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