Questions
How do I contact Hollyhock?
When are Hollyhock applications available?
Why do I have to apply to Hollyhock as a team?
Why is the eligibility only for teachers who have taught between 2-7 years in total in math, science, English , or history?
I am curious to learn more about the Hollyhock Summer Institute. What can you tell me?
What are the dates for the summer institute?
What kinds of things do I need to do to prepare for the summer institute if I am accepted?
What are all of the eligibility requirements that I must meet to be considered for this program?
If I am accepted, what will I be learning during the Hollyhock Summer Institute in my core content area?
Answers
How do I contact Hollyhock?
To request more information, please submit an information request form or email us at: hollyhock@gse.stanford.edu.
When are Hollyhock applications available?
Applications are available online on our website beginning October 15, 2015 and are due by 11:59 PM PST on January 10, 2016. The application requires a few recommendations, so be sure to leave time for those to be completed by your administrators and colleagues prior to the deadline. The application also asks you to submit a 2-minute school team video, so start your application early enough to submit the video. Although applicants apply as a team, they submit individual applications through the website.
Why do I have to apply to Hollyhock as a team?
The mission of Hollyhock is to support early-career teachers to thrive in classrooms that exist in historically underserved communities. We recognize that teaching in this context is challenging and complex work that is most meaningfully accomplished with a supportive network of colleagues. A team consists of three or more teachers of math, science, English, or history from the same high school.
Why is the eligibility only for teachers who have taught between 2-7 years in total in math, science, English , or history?
Teachers are most likely to leave the classroom in the first five years of teaching. We want to work with teachers in developing their expertise during this early-career phase when they would most benefit from professional development and ongoing coaching to support them in achieving their goals.
At this time, we only offer fellowships to high school teachers who teach in one of the four foundational content areas of English, history, math, or science.
I am curious to learn more about the Hollyhock Summer Institute. What can you tell me?
The two weeks each summer in residence at Stanford are a vital component of the Hollyhock Fellowship Program, with year 2 of the institute building on year 1. The Institute typically runs from 9:00 am until 4:15 pm M-F with additional opportunities for extended learning in the evenings (speakers, readings, activities) and some cohort events planned on the weekend. Fellows live in dormitory-style residences on Stanford campus for the duration of the institute, which makes it convenient for fellows to meet with both their team members and educators from other schools to strategize how they can apply what they’ve learned to their individual settings. These experiences build a community of teaching professionals that lasts long after the two-week summer institute ends.
What are the dates for the summer institute?
Stanford Summer Conferences confirms our dates for each summer in late fall/early winter. Because we draw teachers from across the country whose schools end their academic year as late as June 30th and start as early as the first week of August, the institute is held in July for two weeks. Exact dates vary year to year but typically begin after July 4th and end by August 1st. The 2016 Hollyhock Summer Institute will be from 10 July - 23 July 2016 for 2016 Fellows and 17 July - 29 July 2016 for 2015 Fellows.
What kinds of things do I need to do to prepare for the summer institute if I am accepted?
Typically, we ask teams to write a biography about their team and school for our website. Additionally, we ask individual teachers to bring a unit plan that they are willing to revise and to capture a video clip of their classroom teaching from the current school year. All fellows are asked to make their travel arrangements. Each year the preparation varies.
What are all of the eligibility requirements that I must meet to be considered for this program?
- apply as a high school teacher during your 2nd through 7th year in the classroom
- live in residence for the entire institute both summers --no late arrivals/early departures for personal or professional reasons
- participate in all of the virtual, school-year coaching sessions
- maintain a classroom teaching position at your current school site in 1 of the 4 content areas for 2 years
- work collaboratively with your Hollyhock school team members for the duration of the fellowship
- enlist support from school leadership (the coaching during the school year is a time commitment of 2-4 hours each month; it helps to have support to engage in this work meaningfully)
- have access to a computer or tablet that can support the technology interface
ENGLISH
In English, we will focus on two core practices: teaching textual understanding and facilitating rigorous classroom discussion. One of students’ biggest struggles lie in moving beyond summary and literal responses when they read literature, political speech, and other texts. This summer, we will work on how teachers can help students draw from their everyday, feeling-based responses to construct connotations, interpretations, and critical analyses of a range of texts. Fellows will come away with an understanding of how to design and teach approaches to interpretation that combine student experience and textual understanding. They will also design an introductory unit on interpretive reading and writing that can act as a foundation for the year’s work in literature and non-fiction. We will also spend some time on how to foster meaningful text-based discussions in the ELA classroom with a focus on equity of voice. Fellows will be given time and support to implement these practices into their unit plans.
HISTORY
In history, we will focus on three core practices: developing and posing questions to frame engaging units, modeling the effective use of primary source documents, and facilitating rigorous classroom discussions. Our work on discussion will focus on strategies that foster meaningful and equitable student dialogue using text-based evidence. As a result of working on these three practices, fellows will come away with a better understanding of how to teach literacy and inquiry in the social studies classroom as well as an understanding of how to design a responsive historical narrative. We will put these ideas to work when we develop a unit that focuses on the inclusion of equitable instructional strategies. Throughout the summer institute, we will use technology to support the implementation of these core practices, including access to online resources to develop the fellows’ units.
MATH
In mathematics, fellows will focus on the core practice of facilitating productive discourse in the math classroom. Specifically, fellows will develop an understanding of an approach to formative assessment that provides all students the opportunity to make sense of important mathematical ideas and develop the skills for articulating, clarifying, critiquing, and building on each other’s ideas. Fellows will work in small groups to develop task-based units that include at least one formative task and can be customized for different contexts and student needs. Fellows will practice teaching the formative tasks from their units and think about the arc of an effective lesson built around the tasks. In the second year of the fellowship, fellows expand their definition of and expertise in adapting, designing, and using assessment beyond formative tasks.
SCIENCE
In science, our focus is guided by the Next Generation Science Standards and how to implement them with an emphasis on the science and engineering practices. Fellows will be introduced to the core practice of classroom discussion and examine ways to increase the quality and equity of discourse in their classes. As means of integrating meaningful discussion and the science and engineering practices into their curriculum, fellows will have an opportunity to redesign a unit with feedback. In addition, fellows will experience representations of the science and engineering practices and will have opportunities to unpack and practice strategies in real-time with feedback from coaches as well as other fellows. Woven throughout all of the work are teaching strategies that provide equitable learning opportunities for all students.
