Photo Essay
I walked off the plane and was immediately greeted with a beautiful orange sunset. It suddenly hit me that I was in London, a place that I had been dreaming of visiting since I was twelve years old. Allow me to rewind to late October 2013 when Chris, my ninth grade math and physics teacher, pulled me aside after class to congratulate me with an acceptance to intern in London. My first reaction was to tell my parents. I also wanted to learn who I was going to take this journey with. I soon found out that the three students from High Tech High Media Arts included Max, Tiana and Nick and the two students from High Tech High International included Andrea and Travis. After determining logistics, parent meetings and practicing project tunings, we were finally off. I was more than prepared to see beautiful architecture in London, live with a host family and work with students and teachers creating projects at Sir Bernard Lovell in Bristol. I had pictured how the school would look but it was very different than what I was anticipating. During my trip, there were many times that I was uncertain and would ask myself questions like, “Does my host family like me?” “Are the teachers going to treat me like an adult?” and simply “Where in the world am I right now?” Surprisingly, this environment was very good for me as I am typically reserved and like a thought out schedule. Looking back, I am so glad that I was courageous enough to be spontaneous and embrace the new adventure that was ahead of me. I walked off the plane, excited and nervous at the same time, as I looked for my luggage so I could begin this journey.
The three days that I spent in London were some of the best days of my life. Each day we had a full itinerary but I had never really looked at it before I left. I just knew that I was going to be a typical tourist and hit all the major attractions. My first day was an early one and I was certainly tired from the long travel day before but I wanted to see as much as I could. We quickly got take away breakfast at a cafe called Pret and were off to Hyde Park. We could see our breath as we walked to see the Prince Albert memorial, Royal Albert Hall, Princess Diana memorial and the Wellington arch. We had just enough time to catch a quick picture and learn a little bit of history about each stop before we had to continue our walk. On the first day alone, we saw so many things that were beautifully overwhelming. Some of the sites included Buckingham Palace, Leicester Square, the Stables market, Camden town, Parliament Square, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and the British Museum. However, none of these were as fascinating to me as one clock. I was beyond excited to see Big Ben, something I had dreamed about for years. As we exited the tube, I stopped in my tracks. Seeing Big Ben for the first time was magical. I could not wrap my head around the fact that I was 6,000 miles away from home, without my parents and I literally blocked the walkway because I was staring at the tower in awe. So many great memories were made with new friends and every minute I spent in London reminded me of how fortunate I am as a student traveling on an academic trip of a lifetime.
After a few exhausting days in the city, I was ready to get to work. The more scheduled pace would be a much needed break from the hectic sightseeing. I underestimated the excitement though as my first day at Sir Bernard Lovell was like the first day of high school. I knew only my host sister, Emily, and that the name of my mentor was Jane. Emily’s mum dropped us off at school, which was only a few minutes away from the house, and I immediately felt lost in the big school. As Andrea and I walked into the student services building we were greeted by a woman named Jane. She was very welcoming, asked us about our journey to Bristol and our time in London. After this quick introduction, she wasted no time and handed us over to Ed, Tim and Charlie who gave us an in depth tour of Sir Bernard Lovell. At first it was strange because of the different terminology of grade levels. Our sixth grade is their year seven so anytime we were told we were in a year seven classroom we had to convert so that we understood how to compare. After our tour we met another mentor, Sarah, who gave us a timetable for our two weeks. The other four days of my first week consisted of shadowing various classes, introducing ourselves to staff and students and interviewing teachers. It was awkward at first because not everyone knew we were coming and did not understand our purpose. However, after a fun weekend out with our host families we were optimistic that the following week would be more productive and comfortable.
Our second week at Sir Bernard Lovell in three words was challenging, inspiring and informative. On Monday, we met Sophie, a sixth grade humanities teacher. This class covered English, History and Geography. Sophie had just launched a new unit about suburbs. The whole class was studying a suburb called Windmill Hill located in Bristol. The teacher gave them a 2011 Census and they were to be tested on the data. We had a meeting with the new teacher and she asked us to create a project with the content that she taught the students. Andrea and I planned a mini project and proposed our rubric to her the next day. We thought that it would be beneficial for students to organize the census data into different categories including population, identity, employment, economic activity, etc. We strategically took away iPads and assigned groups of five so that students were working with different people than usual in order to practice the communication skills that we had presented on our first week. They were to create a poster that would be hung in the classroom about their topic that must include a chart, statistic and paragraph that we thoroughly explained during class. Once the students created their poster they made a two minute presentation before the class. This was the students first presentation so we did not just throw them into the scary 120 second free fall. Prior to the first group presentation, Andrea and I gave a presentation on how to give a good presentation and asked for the student’s feedback on what and what not to do so that everyone was clear on what was expected of them individually and as a group. After all of the groups presented, we debriefed by going around the room and saying our favorite part about the project. One student’s response stood out to me in particular. A shy girl told the group, “I am proud of our poster and how well our group worked together.” This was such a defining moment for me because this was something that I could use to validate that we were making a difference. A teacher had expressed to me that students here are not usually confident in their work so this statement was profound. Hearing this made me very proud and makes me seriously consider becoming a teacher. During my time, I made great relationships and had many conversations that have shifted my mindset on so many different things in my life. On our last day we were very sad to say goodbye to the school’s wonderful teachers and students and I hope that they are successful in continuing their transition to be a completely project based learning school.
Of course, this entire trip would not have been possible without the generosity of my host family. The morning that I was to leave I had not yet been assigned a host family. I soon learned, however, that the Warren family would open their home to me upon my arrival in Bristol. Emily, a student at Sir Bernard Lovell, lives with her mum Amanda and Amanda’s boyfriend Chris. There are a lot of animals in the family too. Chickens, turtles, bunnies, an orange cat named Todd and a chocolate lab dog named Willow round out the Warren clan. I met them for the first time when they picked me up at the Bath Spa train station. My mom had forwarded some pictures of me so that they knew who to actually pick up. I was so excited to exit the train and meet them but my suitcase was fifteen pounds over the limit and did not fit through the train doors. They say first impressions are usually accurate but I hope my wrestling an oversized suitcase did not scare them off. During my first night Emily’s eighteen year old sister Abbie joined us for a dinner out. This gave us time to listen and laugh at each others funny accents before having to drop Abbie off at Bristol University, where she is a freshman studying to be a elementary school teacher. Over the course of two weeks I became very close with Emily. We had great laughs, serious talks at night and even a onesie party with Andrea and her host sister, Hannah. It is amazing that in such a short period of time, great friendships were formed. Leaving them was very difficult as I don’t know how long it will be until I see them again. I hugged everyone goodbye and then cried when it came time to say goodbye to Emily. I was excited to see my real family but was very sad to leave what had been my home for two weeks. I am hoping that my host sister will come visit me in California soon.