Evidence of Impact
I had been given data from Y4 about their passions / interests, which was a good starting point for students. Many laughed or were surprised at what they’d chosen last year as they have changed or moved on from those initial ideas. However, some students were still keen on similar things, indicating that these were more likely to be real developing ‘passions’ and not passing phases.
29/01/15
So far, students have been introduced to the idea of ‘passion-based’ learning projects.
Initial reactions have been collected. A short iMovie documenting initial student reactions was recorded.
They have come up with initial driving questions.
Some need tweaking as they are not rich enough.(after the Kath Murdoch workshop “Making it Personal”, I realised that a lot more mileage could have come out of these initial questions. We could have spent a lot more analyzing them and sorting them into open and closed questions and good and better questions.)
An expert(on staff) has been booked to speak to them about possible formats for their sharing/ presenting/ evidence and process recording… so that right from the outset they can keep track of what’s happening and what they’ve discovered. This immediately impacted their ICT skills as many had never tried to create a Blog , Prezi , Powtoon or Website before.
Initially some students were held up by their lack of skill with the technology.
I had been given data from Y4 about their passions / interests, which was a good starting point for students. Many laughed or were surprised at what they’d chosen last year as they have changed or moved on from those initial ideas. However, some students were still keen on similar things, indicating that these were more likely to be real developing ‘passions’ and not passing phases.
29/01/15
So far, students have been introduced to the idea of ‘passion-based’ learning projects.
Initial reactions have been collected. A short iMovie documenting initial student reactions was recorded.
They have come up with initial driving questions.
Some need tweaking as they are not rich enough.(after the Kath Murdoch workshop “Making it Personal”, I realised that a lot more mileage could have come out of these initial questions. We could have spent a lot more analyzing them and sorting them into open and closed questions and good and better questions.)
An expert(on staff) has been booked to speak to them about possible formats for their sharing/ presenting/ evidence and process recording… so that right from the outset they can keep track of what’s happening and what they’ve discovered. This immediately impacted their ICT skills as many had never tried to create a Blog , Prezi , Powtoon or Website before.
Initially some students were held up by their lack of skill with the technology.
As some of the projects were heading towards completion, I asked the students three questions to help me gather evidence and measure the impact of doing the “Passion Projects”.
1. Why bother to do Passion Projects?
2. What skills did you learn as you worked on your project?
3. If you did another project, what would you do differently?
1. Why bother to do Passion Projects?
2. What skills did you learn as you worked on your project?
3. If you did another project, what would you do differently?
Student Answers
Text her“We learn different skills. I’ve learned how to make a website, how to be better at skimming and scanning and how to find GOOD information”
“It made me like school more.”
“I am happy at school (when I get to do Passion Projects)”
“Next time I would use Blogger instead of Weebly because sometimes Weebly doesn’t save properly and Blogger is easier to use.”
“… We get motivated and we learn new skills that we dream of, and it could go professional when we grow up.”
“I learned how to create a Blog, and I’m pretty good at researching things now.”
“If I did another project I would choose my REAL Passion, which is music, as I chose something that I thought was important to learn about which was computer programming.” (This was the boy who wrote a song about Passion Projects and performed it on our class assembly).
“Passion Projects gives us the chance to do something that we don’t get to do every day. I love it.”
“Passion projects makes people happy. It keeps them passionate about their passion!”
“While I’m working on my Passion Project I am in the zone, and I was thinking nothing can distract me. I really enjoyed myself and I think ‘passion projects’ is the best time ever.”
“It made me like school more.”
“I am happy at school (when I get to do Passion Projects)”
“Next time I would use Blogger instead of Weebly because sometimes Weebly doesn’t save properly and Blogger is easier to use.”
“… We get motivated and we learn new skills that we dream of, and it could go professional when we grow up.”
“I learned how to create a Blog, and I’m pretty good at researching things now.”
“If I did another project I would choose my REAL Passion, which is music, as I chose something that I thought was important to learn about which was computer programming.” (This was the boy who wrote a song about Passion Projects and performed it on our class assembly).
“Passion Projects gives us the chance to do something that we don’t get to do every day. I love it.”
“Passion projects makes people happy. It keeps them passionate about their passion!”
“While I’m working on my Passion Project I am in the zone, and I was thinking nothing can distract me. I really enjoyed myself and I think ‘passion projects’ is the best time ever.”
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