Lou Barrios 

High Tech Middle Media Art:

School Setting

 

 School History

High Tech Middle Media Arts Media Arts (HTMMA) is a school serving approximately 300 students in grades 6-8 at HTMMA Village in San Diego. Founded in the fall of 2005, the school implements all HTMMA design principles and features a focus on multi-media and communications. High Tech Middle Media Arts is founded on design principles: personalization, teacher as designer, adult-world connection, and a common intellectual mission. Innovative features include performance-based assessment, daily shared planning time for staff, state-of-the-art technical facilities for project-based learning.

 

School Culture

    As a staff we have worked with families and students to create a space that is very safe for students. Often students have a strong connection with several staff members through advisory, classes or x-block. Advisory is a space where students are in mix age, mix gender class to build community. We meet twice a week for 35 minutes to discuss school issues, eat breakfast, play games, have competitions and problem solve as a group. Our classes are more intimate than most schools in that students have two main teachers for a 2-hour block each day and one exploratory that teaches them an elective for a hour. These block are math/science and english/history, which allows us as teachers to create connections between the subjects we teach. Having less teachers, less students and more time to work together creates a very strong school environment. X-block allows for even more connection as teachers teach an active sport to students that allows them to soak in some vitamin D and enjoy having fun together.

 

Demographics

Our community has changed over the years, both in race and socioeconomic status. Our students travel from all over the district to get to HTMMA and in some cases they travel from across the border. We are at about 40% free and reduced school lunch.

 

Number of students 336

Black or African American 12.5%

American Indian or Alaska Native 1.2%

Asian 6.8%

Filipino 6.8%

Hispanic or Latino 33.9%

Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander 2.4%

White 36.3%

Two or More Races 0.0%

Socioeconomically Disadvantaged 39.9%

English Learners 12.8%

Students with Disabilities 11.3%

 

 

School Structure

High Tech Middle Media Arts is located on the second floor of a three level building, in 31,000 square feet formerly used by the Navy as a technical training center. The facility underwent approximately $5 million in improvements in 2005, including new mechanical, plumbing, and electrical systems. This major renovation also gave the school its unique classroom neighborhood layout specifically designed to support project-based learning. The school has 15 classrooms and labs grouped by grade-level and a flexible all-school gathering area with theatrical lighting and sound. In-house Facilities staff adequately maintain the building systems, and the custodians follow rigorous cleaning standards for all spaces. High Tech Middle Media Arts shares a common lunch area with other High Tech High schools on-campus, as well as recreational areas where students participate in formal and informal recreation activities. Maintenance of the common outdoor space occurs daily and all students participate in an after lunch outdoor clean up.

 

 

MON, WED, FRI	TUES, THURS
1 9:00 – 9:50	Advisory 9:00 – 9:35
2 9:55 – 10:45	1 9:40 – 10:35
Break 10:45 – 11:00	2 10:40 – 11:35
3 11:05 – 11:55	Break 11:35 – 11:50
4 12:00 – 12:50	3 11:55 – 12:50
Lunch 12:50 – 1:30	Lunch 12:50 – 1:30
5 1:35 – 2:25	4 1:35 – 2:30
X-Block 2:30 – 3:30	5 2:35 – 3:30

        

 

Classroom

My classroom is an 8th grade integrated Math & Science class where we study mainly algebra and physical science. At times we will study the two subjects separately, but we find connections though our projects. We break down the math content into 3 overarching topics and then break each of those down into 5 subtopics. Students are taught at all lessons necessary throughout the year, but are able to move forward to the next topic if they show they are ready to move forward.  Students are also able to go back and work on content they struggled on. As a teacher I think it is important that students can show that they can apply the concepts they learn, but I also want students to not fear test taking, so I give them their highest test score and they can retake as many times as they would like to retake the test. If you were to walk into class while we were doing Math you would see students working together in small groups, doing problems in marker on their desks or on the numerous white boards we have in class. You would also see teachers and teaching assistants working with small groups and rotating around the room. I believe instantaneous feedback is the ideal learning situation and that the best learning is done through teaching someone else. That being said I try to structure my class in a way that allows students the most feedback while providing the opportunity to teach each other through group work.

 

When students walk into class they come in and check to see if they need to pick up any handouts, then go to their see to begin the Do Now. The Do Now is a few questions to get them thinking about what we will study, have studied or even an open ended problem I want them to work on in groups. The point of the Do Now is to give students a quite space to start the day and to get them thinking or reflecting on what we have been working on.

 

Most projects in my class have a hands-on focus and are heavy on the science with math concepts built into the studies.  Students will also look at engineering principles and the design thought process. I want students to understand scaling, blueprinting, and prototyping through the projects we work on. From a year-to-year basis my students will often work on a Rocket Project, Walk on Water and a Wall Street Project. These projects along with a few others we do allow students to study and apply principles like: Newton’s Laws, compound interest, rocket science basics, scaling, aerodynamics, velocity, air resistance, blueprinting, fluid dynamics and prototyping. Students’ work together in groups to complete the performance-based part of their project, but are asked to show how the science applies to their project in a formal setting.  Bringing in guest speakers from the field we are studying to help students see the real world focus of the project has been a larger part of our class this year. We had an investment banker on Wall Street come and speak about their role and how the Stock Market works. This helped informed student groups in the strategy they would take to invest $100,000 as a group.

 

As a teacher every year is different, from the students to the new ways you hope to approach a specific subject. However, the focus is always the same; engaging students in rigorous learning that will build skills to be successful in high school and beyond.

The beauty of integrated math/science is that it gives meaning to what we are learning.  We will explore science through the language of math using mathematical principles, algebraic concepts, statistical calculations, and number sense.  Math is in everything we do and science helps us to understand the world and how we can better use our scientific  knowledge to improve our lives.