April 6, 2015 Meeting

Posted by A. Todd 
on Apr 07, 2015
 
Scott McDermott is the Associate Principal for Technology at Prospect High School and he's talked to our club before about some of the exciting projects and programs happening at the school and throughout District 214. 
 
We welcomed Scott McDermott as our speaker once again.  Scott is the Associate Principal for Technology at Prospect High School and he's talked to our club before about some of the exciting projects and programs happening at the school and throughout District 214.  Today he talked about several student led groups as well as a new class that teaches students how to create apps using Apple's latest OS (well, he is in charge of technology...)
 
The Underground (or the U), is Prospect's spirit club, but it has grown to be much more than that.  The club, open to all students, has made it their focus to bring positive social change to the school and beyond.  In March, they were named Best Student Section in Illinois.  Check out their video highlighting their accomplishments!
 
The Knights Way is a student leadership group where students, nominated by their friends and faculty, lead school-wide activities and courses.  Throughout the year, the 126 members go into every classroom in the school and lead the students in a group activity.  Their projects include making blankets for cancer patients at Alexian Brothers.  They also conducted training social media training designed to help students (and parents) own their online message. 
 
They also have LINK (Leading Incoming Knights), a freshman mentoring program designed to help students feel comfortable at their new school.  It's easy to see why 90% of the student body is involved in at least one extracurricular activity!
 
This year, Prospect is offering a new year-long course in app development.  This was a risk for both the school and the students.  For the school, it was very expensive to send the teachers for the necessary training when they weren't sure there would be a big payoff.  For the students, they were committing to a year-long elective which might not be productive.  That choice was also at the expense of other electives as well.  Fortunately, both sides were paid off.  Over 100 students are enrolled in the course making it one of the most popular electives offered.  Students enjoy seeing how the process works from idea to release, but they particularly enjoy the collaborative aspects of the class.  Instead of everyone creating their own app and staring at a computer screen typing away, the students are put into teams and they need to work together to get the job done.  So far, two apps have been created for school use - one for the basketball team, and one for the health department.  Prospect also won the State Championship for the Verizon Innovative App Challenge.  School administration is already look to see how the class can evolve next year and beyond.  Among the ideas is combining it with an entrepreneur course to show students how products and business models need to go together to succeed.
 
Exciting times are going on at Prospect High School!