At the start of the year I provide training for all new Personal Project Supervisors (oldies are also invited). Here is the presentation I use. Please feel free to make a copy and adapt it for your own schools.
Throughout the year students will have advisory sections where they learn more about the Personal Project and the requirements. We kick off the year with students reflecting on the work they did over the summer, including their research and goal definition. This session happens the day before they find out who their supervisor is.
Enjoy (feel free to copy this slide deck and make it your own)!
As more and more people add to it, the infographic builds up - the strings weave a pattern, showing who we are and what we care about. I've had many people stop in my office today to tell me how much they love this. I've also gone out and listened to our students discussing the display and talking about their chosen issues. It's been a great conversation starter and I cannot wait to make similar installations. I've brainstormed ideas with some other teachers and the librarians, and we may make similar living infographics answering:
EDIT - Day Two Update
The display is filling up! It's only up one more week, so I will do a seperate post with final photos. I'm also going to add another colored piece of paper for post it notes at the end...as it is full!
Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored/paid post. This is simply a product I bought, used and loved.
The Extraordinaires is a fun product which introduces students to design thinking. The main part of this are character and product cards. Students firstly get a character card, they search for clues about their character and brainstorm everything they see, think and wonder. After this students get a product card, and have to design that particular product for that character...
...but wait... it get's better! The characters are all extraordinary for various reasons, (their job, their environment or their powers). They could be a genius child from the future, a werewolf or even a mermaid! The products are things we use in every day life, like a vehicle or a toy - BUT because of the extraordinary character, the students design incredible products! Imagine designing sports clothes for a werewolf, or transport for the ice queen! The package comes with a lot more than that, including teaching tools, prompts to help with ideation and more - you can use just the cards or the whole lot.
So far we have used this twice:
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Below is the presentation I made for the students - I have deleted a lot of the slides that show the cards - and have just put two examples of every card - BUT if you do want to buy the Extraordinaires - it is fairly cheap, especially considering how much you can do with it! As a teacher who tries to only use free resources, (mostly browser based), I also try to only blog about free resources - but seriously can not recommend this enough.
The kit we bought is the "The Extraordinaires® Design Studio PRO"
A few of the teachers who helped supervise the Personal Project Bootcamp asked me where I got all the great videos from. They could see uses for them in their own classes, and wanted me to send them the links. Below I will post every video I used, with a short explanation of why I used it (though you may find other uses)! ENJOY! "Google Search App : Martin Van Buren" - 30 seconds. I use this video to show what a Personal Project is not. It is not superficial, it is not done last minute, it is not done by your parents, and it must be relevant and meaningful to the student. I've also used this video for training about authentic assessment. EDS- Building Planes in the Sky - 59 seconds This video shows what it might feel like for a student doing their first long term project - it is the supervisors experience! (I can't remember which teacher shared this with me - but thanks - it is great!) HSBC - Museum of Procrastination - 1 minute Procrastination is one of the biggest traps students fall into with the Personal Project. This is a funny video to highlight that issue and to start a discussion. TED Talk - Paul Bennett: Design is in the details - 16:05 I love this video - it shows why design and user experience matters. As someone who has been in hospital for testing a lot recently, I really liked where they talked about decorating the ceiling in hospitals. My hospital has fish on the ceiling and my MRI/MRA has a mirror, so I can see out! Boom. Lucky Iron Fish: Shape of Health - 2:46 I highly recommend watching this video - it's not even three minutes long - so if you have no excuse. It touches on research/ the research cycle/Big 6, international mindedness, the design cycle, health, resilience, persistence...basically it's perfect...so watch it... The Research Project - 3.45 This video is a little cheesy, but gives students great tips for improving their research skills. Ted Talks: Inside the mind of a master procrastinator | Tim Urban - 14.03 I adore this video! It's a little longer than the rest, but I have watched the whole thing through maybe 3 or 4 times and still love it! Telling students not to procrastinate is very important, but can make you seem like you are nagging - this video is hilarious and gives some tips students can actually use. It is also a good way to drive the importance of students setting their own goals and deadlines throughout the project. How to Bullet Journal - 4.11 Our students have the choice of keeping a digital or a physical process journal. Showing them a bullet journal shows them how they can keep their journal organized and useful throughout the process. Ted Talks: How to gain control of your free time | Laura Vanderkam 11.54
This is another video which helps students balance their work load and manage their time. Please share with me any videos you think I might find useful (or amusing!)
Disclaimer: This entry is only relevant to teachers who work in a school which uses the IB's MYP.
Although I planned our two day Personal Project Bootcamp, I wanted Grade 9s to hear from Grade 10s, so much of the running of the day was left down to them. As a teacher, I can pass any presentation to last exactly X amount of time, but it is always a worry when creating a presentation for someone else. Our Grade 10s were actually very good at leading the sessions, and Grade 9 were comfortable enough with them to ask them lots of questions. However, I did also create a presentation full of inspirational videos to fill in any gaps in time! In this presentation every video is linked to a IB MYP Global Context and an exploration. The videos go from short to long, so that you can select one to fit the time you need. Feel free to use any videos from this presentation or to adapt it, for a Global Context training with your teachers. Inspiring Videos Linked to IB MYP Global Contexts.
I also had the following two presentations. The first one shows inspirational projects by anybody...then some teenagers..then the list of last year's Personal Projects. This was sent out to grade 9s before, and discussed in their advisory group. It was made so that students would come to the Personal Project bootcamp with some ideas. The second presentation is full of articles - and was sent to students after the bootcamp, incase they were still stuck!
The last bonus is some thinking routines I used throughout the session. I printed these out on large paper and used them when needed. These were mostly used for idea generation.
Disclaimer: This entry is only relevant to teachers who work in a school which uses theIB's MYP.
I am the Personal Project Coordinator at my school (and was at my previous school). At the end of Grade 9 students take part in a two day bootcamp to prepare them for the PP. See information aboutDay 1 here. Day 2 - Session 1 - PP @ AIS (How the PP works at my school).
This session may not be 100% useful to people outside of our school, as it has information about the dates and tools we use at my school. However, some of the videos may be useful!
Day 2 - Session 2 - Research
The first half of this session took place in the library, with the help of our librarian Pascale Viala.
Often students decide at the start of the Personal Project what they want their outcome to be. Students have a lot of research skills, know how to use our databases, how to use MLA8 and more...but we really wanted to get them to realize that their project goal might change through research, and that they do not need to lock themselves down yet..similarly we also wanted to them to see all the different things that can count as research and to highlight some of the fantastic resources around them. The second part happened in different classrooms, and was led by Grade 10 students again. Grade 10 had the "The punishable perils of plagiarism" quiz and video as a time filler-but many did not need to use it, as students were sharing ideas, brainstorming and more at this point. Day 2 - Session 3 - Finale
One of the most common problems student face with the Personal Project is self-management. Many of them will procrastinate, which causes a lot of stress (and also often a not-so-great report). This final session started in the library with a fun video about procrastination - they then went to their individual classrooms, where Grade 10 students showed them how to use ManageBac's 'To do list' feature, how to create a GANTT chart and how to create a bullet journal.
We ended the session in the library, with finale Q+As and a Kahoot, to show them how much they had learnt at the bootcamp. |
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