I do try and do this every quarter. Each student gets this piece and 2-3 paragraphs of reflections on their work.

January 22, 2017

Dear Advisory,

We’ve come to the end of second quarter and two projects are wrapping up: one, the Studentcam2017 project, where given 68 days, you had to create a 5-7 minute original video that addressed the contest requirements and moved the viewer to consider your topic more closely. Two, you either had an individual project that flowed out of the Gateway process or you were part of a class project, The Greens in a Box (whoo). As a whole class, we read and wrote about The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time; each of you also had an individual book that you began. Finally, we wrapped up our work at Penn with Dr. Pritchett and at CCP with Mr. Tim.

There are many positives from second quarter. There is a seriousness of work, of commitment to the process, of understanding what the Workshop School is about, that our advisory exemplifies as well as anyone in the building. You can walk into the room and feel it. You can watch the way all of you talk to each other. You can see it in the quality of much of the work. Most of you, most of the time, are pushing to get things done, and every visitor describes how amazing you are.

Another positive is the growing awareness of all of the different things people need to keep track of. In a perfect world, you’d only have one project each day, and all of your efforts would go to supporting that project. You can look at different jobs and think, oh, okay, she’s a teacher so all she has to do is teach. Sadly, this is not true. However, what I saw this quarter was that many of you have begun to realize that your work as a student has many components and that it is your responsibility to keep track of those components. Right now you have your parents and your teachers and all of the other adults who advocate for you; next year or in two years, these folks will not be keeping track of things for you. The sooner you develop your own systems for how to work, the better off you’ll be.

I’m also impressed by how many of you seized control of projects and moved them yourself. Think about the difference between, “Clapper, I had this meeting and I need you to look at my notes.” and “Clapper, you didn’t tell me what I should do next.” The best CSpan projects and the best individual projects all are built on this sort of initiative and commitment to your work. As teachers here, we’re often talking about how to develop this approach, what we have to do to help students find and develop it in themselves. Things like trackers support this: can you look at your tracker and find evidence of your own growth and your own decisions, or do you only see responses to things that I say?

One other positive for everyone: nearly all of you completed the work for Dr. Pritchett’s class (if you didn’t, I hope you’re making arrangements for summer school). I know that Mr. Tim’s class presented a great opportunity to dip your toe in college waters and most of you completed that work as well. College opens doors for you. Some of you may want to lose yourselves in the joys of advanced courses while others may just want the diploma. Wherever you stand, if you want certain opportunities, particularly professional opportunities, you’re going to have to figure out how to negotiate the college world.

And that takes me to what I worry about most: some of the projects and some of the individual work seem to stall unless I’m literally next to you. It’s the primary difference between the Workshop School and a traditional high school, the primary difference between project work and book-based curriculum: the student has to seize control of the destiny of the project. When you don’t, the projects simply don’t proceed, they don’t grow, they don’t go anywhere. As a teacher, I can’t be everywhere, and there are certainly moments where students need support and I don’t arrive in time, but your goal has to be to move your own work along. In third quarter, I hope that all of you can ask yourself this question: what can I do to move my own work along right now? If it’s helpful, stay positive: how will this project change the world if I make it the best it can be. Or go this direction: what the world and I miss out on if I don’t complete this project to the best of my ability?

To be continued,

MC

One great part about doing exhibitions over the past three years is that kids start to develop their own ideas about what exhibitions should consist of. We have four parts in our exhibitions this week:

Project block one, where we worked on the CSpan videos
Project block two, where they worked on their own projects
College: how their work in the college courses went
Future: how their work this quarter supported their future goals

PB1:
Why did you choose your topic?
How did your tracker reflect your work?
What was your process?
What would you have done differently if you had more time?
How did you work throughout the project?
Did you follow the rubric? if so, does your script reflect your film?
How did your interview impact the video?
Did you enjoy this project?
What was your favorite part?
What skills did you gain?

PB2:
Explain what your project is.
What resources did you use?
What were your deliverables? Did you complete them?
What is your final product?
How did you apply the W skills?
How did you apply our 4 words?
What did you learn in the process?
Who did you meet or connect with?

College:
What experience did you gain from being in college class?
How did the work prepare you for what to expect once you’re in the real world (college)?
Did the classes make you want to pursue college for 2-4 years?
One piece of work you’re proud of?
What was a challenge for you and how did you accomplish it?
Did you fulful your goal in that class?
How did you feel about the presentations we did?

Future:
How did my approach to this project help/hurt me?
Has my future map changed?
What skills did I develop that I can use in the future/other areas?
How can I use my problem solving skills now and in the future?
What do I want to do, and how does my work help me get there?
Who can help me now and in the future?
Have I lived up to the goals I’ve set?

One
For better or worse, the baseline for my classroom is presence and civility. It’s the starting point and the non-negotiable. I’m always looking for stuff about this.

Sunday’s paper, back page of the book review, on civility. It’s three academic works but Ryerson’s reflections are sound.

Two
In PD yesterday, some genius principal presented us with Barack Obama’s concluding speech and asked us to think about how we might use it in the classroom. In my small group, we came up with the idea of shifting some of the words to reflect what we want for our advisory.

President Obama’s words:

It falls to each of us to be those those anxious, jealous guardians of our democracy; to embrace the joyous task we’ve been given to continually try to improve this great nation of ours. Because for all our outward differences, we, in fact, all share the same proud title, the most important office in a democracy: Citizen. Citizen.

So, you see, that’s what our democracy demands. It needs you. Not just when there’s an election, not just when your own narrow interest is at stake, but over the full span of a lifetime. If you’re tired of arguing with strangers on the Internet, try talking with one of them in real life. If something needs fixing, then lace up your shoes and do some organizing. If you’re disappointed by your elected officials, grab a clipboard, get some signatures, and run for office yourself. Show up. Dive in. Stay at it.

“… you see, that’s what our democracy demands. It needs you.”
Sometimes you’ll win. Sometimes you’ll lose. Presuming a reservoir of goodness in other people, that can be a risk, and there will be times when the process will disappoint you. But for those of us fortunate enough to have been a part of this work, and to see it up close, let me tell you, it can energize and inspire. And more often than not, your faith in America — and in Americans — will be confirmed. (Applause.)

What if we replace democracy with the Workshop School? What if we replace democracy with advisory? How is it the same? How is it different?

Our late circle today was to think about two sets of resolutions: two or three for yourself in terms of the work and two or three for the larger group with the caveat that it has to be something you think we can all agree to. Now they are humans so at least a third decided to write their own resolutions around personal stuff.

We didn’t share the personal ones but we did spend fifteen minutes as a group coming to consensus on what might work for the whole group: committing to one microphone. We’ll come back to this idea tomorrow and try and figure out what it means. One thing I did have to get involved with was when a student claimed that this was a problem all students have; I had to underscore that this is not an everyone problem, that almost all of them manage “one mic” very well.

It led to a human group problem: if everyone offers a side comment once every five minutes then you’ll have side conversations going pretty much continuously.

My two work resolutions:
1. Grade thirty minutes each night.
2. Meet with each student one-on-one once a week. I started this yesterday.