Week 13 - Courage, man; the hurt cannot be much.

I felt a bit like Mercutio when Romeo said, "Courage, man; the hurt cannot be much."  Today I had my students share about their progress so far, about 10 weeks into the project.  I was anticipating that today was going to rough.  Students ill prepared.  Students having done no work.  Students just skating by doing the minimum.  On the most part, I was actually really encouraged by the effort and the types of things my students are doing.

 Each group had to create a Google Presentation to share with the class.  For me the genesis of this project came from Kevin Brookhouser's session on 20 Percent Time at the CA GAFE Summit.  From his hour session I was sold and decided to implement the project this school year.

There have been some difficult times and I've questioned myself about whether or not this time we are spending, is time well spent.  Last night I browsed how some other people have implemented the project and I read over Kate Petty's Google Presentation that she shared at the same conference (Kate Petty's 20 Time in Education).  Although there are some common themes between the two presenters and how they ran the project, Ms. Petty incorporates the notion of "Genius Hour" for the first quarter of her class.  Students use this time to brainstorm, explore, and present their findings on topics that they always had questions about.

I gave my students a couple of weeks to figure out a project that they wanted to do, but I never really gave them time to research the projects that they were taking on.  I wanted students to just jump into the project, but in my haste, I didn't build in time for them to become experts or even somewhat versed in the area they are toiling in to prepare themselves.  I think that the really good students did this instinctively, but I know that some have only scratched the surface of research.

After Thanksgiving break, we will spend some time on research and figuring out how to make our projects better.  Students that are doing reviews on restaurants and movies could surely benefit from looking at reviews on Yelp or Rotten Tomatoes.  Students creating videos could learn from watching Youtube videos on editing, shooting, adding effects.

Ms. Petty also dedicates a quarter to becoming a "Presentation Ninja."  This is a thorough exercise in studying what makes someone a good presenter.

I give a two-minute lesson on not reading from the projector screen, but instead address the audience.  I tell them to not have your body all clammed up and look awkward.  I tell them to not write giant paragraphs on their slides, but instead use bullets.

I suppose speaking is one of the four parts of the common core and language in general and after seeing some poor presentations, this will be something that I'm going to address as we move forward not only during our 20 Percent Time.  I think it will be well worth the time, because being able to speak well and communicate verbally, with your body movements, and gestures will open the doors to a lot of things.

Returning to the students' presentations, I was mostly impressed.  The 11th graders did a far better job presenting.  One year of experience in high school is like 5 regular years.  They are so much more mature and responsible than my 10th graders.

One group is creating a Role Playing Game.  When the student presented, she talked about learning to code so that she can create the game to become a computer game.  What???  I had no idea some students were going to these lengths to work on their projects.  I've included their presentation below.
Making an RPG

Finally, this blog has been so helpful for me to reflect on not only what my students are doing for this project, but what I'm doing.

Hope you're finding this helpful.  Thanks for reading.

Week 12 - You don't burn out from going too fast, but being bored going so slow

You don't burn out from going too fast. You burn out from going too slow and getting bored.
Cliff Burton 

So in searching quotes about fast and slow, feeling like that is how my students are working on the project I found the quote above.  I think it captures the essence of how the students approach the project.

The students that are passionate about their project work, collaborate, discuss, and create.  The students not working are the ones that are bored with their project, not fired up, or just plain apathetic.  The funny thing about it though is that they chose their own projects.

One group launched their letter writing campaign by delivering letters to teachers asking them to share with their students to write a Christmas letter to soldiers abroad.  They are teaming up with a group called A Million Thanks.  

Another group created a Google Form and asked me to have my classes fill out the survey so they can have some data about the students and their health here at Savanna.

The projects got me thinking about where students should be in relation to other students.  One student is working on restoring an antique rifle.  That is a project that is going to take sometime, the finished product being the restored rifle.  Some groups have taken on projects where they review, music, food, and movies.  This is an on-going project.  So I'm wondering what the end products will be when groups are doing such disparate things.

Perhaps next week's presentations on their progress will uncover the answers that I'm seeking.

One housekeeping note, I walked all of my students using Blogger to choose "No" in "Show word verification."  I've commented on every blog this year at least once I've had to put in those cryptic codes to prove I'm not a robot.  I'm pretty sure I'm not a robot.  This will save me a lot of time and will keep what little patience I have in tact.

Thanks for reading.  Until next time.

Week 11 - Learning Can Be Messy

A couple of weeks ago I had my students go outside to do talking or conversation cards.  My student teacher and I thought that it went wonderfully.  All students were talking, listening, and getting a chance to interact with students they don't normally work with.  Since my classroom is so small, I had half of the students outside.

One of the teachers comes out and said they were a little loud.  I emailed everyone in the English quad to apologize.  One teacher wrote, "No biggie.  Sometimes learning can be loud."  That really stuck with me.  Now I'm realizing that learning can be messy as well.  I like to have things in order and neat, but sometimes you just have to let it go and just roll.

On Wednesdays my classroom looks like a computer cart exploded--wires and computers everywhere.  It doesn't look great, but it's neat seeing students working.  My 5th period class actually finished earlier than I would've liked, but they get right on their computers and start pumping out their blogs.  I don't know if they are doing it because they enjoy doing or because they have to, but whatever the reason is, I like they're writing.

Today I worked with a group that is going to illicit help from all the English teachers on campus.  They are starting a letter writing campaign for our troops.  They have found an organization called, A Million Thanks.  This organization sends letters to our troops to encourage them, especially during the holidays.  We just missed the deadline for Thanksgiving, but the pair of girls will talk to all the English teachers and they are going to ask them to read a letter that they have written to their students to raise up more letter writers here on campus.

What a great way to use that 20 percent time.  Will update on how many students actually write letters to our military.  Whatever the number, 2 or 200, it's that many more than what was written before this project.  Below are the links to the girls' blogs.

Letters to Troops Blog

Jenny's Letter to Troops Blog