Test Drive 2 Day 1

Hello from Perkins!

For those who don’t know, this week I’m staying at Perkins School as an advisor for their Career Launch program. I’m taking part in test drive 2. Dad took a photo with me by the school building before he left. I was the first one to arrive on campus so I got to talk with some teachers. They told me they read a couple of my blogs so that was pretty neat. One let me see his guide dog! I’m rooming with my twin so that worked out.

Today was an orientation day. We were informed about the Career Launch program that will be launching in September. The first test drive tested week one of the program while this one tests week five. Career Launch teaches students tech skills among others. They learn about working in a call center and work an internship. Then after the two months, someone from the program helps work with the student and companies to help them find work. The person teaching mobility to everyone this week was working at the school when I was here so that was nice to see someone I knew. We talked about the school now and how different it is these days. Interesting when I hear teachers feeling the same way. I’ve told people here that it’s not something you quite understand unless you’ve gone here as a student or worked here before. After I was shown the cottage, I was shown how to use their kurig and electric kettle which was nice but after showing me the microwave, I’ll use that for tea. We were told that someone will take video and posed photos for their marketing for the program. I’m really impressed with Perkins upgrades. Our room has AC which I’m still shocked about because when I was a student here, the rooms didn’t have AC. We also have a wall fan which is new.

We each were shown a work station with a phone and a computer. It is a mock call station. Go figure, mine was the one where Jaws wasn’t always working! Everyone has been friendly, but I’m still learning windows 10 and Google Crome, so I’ll get a little lesson tomorrow. Since we are testing week five, we aren’t getting training on the technology like the students will in the actual program. By this point in the program, students would have had a few weeks of tech training. We learned how to use Google Drive and were given a Perkins email address to use for the week. We worked on opening different files like PDFS and Word documents. It was a little frustrating because I was a little behind in some of the tech, but I’m happy to be learning something new. I figured I’d take some notes here, but they told us beforehand we would use their technology and not our personal devices. Today we were asked to take notes using our technology so I’m not a fan of these last minute changes. It’s happened a lot lately. I’m not knocking the program but it does seem like things are just decided day by day rather than thought out. I’m sure it won’t be liked that I’m so open at this stage, but I’m honest. We were asked to share any negative feedback with them first before doing so in a blog, but I’ve already started sharing my thoughts with the team. We opened documents about Harry Potter, the Hobbit and Game of Throwns. I’m probably the only one who hasn’t seen that show.

After our little tech lesson, we did a team building activity. We had two teams and we had to pitch our ideas to someone like the Shark Tank show. We got to use objects like paper clips, Legos, and silly Putty to make our device. My team made a necklace that was a device with a button you could push to make it cold or push the other side and you’d have heat. We used Legos as buttons and putty to make the round part of the necklace. We marketed it to everyone. We said that it took 80 dollars to make but we sold it for 200 dollars and we gave ten percent to charity. The other team made an easy bake oven where Alexa cooked everything and nothing ever got burned. We mentioned that our product could be given to shelters, hospitals etc. to help people. We won the activity so that was cool. =) Amber and I talked to the overnight staff a bit who is really nice and blind so that’s cool. I mentioned that Perkins could consider hiring me to help plan for this program because lots of planning before we came was extremely last minute. Amber and I have had fun learning our way around here but it is similar to the cottages I stayed in. The side of campus I’m on is opposite than what I knew so that’s interesting. I think that’s about it for now. I’ll do my best to post again tomorrow. Questions? Reach out. Find me on Twitter at mirandaloakley, on Facebook at Miranda Oakley or leave me a comment on my website. If you find me on Facebook, please send me a message telling me how you found me and who you are. Thanks.

Best,

Miranda ❤