In the end of the quarter trap as we try and finish strong. I have to provide enough structure so that things don’t fall apart but not so much that I’m adding even more pressure. If at this point they don’t know the impact of not completing, there’s very little I can do.
So we began by making self portraits that featured the cheesiest motivation slogan they could come up with and three ways they can help others.
Examples below:
One of the things I want kids to think about as they’re telling the story of a project is how it changes as you move towards completion. For design stuff, you see it in the changes in the drawings or in the reality of working with certain materials. With the pallets, there was one set of wood you might have had when before you started taking it apart; there’s another set of wood when the wood is apart. And splintered. And full of nails.
But I really wanted them to think about the good reasons why a project changes. After two years at the Workshop School and even more years as a human being, they know the language of excuses. What I hoped for with this activity was a deeper understanding of the important ways that projects can change in helpful or productive ways. In other words, can they discuss how the materials changed their design or how what seemed reasonable as a drawing was impossible in the shop.
Thank you. It’s an honor to be here to talk about these wonderful graduates. I’ll be brief and I’m only going to share from their own words. I’ve pulled a few quotes from the activities, projects, assessments, and work you’ve done over the past nine months. The wisdom and power of each of you shines through.
All of us are lucky to have spent time with you. To have learned from you. To have experienced the immense potential that each of you possess. Like all human beings, things are going to get rough, and I hope, I hope, I hope that you can remember some of these moments when that happens. These are your moments, your insights, and your thoughts.
CR:
“I connected to the world by first thinking what the world needs and then I try and change it.”
“I’m not an expert on anything for real, but J is, and J is, and T is.”
“Love who you love, it’s pretty simple.”
ES
I think this bit of writing is good advice not only about project work but about life. Here it is:
And our last senior:
“It’s important for projects to connect to the outside world because this is a project based school. I don’t know exactly what to say so I’ll leave this. Either way, we get real live skills out of the deal.”
“Why I do my best? I should do my best because it builds good work ethic and someone could look at what I’m doing and give feedback and how I could do better. It says that I always put forth maximum effort. It is okay to shut down though when you’re done and when you deserve downtime. You figure that out by looking at what you have done, what you could do, and look at the number of hours in the day. Everyone needs sleep.”
“Get more inspired to do the things that you set out to do. Go back to your previous inspirations, influences, and see what mattered.”
Our friend Aiden likes to say that our lives are conversations with folks important to us: some are with us, some are with us but no longer near us, and others have gone. Continue those conversations and stay close.
On behalf of all of us at the WS, thank you for your work, your ideas, your voice, your vision. You have come so far, we’re all waiting to see what you do next.
MC
There’s a scene near the beginning of Huckleberry Finn where an old sinner talks of the joy of going to church, telling a particularly salacious tale, feeling good about the confession, but even better about the new suit and the cup of change.
Our students have an amazing command of the emotional language around completing projects. They can talk in clever and important ways about their final products and the work process. They’ve internalized the language of our place in cool ways.
Yet many stand up and use this language as they describe how little they got done. Any human willing to stand up and be held accountable deserves praise; how, though, do we take the rhetoric of change — “I need to focus” or “I can’t let myself get distracted” — and turn it into changed behavior? How might this exhibition process fuel the development of checklists or pathways or timelines that students can actually use?
As teachers, particularly exhausted teachers, particularly exhausted end-of-the-year-I-just-want-to-cook-big-breakfasts-garden-and-read-novels teachers, it’s hard to keep track of some of these individual claims.
Idea one: Can I distill three of their claims for themselves into tweets that we use as measuring sticks? Perhaps in their trackers? As circle activities? Could I print these claims and then laminate them? Could I have them begin their opening project with these claims?
Idea two: Take all of these distilled claims and present them all to the new 11th grade advisories. As they develop the four words have them think about how these four words might address their identified areas of improvement?
More to come. I need to think more about this…
Wednesday early dismissal and we meet with our staff. It’s the end of the year. Everyone is exhausted. This is the activity I cooked up, which is aimed at the frustrations that studentshumans feel as they come to the end of a project. After describing a project successfully completed, I want folks to write about the dumb things they said and did as they finished as well as the supports they leaned on as they concluded. Then we’ll describe some of the crazy things students we’ve seen lately, and, most importantly, the ways we can support our students as we finish the year (and the big projects) together. There’s also a “let it go” box for the stuff the battles that simply can’t be fought at the end of the year.
I think about various projects where I’ve struggled mightily at the end; the night before I defended my dissertation I declared that I had nothing, that it was all shit. I had all sorts of supports to get things done. Many of my students have never had an emotion they can’t handle inappropriately. For better or worse, we are modeling and providing the support systems one needs to finish strong.
In the end of the year fadeaway (something I can’t stand and resolve to get in front of every year) we’re continuing to sharpen up our graduation plans. Today we wrote about the biggest obstacles we see for ourselves and our group. Then we passed papers and proposed solutions.
As always, I wrote about how most humans are wired with a “I’ll turn it on when I need to switch”, which is rarely as easy as it seems.
Some clusters of themes:
1. I won’t really have any obstacles if I work hard.
2. My obstacles are mostly about paperwork or bureaucracy and if I just handle those, I’ll be fine.
3. I need to worry about my grades. For some kids, this emerged from an understanding of the quality of their work; for others, it was about grades as if they had nothing to do with the work.
This is an excerpt from a tenth grader. This is a first draft — some polishing still needed — but it demonstrates the breadth and depth of project work occurring over a year.
For the “Statement of Readiness” our assignment is to explain our strengths, interests, and success in setting and achieving goals here at The Workshop School. So far in the tenth grade we did a lot of project such as the Digital U project (when we had to make a “wevideo” about a story in our lives. It could be any story you want.), Cardboard Boat project (when the class got put into groups our three (and it was me, Qadir and Kairi) and our assignment was to make a boat out of cardboard and tape.), Solar Panel project (when we had to make a working solar panel. We were given a rechargeable battery and a solar panel and we had to make it be able to charge a cell phone.), Open Mic Night project (we were originally supposed to make a “Poetry Slam” but we added dancing, singing, rapping and also poetry. We were going to make a play but we didn’t want to do the same thing over again. Our assignment was to make an “Open Mic Night” because we thought it would be a great idea.), Kid Science Kit project (where we had to teach children about about a different science topic every week. For example on the first week we each had a planet that we had to teach them. I had Saturn.), Oral History project (where we had to first find two interviewees and interview them on what our two topics were about. It didn’t matter what the topic was about. Mine was on the history of sports. After we were done with that we then had to make three 500 word essays on what we interviewed our interviewees about.), Radio Story project (when in we were in english class we then pick a topic that was a world problem. So I chose to do raising minimum wage. We had to record at least four people and make that into a radio story.) and the Math Trebuchet project (where we had to make a trebuchet in math class.).
Continuing our work on the graduation plan, we circled today around the question of the relationship between project work and their transcripts. Somewhat thrillingly, given my unease about student connection between the quality of their work and their grades, nearly ever student talked about the connection between their work and their grades. Elated, I probably didn’t process as much as I could have…
“If my project work wasn’t good, then it would show on my transcript.” JR
“The projects I do connect to my transcript because it show my academic grades.” HG
“If I do well on project work, it will reflect well on my transcript.” TC
“The project work is important to my future plans. Those are important because projects we do here are actually helping the real world.” TJC
“The way our school is set up makes it difficult to focus on one grade. Grades that I get on my projects reflect on my transcript.” JG
Talking graduation plan and moving towards some of the more nuts and bolts type of stuff. While we don’t emphasize traditional academic subjects — much of the work here is interdisciplinary — I wanted to ask if they retained some of the traditional notions of subjects and how they might serve them in the future.
Picture of three bits of work coming here. The SDP has blocked flickr again. Sigh.
End of the block Tuesday: When you graduate, what is earned and what is given?
TJC: Celebrations are given; education/the knowledge to get to the next step is earned.
MH: Hugs and cheers are given; how people look at you is earned.
HG: Chance is given; education and skills are earned.
NN: The physical diploma is given; a diploma is earned.
