I say it my ed classes, I say it to student teachers, I say to myself: if I can’t answer why we have to do something in a convincing, thoughtful way that shows that I have a solid rationale then we shouldn’t be doing it in class. I also think that you have to return to this conversation over and over again. Over and over.

With so many independent projects, I have a pretty basic requirement for each week: 50 pages of reading and 500 words of prose. Sometimes the students find the readings, sometimes I do; they can design their own deliverables, build on my recommendations, or have me design it for them.

Today we spent five minutes writing about why our school has this requirement for projects. Here are three of the answers:

What’s the bare minimum, the very least you require from a student and a community? The things you have to have for a community to be viable?

Present, on-time, and civil.

If you have these three things, you can build almost anything. I can’t think of anything else that represents the very least you need to start a group moving forward.

You can take each of these apart. Present might includes being on-time but I’d argue that needs to be explicitly stated. It also implies a kind of engagement — you have to be involved to be truly present – but it also explicitly contains things like preparation. Sad to say, it also ought to mean things like sobriety.

Civility means listening to others, being respectful, and disagreeing appropriately. It’s also small things like taking your headphones out when you’re in a professional situation. I like civility over professional because there ought to be moments where you can let your hair down without losing a sense of civility.

I’m trying to define a bottom line for us to consider how we’ll build a foundation for our culture. In other words, what’s non-negotiable before we begin negotiating how we’ll be known next year.

The end of the year is in sight and we are thinking about future goals. There are lots of opportunities available at our school but it’s the near constant discussion of how do we help human beings see the connections between their daily choices and not only how they want to be known but also who they want to become.

Today we drew more pictures of future selves and then wrote about the things we did today, this week, this month, this year, and in our lives will help us become that future self.

It’s a near constant conversation about what the individual owes the group and what the group owes an individual. In a school that wants to build on a community of learners, it’s a necessity for the students to understand how their individual actions affect the group as well as the ways in which they can define the larger group through their actions.

I took two statements:
“I can say and do whatever I want” and “Our whole group helps everyone to be successful”.

Then we wrote about when these statements are true and when they are false. Their comments will be the basis of tomorrow’s circlerectangle.

“I can always say do and say whatever I want but whether or not it’s appropriate is another story.” JW

I can say and do whatever I want when I am designing my own project.

I can say and do whatever I want when “I’ve earned that right.”

I can say and do whatever I want in lunch, I guess. In school you can never really do what you want.

Our whole group helps everyone to be successful. (R: I feel like people is for themselves and can’t nobody give me my diploma but the teacher) (Love this honest response as it will give us much to talk about.)

Little behind this week…

Today we drew pictures of someone saying done. Then we added captions of things they say when they’re done that indicate that their work is outstanding.

During our conversation, we made a list of reasonable things to say, things that were about the process, and things that were ridiculous. The ridiculous example I provided was “my mom says my work is outstanding.”

Pictures to come later (Dead phone)

Thought: one thing that is happening is that we have so emphasized the process (with good reason) that our students embrace it as everything; in other words, if you’re passionate, work hard, track your work, revise your work, it necessarily must be outstanding.

Sadly, this is not the case. How do I continue to emphasize the process and pride in the daily work without making that the only thing? In Ron Berger’s words, how do I develop a culture of craftsmanship that extends both to the process and the product?

IB: I think you should be looking at the effort of a project during the time when you’re getting feedback and seeing the before/after of it. But the quality or RESULTS should be looked at when the project time is over.

TC: If you have a big project and it takes longer than it’s supposed to you should look at the effort to judge how much work was done.

TJC: When you should look at effort when the project may be difficult and you know the work won’t complete if the student put in work every day and they tried to get it done. So when the work isn’t complete you should look here.

AB: The difference between effort and quality work is effort isn’t always quality work but quality work takes effort.