Washtenaw Now
newsTuesday, January 27, 2015
Milan Center for Innovative Studies honing its focus and inspiring studentsBy Lori Maranville
Special to The Milan News-LeaderMilan High School teacher Herb Morelock said he was surprised to get a call at home from some of his students over the winter break. Even more surprising, he said, was to hear they wanted into the high school to work on their senior project during their vacation. “That just isn’t normal,” he said half-jokingly, sharing that their motivation for schoolwork was born out of the Milan Center for Innovative Studies, a project-based learning environment for Milan 12th-grade students now in its third year of operation. It’s that kind of passion, purpose and work ethic that staff at Milan High School are seeing in many of the students involved with the center. “I look forward to going to the MCIS every single day,” 12th-grade student Peter McCrae-Hokenson told members of the Milan Board of Education Jan. 14 after showing them just a sample of the many in-depth video projects students completed as part of an assignment that will ultimately be entered into C-SPAN’s StudentCam 2015 nationwide contest. As part of the contest, students were asked to pick a government policy and tell a video story that demonstrated how a policy, law or action has affected them and their life or community. Winners of the $5,000 grand prize and multiple $3,000 cash prizes are announced in March. McCrae-Hokenson and classmates Joseph Fraley and Jade Sykes focused their project on the minimum wage. The group spent hours doing research, interviews, filming and editing to produce a seven-minute video that showed a personal story of a single mother living on minimum wage. They also researched the potential benefits of raising the minimum wage. “I worked harder on this project than I have worked on anything else in my educational life and that’s the kind of work we do in the MCIS,” McCrae-Hokenson said of the experience. Teacher Erin Jones said the project was one of many excellent projects produced. Students traveled to the Detroit Humane Society and other locations to research and interview for their projects, culminating all the hard work with a video showing party the week of January 12. Jones and her fellow teachers said the MCIS program has evolved and improved since it began, but acknowledged there have been some challenges along the way. Criticisms that students struggled with time management and that there was a lack of structure, routine and rigor in the program have prompted teachers to make some changes. Morelock said teachers decided to bring a taste of the traditional back with weekly seminars that allow for teachers to do some lectures in their subject area. The traditional is mixed with the non-traditional when students explore their creativity and other skills to complete projects like the C-Span video project, a personal finance presentation, or internships that bring them beyond the walls of the classroom. The variety of projects are designed to intermingle elements of math, science, English, social studies and technology and allow students to earn cross-curricular credit during their time at the MCIS. Jones said there is also more structure in the classroom with attendance and grading practices, allowing teachers to focus on helping the students go deeper in their knowledge and increase the rigor of the classes. While some students may be wary of the non-traditional setting of the MCIS, some discover after they graduate the value of what they learned through the experience. In December last year, Counselor Kim Goffee and the MCIS team invited a student panel of the previous year’s graduates and found that students who were against scheduling time in the MCIS their senior year were singing the program’s praises post-high school. She said the students were candid, with many saying they didn’t realize all the skills they had gained until after they were out of high school and in college or another post-secondary program. “Even one semester out of high school, they want to share the benefits that they are reaping now that they are in college,” Jones said. Looking ahead at the MCIS, the teachers said they are planning to continue to raise expectations and rigor, hoping they can continue to inspire quality work from their students and help them develop lifelong skills. One of the touted perks of the MCIS program-student assigned iPads-may soon be replaced. Administrators said the tablets are aging and need to be updated. The iPads may be repurposed for use in the lower grades and replaced with Chromebooks. Lori Maranville is a freelance writer for the MIlan News-Leader. She can be reached at lorimaranville@att.net.
Special to The Milan News-LeaderMilan High School teacher Herb Morelock said he was surprised to get a call at home from some of his students over the winter break. Even more surprising, he said, was to hear they wanted into the high school to work on their senior project during their vacation. “That just isn’t normal,” he said half-jokingly, sharing that their motivation for schoolwork was born out of the Milan Center for Innovative Studies, a project-based learning environment for Milan 12th-grade students now in its third year of operation. It’s that kind of passion, purpose and work ethic that staff at Milan High School are seeing in many of the students involved with the center. “I look forward to going to the MCIS every single day,” 12th-grade student Peter McCrae-Hokenson told members of the Milan Board of Education Jan. 14 after showing them just a sample of the many in-depth video projects students completed as part of an assignment that will ultimately be entered into C-SPAN’s StudentCam 2015 nationwide contest. As part of the contest, students were asked to pick a government policy and tell a video story that demonstrated how a policy, law or action has affected them and their life or community. Winners of the $5,000 grand prize and multiple $3,000 cash prizes are announced in March. McCrae-Hokenson and classmates Joseph Fraley and Jade Sykes focused their project on the minimum wage. The group spent hours doing research, interviews, filming and editing to produce a seven-minute video that showed a personal story of a single mother living on minimum wage. They also researched the potential benefits of raising the minimum wage. “I worked harder on this project than I have worked on anything else in my educational life and that’s the kind of work we do in the MCIS,” McCrae-Hokenson said of the experience. Teacher Erin Jones said the project was one of many excellent projects produced. Students traveled to the Detroit Humane Society and other locations to research and interview for their projects, culminating all the hard work with a video showing party the week of January 12. Jones and her fellow teachers said the MCIS program has evolved and improved since it began, but acknowledged there have been some challenges along the way. Criticisms that students struggled with time management and that there was a lack of structure, routine and rigor in the program have prompted teachers to make some changes. Morelock said teachers decided to bring a taste of the traditional back with weekly seminars that allow for teachers to do some lectures in their subject area. The traditional is mixed with the non-traditional when students explore their creativity and other skills to complete projects like the C-Span video project, a personal finance presentation, or internships that bring them beyond the walls of the classroom. The variety of projects are designed to intermingle elements of math, science, English, social studies and technology and allow students to earn cross-curricular credit during their time at the MCIS. Jones said there is also more structure in the classroom with attendance and grading practices, allowing teachers to focus on helping the students go deeper in their knowledge and increase the rigor of the classes. While some students may be wary of the non-traditional setting of the MCIS, some discover after they graduate the value of what they learned through the experience. In December last year, Counselor Kim Goffee and the MCIS team invited a student panel of the previous year’s graduates and found that students who were against scheduling time in the MCIS their senior year were singing the program’s praises post-high school. She said the students were candid, with many saying they didn’t realize all the skills they had gained until after they were out of high school and in college or another post-secondary program. “Even one semester out of high school, they want to share the benefits that they are reaping now that they are in college,” Jones said. Looking ahead at the MCIS, the teachers said they are planning to continue to raise expectations and rigor, hoping they can continue to inspire quality work from their students and help them develop lifelong skills. One of the touted perks of the MCIS program-student assigned iPads-may soon be replaced. Administrators said the tablets are aging and need to be updated. The iPads may be repurposed for use in the lower grades and replaced with Chromebooks. Lori Maranville is a freelance writer for the MIlan News-Leader. She can be reached at lorimaranville@att.net.