If you were not able to make it to the Inaugural J-term Showcase this week, I hope you were able to talk to your students about it and also see the pictures posted on social media. 12 hours later, I am still amazed at what our students and staff accomplished in 10 days! The products of the Project Based Learning for the last two weeks far exceeded my expectations and showed what students can do when driven to go deeper with their curriculum and find a passion for the classroom.
As I spoke to students, staff and families Wednesday afternoon, the theme of the conversations was around excitement and engagement of the students. I watched students stay long beyond their required time because they wanted to see what other classes had done. I heard students explaining their projects and classes to families and community members with such gusto that I truly believe many students will continue to learn about their subjects far past the 10 days they have already invested. I observed staff beam with pride at the knowledge and understanding that was created in students.
One of the top highlights for me on Showcase Night was the Fashion Show. It was amazing to me how the young ladies in the Project Runway class not only picked out clothes to model, but also were able to sew complete outfits in less than 10 days. They are a great example of how engaging Project Based Learning can be as they were also in school last Saturday and during the teacher work day this week to work on their projects. I was so proud of their presentation and the poise they showed during the Fashion Show.
The turn out was so good on Wednesday night that we exceeded the number of people we generally have at parent teacher conferences. This is an indication to me that we need to revamp conferences and talk about how we can share with families what students are learning and doing every day in our classes. If you have any ideas on how to tackle this-- please feel free to contact me.
So What's Next?
First, we will continue to have the J-term experience. We will be gathering data from students and staff and we had a parent survey on Wednesday night. If you did not get a chance to fill out the parent survey, please give me a call or email and I will get that to you. Your feedback is very important. Although it will be difficult to get quantitative data, we are looking for qualitative, perceptual data since we know students' attitude toward school do affect their performance. We will begin planning for next year right away and will be adjusting as needed to better meet the need of students, including expanded and different courses and working through some scheduling issues. We welcome any feedback and/or suggestions you can give us!
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