…such as goal-setting, showing evidence of growth, and connecting personal identity to school, are all enabled by the project. Personalized projects (aka passion projects or genius hours) emphasize student choice…
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…time for Joy Projects. You may have heard the terms before: genius hours, passion projects, curiosity projects. But for this moment in time, we feel like we need: a student-driven…
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…ability to choose, execute and share projects with personal relevance has spread across Vermont. Shelburne Community School and Charlotte Community School refer to them as “PIPs” (Personal Interest Projects). …
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…Scot Hoffman, Mike Jackson, & Sammi Smith’s Google Doc of Curiosity Projects last spring. Their Curiosity Projects are a six-week, inquiry-based research exploration on a topic of personal interest to…
Read more…this winter as they embarked on inquiry-based, personalized, research projects. For six weeks, we turned learning over to our students for the (first annual!) Curiosity Projects. What are Curiosity Projects?…
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…Personal equity projects and district goals Kathleen described the content: “The in-services focused on defining equity and understanding systemic and structural inequities based largely on the work of Gorski, Ladson-Billings,…
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…are Passion Projects? These projects originated three years ago as an opportunity for middle schoolers to explore their interests and learn to scaffold and organize learning experiences for themselves. Over…
Read more…develop creative projects, and pursue personal interests and goals while developing autonomy, healthy habits, and deep understandings. Welcome to Phys ed. 2.0. Justifiably or not, middle school #physed holds an…
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…year. Student responses took many forms: poems, videos, sculptures, visual art, and more. At the same time, teachers crafted their own projects in order to inspire students. As the “About…
Read more…the latitude to choose their goals. Some students focused on discrete academic skills, while others tackled long term real world projects. Eventually most students gravitated toward projects, and the adults…
Read more…“doing” science. This is where things like citizen science projects can come in. These projects allow people who aren’t professional scientists (because really, we’re all amateur scientists) to participate in…
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…know their students. Specifically, they know “Personal Interest Projects” (PIPs, aka passion projects, aka Brainado, aka curiosity projects) work for their students. Charlotte Central students in grades 7 and 8…
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…relevant to them. Ambitious efforts have been abundant as creative teachers have designed projects that address real life issues and often engage students directly in working on such projects right…
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Lessons learned from passion-based research Passion-based research goes by many different names; 20% Time and Genius Hour are just two different terms that describe school projects that center upon personal…
Read more…invested in their learning by engaging in personal projects. Some of the take aways were: It took some time to make the goals happen Independent/self directed students flourished Setting up…
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…Hour, which is where kids do personal interest projects. There was a student last year, and he maybe didn’t always fit the mold for what we were looking for in…
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…teach them to write an effective RACE response, but perhaps it’s focus could be ‘who is the best Jedi?’ or ‘which Lego pieces are the most important.’ Personal Inquiry Projects…
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…to cost or space). They’re filled with inspiration and community working towards their own personal goals. And there are personal trainers with expertise available if you need a little help…
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…to make this work. How to make sure their projects take direct action, for instance. How to make projects work toward justice, equity, and/or shared goals. Like the United Nations…
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…do projects based on a favorite book? Maybe they could share their work directly with the author! So, one collective padlet or gallery of projects could be shared directly with…
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…projects from there. Because then you’re grounding students in what is special and important in their communities and what they want to improve on. Not solve but improve on. Jeanie:…
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…personal interests of students and the socially meaningful impact of curriculum are naturally intertwined. Vermont’s educators and students have long taken a personal interest in social justice education. The editors…
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…are you setting personal boundaries for remote learning? What is one of your boundaries to help you with this moment? I’d love to hear. Other articles on personal boundaries for…
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…great student learning through doing, making and creating. Creations for authentic audiences, maker faire projects, demonstrate projects you’ve done with students, show their work, advice you have on how the…
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…Academy leader Lea Ann Smith about Essex High School’s STEM Academy and take a look inside a program that lets students pursue projects in medicine, engineering, computer science, mathematics or…
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…week for “pod projects.” These are group projects that go in whatever direction the pod decides to take things. Clubs complement pod projects by providing a space where “teachers are…
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…encourage students to become more self-directed and reflective in their Personal Interest Projects (PIPs) and Genius Hour work while maintaining their seemingly high level of engagement?” *Allan Miller “What are…
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…favorite posts about equity, including analyses and syntheses about equity in general, how to support equity in professional learning and in classrooms, and examples of student projects with equity at…
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…In schools, with our own personal children or with the children we are entrusted with in our settings as educators. So I wondered if you want to speak to either…
Read more…own personal projects during their senior year. Successful completion of Academy training earns students not just an endorsement on their graduation diplomas, but also enticing entries in their digital portfolios…
Read moreFind new uses for data visualization Free, online timeline tools allow students to break free of the traditional two-dimensional timeline and create highly customizable multimedia projects to showcase research, serve…
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…a long list included, with “Other” at the bottom for write-in options. 3. Before this year, which options would students have to complete projects and presentations via technology? 4. This…
Read more…archive in projects that have no serious academic value. They’re just things I love to do, things like radio dramas and creative hackathon projects. I also love that’s it’s kind…
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…and grade level prioritize tasks centered around student voice and identity. Multimedia projects, including interviewing and audio projects in partnership with Vermont Folklife Center (VFC) and Vermont Public Radio (VPR),…
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…morale high requires a resiliency that is hard to find. I could really think so much about how much personal recognition and personal, what I started to think of as…
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…mobility, intersectionality, positionality, gender and sexuality bias, personal versus social identity, social and power construction of race. And then just the concept of justice. What is justice? As a white…
Read more…with their hands, this 90-minute challenge provided a hands-on / minds-on way to generate possible focus ideas for their personal narratives. Some of the personal narrative paper circuits created by…
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…a safe and supportive environment for students to explore these complex yet deeply personal ideas. She also connected identity to larger ideas about society and history – social inequality, structural…
Read more…Call them what you want: passion projects, genius hour, curiosity projects, but these personalized learning projects are a way to jump into personalization and engage students. Now tell us How…
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…the Middle Grades Review. Unpacking equity in Passion Projects and Genius Hours by Katie Farber Examines challenges and strategies for equity within these approaches. Rethinking assessment to rebalance education by…
Read moreChapter 1: Personalized Learning for Young Adolescents Foundations and Connections Personalized Learning and Personal Learning Plan,The Glossary of Education Reform, New England Secondary Schools Consortium How Personal Learning is…
Read more…Because of Peoples Academy’s commitment to supporting student interest projects via flexible scheduling and to valuing students’ desire to take on challenges, and because these four intrepid designers devoted their…
Read more…small, rural Vermont school. They wanted do so in a way that honored the students’ need for passion-based, independent projects, as well as the desire of the faculty and staff…
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…asking students to pursue their passions by crafting projects based on their personal interests and deepest curiosities. The new recipe that is emerging: start with a cool personalized project and…
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…start preparing students to use their voice and leverage these options by advocating for their own learning needs. Middle school passion projects or genius hour projects can help create a…
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…Your personal information. Mary-Ellen: Yeah, kinda personal information stuff, so I was like “this kinda seems like a phishing thing,” so yeah, then I was like “nah.” *chuckles all around*…
Read more…Projects at Cornwall School, in Cornwall, Vermont. It was our first round of student-led projects. At first, students were thrilled at the prospect of following their curiosity and developing their…
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TED Talks are short, personal powerful storytelling. Now: how can students use this medium as motivation to learn, to explore their purpose, extend their perspectives and understandings, and develop strong…
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…Personal Interest Projects (or PIP’s) that we started last year ARE engaging students. I just gave a survey late this fall, and almost ¾ of students are enjoying PIP’s. Students…
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…throughout the week (book a visit online, please, be kind) but Friday afternoon visitors can spend time with students working on their Personal Interest projects. Students continuing the work of…
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…: Innovative Education in VT Self-Direction Rubric (by BEST for the Future) Self-Direction Slideshow Engaging Students in Personal Interest Projects When a learning community can focus on a few essential…
Read more…growth and can also connect student identity to the expectations of school (i.e., transferrable skills, content standards, behavioral rules, etc.). One way to ensure the personal connection is to…
Read more…politics and personal dynamics affected these issues. As for expertise, everybody has experience with education but personal familiarity is different than mastery of the professional knowledge base. In some cases…
Read more…day for passions projects and community-based learning. Others are scaffolding the skills of self-directed learning through student-driven project-based or design learning. Many are working to make students’ personal learning plans…
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…that degree I have been engaging in a number of different research projects related to self-direction for students in middle school. Adolescent students. A Brief History of Self-Directed Learning in…
Read more…How can we encourage students to become more self-directed and reflective in their Personal Interest Projects (PIPs) and Genius Hour work while maintaining their seemingly high level of engagement?” …
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…Future) Self-Direction Slideshow Engaging Students in Personal Interest Projects When a learning community can focus on a few essential skills for students, powerful things can happen. It’s possible that students…
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…classroom = learning availability outside of school hours Encourage students to embrace their own personal peak hours of learning by making flipping your classroom and making lesson resources available online….
Read more4th grade researchers share Capstone Projects with community This past Wednesday, 4th grade scholars at Richmond Elementary School, in Richmond, Vermont, shared the results of their research with their families…
Read more…shared our personal experiences on the opening activity of the first session, there was a very strong common thread where everybody had generally pretty mediocre experiences. Most people in the…
Read more…Union Junior High School to help students and teachers learn how to use code with the Makey Makey circuit board to improve their CO2 car projects and add voice to…
Read more…when I first read Trevor McKenzie’s MindShift article How to Ease Students Into Independent Inquiry Projects. As educators grapple with the move toward more student-centered practices and begin introducing student-driven…
Read moreWhat’s your school song? A few months ago I wrote about not spending enough time on personal reflection. It is incredibly easy to be immersed in the many “Top 10”…
Read moreStudent reflection with Adobe Voice and Explain Everything Students at Fayston Elementary School worked hard this year with their team of teachers, not just to implement personal learning plans (PLPs),…
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