The Blue Engine Experience
To succeed in college, students need intensive academic support before they arrive on campus in the first place. That’s where you come in.
Overview
Blue Engine Fellows work in school-based teams, collaborating to help entire grade levels make dramatic gains in academic achievement. During an intensive three-week training institute in August, we will help you learn how to set ambitious goals, invest students in their own success, and conduct measurably effective small group tutorials that are both flexible and responsive to student learning. Each Fellow is assigned approximately twelve students to work with throughout the academic year, providing a rich mixture of direct instruction, academic mentoring, college exposure, and family outreach while preparing for careers in social change leadership.
Read an open letter to all Blue Engine Fellow applicants here.
Tutorials
The Blue Engine Fellowship year is anchored by small group tutorials. During each day of the academic year, you will provide small groups (typically between 1 and 5 students) with direct instruction in core academic concepts. These sessions will take place in a dedicated period, devoted entirely to academic acceleration.
The students you are assigned at the beginning of the year will not always be the same students you are working with at the end. That’s what makes Blue Engine tutorials unique. Our resources (in terms of time and energy) are matched to the evolving needs of students. By allowing the size and scope of tutorials to remain flexible, Blue Engine Fellows take a team-minded approach to advancing educational equity and excellence. It’s not enough to help individual students get on the right track. We need interventions that help entire grade levels—and entire schools—achieve progress as a whole.
During the 2010-2011 academic year, your entire Fellowship team will be charged with helping approximately 120-150 freshmen at a single public high school in New York City (location TBD) make dramatic gains in Algebra I (Why Algebra I?). To help Fellows shoulder this responsibility, we have developed curricular tools to help you understand the scope and sequence of “Integrated Algebra” coursework. We are also creating a series of customized tutorials that will serve as the foundation for your work.
While you will be instructing students, you will not be a teacher. Your primary job is to help your group of students acquire the skills they need to accelerate their learning. You’ll get to know them very well playing the roles of both tutor and mentor — leading them to align their expectations with what is required of college-level work. In addition, you will partner with school counselors to offer guidance on four-year curricular planning, educate students about college options through Fellow-led campus visits, create an extended web of care with families to better monitor attendance and academic effort, and equip students with the skills they will need to become self-regulated, independent learners.
Secondary roles. In addition to conducting tutorials, Fellows take on secondary roles within the school building. These roles enhance the experience of Fellows by connecting and exposing them to the mechanics of everyday school life. Examples include serving as a teaching assistant for a member of the high school faculty, proctoring laboratory work, and offering critical administrative help to school leaders. These experiences will allow you to get to know faculty members in different capacities, develop effective leadership practices, and explore possible careers in a school setting.
After school programming. Through a partnership with The After School Corporation (TASC), Blue Engine Fellows “switch gears” during after school hours and lead after-school programming from 3:30 to 6:30 each day. The goal of the partnership is to connect New York City high school students with opportunities to engage in service. More information on after-school programming will be available during the summer of 2010.
Professional development. Throughout the year, Fellows participate in activities designed to foster awareness of career paths in education, public policy, the nonprofit sector, and various graduate schools. Networking events, town-hall discussions, shadow days, and informational interviews, many organized by Fellows themselves, are among the many possible ways that Blue Engine will help you explore your own professional path. In short, the Fellowship year is a time where action meets opportunity, where in addition to working directly with students you will have the chance to meet extraordinary leaders, reflect on the Blue Engine experience, and make informed choices about what direction to take in the future.
