The final week HSHX spent with The Gesu School this summer culminated in tying together many of the elements we had been working on with the students all summer.

On Monday, July 20th, Penn Charter spent their final day focusing on an overlooked part of technology : typing quickly. By utilizing free, online typing games such as “Keyboard Ninja” (which combines popular app fruit ninja with typing words) to “Key Master” (a speed game where you must type in sentences to keep monsters away), both Gesu and Penn Charter students enjoyed bettering their typing skills online. Perhaps the best part of the day, being that it was the final installment  of the computer literacy curriculum, was when one student somehow managed to beat the incredibly difficult Key Master– and with ease. Upon some questioning, it turned out that the student has keenly figured out how to hack the game!

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On Tuesday, Haverford was in for the final element of their career development curriculum: a game of Jeopardy. Students were split into teams, and quizzed on the information they had learned. Questions included “The difference between a job and a career”, “Name two websites where you can learn more about career choices”, and “Draw connections between school subjects and possible careers”. After the game, students completed worksheets about the classes and extracurricular activities they should try to participate in in middle and high school to pursue their interests and potential career paths.

Wednesday and Thursday saw The Shipley School and Haverford School come to conduct the same activity: powerpoints on students’ careers of interests. Students made dynamic powerpoints on careers on which they were interested. See below for photos of the powerpoints, and some impromptu long division on the SmartBoard:

Representatives from most of the participating schools were there on the final day. We first played a fun game of Monopoly, where a potential future real estate tycoon dominated by amassing an impressive list of properties. And we closed the day with a ceremony in which we gave out “diplomas” to the students for completing our HSHX summer program.

       Since the end of July, our students have been working to improve their curriculum by expanding both the grades for which they can be used, and by adding elements. At the end of this October, we will be giving out grant money to the best ideas to have come out of our summer program. These funds will be used to increase the scale and magnitude of the ideas.