ABOUT ME
Hi! My name is Katlyn Paslawski
I’m a high school math and science teacher from Winnipeg, Manitoba working on completing a Master of Educational Technology from UBC. I work in both regular programming and alternative programming at my high school. When I was in my undergraduate at the University of Winnipeg, I completed a practicum block at an alternative high school and fell in love with at-rick youth. My passion for working with at-risk youth guided me to my position now as I get to work with students in high level science courses while supporting our most vulnerable students. The work I do within our alternative program led me to design this forecasting application to support students who need it the most!
MY DILEMMA
In my alternative program students are brought to me after they have failed courses. This is one credit and other times it is multiple credits. What I have observed about at-risk youth is sometimes they get missed before they arrive in my program. They may have failed grade 9, been put back into grade 9 for another year and failed again before they decide to place them into alternative programming. What is unique about my high school is that grade 9 and 10 core subjects are year-long. There are benefits to this model, however for students that struggle they are often left in a cycle of repeating courses. Alternative programming does not mean they will stay with me until they graduate, they usually take electives with their peers and if things are going well, they may be placed back into core classes to try again in the future. My dilemma is this, humans make mistakes and students get missed. What if people had support in making these decisions for students to re-take courses? What if an algorithm could be developed that would consider variables that people do not? What if at-risk students didn't get missed?