{"id":14693,"date":"2018-02-02T09:31:06","date_gmt":"2018-02-02T13:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/?p=14693"},"modified":"2018-09-19T12:56:56","modified_gmt":"2018-09-19T16:56:56","slug":"passion-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/passion-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharing your school’s Passion Projects"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Does your community know you as a learner?<\/h1>\n

\"takingFlood Brook School buzzed with excitement. Students brought in their projects on tables or on carts, the weight sometimes shared with friends. As they set up their displays, parents, teachers, younger students and community members milled about, waiting for the opportunity to learn more about student projects and process. One student fired his trebuchet in the center of the room to great fanfare. <\/span><\/p>\n

And over the course of the hour, these students described their learning to an eager and curious community.<\/span><\/p>\n

What are Passion Projects?<\/h2>\n

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 the years, teachers at Flood Brook had also worked with students to create Personal Learning Plans (PLPs), but were finding that students weren’t invested in the process or product.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fast forward to 2018. <\/span><\/h3>\n

The Flood Brook team began to wonder, “What if Passion Projects were<\/strong> the PLP?” <\/span><\/p>\n

They started to speculate whether middle school students could explore interests, design learning experiences, set goals, and reflect on their learning all through<\/strong> the experience of a personal interest project — a project where students explored what they are passionate about. These core functions of middle school PLPs could be accomplished through student-centered and highly engaging work. <\/span><\/p>\n

This year, all students in Flood Brook’s middle grades will conduct two independent passion projects. In late January, students finished their projects. Teachers organized the exhibition to take place on a Friday afternoon, and they invited everyone to hear from students themselves about their learning — the entire school, parents, community members. Everyone. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Introducing