Reflections

Wow! What a week! We officially hosted the 1st Annual 20-Time Project Fair and it was a success in my eyes. However, I did learn a lot to help me continue with the project next year, and I even learned some things I need to focus on for the end of this year.

Much of the feedback I got was collected from an anonymous survey I gave to each of my students. It was heartwarming and heartbreaking to hear some of the comments. Heartwarming because many of the comments showed me that this project is meaningful and powerful. Heartbreaking because negative comments hurt me. This is my life's work and passion. No one likes to hear negative things about something to which they dedicated a lot of time and energy. I do take my work personally. However, I will say there were a lot of honest and thoughtful suggestions which I welcomed and will incorporate in the future.

Successes:

• All but one student attended the fair, which is a feat in itself. Overall 42 active and involved students attended an after school event for SCHOOL. Here is a video and small photo collection from our fair:

• All of my students were professional, prepared, and amazing! I was really proud. Unfortunately, I'm not always good at expressing my gratitude and awareness of students' hard work as I would like to be. But I am always amazed by what my students are capable of. Because I didn't get a chance to make it around to everyone's table, I made it a point to post a comment on these student's blogs. 
• A HUGE turnout -- over 150 people attended -- parents, students, friends, staff members, administrators, community members, etc.
• Hach Center as a venue was a good choice -- open area, well laid out, plenty of space, decent cookies, all prepared for us, etc.
• Here are some student comments from the survey: 
• "I talked to a lot of people and I felt confident" 
• "The fair was great! I enjoyed seeing many faces who didn't have 20 time in their classes. They came to support and it was fun to have a full house"  
• "Honestly, I think everything went well. Everyone looked very professional and sounded genuinely interested in their topics. It was a really cool experience" 
• "I thought the environment and energy was awesome - I really liked that we were able to do it in the Hach Center outside of school. I also loved how interested all of the students were in each other's projects"

Difficulties/Improvements for Next Year:
1) Time: Some said not enough time; some said just right. There is a delicate balance; too much time and it interferes with after school things -- too little time and it is rushed. An hour and a half seems good (Plus 30 minutes to view each others' projects ahead of time as most said they enjoyed this part)

2) Venue:There was a debate over whether to have it outside of school or in school like senior projects. Some suggested a weekend event. Many liked the setup, yet many felt they weren't in an area that people visited. Overall, many said they thought the Hach Center was a good choice.

3) Competition Aspect: Eliminate the competition completely due to feelings of judgement and insecurity, and it does go against the goal of the pitch. I needed to provide clearer expectations on what to have. This was not easy to do because I don't feel it is a "one size fits all" project. I will show examples next year, but I don't want all the presentations to be the same.

4) Other things needed: name tags (duh!), something like a "wine-tasting" list of blogs to visit with a raffle if people turn them in at the end, host/hostess/ushers for directions and instructions (also to help with voter fraud), etc.

5) Awareness of Blog Addresses: Advertising/marketing skills need to be emphasized more at the pitch. Perhaps we could partner with the Marketing class?? Doing the Pitch earlier in the year will help students understand that the Pitch is an event used to get people to follow their blogs.

6) Content: I need to place more emphasis on the "process" of learning vs. the "product" of learning. Many of my students have been trained to "do school" instead of explore learning on their own. I also need to discuss further connections to IB Learner Profile and Common Core skills in English to help with more practice on what to expect for potential questions at the fair. These were areas in which students felt unprepared. Responses to the survey showed that they felt their project should have been finished at the fair, which is NOT the case. I need to clarify this more.

Things I plan to do before the semester ends:

1) Have students visit FutureMe.org http://www.futureme.org/ as a way to remind them of their goals when school gets out.

2) Create a final reflection that will help me assess overall effort, ideas for next year, and the impact of the assignment. I want to ask about how much time was spent outside of class and what students have learned so far (6 + 1 Writing, research, oral communication, IB Learner profile, etc.)

3) Create a Scavenger Hunt to encourage people to look at each other's blogs and challenge each other.

4) Finalize the culminating presentation for the final days of school.

5) Identify and address more specific criteria for improving the writing on student blogs. Here is a useful website I found for students to look at to improve the quality of their blogs: http://www.getbusymedia.com/the-secrets-of-creating-a-killer-blog-post-infographic/

Students visiting my site: Please comment on my blog with any questions, comments or suggestions!