Is it happening yet?

At 8:15 this morning, The Kildonan School officially started The Independent Project Week.  Faculty advisors were given copies of the student action plans and a master schedule of everyone’s whereabouts throughout the day was posted outside Mr. Zolet’s office.  The student groups were broken up without concern for question topic; the only deliberate action that was taken was to make sure the grade levels were evenly dispersed.  In my home group, I had two seniors, one junior, one sophomore, and two freshmen.  The topics being researched in my room ranged from juice cleanses to astrophysics.  I was pretty excited when I sat down to get started.

At 8:25 this morning, my excitement was tested.  The student sitting next to me, who was researching the process of creating and publishing an App, turned to me and said, “I gotta be honest.  I’m not too excited about this.  I don’t think I can do this.”  I gave him a pep talk and sent him back to his question.  Five minutes later, a fellow faculty member walked in, looking distressed.  “Are they supposed to be this quiet?” he asked.

Thus began a long morning of reassuring students, faculty, (and myself) that it was okay to be nervous, that our students were capable of independent learning, and that it was to be expected that in the early stages of research the room wouldn’t be loud and calamitous.  As I walked from group to group, students were quietly reading on their iPads, watching documentaries and how-to videos, taking notes on their findings, and searching for more information.  Some students took the time to interview experts on their topics (many of which were Kildonan faculty members) and it looked like the information was starting to pile up.

At 10:15, the same student who had told me he “couldn’t do it” started to explain to me why identifying your user audience was so important before developing an app.  Within the next two hours, he had learned about copyright law from Mr. Pendergast and was starting to play around with a game Mr. Stark suggested that developed an App for you.  Another student in my group was discussing the possible outcomes of using alternative ingredients, such as molasses or agave nectar, in place of white sugar in his chocolate chip cookie recipe. 

As the day reached its end, I was back to feeling good.  The students were certainly in varying degrees of comfort, but I’m a strong believer in the idea that real learning happens at moments of relative discomfort.  It’s certainly true for me as a teacher.  I’m a big fan of large projects, all of which are characterized by a chaotic “middle period” where I curse myself for ever planning something so big and vow to never try it again.  But then, tada!  My students pull ahead and the project is a hit.

So as day one of IP week comes to a close, I’m forced to reflect on the fact that learning is uncomfortable, unpredictable, inconsistent, and at times, down right scary.  I’m looking forward to tomorrow, and judging by the amount of work that was done in a day, I’m excited to see what our students have in store for us.