ICE 2014

On February 26th, Mr. Markey gave me the opportunity to accompany him along with another student, Stephanie Castro, a Leyden graduate, Jeremy Mercado, and Mr. Manola to ICE.

I knew what I was getting into; speaking publicly in front of many people, but that didn't stop me from going. Of course I was nervous, but with a little bit of practice of what I was going to present, I believed I would be okay.

We had one presentation divided into five parts where each of us got to speak a little bit of. Mr. Markey did an amazing job on presenting about how Leyden developed and keeps going on 1:1. Jeremy Mercado did an INCREDIBLE on his slides about student voice. He came up with his own acronym  of how he got inspired and was able to do new things when he finally spoke and said what he wanted. Stephanie also did a marvelous job on student choice talking about her experience with Taste of Teaching and Mr. Manola really emphasized how student leadership can improve our school's environment and our student's lives.

My part of the presentation was student empowerment. As a TSI student, I am able to relate to the type of empowerment the school gave me when Leyden decided to go 1:1. I briefly talked about TSI and our opportunities and choices the class grants us with. 

I really hope our presentation influenced the people in our audience to consider going 1:1. Leyden has changed since my freshmen year when they decided to go 1:1. I personally think it has benefited our school academically and socially. Being 1:1 gave us opportunities that other schools don't have.

Thank you to Mr. Markey for inviting me and good job to everyone that went!

Women in Tech

Last week on February 26th, Ms. Gorzynski gave me the opportunity to be the moderator for the Women in Technology Panel. I automatically said yes.

Five amazing women came to East Leyden to talk to females about their career. The panel ladies were:

• Jordan Pedraza: Program Manager at Google for Education
• Salma Saad: President and Founder of Schoolishness LLC
• Nichole Baiel: User Interface Developer at Adage Technologies
• Nichole Buckle: Web Developer at Performance Trust Capital Partners
• Katie Harington: Social Media and PR Lead for Land of Nod

All these women were very inspiring. They gave us many helpful advice when pursuing our career. This was a great opportunity to any ladies who are interested in the technology field. Sometimes they may feel intimidated because it is often times dominated mostly by men. Women do get discriminated when it comes to this type of career. These ladies talked about their experiences about working with men and how it feels to be one of the very few females in their career.

Tech was not always their first choice when majoring. Mostly all of them went to college thinking they were going to major in a different field. They ended up graduating doing something completely different. This gave the students and I the chance to see that we don't necessarily have to have a major or career in mind by the time we go to college. This is good because we won't feel rushed once we graduate from high school.

All these women inspired me so much. There was one specific panelists that shared a sort of theory or experiment: A ceramics class was divided into two groups. One group was to create a one great sculpture by the end of the semester and however it turned out would be their final grade for the class. The second group was to create several pieces throughout the class. It turns out that the group that created more than one piece got a better grade. Why is that? They had more opportunities to make mistakes while in the process and when you make mistakes you learn. You don't succeed until you struggle or fail with something.

I really enjoyed this experience. It opened up my eyes to the world. I realized I can do anything I desire with my life and that I don't need to have a solid choice when it comes to choosing a career. I still have a lot of time to think about what I want to do and there's also different careers that I don't even know of that I could be interested in. The good thing about technology is that it's always changing so there's always going to be more jobs opening.

The Women in Tech went very well. It not only provided information about tech careers for women, but it also inspired us and that's what females need sometimes.

Thank you to everyone that contributed on making it happen and a BIG thank you to Ms. Gorzynski for organizing everything. She did a marvelous job.

Ms. G, the panelists, and I.

Where Are They Now? TSI Student Updates

This post was written by Ms. Lauren Martire, East Leyden TSI teacher.

On Tuesday, I got a surprise visit from a former TSI student, Zaid Alaraj.  I asked Zaid why he did not respond to my email about being included in a “Where Are they Now?” blog post.  His reasoning was that he had nothing going on and nothing exciting to share.  

I disagree!

Zaid is currently a freshman at Triton College and concentrating on taking his general education classes.  When not at Triton, Zaid spends his time working at not one, not two but THREE part-time jobs.  He works at Lolli & Pops, Watch Me and Asics - all three located at the new Fashion Outlets in Rosemont.

Zaid’s experiences in TSI have helped him at work, specifically at Lolli & Pops, whose register system is based on computer technologies.  In addition, at Lolli & Pops, he set up an audio visual system to use for advertising purposes - something that the store managers have been trying to set up for a while but did not know how to.

It is not surprising that Zaid would offer his technology skills while at work.  Not only was Zaid a stand-out TSI student, he worked in TSI all summer repairing & preparing the graduated senior Chromebooks so that they could be reissued to the incoming freshman.  Zaid does have one TSI regret - not pursuing a CompTIA A+ certification.  He recently applied to be a technician with Best Buy’s Geek Squad but was turned away because they only hire workers who are A+ certified.  His advice to all TSI students is to get as many certifications as they possibly can.  

All the technical skills he learned in TSI will also help him in his further studies.  After spending two years at Triton, he is planning to transfer to either UIC or University of Illinois to finish his studies in Mechanical Engineering.

During Zaid’s visit, I also asked him if he missed Leyden.  His answer - an enthusiastic “YES!”.  He misses everything about Leyden: his teachers; his locker; even the drama!  In fact, Zaid even had his 2013 Leyden Junior Olympics tshirt on.  He is also a little bummed that he is unable to experience some of the cool building changes like the newly remodeled art wing.

Zaid’s advice to current Leyden students, especially the seniors preparing for college, is to apply for as many scholarships as possible.  He loves that he is practically “getting paid to go to Triton”.  Due to scholarships, all his tuition and books are paid for.  In addition, he gets money for food, gas, school supplies, etc.

Overall, I would say that I won the small disagreement that Zaid and I had.  He has A LOT going on and MANY exciting things to share!

           

Click below to read previous "Where Are They Now?" blog posts.

Karolina Moniuszko

Jesse Fuentes

Flappy Bird

If you own a smartphone, chances are, you probably have played Flappy Bird. It became a big hit quick! I remember just scrolling through twitter one day and saw a ton of people tweeting about it. I didn't know what it was so being a bandwagon, I decided to download it just because everyone was talking about it. The game is so simple, yet so difficult! It's one of those games that make you so mad and just want to keep trying and trying.

It's pretty hard at first, but it gets easier after you play it a couple 100 times. I remember getting super excited that I got 7, and now I can get up to 100. You go around happily saying, "My high score is 32!" And then there's always that one person that says, "Mines 187" or something. Don't need to kill the other persons joy of success, lol.

There's two interesting things about this game though.

The person that invented this game is actually a teenager. This kid was making $50,000 per day just for an ad on his game. I mean c'mon kid, just drop out. He's probably set for life.

The other thing is serious. Two brothers were play Flappy Bird and one got a higher score. So the other brother stabbed him for beating him. This is why the app is not in the market anymore. It was starting to be taken serious that led to death.

I have this game on my phone and I play it all the time. Yeah, it frustrates me but I never quit. My high score is 120 and I haven't been able to beat it.

There's other games similar to Flappy Bird now since it got taken down so if you're looking for a similar game, make sure to check out the app store!

Where Are They Now? Former TSI Student Updates

This blog post was written by Ms. Lauren Martire

A couple weeks ago, I sent out an email to a few of last year’s TSI students to inquire if they wanted to be featured in my new “Where are they now” blog posts.  I immediately got a response back from Jesse Fuentes.  I asked Jesse to give me an update on how life at the University of Southern California is treating him and how Leyden prepared him for that life. Expecting a paragraph or two back, I was pleased (but not surprised) to receive an email NINE LONG paragraphs in length.  This is Jesse Fuentes...he goes above and beyond what is expected in ALL things that he does.  This described Jesse as a National Qualifier in FBLA, as a senior TSI student at Leyden and now as a freshman in college.

Jesse is currently studying Computer Engineering & Computer Science at USC but is considering making a change to Computer Science with an emphasis on Game Design and adding a minor in Computer & Digital Forensics.  When not studying, he works parts time at USC’s Information Technology Services as a student technical assistance where he supports the various learning environments on campus.  Jesse believes that his time in TSI prepared him for the job.  To quote Jesse,

“I was practically hired on the spot during my interview once I told the interviewers about the skills, experience and certifications I gained from TSI.  They were so impressed about my certificates and help desk/customer service skill that once I told them about TSI’s ticketing system and loaner laptop procedures, the job was already mine”.

Not surprisingly, Jesse has taken advantage of the internship programs available to freshman college students.  He interviewed for Qualcomm’s Freshman Early Identification Program and will be interviewing with Google sometime in February.  If Jesse gets accepted into Qualcomm’s program, he will spend ten weeks in their San Diego’s headquarters working with full time engineers on real projects.  He also interviewed with Microsoft.  Although he did not get accepted into Microsoft’s program, he was amazed by their interview process which required him to fly to Washington and stay for two nights at the Marriot (unlimited room service included!) - all expenses paid by Microsoft.

Outside of his academics, Jesse is involved in the Trojan Scholars Society and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.  He is currently organizing a “Discover Engineering Day” for 200 middle and high-school student.  Jesse has made friends with students from all over the world and says that his new friends are amazed to hear of all the opportunities he was given as a Leyden student.  According to Jesse, “Leyden has prepared me for college so much that had it not been for the support from all the teachers and staff, I would not have earned my scholarship or even acceptance into my dream school”.

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Jesse’s advice to other students it to “take advantage of everything Leyden has to offer because there are kids out there who don’t even know of the opportunities that are available”.

I am looking forward to getting more updates from Jesse, all of which I am sure will get more and more impressive.  After all...this is Jesse Fuentes I am talking about!

Jesse at Microsoft

Where are They Now? Former TSI Student Updates

This post was written by Ms. Lauren Martire.

On Thursday, I got a surprise visit from a former student - Karolina Moniuszko.  Karolina was an active member in the Business Education department and one of my best TSI students last year.  It was great to catch up with her, hear about her college experiences at Northern Illinois University and learn about how Leyden prepared her for her future.

Because of her experiences in TSI, Karolina was hired as the first female AND first freshman student to work at the NIU technology help desk.  As a technician with the ResTech department (short for Residential Technology), Karolina is responsible for performing virus scans, installing software, setting up instructor technology systems, assisting with folder management and troubleshooting wifi connectivity issues.  She also helps students set up and connect their personal cell phones, xboxes and televisions.

Like other TSI students, Karolina has to use a ticketing system to document all her activities and provide updates to customers.  Karolina has had more open and closed tickets than many of the veteran workers and has already been rehired for next school year.  In fact, next semester, Karolina will be in charge of her own computer lab located in one of the residential halls.

Karolina said that her time in TSI prepared her for the job, but that being a girl in the technology field has at times been a challenge.  One customer mistook her for an assistant and didn’t believe that SHE was the one who was actually going to help HIM with his technology issues!

Karolina is loving college and is looking forward to getting a townhouse next year with friends that she met at Northern.

                   

Karolina as a senior TSI student         Karolina as a freshman NIU student.

Tip of the Week

As winter break is approaching, here are some tips to keep in mind to ensure that you keep taking care of your Chromebook:

• Make sure to keep your Chromebook away from pets, brothers and sisters or any other individual who may damage it.
• If you are going on vacation or traveling, DON'T take your Chromebook with you. Leave it safe at home.
• Don't forget to charge your Chromebook the night before coming back to school in January.

In general, be careful and smart with your Chromebook and enjoy your winter break.