I had a wonderful experience at Bolsa Grande high school. The teachers, counselors, and coaches were very caring. They are the foundation of my success at UCLA. I really appreciate my old high school. Therefore, I wanted to create a new scholarship for the scholar athletes who are in varsity sports, have high GPAs, and need financial aid. I wanted to encourage the young students to excel both in academics and sports. Hopefully, the new scholarship will motivate many students to try harder in high school.

What we did

I am a poor student on financial aid at UCLA. I knew I could not start the scholarship by myself, so I went to my sister. I told her about the idea and persuaded her to help me start the scholarship with the money that we receive from Vietnamese Lunar New Year. I contacted the school and started the annual scholarship. We named the scholarship in honor of our parents to show our appreciation for their care.

Our results

The award was given out for the first time last year. Although I wasn't there to witness the ceremony, I knew the student was very happy. Now, she has one less thing to worry about when she enters college.

Bulling has become a real problem in our school district. Lovewell Institute has been working in this area to help kids express themselves through music, written and spoken words, theatre and dance. With a small grant from the local school district, we created a live music drama on the theme of anti-bullying which is in it's second year of touring the schools in our district. It has been highly successful and we continue to update the show with new material addressing cyber-bullying and new challenges related to bullying.

What we did

Knowing that the bullying was a problem in our schools, we got together a small group of dedicated educators and artists and organized a program that would bring together resources that could create a living, breathing account of the bullying epidemic from the perspective of the kids themselves (not the clinicians or administrators). We identified a school with a top drama teacher who understands the effectiveness of the Lovewell method of having gifted professional artists bring out the best stories from the students and organizing them in songs, scenes, dances and visual effects. The Broward School District's Office of Prevention funded the project and it continues to thrive.

Our results

Last year (2010) the performance of "The Weight of Words" played to over 10,000 students in the school district - grades 5-12, with talkbacks conducted by the kids who wrote and perform in the show (once again, no clinicians or adult administrators). This has affected hundreds of students who never before came forward with their stories of bullying. Teachers, administrators, students, government officials and parents have all attested to the overwhelming impact of this project on our community.

Our plan

2300 to one. That was the student to college counselor ratio at Granada High School (CA) when we started the BetterGrads program there last fall. 2300 students, 1 college counselor (a second was on maternity leave). With last year's statewide budget cuts of 40% for college and career counselors, many public schools have had to settle with half as many counselors - or, I suppose, 0.6 of a counselor if they only had one to begin with - to serve a growing, increasingly complex student population. Education associations report that the counselor to student ratio should be 1 to 250 or lower. In 2000, the national average was 1 to 500. In the last ten years, that ratio has ballooned up to 1 to 750, and reaches as high as 1 to 5000 in some low-income school districts. At the cross-town rival high school, the ratio was was 2300 to one. When I returned from graduate school at Cambridge University and first discovered this situation, I began to wonder how many students in my beloved hometown weren't getting the college prep they needed. And IA wondered what I could do to help.

What we did

At Granada High School, we crowd-sourced college prep. We built a one-on-one college mentoring program for 22 juniors, led by college students and recent graduates as mentors, some of whom alumni of the school. We dubbed our efforts "the BetterGrads Program" and the students - ever more creative - called it the "CPC2012," short for the College Prep Club 2012, for the year the students planned to graduate and enroll in college. Students, mentors, and high school counselors connected on- and offline to form a community that extended beyond the classroom. Our focus was on creating student/mentee-run clubs as on-campus hubs of college information at the high schools, supported by a network of mentors with ties to the school. Mentors and mentees were paired according to similar interests and background. The relationship was supported by a year-long, month-by-month curriculum addressing the key areas of preparing for college success, including financial aid, choosing / applying to college, majors, careers, and how to make the most of college. Bimonthly club meetings among the mentees allowed for an in-person component to the curriculum, facilitated by the school's college counselor.

Our results

The students in the CPC2012 astounded us. By offering them a little bit of support, they accomplished a lot. They created a campus-wide college banner project to showcase teachers’ college affiliations and raise awareness of education options; they formed an SAT prep group to study for the test together; they organized field trips to visit local colleges and universities; and, for the first time, they wrote resumes, outlined personal statements, requested letters of recommendation, and applied for scholarships. As a capstone on the program year, we were thrilled to partner with a local family foundation to designate two $1500 BetterGrads - Pedrozzi Scholarships for two student-mentees active in the CPC2012 Club. Two equivalent awards have been designated for two students at Livermore High for next year, when we expand our programs there.

I wanted to bring story-telling and the magic of books to young students. I wanted to make sure they had, for at least thirty minutes, a few days a week, the experience of someone reading to them and actively engaging them in the story.

What we did

I read books such as Jamberry and those written by Leo Lionni and William Steig. I shared with them the books I'd read to my girls and engaged them through repetition of words, occasional questions and sometimes stopping to call attention to pictures so that they'd make the connection between the words and the pictures.

Our results

They had the experience of yet another grown-up taking time to read to them for an extended period of time. For a child that young, thirty minutes is a long time and to enjoy a book being read to them for so long impresses upon them that books matter and that they're fun. I think it sets the stage for a lifetime of reading.

The Odyssey Writer’s Workshop The Odyssey Writer’s Workshop is a ten-week creative writing program for at-risk middle school and high school students. The goal of the workshop is to teach the structural elements of non-fiction and short-story writing while helping students strengthen interpersonal skills. The first step in the program is to encourage the students to free their minds in order to dig deep inside themselves to find unexpected material. During the sessions our teachers introduce writing exercises to enrich the students’ skills and build confidence. Each class consists of active discussion, reading, and introduction of literary terms. The final two weeks focus on revision and presentation. The program culminates with a graduation reading, attended by teachers, family and friends. Elizabeth Berman, MFA founded the Odyssey Writer’s Workshop in 2008. Bill Robertson and Adwin Brown are teachers and co-directors of the program.

What we did

I received my MFA in Creative Nonfiction and volunteered in a writing program for youth offenders. After a few years, my understanding of the needs of this particular community evolved, and I created the Odyssey Writer's Workshop. Most of the students haven't developed basic academic skills. Our approach is to give them the confidence to write without feeling blocked. Once the story is flushed out, the teachers work individually with the students to teach grammar, spelling and punctuation. I fund the program privately. The teachers and principals of the schools are constantly amazed that our students will write honest, healing stories.

Our results

The students and schools are enriched by this program. The students enrolled in our writing program have improved scores CASE tests. The teachers and principals are thrilled to see the students change the paradigm of their engagement with each other, progressing from a gang mentality to respecting and listening to each others ideas.

Thing is, my friend Cata and I went to a private high school in Costa Rica. We met this group of Americans from the organization Boy with a Ball because they organized camps for our high school. Eventually Cata and I decided to join them in their weekly visit to a nearby slum called "El Triángulo Solidario". Immediately, we were amazed by the conditions in which people were living and we felt like we should be doing more than just giving out candies on a weekly basis. We decided that helping kids with their education was the best way to create any type of hope for all of those families who wanted to move out from the slum and get out of the poverty cycle they were in. Cata and I organized a bake sale in our school with which we raised enough money to buy some supplies in order to begin a tutoring center. Our first establishment was a tiny "shack" in the slum where we went every Saturday. At first the size was not problem because, like it happened to you, we didn't get too many people. We then decided to print flyers so we could give them out in the slum as we spoke to mothers and fathers and explained them what we were doing. Because people in the slum already knew the Americans from the organization I mentioned before, it was relatively easy to get people to trust us and start attending our tutoring.

What we did

We then had to move to a different place because they kicked us out of the first shack, so we basically moved to a second shack which a very kind woman let us use every Saturday. This shack once again was too small for the 60 children and teens who were coming to our weekly tutoring center. (I forgot to mention who were the tutors, basically students from our high school and then other people that were recruited by Boy with a Ball). Eventually, a group of awesome architecture students from a school here in the US gave us blueprints for a new tutoring center which we eventually built, with the help of Western Union that gave us 10,000 USD and of course with the help of people from the community. This all was great, but eventually Cata and I had to graduate from high school and go to school abroad. As this happened and other fellow student also left the country, the project started facing some problems such as some Costa Rican volunteers trying to inculcate their own religious agenda in the tutoring center. Although the tutoring is still going on on a weekly basis, the project kind of stagnated.

Our results

Children of the slum where definitely those affected the most by the project. In many occasions their mothers told us how much they had improved in school. We tried to develop a system with which we could track our student's academic performance but we encountered many limitations because parents were not always present and willing to help us with this system. I believe the children found a nice comfort and security in our weekly visits however a temporary one. Looking back I feel that for our impact to be more long lasting the project has to develop more and better. We did not work very closely with any of the schools, I believe probably because we did not have the time or resources to extend our project by incorporating the schools too much, although it would have been wise. (although the whenever we tried to incorporate the schools it brought us more complications and bureaucracy than anything else). Although we have encountered some limitations I feel the project has the potential to have a greater impact on the lives of many extremely poor children.

My idea is calles COPILOT. It pairs up teachers with at-risk students (5 per teacher) and that teacher acts as an advocate/mentor for those students throughout their time on that campus and is paid a stipend for the extra time that serving these students will involve. The COPILOT guides the student and encoutrages them to show up, get help, and generally have a better shot at completing a grade, and ultimately graduating (and more). I envision 5 or 6 of these COPILOTs on any given campus (mostly middle and high school) which will serve 30 students. The next year, the COPILOTs will get new students and the 'veteran' students will help them by acting in a similar role. This whole process is based on my experiences as a classroom teacher and academic advisor in a regular high school, a disciplinary alternative school, and a drop out recovery charter school. Nearly all of the students that I have worked with throughout the years could be classified as "At-Risk" , economically disadvantaged, minority students. By using the COPILOT method, I have helped hundreds of students (imagine the possibilities if I trained many more to do the same!). It is a very simple, but highly effective process that has the potential to transform the lives of the students and the COPILOT. It is a double edged program: it helps kids who are almost certain to drop out, and it trains teachers to become highly reffective with hard to reach kids which will ultimately help them become highly effective academic leaders adn administrators. I have personally seen this work and am certain that with the right support this program will ultimately help lots of students, teachers, schools, and communities.

What we did

I am a PhD graduate student (Education Policy and Planning) at the University of Texas, Austin. I have showed this idea to a lot of people with the result usually being "this is a great idea". To date no one has stepped in to help me get this off of the ground and as a working student, I do not have the finacial resources to do it myself. It is based on my classroom practices and methods that I was not taught in my teacher preparation/certification classes, but had to learn to survive and be effective. I am fortunate in that the path and method I chose not only worked well, but helped shape my career.

Our results

The primary recipients of the benefits of my COPILOT method were students. Particularly those students who other teachers had descibed as "throw away' kids. The changes that occurred are many, but the one that I am most proud of is that students who found no value in school, or had almost given up, started showing up and re-engaging in thier education. The effect that it had on the school is that the kids were there, and for the most part behaved themselves. Kids who used to roam the halls or sit in the principal's office were now in class and learning. Teachers who had given up on certain students were now impressed with the fact that those students were taking an active part in learning again. It didn't happen overnight, but happen it did. My only regret is that I was not able to reach more.

Our plan

Midian Films is a small independent Film Company based in Round Rock, Texas. We were aware of the Video Tech class at Connally High School and thought it would be cool if we showed the advance class how to get their film to the Cannes Film Festival in France. Our company has had films shown there for the last 6 years and noticed there was a presence of young high school students showing their work. So, we posed this idea to the Video Tech teacher Humberto Perez and he liked the idea. We have been working with the students since September and they are responsible for everything from writing the script to every aspect of film production and post production. We also approached the Culinary class for providing Craft Services and the Music Department for Scoring the film. I find this project exciting and want everyone to know of the wonderful things these kids are doing. The students are trying to find ways to make their dream come true by looking for sponsors.

What we did

1. We posed the idea to the Video Tech Teacher. 2. We became certified Volunteers for the school and go to school everyday and sometimes stay all day long to help out with his other video classes. 3. We go to the Digital Media Club after school and help out there 4. We are in the process of looking for funding. The School Superintendent and President of the School Board finds the project interesting and is looking into finding a way to help out. 5. The local TV station agreed to do an in studio interview with the kids to get more awareness. 6. The Local Newspapers are doing stories on the kids. 7. Our company also approached the City Council and the Chamber of Commerce. THIS PROJECT IS STILL GOING ON. THE FILM FESTIVAL IS IN MAY

Our results

I think the students are most affected through this project. Connally High School is not looked upon favorably in the community because of the problems they have with the students. Bringing a positive light for the school helps the students gain school pride and pride for themselves. Not only that but I think the teachers around the school appreciate what we are trying to achieve. http://cougarproductionsnews.posterous.com/pages/connally-digital-media-club http://chscougar.tv/Homepage.html

Mr. Donut started when my 3rd grade son's gerbil died and I replaced it for his Show 'n' Tell project. I was a cartoonist on the staff of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, so I went to his school and doodled on the blackboard. The teacher and kids were receptive and I decided to develop a simple, one-hour Beginning Cartooning program. My plan was to get kids to turn off their TVs and get interested in cartooning.

What we did

Participation was the key to Mr. Donut -- I insisted students (and the teacher) have paper and pencils and draw, step-by-step, with me. Teachers were delighted and mailed the kids' drawings to me. I studied their work and polished the program on a "what hits? what misses?" basis. My newspaper had a Newspapers in The Classroom program and backed me 100% with paid time, car allowance and other expenses. Mr. Donut became so popular he was almost a full-time job.

Our results

Mr. D appeared from K through graduate students at the Univ. of Washington. Sometimes in gymnasiums and graduate school (art education) workshops. He was the guest of several WA Education Assoc. Conferences with approximately 200 teachers in attendance. And once for the National Education Conference at the state capitol. Yes, they all drew. Mr. Donut has been taped and filmed several times for school archives.

Our plan

We believe that kids are their own experts in terms of film & TV. They watch a lot of films, they know the stories and heroes off by heart and nearly every kid has already done his/her own experiments on producing images (on their mobile phone, with the parents’ cam). Being film academy students ourselves, we aim to share our knowledge, fascination and enthusiasm on how films are being made, with kids. For our film education workshops we want to take the kids’ favorite programmes on TV, and their favorite movies, to have a closer look at how film is being made, what makes a good story and why a film works for us (or not). We want kids to learn to be more aware of the way they consume and produce moving images. Step by step we discuss and try to understand the most characteristic design elements of a film. By experimenting with video and audio material themselves, the kids remix and mash up scenes out of the footage of their favorite programmes, create trailers, new sound designs and their own sequels of known films. For each workshop a participant is asked to do documentation in photographs and audio recordings.

What we did

First of all we tried to find out what the kids’ favorite movies are currently in order to get to know their film culture. Therefore we designed personal profile posters and the kids interviewed each other about their preferences and movie experiences. We started with easy and playful exercises to shape the kids’ perception: What glimpses of a story do we get by only listening to the soundtrack of “SoulBoy” (film by Tom Tykwer)? What does a single still reveal about the before/after of the given moment in the picture (ie. the still from “Karate Kid” by Harald Zwart)? What moods and story aspects are conveyed by comparing the different designs of Harry Potter film posters worldwide? What makes my own photo unmistakably clear to retell the workshop situation? To experience how the history of moving images started, the kids created a series of black-and-white photos to tell a short story. In the end we arranged three silent movies with additional music. In a practical way they figured out how a director, DOP, and actors work together, how to tell action in a still, and what could be more easily told by using a video instead of a photo-camera. We also went to the movie theatre to experience the movie “Where the Wild Things are”, by Spike Jonze. The kids got a film critics sheet to write down their film impressions and we asked them to carry the film story further with their own ideas. By visiting a sound studio the kids could see how a foley artist creates the soundtrack of a film. For the “Remix Sessions” we prepared a pool of footage out of the children’s favorite movies. The children split up in to 4 groups and chose their project; on editing suites they worked on the composition of a Simpsons-Trailer featuring the Spiderpig and the mash-up of the Japanese animation series “Yu-Gi-Oh” and “Naruto Shippuden”. In the “Karate Kid” exercise the participants tried to reenact an original fight scene of the film. Another group developed a sequel of the popular series “Haus Anubis”: the kids created their own story, organized props, costumes and shooting locations, learned the dialogues and finally shot several scenes. With funding from the Berlin Project Fund for Cultural Education, we (4 young media professionals) did a 10 part workshop programme within the extra curricular class, two to three hours, one day per week. 13 kids were part of our workshop programme, entitled “The Film Experts”.

Our results

In our programme we encouraged kids to try out and play with the different ways of expression that audio-visual creation offers. Thus we found secret talents among the children in photographing, shooting, acting and inventing stories. The participants loved taking part in our weekly film-club and enjoyed being called “The Film Experts”. They shared their enthusiasm with their friends and parents. In the end we held a multimedia presentation at school for all the participants, their parents, other students and the school staff, that was well received and great fun for all involved. What we learned? - Group work is a huge challenge for youngsters. - The kids do their best analysis, when it relates to the images they produced on their own - The kids manage to handle the technical equipment with intuition– of course they needed guidance, but they were fine without general technical introduction lessons. - The kids loved to watch scenes over and over again to discover new details. We published a booklet that contains a collection of material, impressions and experiences both, from us and the kids. We plan to present some of the videos, a collection of photos and texts also online at www.diefilmexperten.de soon. The head of the school and the kids asked us to continue the programme in to the next term, and our aim would be to go on and develop new film education programmes in other schools too.

During the past six years, I have volunteered at an SF bay area high school leading weekly Study Groups in International Baccalaureate (IB) Economics and Advanced Placement (AP) Economics. In these courses I also have regularly assisted in classroom activities and also occasionally subbed for these courses' teachers. I've done this because I saw a need for someone with actual economics/business experience to complement the teaching of these courses to high-school juniors and seniors. [My professional experience includes teaching college economics, working as an economist in government and creating and running an economics consulting firm.] I consider my efforts in these classes to be a successful "pay it forward" contribution to the community. My efforts have provided additional perspective and information for these students to learn economics. Each semester, I have been amply rewarded through positive individual interactions with many students and their teachers. Are these students typical of other "Once Upon a School" efforts? I don't know, but given what I've now learned from your website and Dave Eggers' TED talk, perhaps not; they are high-school students enrolled in advanced economics classes. Nevertheless, these students' needs now can reliably met by a person knowledgeable about the subjects being taught to help them better understand the topics they've been stymied trying to understand – say, for example, the velocity of money.

What we did

I volunteered to assist the students and teachers by working in their classrooms and running after-school Study Groups (SG) for students. The teachers I've worked with have been open to my assistance and quite supportive. I didn't need any funding – just a willingness to spend time and effort creating SG materials for the students, and working with the kids inside and outside the classroom.

Our results

By design, the principal beneficiaries of my efforts have been the students. The teachers also gained a resource (me) they have used to enhance class topics and discussions. This is a large school (over 3,000 students), so however positive my efforts have been for the students and teachers I've worked with, they have not risen to the macro-level of "changing" the school; they never were designed to. Can my efforts be replicated in other high schools? Of course. All it takes is relevant experience and knowledge and a sincere desire to help. Onward…

Our school is a specialty school, where students can enroll in a specialty pathway of their choosing. The first floor of our school houses the engineering, and advanced technology pathways. As we walked through our school on a daily basis, it was impossible to ignore the fact that each classroom had 1 or 2 girls in it and the rest boys. We set out to change this, and were mildly successful through recruiting efforts in increasing that average number per class to 2 or 3. This wasn't enough. We wanted to make a bigger difference in the number of girls who were choosing to pursue science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) pathways and retaining them through their senior year.

What we did

Two teachers and one vice-principal from our school decided to create a new club called Girls of Technology (GOT). We wanted to establish community among female students in STEM specialty pathways by participating in field trips, luncheons with featured speakers who are women in industry, and team-building events to empower, engage and retain female students interested in STEM careers. We needed funding for this effort. We have applied for grants and have received a sponsorship from Texas Instruments (to fund one luncheon and provide a speaker). Time Warner Cable also interviewed us for a Community Connections piece to get the word out about our program. After having 2 luncheons, one field trip, and one service project, the girls who are involved in the club are excited about this opportunity to feel connected to the STEM field. We have had fewer girls decide to change pathways, and they excitedly encouraged young girls to enroll in a STEM field at our annual recruiting day (Women in Engineering). Preliminary results indicate that if this program is sustained, we will see an increase in both enrollment and retention of girls in the STEM pathways. We would like to be able to conduct gender equity training for teachers to increase the value of the experience our girls have at our school.

Our results

The girls who are currently enrolled in STEM pathways at the school are affected, the eighth graders who participated in the recruiting day are affected, and ultimately the community will be affected as more girls continue their pursuit of STEM careers in higher education. We have had fewer girls decide to change pathways, and they excitedly encouraged young girls to enroll in a STEM field at our annual recruiting day (Women in Engineering). Preliminary results indicate that if this program is sustained, we will see an increase in both enrollment and retention of girls in the STEM pathways. We would like to be able to conduct gender equity training for teachers to increase the value of the experience our girls have at our school. At the end of the school year, we will be able to measure the success through enrollment statistics for next year, retention statistics from this year, and qualitative surveys of the students involved.