My Story

I spent the 2013-2014 school at Hight Tech High in San Diego, CA enrolled as a Teacher Leadership Resident in the Graduate School of Education. As a resident, I spent my mornings embedded in an adventurous 7th grade classroom, my afternoons organizing a student-run community radio station, and my nights attending core classes dedicated to the values and principles of Project Based Learning.

I came to HTH to learn more about what makes this school so unique and quickly realized how short ten months would be. High Tech High proved to be every inch of impressive as I read about. From the passionate faculty to the innovative physical space, I know now that it was impossible to try and capture the “magic” there in a school year jam packed with meaningful learning experiences and personal growth. At the core of those experiences, I learned the structure and necessary organization that makes a HTH class, teaching team, and campus successful.

From project tunings to exhibition, I wanted to document my year and eventually use those proven practices to start my own community initiative. Like most teachers at HTH, I already possed a passion for education and the creative spark needed to ignite a class. However, I wanted to learn how to efficiently channel those creative energies and apply them in designing sustainable and more inclusive community program.

My Action Research Project and Digital Portfolio is my effort to do so.