Processes and Perspectives @thelizprocess-blog - Tumblr Blog

Process Journal: Process Reflection

After going through the acceptance, analysis, definition, ideation, selection, implementation, and evaluation phase, this semester felt like a year. Going through this problem solving process step by step really forced every drop of creative juice out of my brain. Is it tedious? Yes, but when we finally finished that final presentation deck and looked at our fully realized product? I understand why the steps exist.

It’s interesting to point out that Implementation stage is where my teammates and I really bonded. Our level of excitement from the first five weeks versus the last three weeks was day and night. I don’t necessarily think that any stage should be removed, as they all have their value and importance. However, I definitely felt that the sketching, drawing, drafting can happen a lot earlier. We were staring at an intangible idea week after week, but the moment Sarah drew a rough idea on paper for the first time - I understood it immediately. I can picture its function, I can imagine its capabilities, and I can see it making an impact. Most of my best work was not realized until the Implementation phase, yet it is so late in the semester that the burnout syndrome already creped in, and I fought it every step of the way.

I think that this creative problem-solving method could be practiced out of order, and it does not need to be utilized in a linear manner. In addition, I find that the success of the project is determined early on. It is so crucial during the definition, ideation and selection phase to keep checking with the group, “is this something we are all equally passionate about? Because in the end, when I’m tired and my brain’s fried, I took one look at our device and thought – This is so freaking cool.

Process Journal: Evaluation

Once we have been successfully granted a chance to present Slaus to its intended users in the school environment, we can evaluate the system by: Metrics and Rubrics - For the plan administrators, and even the students, the familiar question of “give a rating of 1 to 10″ can easily provide us the feedback that we need regarding functionality. Polls, Voting, and Ranking - This is gear towards the student users. Within the system, they have a choice also to actively suggest new activities for the school administrators to implement. The administrators can then get an idea, based on the participation, of how each activity is ranked.

The account managers that work directly with the schools will ultimately get the first hand feedback on the functionality and effectiveness of our product. The more usage data we can collect will ultimately help us better the system over time.

Making schools safer is a long term journey, through Slaus, we hope the journey is at least a fun one.

Process Journal: Conceptualize It

How might we create a culture within school communities that makes students safer? Introducing: Salus

The name Salus was inspired by the Roman goddess of safety and well-being.

It is our theory that, by encouraging students to make more connections, it in turn makes the school communities safer. So how do we make connections?

By connecting through working towards the same goals.

Below is a detailed description to help participants at each level understand how Slaus functions:

Thank you, team! @sarah-french @chrisjoffe

Process Journal: Implementation

Our team believes that visual representations will best explain our product in a way that everyone can easily understand. How might we create a culture within school communities that makes students safer? The solution that we proposed is a small key-chain size device that helps school students K-12 make meaningful connections while achieving a community goals. We utilized Figma to represent our first prototype:

We’ve illustrated some of the potential goals and activity features (administer/set-up by school faculty) within the web based interface:

Our Figma diagram presents the functionality by way of a flowchart diagram, (https://www.figma.com/file/OdhXPcGGlGcnYgYyiZfSQxXT/School-Community-Platform-Device?node-id=0%3A1) with the help of a physical prototype in the coming weeks, we hope that our project is visually convincing enough to attract potential stakeholders.

We look forward to the feedbacks that we will receive during class this week so that we can make further improvements. Overall, I think that we have a neat idea in the making!

Process Journal: Business Model Canvas

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1UhgnOiuT2u1kgIW0y6W7hYtm2Y4ySlklvDsaYzcI7Zg/edit?usp=sharing

Process Journal: Selection

My group used just about all the techniques listed in this week’s async material. Some of the more notable ones are Ranking and Weighing, Idea Potpourri and What Would Happen If. The discussion went pretty smoothly as we were more or less all on the same page after the last class. We all had starting to envision this reward system on our own, some tangible ideas and some intangible ones.

When we came together, it was more of an exercise to see how we might mash our ideas together. Having discussed the disadvantage of a phone app, we had a fun discussion about a personal device, its potential appearance and features. I couldn’t help tying game elements into Sarah’s suggestion of this device that she envisioned. What do you know, we may be able to solve issues with school safety and childhood obesity all together?!

Process Journal: Choosing a Solution

How might we create a culture within school communities that makes students safer?

Our top 5 ideas after the group discussion last week were:

Rewards system for doing activities that improve mental health & relationships with peers

Interview a classmate and get to know them

Peer-to-peer counseling program

School-wide team building activities like family nights, field trips, & more

Teacher training on how to encourage connection and incorporate a mental health focus into academic work

In order to chose a solution, our team first utilize the Ranking and Weighing technique by placing each of our top five ideas on a feasibility vs importance chart. We placed “peer to peer counselling programs,” “rewards system,” and “interview a classmate” at the highest in feasibility. We put “peer to peer counseling programs,” and “teacher training” at the highest in importance. This gives a good overview of where our ideas stand.

We utilized the Idea Potpourri technique and thought of ways to mash all of our ideas together. This wasn’t hard at all as we’ve already started thinking about a reward system for the students. Within this reward system, student can perhaps earn points by attending peer to peer counseling activities, interviewing fellow classmates, participating in mental health training and lastly, having fun in school wide team building activities.

We thought more into this reward system, and realized that as part of or solution finding process, we have to determine what type of platform this would be. We talked about the potential situation that kids maybe too young to have a phone, the school may not allow it, or their family might not be able to afford one. We went back to our earlier technique by creating a second chart that ranks our platform by feasibility vs importance. We found the “web” option ranks the highest.

As a fun and unusual idea, Sarah brought up the possibility of a small key chain size personal device that can be cheap to produce. Chris then brought up something that he saw called the Timeular. It’s a multi-sided dice that sits on your desk and every time you switch a task, you flip the dice and it keeps track of the time you spend on various tasks. Our discussion sparked my memory of a device that I had growing up -

This is the Digimon Virtual Pet. Like Tamagotchi, which many people had at some point in their youth, Digimon Virtual Pet is of the same concept. It added much more adventure element in the sense that, not only is it also a step counter, you encounter enemies that you can battle or catch as you walk. The most notable feature of all was that when you hook two of these devices together, you can battle your friends. There are so much elements from this discussion that we can bring into our project as we further develop our solution.

We also played devil’s advocate and took some time to discuss best case and worst-case scenario using What Would Happen If. Some of the points that we may need to address to solve in the worst-case scenario includes: students toying with the device while they cross streets, students become too competitive with each other in a negative way, or the device isn’t entertaining or working well and leads to misuse. These are all potential risks of how our solution would, in the worst-case scenario, make schools less safe.

Process Journal: Ideation

"How might we create a culture within school communities that makes students safer?"

This week, I set up a Mural space for our team to brainstorm together online. Mural is an amazing online collaboration platform that was introduce to me by my Design Essentials team. It has a wide variety of template available. It even has a voting system! The only downside, I found out recently, is that it’s only free for the first 30 days. This is the template that our team used for brainstorming:

The original plan was that we would hop on Zoom and Mural during our scheduled meeting time, and just throw ideas out for 10 minutes. However, due to a few constraints with planning around my team’s schedule, we ended up ideating on our own first and brought those ideas onto Mural to discuss.

Sarah brought up the idea of summer camp, and how lots of people seem to carry that experience and memory even into adulthood. I listed a similar idea of a sleep over field trip. The school I attended in Taiwan has an award-winning program, where students take a field trip to our school’s property in the mountain. We learned how to survive and work together in the wild. There were many activities that required us to collaborate in groups. For example, we had to make chopsticks and bowls from bamboos. If we don’t accomplish the task together, we don’t have anything to eat with. It really forced students to put aside their differences and work towards a common goal.

After categorizing our ideas, our team found a lot of common themes. The social activities category received the most ideas. (They are mostly mine it looks like) This makes sense in my opinion, that the best way to engage students to make connections is for them to do things together. What better way to learn while you are having fun?

I look forward to sharing our progress with the class, and see if everyone shares our opinion in how to create positive culture in school communities.

Group Brainstorming & Debriefing Session

"How might we create a culture within school communities that makes students safer?"

Brainstorming session on Mural:

Categorizing based on common themes:

Definition

Our team started out by defining the problem on our own. It happened to be spring break, so I furthered my background research by interviewing two of my friends who work in schools. I’ve posted these interviews here:

https://thelizprocess.tumblr.com/post/183570822032/interview-with-c-kilroy

https://thelizprocess.tumblr.com/post/183551167262/interview-with-valerie-douglass

Having these two interviews gave me a better understanding of what schools are doing to address school safety. Comparing and contrasting the two different types of school and age groups gave me a good understanding of what each school focuses more on and why. I think by now there are enough statistics that demonstrates the relationship between mental health and school shooting incidents. I was glad to see that both schools have programs and resources in place to help educate and support their students.

Looking at the definitions our group came up with individually, I noticed that Sarah and my definition were both geared more towards the students themselves, while Chris’ definition was broader and more focused on the external threats to the students.

While discussing school safety around the topic of bullying and active shooters, Chris brought up Research Professor Brene Brown who studies courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy. She suggests that “connection is why we’re here; it is what gives purpose and meaning to our lives. The power that connection holds in our lives was confirmed when the main concern about connection emerged as the fear of disconnection.” This statement really helped us set a clear vision of what we should and want to pursue as the problem.

Similarly, Valerie brought up a program that they implemented at her school called “Sandy Hook Promise- Start with Hello” during our interview. The core idea of this program matches that of Brene Brown’s study. This further my confidence in our definition as a team. The key is figuring out how to foster positive connections and create a sense of belonging in the school environment.

We arrived at the final problem definition stage as group, and we intend to address the following topic:

The internal social problems that affect school communities, including student mental health issues, bullying, and a lack of school safety, are all connected to the culture within a school. Therefore, the key problem to solve is how to create a school environment that cultivates a sense of community and connection, fosters healthy peer-to-peer relationships, and supports individual students.

Interview with C. Kilroy

Name of the school that you are affiliated with:

Orange High (Title I school, 95% student qualify for free and reduced-price meals)

Which City and State is this school located at:

Orange, CA

What is your position at the school?

Math Teacher, GSA (Gay Straight Alliance) Advisory

How long have you been affiliated with this school?

Third year teaching

Does the school participate in any regular training for student safety?

Evacuation drills, earthquake drills, on campus shooter drills (lock down drills)

How do teachers at your school contact parents of the students?

By phone or via email

How frequently do the teachers at your school contact parents of the students?

Not often, monthly or only when issues arise

How does your school handle rewarding and disciplining students?

PRIDE program: Preparedness, Respect, Integrity, Determination and Excellence. It is an incentive for positive behavior and rewards academic achievement. Students earn tickets which could be use as currency for the PRIDE store to get merchandise and other items.

Teachers give referrals for detention and tardiness

Does your school implement any tech to keep the school safe? (Apps/Software/etc.)

Visitors log system. Provide government issue ID for background check, school provides photo badge as the visitor access campus.

(Not sure where this fit but Sprint donated hotspots for students to have internet access at home. Some of our students do not have wifi or internet at home.)

What is your school’s policy for student having cellphones or other types of technology?

Phones are allowed, will only revoke if it’s a distraction to class.

Chromebooks in class rooms.

What is your school doing to help with student’s mental health?

On-site nurses, psychiatrists and counselors.

Is it effective? What do you like about it?

Yes, most of the students come from gang affiliated family background and the psychiatrist will sometimes pull students out of class if they feel that the student is going through something they may need support with.

The counselors are also well liked. The students schedule appointments with them voluntarily.

Do you see any new issues arise as a result?

Not at all

What is your school doing to address bullying?

Zero tolerance policy. We also implement school security and staff everywhere so there are no blind zones.

Is it effective? What do you like about it?

Yes. The student themselves hear enough that they know better. They are comfortable going up to a staff or teacher if there was ever an issue.

Do you see any new issues arise as a result?

Slight issues with students holding each other accountable when there’s a problematic student in the class. They seem to not want to speak up fearing that it may be considered bullying. I usually thank the student who speak up, so others know that it is okay to do so (to a certain extend).

What is your school doing to address active shooter situations?

Lock down drills. All classrooms are equipped with phones that are connected to speakers. This is necessary because shooters tend to pull fire alarm so it will send everyone running. Therefore, we are told to stay locked in until someone comes on the speaker to confirm the situation.

We have school securities that escorts visitors, and there’s always at least one at the front door.

If you can make a suggestion to your school regarding student safety and wellness, what would it be?

When I was in the teacher training program prior to teaching at Orange High, there was a health class where we learn about the changes that a student goes through. One of the topic was “Imaginary Audience” This is a natural biological state that children goes through when they get paranoid because they feel like there are people constantly watching them. I feel like it would be very beneficial to have health class for students that addresses the physical and mental transformation. This way, they understand that what they are going through is normal and how they might be able to deal with stress, anxiety and other issues before they become a problem.

Comment:

School safety is such a heavy topic. It is disheartening when people tell me that “being a teacher is one of the most dangerous profession now”. It’s also disturbing when people would make comments like “if we ever have a shooter, it’s that kid,” which is outrageous but it’s just the world we live in now. I really hope that there could be a good solution soon.

Interview with Valerie Douglass

Name of the school that you are affiliated with:

Scholarship Prep Charter School

Which City and State is this school located at?

Oceanside, CA

What is your position at the school?

Principal

How long have you been affiliated with this school?

2 years (in June)

Does the school participate in any regular training for student safety?

Yes, regular online and in-person training that includes, but is not limited to Cyber Bullying, bullying in general, PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention Supports), Charter Safe training for CPR, first aid, bullying, mental health, diabetes, epilepsy, etc.

How do teachers at your school contact parents of the students?

In person, by phone, email, newsletters, conferences, Remind App, Class Dojo App, and our online website

How frequently do the teachers at your school contact parents of the students?

Daily, weekly

How does your school handle rewarding and disciplining students?

Character Education program called Harper For Kids: Pyramid of Success, in class and school-wide incentives around the Pyramid of Success, PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention and Support), school-wide Success Tickets that focus on the traits, In-class, group and individual, points through dojo, color chart, scholar dollars, etc.

School-wide discipline done through "reminder slips" that focus on the character traits, referrals, and finally, suspensions/expulsions if needed (clearly, we try not to get this far if possible), In-class discipline using a "merit/demerit system"

Restorative Circle and Practices to positively address any issues

Does your school implement any tech to keep the school safe? (Apps/Software/etc.)

Apps used for discipline above (Class Dojo, Remind App)

We use Securly and Hapara to monitor student internet activity at school

What is your school’s policy for student having cellphones or other types of technology?

No cellphone use during school hours

Every student, grade 1st-8th have 1:1 Chromebooks

What is your school doing to help with student’s mental health?

Restorative Circles to build trust among individuals and the community

Counseling used for specific trauma-based cases

Is it effective? What do you like about it?

I LOVE this strategy-- we use it proactively and reactively for mediation among staff and students

Do you see any new issues arise as a result?

Mental Health is certainly a heightened need at this moment. The discussion of suicide has crossed my desk too many times of the last 5 years in administration. And the staff are not equipped to deal with most of the cases. This is where I'd put money if we had it- mental health support and training.

What is your school doing to address bullying?

Restorative Circles to build trust among individuals and the community.

"Peace Path," restorative justice, and mediation skills taught to staff, students, and parents

Threat Assessment team trained

Sandy Hook Promise "Start with Hello" Training for the students

Other school wide anti-bullying assemblies in the works

Is it effective? What do you like about it?

I LOVE this strategy-- we use it proactively and reactively for mediation among staff and students. This has saved so many concerns that have come up.

Do you see any new issues arise as a result?

So far only positive results

What is your school doing to address active shooter situations?

Emergency Drill training for staff and students

Active Shooter Training put on by the police department and FBI for administrators

Active Shooter Training put on by the police department for staff

Monthly Emergency Drills- regular opportunities to practice and have conversations with students

Threat Assessment Training for administration

Sandy Hook Promise "Start with Hello" Training for the students: https://www.sandyhookpromise.org/

Hired a security guard and have every single visitor check-in with their ID and receive a badge

If you can make a suggestion to your school regarding student safety and wellness, what would it be?

Mental Health support/training for staff in order to support students

Conjunction Junction

When you buy donuts at Krispy Kreme on St. Patrick’s Day, you get a free sample and the donuts are green.

When you buy donuts at Krispy Kreme on St. Patrick’s Day, you get a free sample but the donuts are green.

Star Wars land is opening at Disneyland on May 31 and it’s ahead of the original schedule date. The park will offer new experiences and is anticipating a large crowd.

Star Wars land is opening at Disneyland on May 31 but it’s ahead of the original schedule date. The park will offer new experiences but is anticipating a large crowd.

My boss is the youngest of five and his siblings are all girls. He also has a lot of relatives and they are all in Washington.

My boss is the youngest of five but his siblings are all girls. He has a lot of relatives but they are all in Washington.

Thanksgiving is on the fourth week of November this year, and that’s the weekend of my birthday.

Thanksgiving is on the fourth week of November this year, but that’s the weekend of my birthday.

I have four costumes planned for the con season this year and they will really challenge my sewing skills. They are well designed and full of details.

I have four costumes planned for the con season this year but they will really challenge my sewing skills. They are well designed but full of details.

Problem Definition

Chris - Schools do not currently have the resources to protect students, staff or teachers against the evolving risks which exist in today’s world; active shooters; lockdowns; bullying; natural disasters.

Chris: Schools shouldn't focus on what’s causing the harm, rather than how to prevent and have measures for them.

Sarah: This problem definition centers on how we can create safety in schools when a wide variety of internal and external threats exist, all of which may require different types of actions to be taken. Although both internal and external threats affect safety, I’m concerned that the methods for addressing them may not overlap.

Lisa: I agree that schools don’t have the proper resources, but rather than focusing on “how to solve” maybe we focus on the root cause and gear more towards “how to prevent”.

Sarah - The comorbid pathologies of student mental health, bullying, and school safety are all connected to institutional culture; therefore, the key problem to solve is how to create a more nurturing, positive, and inclusive school environment that cultivates a sense of community, fosters healthy peer-to-peer relationships, and supports individual students.

Sarah: There are cultural differences between individual schools, and some schools cultures are better at addressing these issues than others. However, I bet there are some overall cultural trends that many schools share that exacerbate these problems.

Chris: Leave school to issue of external threat issue but critical in tackling the internal issues involving the participants at the school.

Lisa: Very similar to what I would like to focus on, the root cause. This would devise a long term plan for schools in which they desperately need in the world today.

Lisa - When and how do we address the topic of mental health to children in school so that we can prevent unfortunate events such as suicide, bullying, and shooting from happening?

Lisa: Schools currently do not have enough resources dedicated to educating school children on the biological and chemical changes that they go through during this time. It would be very beneficial to have a program where this topic can be addressed early on as part of the effort to help them better understand themselves and how to cope thus preventing more mental health related tragedy in the long run.

Sarah: This is more focused than my definition but shares a similar focus on finding and addressing a root cause for the internal problems faced by schools. The difference is that I saw culture as the key issue to address rather than mental health itself.

Chris: This definition would make a high impact as far as mental health but would neglect some other issues such as natural disaster prevention.

Group Problem Definition:

@chrisjoffe @sarah-french @thelizprocess

Problem Definition (Self)

When and how do we address the topic of mental health to children in school so that we can prevent unfortunate events such as suicide, bullying, and shooting from happening?

Process Journal: Analysis

I started my analysis process by diving straight into web research. I am more of a collector in terms of handling the information I came across. However, reading about Collector vs Packrat has also made me more aware of what I am getting rid of. We set up a team share folder to dump useful links that we came across.

Last week, my team selected the topic of porch pirates but realized that it maybe too limiting after the discussion with our fellow classmates. Here is how our idea evolved after two more team meetings:

Porch pirates > How to keep packages secure > Safety > How do working parents have a piece of mind when their kids are at school > School safety

Some of the key incidents that I came across relating to school safety in the States are:

1927 Bath School disaster (motive: Revenge for defeat in local election, personal and financial stress)

1952 – 1954 Brown v. Board segregation

1983 DARE was founded in Los Angeles as a joint initiative of LAPD and the Los Angeles Unified School District as a demand-side drug control strategy of the American War on Drugs

1989 Cleveland Elementary School (Stockton, CA) shooting (Motive: Unknown, but likely racial hatred, eviction, personal and legal stress)

1994 Gun-Free Schools Act

1997 Heath High School shooting (Motive: Bullying and mental illness)

1999 Columbine High School massacre (Motive: Bullying and mental illness)

2001 No Child Left Behind Act

2004 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

2005 Red Lake shootings (Motive: Bullying, personal stress, depression)

2007 Virginia Tech shooting (Motive: Bullying, mental illness)

2012 School reform on suspension policies

2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting (Motive: Mental illness)

Most commonly brought up incident in America – Columbine, Virginia Tech/Shooting cases

Last year, 113 people have been killed or injured in school shootings in the United States. There is no agreement at a national level about how to respond to school shootings, with opinion just as divided.

Most commonly brought up incident in Taiwan – Murder of Pai Hsiao-Yen/Kidnaping cases

Taiwan is a simple island, and back then, everyone knew each other. When I was in elementary school, the Pai Hsiao-Yen cases was a shock to the whole country. Pai Hsiao-Yen is the only daughter to a famous celebrity. She was kidnapped from school and a ransom of an outrageous amount was demanded. This caused a nationwide man haunt for the three perpetrators. Unfortunately, her body was discovered two weeks later. Then came the trend of fake ransom calls. Scammers took the opportunity and prey on parents who are still on edge after the news surrounding Pai Hsiao-Yen case.

It’s interesting to see that though the topics are both on school safety, the type of incidents are not the same, so what are the other factors that causes these unfortunate events? Why are there so many gun related incidents in the States? Why are there so many scamming incidents in Taiwan? Is it the environment? The social status? The culture? I have so many questions at a micro level to push this project further.

Random thought: What if the solution to keeping school safe is to promote hip activities school wide that redirects anger and emotions? Activities like archery class or event BB gun marksman tournament?

School safety is a very sensitive topic. The more I look back into history and at the current state it just makes my heart feel heavier and heavier. I have to step away every so often so I don’t get too caught up on feeling emotional. Of course, there are many positive stories surfacing with peers looking out for each other as well. We can’t change the past but we can learn from the past and plan for the future.

@chrisjoffe @sarah-french @thelizprocess

Morphological Analysis

@chrisjoffe @sarah-french @thelizprocess

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