JOY + CARE + RESILIENCE<\/h1>\n

Co-written by Audrey Homan and Katy Farber<\/em><\/p>\n

Lots of educators, students and families are telling us that we can’t simply replicate in-classroom learning via video conferencing and assignments. It is *too* much for teachers and students and families. It doesn’t offer the kind of hands-on learning we know students enjoy, along with the flexibility families need in this moment.<\/p>\n

Plus, students need more joy and creativity to build up their sense of selves, their resilience, and their connections to the world.<\/p>\n

A student-driven, thematic project could provide this.<\/p>\n

Take a moment with that idea, because it’s a big one.<\/p>\n

How can educators and families support students in doing personal interest projects done with flexibility, creativity and curiosity? What kind of guidelines could students use to provide structure and direction for passion-based learning?<\/p>\n

The Basic Recipe: 7 Steps to Joy<\/h2>\n

We want to help educators and students do personal interest projects that feature the following seven steps.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0Discover your interests<\/h3>\n

Students, what brings you joy during this time? What do you want to explore? Will your Joy Project be wide open and free choice? Or will you focus mostly on one subject area, or a Global Goal, or a student-determined theme? And educators, what kind of joy do you see relating to where your students were, as a group, or where you’re all going on this new journey?<\/p>\n

2. Discover your community.<\/h3>\n

Who are the people around you? And who do you see pulling together as a community right now, what do you notice happening? Who is in your community during this challenging time, and what are some of their strengths and some of their needs?<\/p>\n

3. Find the overlap.<\/h3>\n

This one’s key: where are the places where your interests as a learner overlap with the needs of your community? \u00a0Think of this in terms of finding a key that unlocks learning in your community, or that of your students. Your community’s needs are a lock; when the needs are met, they unlock better health and happiness in the community. Your learning interests are a key: you can use them to unlock that better health and happiness.<\/p>\n

4. Enlist help.<\/h3>\n

We are all stronger together: as you undertake this learning project, who are some of the people or organizations in your community who can provide you with support. Are they some of the same people with the needs you’re trying to meet? Or, are they people who simply have strengths that you may not have explored, who could lean in a little?<\/p>\n

5. Choose a reflection.<\/h3>\n

As you learn, you’re going to want to keep track of what you’re learning along the way. You could use a learning journal, or a scrapbook. You could create a podcast, or start a YouTube channel. Or could you could free-write, or explore mixed media? Or create a class padlet for all the students in the group to document their learning? Choose a method in advance, then…<\/p>\n

6. Get it on the calendar<\/h3>\n

While learning is a lifelong process, let’s put some milestones down, and make the wide-open unknown of time work for student learning. Will you do a month-long project? A semester-long one? Are you a student who just wants to take a week to explore one of your passions, then a break, then take another week to explore something different? Set your boundaries.<\/p>\n

And as you set your schedule, keep that end date in sight, and plan for how you want to share this learning. And who will you share it with? Are you a class of learners who want to gather in Zoom? A student who wants to write an article for the local paper? Do you want to record a TED Talk, or conclude your podcast series? Will you send your podcast to the local radio station, or just share it on your family website? Will you snail-mail your journal to a far-away beloved relative? Choose a method, then set and share the date.<\/p>\n

7. Do the work (learn + create).<\/h3>\n

This is the funnest part! Now you have a plan for what you want to do, get in there and follow your passion. Help your community. Be the change.<\/p>\n

Some examples:<\/h2>\n

Perhaps you’re an educator whose class was studying Lake Champlain when All This happened.<\/h3>\n

Host a discussion with your students as to how they want to use the seven steps to structure a two-week culminating project around their own personal explorations of the lake. You might set three check-in points for students along the way, taking them to the calendar in your Google Classroom, and ask students to contribute their learning to a shared padlet. Perhaps one of your students videos his interpretive dances about the lake and adds those to the padlet. Another student writes long-form in a journal about observing the aquatic snails at the shoreline. You’ve informed families of the date for the share-out gala, which they can enjoy from their own homes.<\/p>\n