Oakland Chamber News & Updates: Linked Learning in Oakland Unified School District

Linked Learning is transforming secondary education in Oakland into a personally relevant, wholly engaging experience for all levels of students, exposing them to previously unimagined college and career opportunities. Linked Learning is a flexible approach bringing together college prep academics, demanding technical education, support services, and work-based learning that, together, help prepare students for success in college, career and life. In an effort to promote more systematic records and promotion of Work Based Learning activities, the College and Career Readiness Office asked pathways/academies to participate in a contest to submit student blogs.

Linked Learning Blog Contest: And the winners are…

We are pleased to announce the Top Five Linked Learning Blog Contest entries:

1st Place: Tien Mai

2nd Place: Roche Washington

3rd Place: Ayrianna Nelson

Honorable Mention: Juan Ledezma

Honorable Mention: Isabella Llamas

All five students are part of the Education Academy @ Skyline High School. As a result of the winning entries, the Education Academy will be awarded $850 to support promotional materials for recruitment.

Congratulations to all the students who submitted entries, and a special congratulations to our 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd Place winners, whose blog entries appear below.

________________________________________________________________

1^st Place Winner – Linked Learning Blog Contest

My Summer Internship at the Native American Health Center

By: Tien Mai

As part of the Education Academy Peer Education class, I participated in a summer internship at the Native American Health Center. This work-based learning experience consisted of assisting departments and working with young children at one of their school-based health centers. I spent about five weeks interning, doing office work, and being a person who the students can look up to.

Native American Health Center is a non-profit organization serving California Bay Area Native population and others. They help underserved populations with medical needs for all ages. Not only do they have a main center, they have also developed many school-based health centers at middle and high schools.

I developed many skills during this summer internship, I learned to manage time effectively and to stay on track and not get distracted. I had to think creatively in order to make fun and informative bulletins for the students and staff. I was able to gather and organize information I found through the Internet, magazines, brochures, and resource papers. When I was not sure, I asked many questions to clarify everything.

________________________________________________________________

2^nd Place Winner – Linked Learning Blog Contest

My Experience as a Reading Partner

By: Roche Washington

In the Education Academy at Skyline, I participate in Reading Partners. This work-based learning experience consists of me going to Cox Academy Elementary School every Monday and Thursday. During these two days I am with a 5th grader, helping her improve her reading skills, vocabulary, grammar, etc. I read to her for the first 10 minutes and then she is given a lesson that we both work on together. The lesson helps her with a particular reading skill and on how to be a good reader. At the end of every lesson I write a summary of our session and keep track of the things that are important.

Reading Partners is dedicated to transforming struggling young readers into confident readers. The mission is to help children become lifelong readers by empowering communities to provide individualized instruction with measurable events.

During this work-based learning experience I am able to develop new skills and practice ones I already have. For example patience, because kids who struggle are not at the same level as you. You have to go at their pace and then improve. Another skill is observing effectively, to know what we need to work on together and improve. I ask questions during our session and make sure she understands the lesson. It also gives me an opportunity to work with children and make a difference in someone's life.

________________________________________________________________

3^rd Place Winner – Linked Learning Blog Contest

My Summer Internship at Merritt College

By: Ayrianna Nelson

During the summer of 2012 I participated in a program called ECCO (Exploring College and Career Options) in which I did an internship at Merritt College. My mentor's name is Ms. Marta Zielke. She has been involved with the Spanish-speaking population at Merritt as a counselor for many years. I found working in an office atmosphere very fulfilling. The first thing I had to do was set-up a blog for the Centro Latino Program, which has a summer bridge program for incoming freshmen. One of my jobs was to explain to the students how to use the blog and the Facebook page also created for the program. I also created an Excel spreadsheet with all of the contact information of the student in the program.

I was amazed at how much extra effort my mentor put into each individuals’ education and progress. One of the things I learned was a greater respect for the community college education system. I plan on doing my undergraduate education at Merritt in the coming school year.