Wednesday, October 3, 2007

I can give a resounding yes as I saved my project for the last time (I think). It was a journey that made me realize what I put my students through when I assign a project. Their hesitancy, their doubt, their anger are suddenly very understandable. Even with a time-line and guidance, at times I felt all alone, that I had frustrations and questions that I needed answered and no one was willing to help me. I know this isn't reality but it's honestly how I felt at the time. In this phase of wishing I would like to think that I have come up with a project that fulfills what I wanted out of it. Although upon reflection I would have probably done a few things differently. One would have been the gathering of information from a much earlier date. Another would have been selecting my focus earlier. If I could have managed to find a site like tools4teachers earlier, this might have helped me narrow and focus what I wanted. I believe the strength of my project is the simplicity and the design of the information presented. I designed this project for young boys, probably between the ages of 8-10. The weakness would be the same; as they grow older and want or need to know more in-depth information, I will not have it available. If I could name a challenge it would be that I had to wade through wave after wave of Siberian information. I finally had to stop using anything that ended in ru (the Russian .com) because I didn't have the time to go through every single Russian women who wanted to be a bride. If I had to describe my personal approach to inquiry before this project it would have been one of nonchalance. I would have believed that with my background I would have started and ended this project with ease. After, I realized how very little I understood about the emotions that go along with a project, especially one that has personal connections with it. Well, long enough. I'll finish soon.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi David!

Thanks for the comment on my blog about the graphic organizer. I knew this was going to get a lot more in depth than I would require (though still very interesting). The history of Ireland is intense as I'm sure you project was as well. What kind of graphic organizer did you use? I have several focus questions but I still find myself getting deeper into everything which means I'm taking a lot of time I don't really have and getting a lot of interesting information I can't really use.

Yes I am from Fort Wayne and am a graduate of North Side High Shcool as well. Small world.

David T said...

My graphic organizer was a simple word web. It was just a visualization of what I really wanted to focus on. It kept me in check with all of the information. Maybe you could use your focus questions as your main points and then only allow yourself two sub-points for each one. It still allows you to get to what interestes you, without boring someone else. My wife was the class of 1990. She had huge hair in one of the basketball pictures hanging in the hallway.