SWOTting FE's at GCE

In the last unit of the senior STEAM course Systems and Models, we looked into peoples motivation to do things. We talked about Maslows Heirchy of Needs and how that plays into the motivations people have to do things in their lives. We watched a lot of TED talks and TED drawing episodes that explained where peoples motivations come from and how they appear. For the Action Project in this unit we were tasked with choosing an aspect of GCE and using SWOT to explain the good and bad things about it. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. For my project I chose to look into FE's at GCE. It was difficult at first to come up with all of my SWOT sections but at the end I am very proud of the way my project turned out. Check out my project below.
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For my SWOT, I decided to examine the field experiences or “FE’s” that my school has. Field Experiences are sort of like field trips except they have more of a purpose. Our FE’s are trips we take in order to learn more about what our teacher has been teaching us. We get to meet with people who work closely with what it is we are studying. They allow us to hear another voice on the things we are learning in class.

Looking at something that is not a physical thing, thinking about the Commons (a shared resource that is freely accessible” for FE’s can be difficult. The resources that are used to make the connections for FE’s come from many different places. According to my teacher AMD “Some FE plans are brought in from previous years and previous successes. Sometimes we have one-of-a-kind opportunities, and lastly we rely on connections from our previous careers and relationships, people that the staff knows, people that parents/students recommend, and sometimes even just sending an email out cold, hoping that someone replies.” When teachers make or find connections for their class, they will often bring them to all of the teachers so they can possibly use them as well if it fits with their class. At the same time however, if no one can find any connections at all there is no starting point for any class. If that is the case then the class will just stay in the school on that Wednesday and work on something else.

The tragedies from the Commons relate to my threats and my weaknesses from my SWOT chart. FE’s sometimes fall through which can be very harmful to the teacher and the students. If an FE is planned and the group makes the trip to the site and it ends up being canceled, that's an entire class period gone because of poor communication between the guest and the instructor. Another big weakness is when the FE isn’t what it was expected to be. When that happens then the students are not engaged and it turns into more of just a random field trip. A friend of mine LS talks a bit about that. He says that “Occasionally, there are some FE's that don't fulfill the intended goal. If an FE just ends up being a presentation given to the students for hours on end, it fails to engage the students in their learning. These kinds of FE's become boring for students and don't excite us and make us want to learn more.” When the trips end up being disappointing, this can cause issues with action projects if an FE was important in order to complete part of the project.

Another threat that comes from outside forces is when we go places where there are other schools in attendance. Every term we as a school go to see a play at the Goodman Theater. We are not the only school that does this there are many other schools who attend these plays as well. Since FE’s have to be connected to the class, before we go to see the play, our instructors connect an aspect of the play to their class whether it be actual dialogue or the set in which the play is on. We will usually get work associated with it that we will have to do for homework. Once the play is over, the actors will come out on stage and all of the students have an opportunity to ask questions. Since there are a lot of other schools there, sometimes our questions don't get answered and instead a student from another school will just ask a question as a joke when GCE students had an actual question about the play.

Since the beginning of GCE almost 7 years ago, FE’s have been an important part of the curriculum. FE’s were something that was broadcasted when interested students were looking to apply. RD, a classmate of mine, says that she “likes FE's because they prove that what we're learning is actually important. If it wasn't, then there wouldn't be places to visit about that class.” FE’s are something that students like and want to have around. It gives them another voice that they can use to understand the material in more depth.

There are a lot of opportunities that come to and from FE’s. There are a lot of people within GCE that have different connections and friends and family members who may know something about what students are studying in the different classes in GCE. This allows teachers to always have some kind of connection to a possible FE. As well as having staff with connections, there are also tons of parents and students who can make connections. GCE is a very open community which gives students and parents a voice to help make classes work better.

When thinking about how FE’s play in with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, physiological is a big thing. FE’s require groups to travel all around the city. While this is a great way for students to see different parts of the city, it can sometimes take a long time to travel places. Sometimes travel time can take up half if not more of the designated time which causes students to get tired which can also end up causing an FE to go poorly. Self- Actualization is something that is really great that can come from FE’s. While on these trips, students are able to make potential connections themselves for internships or jobs in the future. These trips also play a big role in the esteem category from the hierarchy of needs. When students are able to connect a trip to a personal experience or something that allows them a sense of accomplishment. HT, another teacher of mine says that “The top success from an FE is when a student without prompting from the teacher can find a correlation between the course and the FE, deeper than that when a student can see how the FE is a solution to something that has been talked about in class.” Safety is never really an issue with any of the trip sites, the group take public transportation there and that is the only time where a student may feel unsafe. The trip sites are never in any unsafe neighborhoods and the students are always with at least two teachers. The section about belongness and love can be demonstrated by FE’s when students are able to go on these trips with their fellow classmates which allows students to become better friends and work together.

When it comes to thinking of a solution I thought of it from a systems approach. While there are a lot of good things that come from FE’s there are also those weakness and threats that come from them as well. While FE’s are very important to the curriculum, certain times classes will only end up going on one or two FE’s because teacher end up not planning any FE’s for the units. According to HT when asked if she thought FE’s were vital in order for the curriculums to work “Field experience are the biggest selling point of GCE, our slogan is broken down the walls between the classroom and the world” and we can’t do that unless we go out into the world. We want young people to be able to solve the problems in the world so they need to be able to experience things. It also allows students to gain communication skills and learn how to network which will come up later in life.” When a teacher is unable to schedule an FE, students will have those 3 hours to to do whatever work the teacher comes up with.

I-O psychologically is another way to think about FE’s. I-O is used to study different issues in workplaces areas dealing with people, teams, and organizations. This can play into FE’s when thinking about the different organizations GCE is connected with for FE’s. While also connecting FE’s with things they are learning about in class, FE’s are also a way for students to learn different skills. HT says that “FE’s allow students to gain communication skills and learn how to network which will come up later in life.” This interaction that comes from students talking to different people all around the city allows every party to see how they deal with different people.

The ultimate solution I came up with was that FE’s are a vital part to GCE curriculum and currently there is too little prep time. Lots of classes have not gone on as many FE’s as the teachers and students had hoped and I think that needs to change. I think that there should be some kind of base created where people (teachers and students) can put information on possible connections for different classes. Having this will allow teachers to always have a large variety of opportunities and choices to set up FE’s with. Overall, FE’s are very important and have been working well for GCE for almost 7 years, in order for them to keep working, everyone needs to do their best to help out and find different connections that can be used to create great field experiences for years to come.


Works Cited:

McLeod, Saul. "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs." Simply Psychology. Simply Psychology, 16 Sept. 2016. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.

"What Is I-O?" Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 2017. Web. 06 Feb. 2017.

AMD. Personal Interview. 2017.

HT. Personal Interview. 2017.

LS. Personal Interview. 2017.

RD. Personal Interview. 2017.

The Year 2117

In the last unit of the senior humanities course “Equality” we talked a lot about race, gender, and class. We looked into a lot of different aspects of each of these things including feminism, poverty, etc. For the action project we were tasked with completing a few things. We had to choose one topic to create different pieces of writing for. I chose to create my AP around race. We had to write an Op-ed piece, a newspaper article, a government document, and design a toy. It was difficult to come up with a couple of the pieces but I am very proud of the way my action project turned out. Check out my time capsule down below.

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First Black Woman President Is Voted Into Office

Written by: MF

Today in the United States, history has officially been made. Everyone recalls back in 2008 when Barack Obama won the election and made history as the first male black president the United States had ever seen. Since then there have been a couple other male black presidents but never an African American woman, now this has officially been changed. Suzanna Thomas has officially been named the next president of the United States.

Born in Albany, New York, Thomas always knew that she wanted to be involved in politics. From being the president of student council in elementary school to becoming her senior class president, Thomas has already done so much for her community. She started to political journey back in 2109 when she became the mayor of new york city. Since then she has done many things to better the city of new york. When the great trash dump of 2110 happened, she was right there picking up trash and finding a solution.

Sam Johnson, the outgoing president of the U.S., speaks very highly of Thomas. He says that “She is completely qualified if not over qualified. I have complete faith in her and I guarantee that the country will benefit with her as our president.” Johnson and Thomas have had many meetings and Johnson has openly campaigned for Thomas.

With only a few months until she takes office, Thomas has vowed to spend her time on trying to change opposing voters minds about her. “I just want to show them that I was the right decision. I want them to see that I will be doing everything in my power to make America work for everyone rather than just the rich.” Voters like Henry Irwin were a bit hesitant to vote Thomas into office. In a street side interview with Irwin, he stated that he “doesn’t want America to fall into so much debt like it did with President Donald Trump and President Hillary Clinton. I just want to have enough money to be able to pay for my family. I don't want to have to start paying unnecessary bills and taxes again. I just want to be able to provide for my family.”

Thomas says she is up for the challenge and ready to go head on for the next four years. She will take office in January along with her husband and 3 children. This will be an interesting 4 years, all of America is hoping that Thomas can stick true to her promises and make America equal again.
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35th Amendment to the US Constitution:

It shall be unlawful to prevent women from getting an abortion. They no longer need any consent from a man. If a woman is raped or just does not wish to have a child, it is unlawful to try to prevent her from doing what she has a right to do.
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Dear Editor,

I am thrilled that Suzanna Thomas has been elected president. As a black woman growing up in New York I always looked up to her and wanted to someday be like her. I was just barely old enough to vote i the primary and I am so thrilled that I got to be a part of this monumental moment in our country. I think that Thomas will stick true to her promises unlike the likes of Donald Trump and Hillary. I learned a lot about these terrible 8 years in history class. After Hillary won the election over Trump, many people had high hopes for her. They thought she would stick to her promises about helping the lower class instead of catering to the upper class like Trump did. They were extremely upset when they realized she was just like him. My grandma told me stories that her mother told her about Trumps reign. She told me that a lot of her friends at her high school started disappearing, either because of getting deported or they ran to get away from Trump's immigration law. She thought Clinton would do everything in her power to right the wrongs that Trump committed but unfortunately she just fed the fire of terror. There was so much pain in those 4 years, she never thought we would get out of it.

Now there is a light at the end of the tunnel with Suzanna. I just know that she will right all of these wrongs from the past years. She is someone who I have always idolized and who I want to try to be like when I get older. I am also very interested in politics and I have dreamed of one day being the president of the united states later in my life. I went to as many of her rallies and speeches as I could on the campaign trail. Everyone enjoyed having her as the mayor of New York, I know that everyone will love having her as the president. All of the people who are skeptical just need to give her a chance and I promise they will have a change of heart.

Sincerely,

Mandy Moore
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Introducing the newest addition to the Barbie ™ family:

Suzanna Thomas: The Current President of the United States!

MF. 2017.

Suzanna comes with a lot of incredible features. She is able to talk and says many things including her campaign slogan “Make America Equal Again” White House, alternate outfits sold separately.

Short Term Memory: How Does it Work?

In the second unit of the senior STEAM course: Systems and Models, we went away from looking at ourselves and looked at big groups of people and how they work. We looked into the way that these groups work together, the way they are structured, who runs them, etc. For the Action Project in this unit, we were tasked with coming up with a topic and a question that we could do a experiment on. I chose to do an experiment on short term memory. Something that was difficult for me was actually creating the project since there is so much writing. I am very proud of the way my project turned out, take a look at it down below.

Chicago Teachers Union

In the first unit of the senior course Equality, we looked at equality in gender, class, race etc. We looked into all of the times where sexism and racism had an impact on our world. For the action project, we were tasked to pick a topic that deals with race, gender, class, occupation, etc.  and write a chapter of a history book on it. I chose to talk about the Chicago Teachers Union strikes. Something that was difficult was picking out my topic. There were so many that I wanted to do but I am glad that I chose the CTU. I am very proud of my project.

A Self Portrait

In the first unit of the STEAM course Systems and Models we talked a lot about ourselves and the type of people we are. We took a bunch of different types of personality tests and really dove deep into who we are as people. For the Action Project in this unit, we were tasked with creating our own self portrait and write an artists statement. We had to create our own portrait and we could use any medium we wanted. I decided to use photography as my medium. I think that the easiest part of this project was picking a medium and executing the portrait. I really enjoy photography so it was cool to be able to play around with the photos for a project. The most difficult thing was choosing what the picture was going to be of. Over all I am very happy with my project.

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MF. ME. 2017.

The title of my portrait is “The Life of M”. I chose to use photography as my medium. My photo is an average 4’11 size when printed. My self portrait is a depiction of me and and everything that I enjoy in life. The top of my head from the bridge of my nose and up is pictured with other things I enjoy around me at the top of the photograph. My photograph shows me in the present time. It sheds light on the things that I like in my life and the things that help me stay happy. There are no other people in my photograph but the small things that represent me ties the girl in the photo (me) to my life.

In my photo I included the the enneagram test (I am a 7). I represented this by hiding a 7 above my head. I also included the Myers Briggs test. I represented this by including some things that resemble and extrovert as well as the word extrovert. I decided to include these two because they are rather similar but they also have differences. I think that my greatest quality is how outgoing I am. I am always up to do whatever and want to make life as fun as possible. I knew that placing the little things that represent my life in the background would bring some connection to that but, I wanted to be more direct with it so that people would be able to get a better understanding of the person I am. I wanted people to be able to understand why I took the photo instead of talking about the photo itself. I was given examples of this in my interview with Charlie Jensen. He told me that he “writes all of his artist statements for his work through my heart. I let that move my hands around the keyboard. I don’t only write about the art I did, I write about what made me want to capture the photo.”

In my project I wanted to look at the experiment that talked about how award winners live longer than the people that lose. Throughout that article is talks about how social status and high self esteem is something that everyone wants. I can see that in myself because although I have pretty high self esteem most of the time, there are times during the day where I doubt myself a little bit. Reading through this experiment helped me realize that self esteem issues are something that everyone faces and the fact of the matter is people need to realize their self worth to move forward and have a happy life. Another study I looked at was the Stanford Prison Experiment. The guards treated the prisoners very poorly because the power went to their head. Most of the people that played the guards had dominant personalities and, according to the DISC test I have a very dominant personality. I think that when people with that type of personality are placed in a place of power that title can cause them to make bad decisions. I think that when people with that personality are around others with the same personality in that type of situation, they can egg each other on to the point where it gets out of hand.

I chose to do a photograph because photography is something that has always been a part of my life. Since this project was a “self” portrait, I wanted to show myself and the things in my life. I chose to do this in this way because I think that it was a good way to represent myself. I want people to be able to understand the kind of person I am. I want people to feel like they know me better than they might already. I want them to be able to see things that I enjoy and the kinds of things that make me happy.

The road to creating this photo was long. I initially had to choose my medium which ended up being the easiest thing in this process because I have loved photography for a long time. After that I thought for a few days about how my photo would look. Would I be in it? Would I edit it? Once I felt solid on my idea I just had to execute it. I had to make sure everything was i the right places so that it looks natural. I think that was probably the hardest part of this entire process. I wanted to pick and choose the right objects behind me in the photo that would best represent me and what my life is. I think that this is now one of my favorite photos because it turned out exactly as I’d hoped and I think it’s a perfect representation of me.

Hush

In the Ollywood class, we focused on every aspect of filming. We talked about pre- production, production, and post- production. We learned all about the things that go into each one of these categories and how that may affect the way the film looks. We had the chance to go to some very interesting and helpful places and talk to very interesting people. We got to talk to Ron Mix all about a documentary that he made which was incredibly interesting and helpful because we were able to ask him questions about the production of his film. For this Action Project, we were tasked with filming and editing a movie review on a movie of our choice. My partner and I decided to do the movie Hush. You can check out her blog here . The most difficult part of this project was the editing portion. It was challenging to make all of the cut align. I am very proud of this project and I think it turned out really well.
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25 Years of Investing

In the last unit of the first senior steam class, Economics, we talked about money in the market. We focused on how money moves through the government and through the market and how quickly the market can change. This lead us into our action project where we were given a sum of money that we had to spend over a 25 year period by investing it in different companies. This project was incredibly challenging but it was worth it. I learned a lot of things about investing and the goals I want to set for myself. 

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The scenario goes like this: 18 years ago, my guardian angel set up a college savings plan for me with an initial investment of $8,500. My angel contributed $50 each month to the college savings plan ($600 yearly). After 18 years at an average annual interest rate of 7%, compounded annually, the plan is now worth a hefty lump sum. Yesterday, I cashed out your plan and deposited the money in a brokerage account to invest on my own.

After those 18 years in the bank, that $8,500 is now $49,128.87. In order to get the most out of this money, I am investing in three different companies. My investment philosophy is that I want to make money, but I don't want to invest in things that I dont potentially agree with. I will give some leeway for something that I know would make me a lot of money but it goes against my morals a little bit. I will draw the line when it comes to a company that goes completely opposite from my morals. I have a pretty high risk tolerance. After taking a quiz online with the Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, I scored a 37 which means I have a high risk tolerance. I like to take risks and that shows in my investments.

While doing this I had to think a lot about my values and which type of companies follow them. I value environmentally friendly, animal friendly, and profit driven companies. I want companies that look out for animals and the environment but I also want to make money. I would love a company that did all three but if a company that could make me a lot of money was animal friendly but not incredibly environmentally friendly, I would sacrifice that so that I would be able to reach my SMART goals in the time I want to achieve them.

I set some SMART goals for myself to achieve within 25 years. I chose 3 goals I would like to achieve; one after 1 year, one after 5 years, and one after 25 years. My goals are as follows:

1-year goal: Have enough money to take a summer off to travel- $7,000 

5-year goal: rent a nice apartment in california- $8,000 

25-year goal: own a lake house in Wisconsin/ Michigan -$34,000 

When it comes to investing, I chose three companies: Apple, Nike, and Disney. I chose to dive deeper into two of my three companies: Apple and Disney.

Disney is a huge company that has been around for years. They focus on many different elements such as clothing, toys, and most importantly: movies. They have created hundreds of movies over the time of their existence and have also created thousands of shorts. Diversification is very big at Disney. After getting a lot of heat about all of their movies being about white people, they switched it up and started making their movies about all different races, most recently they are releasing a new Disney Princess movie called Moana. They also recently bought the star wars franchise and are releasing 6 new movies under that, 1 of which has already come out and gotten rave reviews. Their economic moat is very large because of the companies that they work with. Their P.E. ratio is 23.32 (industry) and their dividend yield is 1.53%. This companys makes a lot of family friendly movies and they are a very family oriented company, with all of their new movies coming out, they are a very smart investment. Disney is definitely a long term investment.

Apple is a gigantic corporation that has been around since 1976. They specialize in electronics: phones, computers, tv systems, headphones, etc. They have released lots of different types of phones over the years and just recently released the iphone 7 and the iphone 7+. These have caused the market to change drastically. Every Time they release a new product their are lines of people ready to get their products. Apple’s economic moat is very strong since lots of people won't try to do the exact same thing as apple because it wouldn't be beneficially if it's not the real thing. Apple's risk factor is most likely very high since they are always changing new things on the iPhones that people may or may not like. Their P.E. ratio is 26.08. This would also be a very smart investment for me to make.

The time horizon comes into play when investing no matter what. I am spreading out my stock investments based on how they have been doing for the past year. If one of my stocks is dropping, I will only invest in that one for 1 year, and if a company is doing well, I will invest in it during one of my longer periods.

I created 3 investment portfolios for each goal I set for myself.


For my 1 year goal, I put in $7,000:

60 shares of NIK @ $51.80 ($3,108 total) (35% of portfolio)

30 shares of APPL @ 114.97 (3,449.10 total) (65% of portfolio)

1 year. MF, 2016

The grouping of NIK and APPL had an expected ROI of 21.08%. In the graph above I have sectioned off a pie chart to show how my portfolio was divided.


For my 5 year goal, I put in $8,000:

50 shares of NIK @ 51.80 (2,590 total) (30% of portfolio)

50 shares of DIS @ $93.83 ( 4,691.5 total) (70% of portfolio 

5 year. MF, 2016

The grouping of NIK and DIS had an expected ROI of 106.8%. In the graph above I have sectioned off a pie chart to show how my portfolio was divided.

For my 25 year goal, I put in $34,000:

40 shares of DIS @ 93.83 (3,753.2 total) (50% of portfolio) 

70 shares of APPL @ 114.97 (8,622.75 total) (50% of portfolio)

25 year. MF, 2016

The grouping of DIS and APPL had an expected ROI of 6903.03%. In the graph above I have sectioned off a pie chart to show how my portfolio was divided.

The three investments that I made are in all different stock sectors. Nike is ruled under consumer goods, Disney is entertainment, and Apple is electronics. I wanted to make sure that the companies I was investing in were not all selling the same type of thing. I wanted to have a lot of diversity so my investments fall into different categories. Throughout this process I made a few assumptions for the sake of the project:

-The ROI will stay the same

-The stock market won’t crash during the 25 years I am investing

-The real estate market won’t crash.

After a lot of investing, all of my goals will become a reality. I invested in the right companies and based on the math I did, all of my goals should be reached by the time allowed for each one.


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References:


"Apple Inc's ROI per Quarter." Apple Inc (AAPL) Return on Investment ROI Quarterly, Average High and Low, Overall Ranking from Mar 26 2016 to Mar 28 2015. CSI Market Company, 2016. Web. 29 Oct. 2016.


"AAPL Profile | Apple Inc. Stock - Yahoo Finance." AAPL Profile | Apple Inc. Stock - Yahoo Finance. Yahoo, n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2016.


"BRING INSPIRATION ANDINNOVATION TO EVERYATHLETE* IN THE WORLD." About Nike. Nike, n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2016.


"DIS Profile | Walt Disney Company (The) Commo Stock - Yahoo Finance." DIS Profile | Walt Disney Company (The) Commo Stock - Yahoo Finance. Yahoo, n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2016.


"NKE Profile | Nike, Inc. Common Stock Stock - Yahoo Finance." NKE Profile | Nike, Inc. Common Stock Stock - Yahoo Finance. Yahoo, n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2016.


"Nike, Inc. (NKE) Ownership Summary." NASDAQ.com. Nasdaq, n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2016.