Ideation & Pitch Proposal

Last week in Town Hall there was a reminder to flex your creative thinking and your social expectations, and consider alternative disciplines and spaces when determining a project. We hope you have been engaged in ideation and exploration, in order to develop expansive possibilities for projects this semester. This week, it will be important to start narrowing down your ideas and potential projects. On Friday, students will pitch their projects for feedback, approval, and potential movement of project block spaces.


MONDAY & TUESDAY
Year Long Projects - Meet with Kimberly in Treehouse at 10:30am today.
Mike's Project Block - Back to the Drama Room
Tara's Project Block - Back to the Science Room
Follow the plans that were created as a group last week. What are the next steps in your ideation process? Be sure to check in at the beginning and end of the period to make sure that the choices, processes, and ideation in general is helping everyone get to project ideas. Some groups may choose to take some time to orient Juniors who were not with you last week.

WEDNESDAY
All high school students will take the Youth Truth survey, providing important feedback about school experiences and culture.

• 7:55 - Start the day in the Drama Room for Town Hall (Mike Hosts)
• 8:15 - Return to Project Block spaces to complete the Youth Truth Survey. Take as much time as needed. This information is important for the school.
• 9:00 - Town Hall in the Drama Room (Becky's Advisory Hosts)

THURSDAY

Project Block will be after lunch today, due to the Indie Lens schedule. Write your pitch today. Plan for 1-2 Minutes. Your pitch should include anything your project advisor asks for AND the following requirements:

• WHAT is a project idea that you have? Describe it. What question or interest does is further explore?
• WHY is the project important to you? Why do you think it will become important to other people? In other words, who is your audience and why will they care about what you are doing?
• HOW will you go about beginning this project? How do you think you will communicate the ideas you discover through an art form? (Be specific....not just "I will make a dance" but "I will use movements like....because....")

FRIDAY

Students will pitch their project ideas in front of their project block groups. Advisor rubric will be completed. Here's what it can look like in class:

• TIMER: Designate a timer who will set a clock for 2 minutes for each pitch. 
• VIDEOGRAPHER: Designate a videographer who will use an iPad to capture each pitch on an iPad for later reflection and consideration by other staff members.
• FEEDBACK: All audience members should complete feedback forms for their peers. Feedback should be submitted to Project Advisors today, and will be returned to students next week. Feedback should be focused on the potential of the project, not on the delivery of the pitch.

Required Evidence:

• Written Pitch Submitted to Project Advisor
• 2 min Verbal Pitch Given to Project Group
• Pitch Video Recorded
• Feedback Provided to at Least 50% of Peers
• Project Journal Started
• Project Advisor Determined (Changes must be approved by current and future advisors, who will then communicate changes to Kimberly.)
• Project Approval

Process Journal | Journaling Your Journey

As you journey through Ideation Phase (and the remainder of your project), be sure to continue recording your ideas in your process journal. The process journal is a generative text that documents your evolving thinking about a project. It is the place where innovators record brainstorming, successes, missteps, changes in ideas, thoughts on end product. While it is important that reflection takes place in the written language, it also happens through images.

This journal can take many forms based on your topic, your creation, your discipline. In general, the process journal is:

• A place to plan and brainstorm - mind maps, open + closed questions, written pitches
• A place to record interactions with sources - research, annotations, notes from educators + peers, thinking routines
• A place to explore creation - storyboards, sketches, poetry, quotes, choreography
• A place to document academic discipline - proposal outline, science reports, engineering logs, historical research, writing process
• A place to reflect on goals, learning

Project Block | Semester 2 Begins! | Monday, January 22

It might feel like a long road back to ideation, but arriving here could be refreshing! Being so near the end of your prior project, means that you can begin your next project with the end in mind. A project provides an opportunity to learn something new, deepen interest or technique, connect ideas that haven't been previously together, communicate something of yourself to the world. A project starts with you and turns into something for others to share in.

This is the first week of ideation for new projects (or part two of an existing project for those doing year-long projects). It will be important to say "yes!" in order to maximize the possible projects that could come to mind. Say yes to opportunities to do micro-projects in one day. Say yes to collaborating with people you haven't collaborated with before. Say yes to spending some time alone, thinking in silence. Say yes to new puzzles. Say yes to feedback. Say yes to experimentation. Ideation is an expansive process, at first.

Build a mountain of possible project ideas.

...

MONDAY:

- All Juniors should go to assigned rooms for ACT practice. Those taking Reading & Writing sections need to be in the Science Room at 9:45am. Math practice will be in the Drama Room at 10:00am.
(Junior Student Lists - Here : Teachers have access to the document.)
- Students who have not signed up for a Project Block should report to the Cafeteria.
(Project Block Student Lists - Here : Teachers have access to the document.)
- Tara's Project Block will be with Tim in the Engineering Room
- Mike's Project Block will be with Mike in Beckah's Room

• Get to know the other people who have selected your discipline through a gathering where you share the artists, makers, writers, thinkers who you most admire/follow/seek to be at the moment.
• Create a list of your favorite brainstorming tools, idea generation experiences, and sources for project ideas. Evaluate them through discussion. Decide which ones you will engage in as a group in the next two weeks.
• Mind Maps
• Group Projects that take 2-3 days, but go through the whole process of a project.
• Small scale practice projects that are only one day long. They are sometimes bad projects that become good ideas for something more long-term.
• Games or challenges that challenge you to solve a problem or think of problems that make good project ideas.
• Playful interactions within the discipline. No pressure. Just playing for the purpose of exposure and thinking.
• Engage in some kind of making or look at a professional model.
• Create a plan for this week that is agreed upon. (Juniors will be joining you on Wednesday)

****Note: Proposals will be due next Friday, February 2nd. In order to be approved by your Project Block Advisory, they must include "What," "How," and "Why." The goal is to do a verbal project pitch (about 2 minutes long) to your group for feedback. These may be recorded for later reflection. You must also have your pitch in writing for your Advisor. 

****Note: Projects designed as year-long projects will meet on Monday, January 29th in Beckah's Room. You will need to share your plan for the semester in as much detail as possible and have an idea of who from the community you would like to have on a panel for feedback. 

****Note: If you would like to switch Project Block groups, that can be done between Monday, January 29th and Monday, February 5th. You will need a written project proposal pitch to make that request and the approval of both Advisors. Advisors will inform Kimberly of the change for attendance.