Quill Fall Internship Reflection
I’ve always been very hesitant about education technology, so when I applied to work at Quill.org, I wasn’t exactly sure what I was getting myself into. It was important to me that Quill.org was a nonprofit, and I loved the idea of helping teach students necessary grammar skills, primarily with a focus on disadvantaged schools and communities. However, I worried about the effectiveness of online content and the role that it might play in the classroom.
Despite my initial concerns, I wasn’t disappointed at all. I quickly understood the efforts Quill.org makes to educate in a productive manner, and I saw how much teachers loved the site, using it both in and out of the classroom. I learned about how infrequently grammar is taught in the classroom, and how difficult it can be to find strong resources to teach it to students of all ages. I became invested in their mission and am proud of what I was able to accomplish during my time here to learn and grow with Quill.org.
My main project during my time at Quill.org was to find a way to let teachers submit usable activities to our site. We receive so many requests from teachers asking to make their own activities, and I wanted to find a way to help them do so in an efficient manner. I first researched open educational resources and wrote an article on what sources are usable when creating an activity. I then created a submission document for both proofreader and grammar activities, including all relevant information needed for submission, from aligned Common Core State Standard to activity subject. I learned so much about Common Core State Standards and how to shape activities around them to ensure mastery by students.
I then wrote a step-by-step article for assignment submission so that teachers will be entirely clear on the expectations of their submitted content. One concept that I emphasized was the need for diversity in content. Since we strive to make our content academic, I wanted to ensure that we were not only giving students informative content, but also a wider variety of content than is traditionally included in curricula. I was in contact with the DEAP school, a Navajo school New Mexico, to figure out what content they would like to see, particularly within the realm of the Navajo Nation and other Native American communities. In my step-by-step, I encouraged teachers submitting content to focus on information that isn’t always found in textbooks, such as information on Native American culture, or features on LGBT figures. I also wrote some activities myself using the format I had created, studying topics as I shaped them into constructive activities. I created a form to be sent out when a teacher’s activity is approved, and drafted email responses to teacher submissions to make the submission process as easy as possible for both my teammates and the people who submit.
In addition to my main project, I helped out with many other smaller jobs. I wrote over ten articles on our FAQ site, as well as worked with our help site to assist both teachers and students with technical and content issues. I wrote bug reports when teachers ran into issues and collaborated with our team to think of new ideas for Quill.org’s site.
I also helped out with writing needed activities, reviewing those created by others, and writing emails for all users. I contacted individual teachers for feedback and suggestions. Finally, I attended a few development sessions at schools in the New York City area to help our Partnerships Director inform teachers on how to best use our site. It was amazing to see how eager teachers were to integrate Quill.org’s activities into their classrooms, and how receptive they were to the site’s many functions.
One of my favorite parts of Quill.org was the size of the team. Since there are only eight people on our team, it was easy to communicate and interact with everyone– I knew where problems went when I reported them, and it was easy to bring up ideas or issues. Everyone was so excited and passionate about Quill.org and worked tirelessly to make it flow.
All in all, interning at Quill.org was a memorable and educational experience. I learned so much about Common Core State Standards and their implementation, relevant content development, and the importance of grammar. I improved my skills in customer service when working the help site, and even learned a bit of coding when I submitted my activities to the website. As I continue to develop my career in education, I know that I will look back on my time here as an important step toward my goals and growth.
