Senior Project® Blog

Are Some Senior Project® 'Ships' Listing?

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:30:00 +0000

Not too long ago, I was listening to a team of Senior Project® educators discussing the things they could do to increase the program’s rigor. During the brainstorming of possibilities, one of the Senior Project teachers suggested creating a list of unacceptable topics. The idea caught hold and some folks were quite taken with it. A positive that was pointed out was that such

a list would cut down on wasted time and would also force students to ‘dig deeper.’ One of the teachers asked what types of topics might be placed on such a list and was told, “Oh, things like skateboarding, medical marijuana, snow boarding, famous people, abortion, drugs, gambling and anything else offensive, edgy or lightweight.”

In response, a quieter team member asked what criteria would determine the topics placed on the “No Can Do List”, and who would be the deciding party. After much discussion, it seemed that the topics selected for the list would be topics that the Senior Project® teachers considered inappropriate, lacking rigor, or were just too ‘controversial.’ Rather than rejecting a student’s proposal and allowing the student to defend his choices if he had some ideas that he felt had merit, he would be simply handed ‘the list.’ (Whoops, was a teachable moment and an actively engaged student just added to the “No Can Do List?”)

Skateboarding was added to the list because it was thought to be too lightweight. Yet, skateboarding reflects a multi-billion dollar industry representing graphic designers, engineers, customer service experts, clothing lines, classes, world class sporting events, skateboarding parks, movies, art, marketers, advertising, research and development, and so on. Clearly, one of these areas of focus could harbor a significant research topic or an amazing project.

Gambling was placed on the list because it was considered an “unnecessary” topic. Plus, it was asked what could a student do for a relevant gambling project because he/ she would not be allowed to gamble. Yet, the gambling industry is another multi-billion dollar industry that not only employs thousands of individuals worldwide but also impacts school revenue, addresses anti-addiction causes, contributes to some Native Americans tribes… the list goes on.

Senior Project is about students exploring, thinking, deciding, defending, reaching approval, researching, producing, and presenting. Why is it that some schools want to curtail the learning by cutting the students’ decision-making process short by simply handing out lists of approved and disapproved topics? Effective Senior Project programs are not comfortable, nor easy. There remains a bit of uncertainty, ambiguity, and lack of clarity and loss of a predictable, traditional comfort zone. The program is not about static lists but about active learning.

Good programs push the edges. The processes actively involve the students as well as the staff. While it is certainly true that a senior might select a research topic or project that is not acceptable, it remains the senior’s responsibility to build a case to defend his/her proposal or select another topic. Of course, such a student’s defense involves learning, preparation, and debate. It involves passion, common sense, and the reality of decision-making and proposal validity. Senior Project programs of merit require the responsibility and accountability of the senior. Student learning is foremost in each Senior Project process. Clearly, the more decisions we make, the more lists we create, the fewer real decisions a student needs to make. Providing too many examples, too many rules, too much control creates ‘listing.’

Posted by Carleen Osher, Executive Director, Senior Project Center at P4DL, Inc.

Reflections as the 2008-09 School Year Winds Down....

Thu, 14 May 2009 21:04:00 +0000

Most educators spent the year working hard, beyond the forty- hour workweek and well into the weekends. They have wrestled with budgets, engaged students, helped the disenfranchised, provided encouragement, wisdom, discipline, support, insight and vision. For all of this energy and all of the good work, it has been a tougher and longer year than most. For many, the end of this school year closes with financial turmoil, stress and uncertainty.

Of course, the history books will define this year as the year that the first African American president was sworn in. Others will mark the year by the wars in which we are engaged. Some will personally define the year as the one in which homes, jobs or entire savings were lost. Yet, in spite of all the distress and concerns, across the nation thousands of high school seniors are graduating, and, for them, this year will be remembered as the year they graduated from high school. (Five years from now when these young adults gather at reunions, what will they remember about their high school experience? The unit on the romantic poets? The last test given in a science class? A challenging math assignment? A history unit? State testing?)

Graduation punctuates the end of attending high school. For some students and parents, participation in this ceremony has become more important than what the ceremony was designed to honor and recognize: learning and the completion of 11-13 years of formal education. Receiving a diploma means: Courses taken and passed. Struggles encountered and met successfully. Personal experiences that added to one’s understanding of life. An education about systems and relationships. Teamwork and independence. And, of course, a leaving that signifies the graduate is more learned, wiser, more educated, more capable, a young adult becoming, one who hopefully will make our planet a better place.

In my mind’s eye, meaningful graduations signal a ceremony representing a powerful and earned tradition set within grace and dignity, a ceremony of pride and reflection. I do not believe a graduation should be framed in the expectation of a ‘right’ of passage deserved by anyone. Creating an occasion that simply addresses time served, the pain and all the hassles framed in beach balls, loud crowds and limited dignity is not a message of worth but one of disregard.

In my book, graduation should be about beginnings, respect, personal growth, and the best future for each graduate awarded a diploma. Call me old fashioned, but I think graduations should be about celebrating learning, dignity, responsibility, and the promise of making a worthy difference.

If the senior year ends with a carefully designed, challenging, culminating, and transitional learning experience i.e., Senior Project®, and that experience folds into a graduation ceremony designed to honor learning and personal accomplishment, the last vision of high school is sustained with pride in a meaningful rite of passage.

Posted by: Carleen Osher, Senior Project® Center Executive Director

“How I Spent My Spring Break”

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:22:00 +0000

UGH! The sun is shinning in the car window. It is so bright and exciting. And here I sit reading research papers! When we get to vacation, guess where I’ll be? And when we get home from vacation, guess where I will be? It is this moment when I am sure that I don’t buy into all this Senior Project® mess! Each one of my 85 students has written a 7 to 9 page research paper with 7 sources and internal
notations that I have to read, respond to, grade, and understand in enough time to make sure that the grades get added to their report cards. And this year, by some strange stroke of genius, the school has forced all core classes to give comprehensive midterms. My senior English midterm, not created by me, includes an essay of considerable length for each student. So my Spring Break just gets better by the minute!

There are ways around this, you know. Papers should not be graded by an English teacher! Let’s be honest. I am a smart and educated person, but I can’t possibly know all there is to know about the hyperbaric chamber, HVAC certification, and development of home designs, to mention only a few of the 85 topics staring at me. I’m pretty sure that there are none written on the importance of rhythm in poetry. The truth of the matter is that I am simply checking their organization, citation, and grammar and praying that they are correct on the validity of their information. I really would like to see the participation of the mentor or academic advisor in this process. Someone familiar with the content should read through the paper to evaluate the information. There is a huge benefit to having the paper read twice or even three times and then averaging the scores for a grade. I find myself begging those around me, like my poor husband and friends, to read something to see if it makes sense.

It seems to make more sense to have one person read 4 papers written by their advisees or mentees than one person read 85 research papers, no matter who those students are! I make it my job to be careful and fair, but I’m sure things slip through the cracks as my eyes will inevitably glaze over at topics that I couldn’t understand in college biology much less explained by a 17-year-old student. The student put so much hard work into this creation that it seems unfair for me to read it and still not understand their point. This sharing of the Senior Project® responsibility would make the project itself much more cohesive and connected to the school. We have all made attempts at writing across the curriculum and, I would wager, few say it is unimportant. Imagine the students' surprise to know that a physical education teacher knows how to write and grade a research paper! As educators, we have all written our fair share of research papers and, though it may have been longer ago for some, a simple refresher course would be enough to get us back on the right path. It’s like riding a bike, right?

So here is my question to the readers...How does your school handle the grading of papers? How does your institution value the content of the paper as much as the form? Is there any way to salvage my Spring Break, or do I simply have to include a clause in my contract forfeiting all of my rights to the enjoyment of sunshine simply because I teach seniors?!

Posted by Mary Magee, Mooresville High School

Using Data

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:28:00 +0000

For the first time, our Senior Project® proposals are being submitted using electronic form software. This is allowing us to track some information regarding the type of projects our students are doing and keeping track of how many proposals need to be resubmitted. See the slides below for our data and how projects break out by type (you can toggle them to a large screen).

The first thing that strikes me about this data is the low numbers for math and science related projects. It is my hope that this will generate discussions with the Math and Science departments in order to draw on student talents within our school. The ability to share all the content-specific projects with the different academic departments will allow more staff to become invested in the Senior Project. We will be asking the departments to brainstorm project ideas for their discipline, and we hope this will translate into classroom conversations in the next school year.

Secondly, it is interesting to note how the product type breaks down. It is exciting to see most students engaging in a project that follows a passion, but we are happy that students can also learn more about a career or engage in a service project. In many projects, passion was combined with their career or service project.

Finally, the number of proposals that need to be resubmitted gives us some information on how well we are teaching how to write the proposal, but we also have to ask why proposals are not being accepted the first time. The top 3 areas that need improvement include the following: 1) the specifics of the product itself, which include timelines and estimated hours; 2) mentor information, which ranges from mentor contact information to having the best mentor for the product; and 3) project deliverable, or what evidence will be shown to indicate the product is completed.

This data should help us broaden the Senior Project conversation at our school and, more importantly, improve the quality of the projects overall. As always, I am interested in what type of data other schools might collect and how they use this data. Feel free to comment and share your thoughts and ideas.

Posted by Dave Waltman, Webster Schroeder High School

Spreading the Wealth

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 16:23:00 +0000

The 12th grade English Department in our school owns most of the responsibility for carrying out Senior Project® components. Unless implemented during the start-up of a Senior Project program, it is very difficult to get more faculty involved with Senior Project. This year our school has taken some baby steps that I hope will lead to wider support.

When our school established the Senior Project program, the 12th grade English course was the only course that met with every senior. Involving other departments was logistically impossible. While talk of senior seminars and advisement periods came up, our school was not ready to change schedules. One piece of advice I would give to anyone who is beginning a Senior Project program would be to think school-wide involvement from the very beginning. Once the English Department takes on the responsibility, others are very reluctant to offer their help.

Now, six years later, our 12th grade English course is gone. The course has been replaced with a selection of semester electives. It is sometimes difficult to embed Senior Project components in a one semester elective titled Media Literacy or Page to Screen. So more than ever, as coordinator, I hear the question, “How can we involve other departments in the Senior Project process?” This year, our answer has been to involve our k-12 Curriculum Supervisors in the role as an Advisory Board member.

As part of the project proposal, students select the academic area that is connected to their project. Students select from Social Studies, Science, Music, Health, Physical Education, English, Art, Technology, and Math. These selections indicate which curriculum supervisor will be reading their proposal. Now, our top level content-area administrators have a firm grasp as to the kind of projects that are being done relative to their departments. In January, our Curriculum Supervisors will be able to share what they’ve learned from reading the proposals with their respective departments. Each department will then be able to reflect on the quality of work being done by our senior class and become involved in the process of improving Senior Project work. Our hope is that departments will get excited about what students are doing within their specialties and our non-English teachers will want to become more involved in helping students research and develop their ideas (in addition to mentoring and becoming judges). In the coming years, we hope to see students writing proposals with the help of their Math or Science teacher instead of their English teacher.

Senior Project Certified Schools require over 90% of the staff be involved with Senior Project. We have a long way to go before we reach this mark but are optimistic that by involving our Curriculum Supervisors we are headed in the right direction. I would be very interested in hearing how your faculty is involved with Senior Project and ideas you have to increase the percentage of stakeholders.

Posted by Dave Waltman, Webster Schroeder High School

Change

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:16:00 +0000

Change. Loose change. Change we can believe in. Change is coming. If there is one thing for certain, it’s change (except from a vending machine).

As our school’s Senior Project Coordinator, changes to our project can be exhausting. Sometimes it’s change I can believe in. Sometimes it’s not. Since 2002 we have made changes to our project every year.

We spent an incredible amount of time trying to improve the writing and research skills of our students. We created higher level rubrics, embedded research tasks in grades 9-12 to improve vertical alignment, and came together to align the grading and scoring of papers. Then we wanted our students to have more meaningful products. Community benefit was a required element to every single project. Our students were doing something worthwhile, whether they believed it or not. Our community was always impressed during our May presentations. Our community judges were well trained and our speech rubrics continue to be fine-tuned. All of this change reflected many hours of summer work, online and offline discussions, and many people being willing to be extremely flexible.

Two years ago, our 12th grade year-long English course went wayside in favor of several half-year elective choices. This one decision to make senior year more relevant by offering courses like Media Literacy, Rebels with a Cause, and Page to Screen threw a wrench into how Senior Project was taught and how teachers and students perceived it. In a semester course, teaching the laborious task of writing a research paper became so disconnected with the course that teachers were not comfortable with the fit, both in terms of time and student attitude. Tracking students over two semesters with two different teachers challenged our ability to provide timely support for students over the course of the year. These challenges led to a series of changes for the 2008-09 school calendar.

It is important to our English department to maintain a research strand in the 9-12 curriculums. It was decided to have the 12th grade research paper connect to the English elective rather Senior Project. What writing task did that leave for Senior Project? This year the writing task is being described as a workplace document in the form of a proposal. This proposal includes a 500-word background essay where a student develops and answers a research question related to their project area. The proposal could also be described as a more detailed “letter of intent.” We are asking for information regarding inspiration, mentors, logistics, calendars, dates, timing and costs. We are also asking students to submit their proposals on-line, one of two areas where we are trying to integrate more technology. This will also allow us to track students more efficiently in order to provide support and parent communication.

A second area of technology integration will take place with the portfolio. A binder was required in previous years and this year we are going digital. Each senior will receive a free Google Apps for Education account. Google Sites will allow students to create their own ePortfolio based on a basic template. An ePortfolio will give students, teachers, judges, and the community to have broader access to student projects.

Where will these changes lead us? Will our students be better prepared for the workplace and college? Will projects become more meaningful for our students? Will our teachers be more excited and dedicated to the project? Will technology enhance the process or will technology fail us?

How has your Senior Project changed over time? Did your school make positive changes? Unsuccessful changes? What is your process for change? Who gets to make these decisions? Are they top-down? Are they bottom-up? Let us know! And as Winston Churchill once said, “There is nothing wrong with change, as long as it is in the right direction.”

NOTE: The Senior Project® Tracker™ is a web-based management tool for schools to use to facilitate their Senior Project® programs. Utilizing cutting edge technology, the Tracker™ provides a dedicated, secure place for all student work, feedback, grades, and communications for all program stakeholders to access. In addition, it has a digital portfolio component for students to present their SP journey utilizing 21st century tools.

Posted by Dave Waltman, Webster Schroeder High School

Looking Back

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 22:47:00 +0000

The teacher with whom I student taught instilled in me the importance of being a reflective practitioner. Every time I taught a lesson during that semester she and I would sit down immediately afterwards and discuss what went well and what I could have done better. This process of reflection and evaluation, which I have continued throughout my career, has been influential in shaping me professionally, and I apply that same practice to my work as a Senior Seminar teacher. I feel it is especially crucial for a Senior Project® program to reflect on and assess how things go each year in order to continually improve the program. We ask our students to do reflections and self-evaluations for each component of the project, and I think it is equally important for us to assess how we did leading them through each of those components.

Throughout the year I record notes in a document divided into two simple columns: things that went well and things to improve for next year. I update that document as often as I think of something, and then once the school year is over I sit down and try to brainstorm anything and everything I can about how the process went. Last year (as a first year Senior Seminar teacher), the things-to-improve column was significantly longer than the things-that-went-well column, but I am pleased to report that this year there is a little more balance to the ledger.

I’d like to share some of the highlights from this year that topped the things-that-went-well column. One of my favorite new activities from this year occurred when I was preparing my students to make phone calls during the research phase. Each student is required to conduct an in-person interview with an expert on his/her research topic; this generally involves making several phone calls to identify an interviewee and set up a time and place for the interview. Since students are often terrified of calling people they don’t know, I walked them through what to say in various scenarios, and the students created a basic script for their phone calls. Then I invited my assistant principal in to role play with the students. She was so fun with them, playing parts ranging from the rude secretary to the ideal interviewee. It was great to watch them have to react and think on their feet, and it was the perfect preparation for making their actual phone calls. I felt like the exercise was extremely useful, and the students agreed. Many of them referenced their ability to make professional phone calls as the most beneficial skill obtained during Senior Project®.

Hands down the best part of this year occurred at the end of the school year. The final activity of Senior Project® for us is a school-wide display of the seniors’ trifold boards and portfolios. All of the underclassmen have an opportunity to walk through and look at all of the projects, so that the seniors can show off what they’ve done and the underclassmen can get some ideas about what they might do for their own Senior Projects. We’ve been doing this for years, and it has been good, but after last year, I sensed that it could be better. I felt like the students walking through were overwhelmed by over a hundred trifold boards that all started to look the same after a while, and the seniors were more likely to talk to each other than the underclassmen walking by. So this year I decided to make some changes.

I wanted to step up the displays and include some of the physical products rather than just trifold boards and portfolios, but I recognized that we were limited with space. So I decided to focus on the best projects. In order to do this I had all of the seniors nominate what they felt like were the best projects in five different categories, and we narrowed it down to five nominees in each category. This allowed us to spotlight 25 of our best projects on the gym floor during the all-school display, while the remainder of the students set up their trifolds and portfolios in the commons.

The morning of the all-school display, the vibe on the gym floor felt like a great party, and that energy seemed to be contagious. Underclassmen eagerly snaked through a diverse representation of projects. The soundtrack of the event was Holly playing her bagpipes while Dustin was inviting students over to witness his juggling and other playful antics that he learned for his street performances. From time to time Devin would rev up his motorcycle that he had beautifully redone. And there was always a line to look inside the peephole of the giant tree that was Katelyn’s piece of installation art. Then there were students like Megan and Lori who drew students in with their pictures and stories of helping others, one organizing a number of events for the Ronald McDonald House and the other heading up a mission trip to Mexico where they built a house for a family. And in the career category there was Becca’s work as a news anchor playing on a large screen and evidence from Gabe’s efforts in starting his own moving company.

All in all, the new and improved all-school display was a great success! After viewing the nominated projects, students voted for the best in each category and an overall winner for our first round of Senior Project Excellence Awards. We closed the morning with a party for the seniors where we enjoyed cake and punch and recognized the winners. In addition, a local news channel did a glowing story on Senior Project® with outstanding footage from the event. The celebration was a fitting end to another great year of Senior Project, and hopefully next year will be even better!

Posted by Tobi McMillan, Lubbuck-Cooper High School

Walking a Mile in Their Shoes

Fri, 02 May 2008 14:19:00 +0000

As we progress through the school year, many things change as we navigate through the varied components of the Senior Project®, but there is one thing that seems to remain constant—the chorus of student complaints. “Why do we have to do this? No other schools have to do this. There’s no way I’m going to get this done. I hate Senior Project. I’m so stressed out!” I have come to realize that somehow the complaints are part of the process, part of the rite of passage, and in the end, the majority of students will in some way acknowledge that the pain/challenge/stress was all worth it. And I think the drama of the complaints during the process only magnifies the sense of accomplishment that they feel at the end.

With the constant barrage of complaints from students (and the occasional parent), I find myself wearing the Senior-Project-advocate hat on a regular basis. This is no stretch for me; I am a natural cheerleader for Senior Project® because I believe so strongly in it. However, this year I took advocacy to the next level by actually doing all of the components of the Senior Project® along with my students. This is the second time I have done this, and I have to admit that I love it. This year I have chosen to become more fluent in Spanish as my product, and I wrote my research paper over the negative impact of the United States’ involvement in Guatemala from the 1950s to the present.

Throughout the year I faced many challenges similar to what the students face and, like them, utilized problem-solving skills and persevered in order to be successful on my Senior Project®. The biggest challenge came during the product phase; it was finding an appropriate place to study Spanish without having to spend a fortune on a private tutor or a university course. I tried to enroll in continuing education classes and community college courses and attempted to audit a course at the university. I spent a few months trying to get into a class, and I was rejected at least six times for reasons such as my ability level in Spanish, university policies, and classes not making.

At the point when I had given up on participating in a class, one of the professors called me a few hours before the first class and informed me that the Dean of Students had given me special permission to participate in his course as a guest for free. I was so excited! Participating in the class added quite a bit of structure and credibility to my product, making it that much easier to really learn Spanish this semester. The highlight of my product was traveling to Guatemala to attend language school over spring break where my final evaluation reflected that I was an advanced Spanish speaker! I also took a Spanish oral proficiency exam at the beginning and end of the process, which showed significant improvement during my few months of study.

In just a few short weeks my Senior Project® will be over. Not only did it give me the opportunity to work on a personal goal of becoming fluent in Spanish, but it allowed me to relate to my students on a whole different level. Throughout the year when they began to complain about not having the time to get it all done, I could completely relate to that feeling. The best part was when we started to compare schedules because they always had to concede that I had less free time to work on the project than any of them. I met all of the deadlines, both big and small, and willingly offered up my work when the students asked to see it. In addition, I submitted my work to be graded by the same committees that graded theirs and used a pseudonym whenever possible to make the grading even more fair. Essentially I have done all I could to walk the same path that we require our students to walk on the journey of Senior Project®, as a means of not only improving myself, but more importantly giving validity to the requirements that we place upon them. Going through the process also gives me a different perspective when I brainstorm ways to make Senior Project® better. And the best news of all is that I have loved every minute of my experience! I would strongly recommend the experience to anyone who works closely with Senior Project®.

Posted by Tobi McMillan, Lubbuck-Cooper High School

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:05:00 +0000

About this time of year I like to look over the product descriptions that we maintain in a school-wide database. We made a change from last year and I often wonder if the change we made was the correct one. Let me explain. Two years ago, with the help of an outside consultant, our staff agreed to require that all products had to benefit something or someone else. This benefit or legacy could be anything from building a display case for our school to organizing a fundraiser event to having clinics for middle school girls on body image and self-esteem. Many students interpreted this new requirement as a call for fundraisers and our community was somewhat overwhelmed with events that asked for money or donations. There were complaints to the school board and businesses balked at donation requests.

During the Summer of 2007, our staff agreed to make another change to the product requirement of Senior Project®. We decided to open the product possibilities. This year products had to fit 1 of 3 categories:

Category 1: Passion-this type of product includes extending a current hobby or talent or learning a new skill that one always wanted to learn. In this category we have students learning how to play guitar, rebuilding their car engines, creating a new room with interior design principles, among other more personal pursuits.

Category 2: Service-this type of product encompasses the benefit requirement from the previous year. Examples include organizing charity golf tournaments, volunteering at homeless shelters, coaching young children in football, or planning a prom for an inner city school.

Category 3: Career-this type of product allows for students to pursue a career interest. We try to have the product be more than a shadowing experience. Students are encouraged to get involved, work on a project, or have some clear goals as to what they want out of the experience. Students are placed at a local auto parts manufacturing plant, doing a ride-along with the local police department, and working with different departments within a large hotel chain.

Of course, some students have combined the above categories. For example, a student held a hockey clinic (his passion) for young players (service) for a registration fee that went to a cause (service). If you scroll to the bottom of the hockey clinic link you will see a comment that was left that gets to the heart of my dilemma. I want every student to have an experience like Shane’s.

So, I ask you, is our school headed in the right direction by moving away from the benefit requirement?

Posted by: Dave Waltman, Webster Schroeder High School

Senior Project® and Instructional Technology

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 20:41:00 +0000

Where does Senior Project® and instructional technology meet? Our school does not have a technology component to the Senior Project®. In fact, for a couple of years we were discouraging the use of Powerpoint during presentations. There may be good reason not to use Powerpoint when 1) the student is being evaluated on public speaking and 2) many students end up in a place I like to call "powerpoint hell." However, despite these 2 reasons, I have come to the conclusion that instructional technology should be encouraged, and at some point, required, during all 4 phases of Senior Project®.

There are many research tools that would help students expand their thinking, find new resources, and organize information in one digital notebook. Most students and teachers use Microsoft Word as a typewriter. Students and teachers could benefit from tracking changes, comment boxes, source management, and color highlighting features of Microsoft Word. Alternatively, if everyone of your students used Google Docs share feature, then teachers could check the progress of each student at anytime during the research and writing process. Google Notebook could be used in a similar manner to monitor the research process.

We encourage students to use community resources to develop their product ideas and to find mentors. Because we allow it, still too many students rely on asking teachers to be mentors. With social networking tools, students should be able to enlist the help and feedback from many different people who have some expertise in their subject area. We don't take advantage of this type of networking and I think we do students a major disservice by not teaching them how to create these social learning networks.

I believe live presentations are extremely valuable to our students, but I also believe that live broadcasting and recorded broadcasting of student presentations could prove to be a powerful idea. Imagine our whole town (and the world beyond) being able to view any and all of our student presentations (I suppose students and/or parents would have to give permission). Students could receive feedback not only from 3 community judges but the world at large. From year to year, I think you would see students attempt to better their presentation skills from watching many presentations from the previous year.

So, do you need some tools and ideas on how to incorporate instructional technology into Senior Project®? Here is a short-list of some of the tools I use on a regular basis and some tools that are more recent finds.

Google Notebook or Evernote to collect/save research
Searchmash -search tool that combines video, blogs, pictures, google, and wikipedia results in one organized page
Touchgraph -a visualization tool for Google Search and Amazon.com
Google Reader -to include personal learning networks & blogs in the research phase (don't get me started on some teacher's reluctance to allow the use of blogs in research.
iTunes -to organize and aggregate podcasts related to research topic
Interviews via Gabcast (audio) or ooVoo (video)
Research papers with hyperlinks
Del.icio.us to connect to relevant bookmarks on topic
Wikispaces to share/collaborate and build
Wikimindmap to see connections between topics and to further research
Ning and other social networking sites to collaborate and share between students in different schools, between student & mentor, etc.
Mindmeister to organize paper and/or presentation (alternative to linear outlines)
Cell phones for live blogging, photo essays
Library Thing to share and research books on selected topics
iEarn and many other similar sites that can be databased for Senior Project® products
Live streaming of presentations on uStream.tv
Presentations videotaped and uploaded to youtube or teachertube or uStream.tv for further evaluation

So let us know here at SPN™ how your school uses instructional technology with Senior Project®, if at all. Let us know what is working, what you would like to try and how SP might evolve to use more technology.

Posted by: Dave Waltman, Webster Schroeder High School

A Field Trip to the University Library

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 15:50:00 +0000

The primary goal in taking my students to the Texas Tech University library, located about ten miles from our school, was for them to locate more sources for use in their research papers; this goal was definitely accomplished. Our half-day field trip to the library yielded beneficial research for everyone. (This was partially because their grade depended on it, but that’s OK with me.)

We started the day with a demonstration of how to use the library’s online databases and a tour of the building. The university library has subscriptions to a number of periodical databases, many more than our school could ever afford, giving students access to almost every periodical published in the last 20 years. With such an extensive offering, every student was able to find at least one article on his/her topic, and most of them found many more.

During the library tour, our guide showed us all around the building, through five floors of stacks, the many computer labs, the reference section, government documents, current periodicals, and documents on microfilm and microfiche (the kids had no idea what these were). The students’ favorite part was being introduced to movable shelves in the stacks. With the push of a button an entire bookshelf or group of bookshelves would slide creating an opening between two shelves. Some were worried about being squished by the shelves, while others were excited at the prospect of being able to trap their friends…until I let them all know that because of sensors neither of these things could happen. This left the two groups relieved and disappointed, respectively.

After the demonstration and tour, the students had a couple of hours to spend researching their topics on their own in the library. Before our trip the students had received temporary logins for the library’s computers and databases, allowing them to use the computers throughout the library. It was fun to watch them working alongside current university students, and for the most part blending in quite well. Many requested help in finding books in the stacks, so the three other teachers and I spent much of our time in the stacks. Students were excited to find books, especially current ones, about their topics, and because of an agreement with our local public library, students who had a public library card were able to check out books from the university library.

On the whole, the trip to the library was a great success. I feel like students learned valuable research skills and came away with sources that will benefit them on their research papers. Many have even returned to the library on their own time to do further research. However, in addition to the research, I believe the trip to the library yields many other benefits for students. Perhaps the most important one is allowing them to really see and be a part of a university campus in the middle of a school day. The students are immediately awed by how quiet the library is and how many students are there working, studying, and doing research of their own. Also, putting them in a university library gives credibility to the proverbial lecture about how college is going to be different than high school. At that point the place speaks for itself. For most students the trip to the library is a humbling experience, a time in which they realize that maybe they still have more to learn. It is a beautiful glimpse into what their next steps hold and how they can continue to prepare for those now.

Posted by: Tobi McMillan, Lubbock-Cooper High School

Report from New Orleans

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 17:50:00 +0000

As promised, I wanted to comment on my first presentation at a national conference, the Senior Project® Institute in New Orleans this past June. I am always excited to attend conferences because of my love of travel, but I especially enjoy being surrounded by people who have similar goals and care about the education of our children.

Being a Senior Project Coordinator for 6 years, I know first-hand the resistance the project can receive from parents, teachers, students, the school board, and community members. While it often can get tiresome and repetitive to have to continue to make the case for the Senior Project®, I always feel vindicated after watching our students on the evening of the presentations.

The idea of “making the case” for Senior Project®, led us to our topic presentation in New Orleans. Our school has worked on transforming the senior year from a “blow-off” year to a more academically focused year mostly done through the implementation of the Senior Project®. It hasn’t been easy and continues to meet resistance but it has become more accepted. We focused on the following areas to build the case for Senior Project®:

Building a Culture
Research
Data

Building a culture includes our product fair, hanging proclamation posters, media coverage, and other SP traditions. Secondly, we try to connect research on the need for 21st Century Skills to the skills learned by doing the SP. Finally, we try to build the case by collecting data that demonstrates an improvement in these skills. This is not always easy but data can be a strong case-builder. We still have a way to go but by building the case for SP around these 3 areas has helped us convert those who have been reluctant to accept the changes that SP brings to the senior year.

Click here if you would like to view the PowerPoint slideshow used in our case-building presentation. Click here to view my Flickr set of photos from New Orleans that includes our venture into the 9th Ward.

Posted by Dave Waltman, Webster Schroeder High School

Papers and a Update

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:21:00 +0000

To update those of you who were interested in the results of last month’s blog, we had our review board meeting. The student prepared a short presentation for the review committee. He showed up after school in shirt and tie, with his mother, on time, and with a letter from the fraternity president. He defended his idea of doing his project on fraternity life very well. He simply discussed what he hoped to achieve. He told us examples of the volunteer opportunities that he hoped to participate in.

The review board asked him a few questions, and then we talked with his mother and asked her a few questions. After they were dismissed, the committee discussed the issue and came to a unanimous decision to accept his project. It seemed obvious to us that if he was willing to go through all the trouble of the presentation, then he was dedicated to the actual project, not the “extra-curricular” activity that might be associated with it.

So this month...we are collecting research papers. This brings out the dreaded red pen for the next few weeks...UGH! There are more reasons for my “UGH” than you realize. Recently the state of North Carolina has spent hours and dollars creating grading rubrics for all of the teachers to use on all 4 sections of the graduation project. This will be the first time that we get to utilize that information. Logistics says we have to establish numbers to coincide with the holistic rubrics. Those of us responsible for assigning said grades came together and briefly discussed those assignments and viola, we are ready to go!

Now comes the collection! Here’s what I have done to prepare for collection. I have created a “yes test” that aligns with the state rubrics and requirements of our research papers. My classes will bring me a “draft” of their papers on the Friday before the Monday on which they are due. If they take the “yes test” and can check the entire yes column, then they get to turn it in for extra credit in the class (not necessarily on the paper)! If they have any no’s checked, they have the day to adjust and change. They will also have the day to peer edit. My goal for that day is for them to see the work that needs to be done over the weekend so they can accomplish it in a timely manner.

I am both anxious and excited about grading the papers. I find them interesting to read. But there are 70+ for me to grade! I would love to see our school go to an advisory system where other people read and grade the research papers. I have talked to other teachers in schools that have the academic advisor grade them or the mentor grade them. One of our teachers here used to have a team of grad students from the local college read and pre-grade them. That change is probably a long time in the making!

Posted by Mary Magee, Mooresville High School

Married to a Senior Project® Coordinator

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 19:36:00 +0000

Unlike most of the bloggers and the people who read the blogs, I am not a Senior Project® teacher. I am a history teacher at Smoky Mountain High School and married to the Senior Project® coordinator. So, I have some insights into Senior Project® that are a little unique, to say the least.

The beginning of the new school year is always exciting both at school and around our house. The copying of Senior Project® packets, meetings with Senior Project® teachers (Senior English teachers in our school), endless meetings with the administration to get approval for parent meetings to introduce Senior Project®, mentor meetings, scheduling meeting with teachers and students are all just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.

At home, we become the sounding board for new meeting ideas, new approaches to "weasel-proofing" the projects, and possible sources for new mentors for mentor databases. Drives to school, shopping trips, and weekend excursions all become brainstorming venues for “new and improved” approaches for every aspect of the Senior Projects®. You can’t imagine the “hell to pay” for falling asleep at night when a new idea is germinating and being tested in the light of day (or light of lamp, in this case). Then there is the constant, “Have you ever taught so-and-so?” and “Would this project be a stretch for this or that student?” Then there is my all-time favorite, “Is there any way that you could mentor this student in one of your hobby areas?” (But that is food for another blog.)

The fun really cranks up when scheduling judging rooms begins. “Supper? Who has time for supper? I have 25 boards to plan, judges to place, rooms to reserve, and a-v technology to assign. We may not eat this week!” As we near the end of the semester (on the block schedule) dieting becomes a very real option in our house, over-weight or not! Our children and I become more proficient at the art of grab-and-run meals for a few days. Finally, the last board is planned and meals are reality in our house again. I am no longer awakened in the night with “Does the library have 4 or 5 LCD projectors?” or “Can we use your projector and smart board in one of the judging rooms?” Scheduling is definitely the stress time in our household.

Then there is the grand finale – senior boards. The nights we know that the presenting seniors dread. If only they knew the scramble for last minute judges, replacement TVs, LCD bulbs, and “air-sick” bags (grin!). For the husband of the coordinator, there are several nights of planning no activities. One must be on constant standby in case a judge can not serve. How many boards can one person be expected to serve on per year? Really, it’s not that bad – it just seems over-taxing at the time.

I am sure that the spouses and children of Senior Project® teachers could share equally enlightening facets of the year with Senior Project®. It certainly does impact many more people that just the students and teachers (and coordinator) of Senior Project®. The important thing for us all to remember is how important the project is to each and every one of the students who completes a Senior Project®.

Hope you saw some of your own trials and got a chuckle from some of ours.

Posted by Mike Pendergast, Smoky Mountain High School

Helping Students Choose a Senior Project®

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 15:47:00 +0000

“I plan to learn how to make ice sculptures.”
“I want to learn how to cook.”
“I have an old motorcycle I want to refurbish.”
“I’m going to get certified to teach CPR to my peers.”
“I want to learn how to cook.”
“I was hoping to organize a walk to benefit Alzheimer’s research.”
“I plan on learning sign language.”
“I have absolutely no idea what I want to do.”
“I want to learn how to cook.”

I’ve heard all these statements and a hundred more like them in the last few weeks. As the Senior Seminar teacher at Lubbock-Cooper High School, I have the privilege and challenge of guiding 131 seniors through the Senior Project® process. I have met with each of them at least twice in this first month of school as I help them try to answer the question of what to do for their Senior Projects®, and during this same time each one has had similar conversations with his or her faculty advisor.

This year there seems to be a cooking epidemic. Every year it’s something, but who would have guessed cooking? (Not me!) One way that we’ve handled this, and other “epidemics”, is to have the kids who really want to cook be very specific about the type of final product that they want to do. This has worked out well to help students identify unique projects. For example, we now have a girl who wants to learn to cook Middle Eastern food and host a dinner party featuring the region’s culture and cuisine. Another student is going to work with a nutritionist to create a month-long healthy meal plan for her family, prepare a week of meals for them, and track their weight and other health measures over the course of the month. Forcing the students to specifically define these products has not only differentiated between many similar ones, but it has also added depth and rigor to help satisfy the learning stretch for each student.

And what about the students who are just answering with an “I don’t know”? Thankfully we have fewer and fewer of those each year. We are in our eighth year of doing Senior Project, so many of our students have been contemplating what to do since their freshman year, which certainly helps. But we inevitably still have a handful of students who have no idea what they want to do. Some of these undecided students seem desperate for an idea, others apathetic, and most just hoping that I’ll come up with a Senior Project® for them.

This summer at the Senior Project® Institute I received valuable advice from one of the presenters, Mike Duda, about how to help lead kids to identify a Senior Project® without choosing for them. One of the activities he recommended was having the students brainstorm all the things they’d like to do in their life. This year all of my students made that list prior to their first conference with me. The list can then be narrowed by a series of questions about topics such as: amount of time and money needed, availability of a local mentor, whether or not it would be a learning stretch, and other criteria related to Senior Project®. Then each student brought their list to the first conference, and the lists were incredibly beneficial especially for the students who were undecided. Even if the student didn’t find anything on the list to do for a Senior Project®, it certainly gave me a window into his or her interests and goals and offered a starting point for our conversation. Without a doubt this activity was a welcome addition to our curriculum that I will continue to use with my students in the coming years.

So after weeks of working through this process, this is the point in the story where I’m supposed to tell you that all 131 of my students have chosen their perfect Senior Projects®, but I think anyone who’s been doing this for very long knows that somehow that’s never the case. As my students are busy preparing to turn in their letters of intent next week I still have a few who are as of yet undecided. However, I can definitely say that as we’ve added more structure (in-class brainstorming, multiple conferences, etc.) and time to the topic selection process we have fewer and fewer students who are approaching the letter of intent without a clear plan for the project. And for those few undecided students, their faculty advisors and I will continue asking questions and nudging them forward (and hoping and praying) until I have a letter of intent from everyone.

Posted by Tobi McMillan, Lubbock-Cooper High School

Topic Selection

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 16:15:00 +0000

What an interesting beginning to the school year! My seniors are off and running with their graduation projects. Letters of Intent have been submitted and reviewed by the committee. Most letters received approval, but there were a select few that were rejected.

I wanted to share the most interesting one with you. A very studious young man submitted a proposal this semester to do his research and hours on the misconceptions of fraternity life. Your initial reaction is probably the same as mine. No Way! Giving him approval would be like giving him a license to attend fraternity parties all in the name of graduation projects.

I asked him to explain his idea to me and his response was fascinating. He is interested in researching the common myths that surround fraternities. He wants to disprove the idea that fraternities are just an excuse to party in college by researching their active volunteer schedule. He wants to gain his hours by participating in the service projects that the group does this fall. It was really interesting, after discussing it with him, that I and the other faculty members of the committee seemed to automatically fall into the very stereotypes that he is interested in disproving.

We felt that we had to reject his project on the grounds that it could be too much of a liability, but we did come up with some options for him. One, he could resubmit a project that uses the same research with hours focusing on some form of high-school hazing or misconception. Two, he could develop a different project altogether that focuses on a more age appropriate topic. Three, he could submit the fraternity project in front of a panel of the committee, school administration, and his parents.

It seems that he is determined! He has chosen number three, and I am in the process of setting up the meeting. I think that proves a little that he is not in this for the party, but he is serious about the project, the research, and the idea. Our committee will be made up of an assistant principal, the graduation project coordinator, the committee head, another committee member, and me. His parents will have to be present so we can essentially get their opinion and approval. He will submit his idea for research and hours, and then we will make a final decision. And we better make it soon, because research papers are three weeks away from being due! I’ll keep you informed of the outcome…

Happy Researching!

Posted by Mary Magee, Moorseville High School

Senior Project® in the Summertime

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 23:50:00 +0000

Our summer SP work began in June while school was still in session (yes, we go late here in NY). The SP leadership team along with several 12^th grade teachers met with our BOE (Board of Education) to discuss the evolution of SP over the last 5 years and to hear their concerns. Their major concerns involved the following:

Consistent communication and support

Were students getting the same support from class to class?
Were students getting the same message from class to class?

Too many fundraisers

Local businesses were complaining of supporting so many requests for donations.
Tracking the money flow was not always easy.
Some fundraisers did not seem like a learning stretch.

Differentiation of SP Tasks (for low and high students)

Is the SP necessary for the over-scheduled, high-achieving student?
Are special education students receiving the necessary support?

The “benefit society” requirement we implemented in 2006-07

Do all SP products need to have some sort of community benefit?

In August, the 12^th grade English teaching staff, our English Curriculum Supervisor, and myself (SP Coordinator) met for our annual Extended Year Workshop (EYW) to reflect on the previous year, discuss possible changes for 2007-08, update the SP Student and Mentor Manuals, and to address the BOE concerns. Additionally, specific to this year, we are changing from a year-long 12^th grade English class to semester electives. This means we had to figure out how to imbed the grading for SP into 2 elective courses where students would be changing teachers mid-year.

Now we made some significant changes as a result of our EYW. I will share them in my next blog entry, but before then I would like to hear from a few of our readers as to how your school deals with any of the above issues or how your school evaluates SP from one year to the next. I also will share my experiences presenting for the first time in New Orleans at the SP Institute. Till then…have a great beginning to the school year.

Posted by Dave Waltman, Webster Schroeder High School

New Year; New Beginnings

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 00:30:00 +0000

Greetings all! And happy End-of-Summer! Those teachers returning to the classroom may consider it a bittersweet end without being penalized by the education gods!

My name is Mary Magee. I am a senior English teacher in Mooresville, NC. Since our graduation project is housed in the English department, I get the great responsibility of guiding my seniors through this amazing process.

I had a powerful experience this summer rewriting my school’s project handbook. I wanted to share with you what made that possible. Last year we put together a strong committee for the project with a very strong leader at helm. She was just a teacher that volunteered to help! But she has proven to be a great asset. So how did we organize this group? We simply asked the faculty for volunteers to serve on the committee. There were close to 20 people who responded. They all came with different concerns to discuss and issues that needed clarifying. Please understand that we are not “super-school”, so not all 20 of the member show up at every meeting – though if you offer food or refreshment, it draws a bigger crowd.

We did our best clearing up and discussing those initial issues in the first few meetings. One meeting the English teachers presented the student’s “letter of intent” for approval from the committee. We broke the 150 or so letters into small groups with a couple teachers and made short work, like 30 minutes, of what was a lenthegthy process for me first semester when I had to read all of my student’s letters. I think that it also made the students feel a little more important to know that some other person beside myself liked their idea for a project or was concerned about the ease in which they might accomplish a goal.

At the end of last year, the English teachers brought some suggestions to the committee that we felt would improve our program. Some of those included a math component to our research paper, stronger evidence for a product, and less “busy work” like the number of project logs and pictures required for our portfolio.

In a small district such as ours with veteran teachers, administrators, and central office staff who shy away from change, it can be difficult. I can say that as an English teacher it was such a reassuring and helpful process to have my ideas and the ideas of the other English teachers who house and direct the project be communicated through the committee instead of through our own voice. I think it also gave our ideas more power when they were relayed to the administration because they came with the endorsement of a larger, more diverse group of people instead of just the senior English teachers. It made me wonder why the committee was not established earlier in the year. We had an administration shift at the beginning of the year, so it took us a while to get to the first priority on our new principal’s list, I’m sure.

So now I enter a new year with a new handbook, a few new requirements that improve and advance our program, and a committee that I feel supports me. It should be a great 1st semester!

Posted by Mary Magee, Mooresville High School