908 Web Design Practicum 6171

Project Types Community Service Extended Observation Internship Research Project Senior Showcase Service Learning Work-Based Learning

Project Components The 4 Ps: Paper Product Portfolio Presentation

The Capstone Manual Minimum requirements Guideline, not a lesson plan District expectations Forms and Templates Schools should personalize Will be updated annually and placed on MNPS portal and on Blackboard

Communication Posted on school website Parent contract Student and teacher friendly format Parent contract Have community on presentation panels Student meetings for next year’s seniors (held by February each year) Capstone Portal

Differentiation Flexibility – no one way to do this! The first response is not “NO” – allow for creativity SPED modifications EL modifications Advanced coursework and additional expectations

What is my role? Facilitator/Connector - allow for student voice and choice, make resource connections Teacher – research, organizational and presentation skills, 4Cs, assessing progress Mentor/Advisor – giving options and suggestions, narrowing focus when needed, providing support Organizer/Documenter – presentation panels, data entry on project information

Advising Work along side students to determine projects Moral/ethical implications Ensuring that the project challenges the student (no matter their current achievement level) When in doubt, work as a team with other staff members

Experiential Hours Self-Placement preferred During school day versus outside of school – dependent on: Type of project Master schedule Principal’s decision Student maintains and submits documentation You make determination if they are acceptable – communicate with students

Experiential Hours YES Intern (paid/unpaid) Shadow (related to project) Interviewing experts Learning a new skill Providing a service that is challenging or new to student NO Hours used to create their product Time spent researching for their paper Providing service that is not challenging or related to project

Community Contacts

www.mnpscapstone.org Community Contacts ***Keep site-based documentation of community supporters for future projects.

Data collection Course enrollment – SMS (district) Capstone Lead and Academy Team Lead will ask you to report data on internships End of Year Survey

Assessment Calendar guideline Component rubrics Overall rubric Collaboration in assessing Flexibility in grading – grades “in progress” (but each school has its rules on grade changing)

Project Recognition Site-Based suggestions You tube TEDx Include in graduation programs or slide shows Awards for top projects You tube TEDx Community and/or Board presentations

Recap and Next Steps Questions? All projects should be approved by the end of August so students can begin Share practices through lead teachers Make connections to other schools Utilize web resources Questions?

Teacher Testimonials

Breakouts Paper – Jason Proffitt and Jacob Glancy (Turner) Rotation order: Paper – Jason Proffitt and Jacob Glancy (Turner) Product – Hope Oliver and Scott Horner (Room 1) Portfolio and Presentation – Elizabeth Brewer and Michelle Newcomb (Room 2)