Friday, September 23 | Proposals Due Today

The focus of Friday is the continual work to clarify thinking about projects through writing. These proposals are essentially the criteria against which students can measure their own success and growth. At the same time, they serve as a map for how we will use staff and school resources to support each project.

Consider the elements of a successful proposal, and the assessment standards to which those elements correspond:

• Driving Question -- Wondering
• Personal Connection -- Connecting
• Research Plan -- Reasoning/Interpreting 
• Creative/Innovative Project/Art Form -- Innovating
• Overall Proposal - Deadline -- Habits of Work

Please take attendance using the spreadsheet. Next week, we will be in disciplinary groups, to be determined at tonight’s proposal meeting.

GATHERING: Headline [10:00 - 10:15am]
Purpose: Isolate and share the essence of your project to focus revision.

• Imagine you've finished your project. Write a headline that announces what you have accomplished, solved, found, expressed, or otherwise done. 
• Headlines must have a noun and action verb; they are short but specific; they bring attention to the most important information; the report newsworthy happenings.
• Share headlines.

READ ALOUD: Student Blog [10:15 - 10:25am]

Purpose: Reconnect with purpose and opportunity of Project Block

• Read Ted's Student Blog Post on Creativity
• Clarifying Questions? Values? Concerns for your project? Next Steps or Suggestions for your project or projects in general?
• Optional: If you look closely at your headline, how might you revise it to make a greater connection to the blog post? What might you need to add, revise, question about your current proposal to push it even further?

STUDIO TIME: Finish Writing Proposals [10:25 - 11:10am]
Purpose: Engage in a conversation about projects through interpreting feedback.

• Staff should share feedback with students’ proposal drafts submitted yesterday.
• Students consider that feedback and revise as needed.
• What is your next step?
• Complete missing proposal pieces.
• Revisions of Proposal - What specifically?
• Communicate with staff, seeking help and clarification.
• Please stay within project block rooms. Staff may arrange collaborations, if needed, through Google Hangouts. 

TICKET OUT: Evidence of Learning [11:10 - 11:15am]
Purpose: Share proposal status.

• Have you submitted the Proposal Submission Form and attached your completed Proposal?
• If yes, GREAT! If no, state how you will get this completed by 3pm today.

Week of February 1st - 5th | Ideation & Proposals

Remember last week? Please take the time to recall the experiences and their purposes. As a community, we are developing our Habits of Learning and studying inspirational work, so that we can create projects that represent our thoughts, ideas, and contentions in even more creative and innovative ways than we have in past projects. 

Ted added the conversation about what makes an important, memorable project in Town Hall last Wednesday. He posed the questions of "What problems do you want to solve?" and "What ideas, thoughts, feelings, or stories do you want to express?" He also shared a project from the Boston Arts Academy, and asked all to consider what makes an interpretation creative or innovative.  Look for more on creativity from Ted in your inboxes this semester. 

The example projects we proposed and revised as groups last week are important reminders of how an openness to seeing beyond what we already know and holding ourselves to high project expectations can lead to better ideas. One example that resonated was a project that began with the topics of "coffee" and "my little pony." The question posed was "How does our taste change with age?" and the project idea was something along the lines of looking at how taste buds develop as we age, photographing tongues as part of the art form. Then we nudged this idea. Through discussion and continual asking of "so what" problem does this really address, we came to the conclusion that the real problem was about the concept of satisfaction. "How can we use our understanding of taste and nutrition to ensure that every eating experience has optimal taste?"  While we might be able to change the biology of our tongues as a project we can change the way that we look at, prepare, and talk about food. If Allison Wood can make sound real, what would it look like to make taste real and responsive to our development? Remix!

This week! This week, we will focus on developing our own project ideas through remembering, reflection, and refinement. Proposals are due on Thursday. Staff is encouraged to prioritize time for students to ideate during project block. 1:1 conferences are the reason we have such small groups. Some questions to guide 1:1 conferences:

• What are you working toward as a person, a professional, an artist?
• What inspired you to do, say, write this?
• How did you get to this idea? 
• How would this idea be different if we remixed it to one of the concepts in the hallway?
• Why is this project more meaningful, impactful than existing work on this topic by you or other people in the world?
• Who could you talk to stretch or strengthen your thinking about this idea?
• So what?

We will continue to make thinking visible throughout the ideation process, so that we can see how our thinking changes, what influences us, what challenges us, and how we use our community and resources to learn and create. Keep group thinking alive in the room. Keep individual notes in the manilla folders we started last week. 


OBJECTIVES THIS WEEK

• Accept the challenge of stretching projects toward greater extents of innovation an more profound creativity.
• Reflect on Habits of Learning: As part of our lifelong pursuit of learning, in the face of unprecedented technological, global, and professional changes that will require continual learning, we strive to...
• APPROACH TASKS WITH AN OPEN MIND
• ACCEPT CHALLENGES
• SEEK TO UNDERSTAND WHEN WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND
• USE EVIDENCE TO DOCUMENT LEARNING
• Apply and name Habits of Mind through the creative process
• Analyze and select professional models and inspirations related to a particular concept in academic content or creative form.
• Develop generative and focused questions.
• Engage in open dialogue with peers and professionals about project ideas.
• Make Thinking Visible in order to understand details of passions, skills, interests, etc that might seed incredible projects. 

MONDAY>>

We will remain in the same groups as last week. We will begin by establishing our digital organization system for the semester and reflecting on our Habits of Learning. Today's primary focus will be on generating project ideas. There will be time to visit with collaborators and staff. A gallery of project suggestions will live in the hallway.

TUESDAY>>

 Continued ideation toward project proposals. Students will collect inspirations from their own experiences and from staff suggestions. Initial project ideas will be tested against the criteria established for creative and innovative projects.

WEDNESDAY>>

Focus on questions. Students will sift through ideation notes, narrow their project focus and begin developing open and closed questions to guide their projects. All of this is done with an emphasis on proposing a project that addresses a meaningful problem and/or expresses an essential idea, feeling, or thought.

THURSDAY>>

Write project proposals. They are due today! All students will share documents with Kimberly. Staff will gather after school to determine project advisors and provide feedback. 

FRIDAY>>

Students will review feedback on their proposals and make revisions, clarify details. We will be in disciplinary groups next Monday. 

 

Week of January 25th - 29th | New Semester Begins | Our Intellectual Community & IDEATION

January 25th is the beginning of our second semester of IDEAS Project Block. Through reflections and feedback, we have determined that the strength of recent projects and the creative potential in our community warrants a challenge for even more innovative and creative projects. 

IDEAS Project Block is a learning opportunity that is unparalleled in the world. Really. Very few young people are given the authority, time, and support to determine their own course of study based on individual interests, passions, questions, and skills. Take a moment to celebrate that. 

The purpose of this week is to engage in research-based practices that foster innovation and creativity. We hope that doing this collaboratively will nudge new and on-going projects beyond what we already know we can do. Our Habits of Learning will be essential to this process. Staff and students alike will need to approach tasks with an open mind, accept challenges, seek to understand when we do not understand, and use evidence to document learning. We will work together. 

One pitfall of this week could be previous attachments to project ideas or topics. It is not dangerous to have them and no one is saying that they are not possible projects, however these attachments can prevent divergent thinking. They can prevent seeing new possibilities that might help you or someone else in our community. A suggestion for avoiding this pitfall is to write down the ideas or topics you have in a google doc or notebook, and literally put them aside until next week.  

It will be important to capture collaborative and individual thinking this week.

OBJECTIVES THIS WEEK

• Accept the challenge of stretching projects toward greater extents of innovation and more profound creativity.
• Reflect on Habits of Learning: As part of our lifelong pursuit of learning, in the face of unprecedented technological, global, and professional changes that will require continual learning, we strive to....
• APPROACH TASKS WITH AN OPEN MIND
• ACCEPT CHALLENGES
• SEEK TO UNDERSTAND WHEN WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND
• USE EVIDENCE TO DOCUMENT LEARNING
• Apply and name Habits of Mind through the creative process.
• Analyze and select professional models related to a particular concept in academic content or creative form.
• Develop generative questions.
• Envision what has never been envisioned before.
• Making Thinking Visible in order to understand details of passions, skills, interests, etc that might seed incredible projects!

MONDAY>>

All students, regardless of year-long projects, will find their new ideation groups. These groups were selected randomly. We will use a gathering called Diversity Rounds to build connections in new, diverse groups. Groups will engage in collaborative ideation through a concept to model and promote divergent thinking. This will draw on our Habits of Learning. Thinking will be made visible and shared with the school in the Balcony Gallery. (8th grade students from Mosaic will be shadowing IDEAS Students.)  

TUESDAY>>

Everything is a Remix. Groups will discuss the video "Everything is a Remix" and then experiment by taking their Monday concept and remixing it with a concept from another group in order to generate original project ideas. Copy. Transform. Combine.

WEDNESDAY>>

Continued exploration of collaborative concept remix. We will create interpretations to share at Town Hall. Students will start associating with specific concepts and aspects of concepts for their own projects.

THURSDAY>>

Staff will provide a professional model in a related discipline that shows the concept of remix as well as meaningful aspects of the discipline. [Example Danielle Clough, who I found on Creator's Project and Colossal...good places to find professional models.) We will brainstorm project ideas, extensions through thinking routines, Beane Protocol, mind mapping, lists, and more. 

FRIDAY>>

Staff will provide another professional model. [Example, my cousin's project, Great Northern Knits] Continued brainstorming and project ideation.

IMPORTANT DATES [Calendar]

February 4th - Proposal Deadline 3:00pm

February 4th - Staff Proposal Review 4:00-6:00pm 

February 8th - Disciplinary Groups

February 19th - Annotated Bibliographies Due

May 24th - 26th - Exhibitions of Learning!

IMPORTANT CHANGES TO THIS SEMESTER

• Students will receive some (not all) writing support within Humanities classes, meaning that both Kimberly and Addie will be setting up expectations and providing feedback for Infused Language Arts. 
• Students will be documenting their projects and process through the creation of a website. This will also be facilitated through Humanities, but all staff and students will need to become familiar with the technology and resources. 

Tuesday, Sept 15th | Ideation

Who are we as a community of thinkers, innovators?
What do I need to know about myself and my community, in order to develop a project?
What's possible?

DO NOW: Locate your brainstorming from yesterday. Take a different color font or ink, and highlight the words, phrases, concepts that stand out to you. Turn and talk. Tell at least two other people about the ideas that stand out do you. Discuss connections. A few people share out to the whole class.

IDEATION: As a group, clarify the purpose of ideation. Remember that everyone and every project benefits from brainstorming first, because it allows us to see new and many possibilities. What is the best way to proceed? Decide. It is helpful to know all that is happening in the room we are thinking in, in case we need help thinking or changing our thinking.

Try a mind map. Use one of the ideas, phrases, concepts that you selected in the "do now" and expand your thinking. Spend 20 minutes filling the page, before inviting someone else to view your mind map and share their connections. You can choose if you'd like to include their connections or now. Continue connecting, expanding possibilities.

When a mind map feels full or complete (somehow), use post-it notes to begin generating questions. Place the questions on the areas of the map that connect to them. Remember, right now, anything is possible. Imagine. Wonder.

If something sticks to you, try the Beane Protocol next...

Keep all notes, possibilities, options for future reference!

TICKET OUT: Is there an art form that is emerging in your thinking, envisioning? What is it?

Tomorrow, students will have the opportunity to view model projects in different disciplines.




OTHER CONSIDERATIONS:

Where do ideas come from? by Steven Johnson
6 Creative Ways to Brainstorm

Week of April 27th - May 1st | Professional Model and Exhibition Prep

The focus for this week is to begin shaping exhibitions through reflection on a professional model and creating an outline. On Wednesday morning, Colleen Machut's theater troupe will be performing and exhibiting their work in the cafeteria from 8:00 - 9:30am. In preparation for this, disciplinary groups should incorporate the following documents into Do Nows on Monday and Tuesday:

• Core Principals : What would the core principals of your project be?
• Program : Connect. Extend. Envision. Based on the program, what can we anticipate for the model Exhibition we will see on Wednesday?

It is time to start thinking about how to exhibit projects. We will host mini-workshops for outlining, presenting, and more. Please start preparation by reviewing the Exhibitions Language Arts page.


Please review last week's post for details regarding Evidence Check and Exhibitions Planning. 

Evidence Check: 

You can report progress in Jupiter using the most recent "assignments" entered for Feedback, Habits, and Art Form. Please use the comment portion of Jupiter to clarify progress for students, parents, and advisors.

Exhibitions:

Molly has send an email referencing students who have not completed the Exhibition Form. Please check the email for names, conference with these students, and complete the form. 

Peter is organizing panels and roundtables using this spreadsheet. Please review and reach out to experts you know might be interested in supporting these projects.