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E-School projects begin with a connection to a willing mentor from the community referred by parents, students or E-School associates. A Project Form is completed by the mentor, indicating what service the Hub might perform for them. The Hub teacher then designs a project plan, which addresses the relevant academic needs of each student and prepares them to deliver this service in a useful and timely way. In return for this pledge, the mentor offers to meet with the Hub occasionally during this period, providing guidance and clarification, representing the way things are done in this business or organization. |
Scoping Out The Project: Meeting 1, Town Hall/Accord Train Station
Students attend a Hub Day morning meeting with Doris at the town offices, retiring afterwards to the Accord Train Station for lunch. Doris discusses the need for a public information presentation which students could develop. In a brainstorming session, students break the issue down into the following research questions:
In the next week's Hub meeting, students articulate four stages for this project:
Since the next two weeks are devoted to research, students use Doris Miller's contact sheet to determine where information will be found during the following week and who will be responsible to learn about what issues. During the second week, some students are tasked to do supporting research on the Internet to confirm the information; others organize the information in a presentation to the Hub team.
The first week of contacts require students to focus on communication skills (asking the right questions, taking good notes, appropriate manners and expectations). The last hour of this Hub meeting will be devoted to discussing this issue, and establishing communication protocols. Records of contacts will be immediately posted to the Bulletin Board, so that students and teacher all know how things are progressing and what information is being gathered successfully.
Academic Remediation: Meeting 3, Town Hall/Accord Train Station
Math and Science skills will be needed to make sense of the information received. Because a blackboard will be necessary, the Hub teacher posts to the Bulletin Board that the next Hub meeting will take place in one of the Town Hall rooms. The Hub teacher prepares a lesson on relevant dynamics and ways of ordering the information which has been posted on the bulletin board. During the next week, students use the bulletin board to interpret the information and present their own opinion about how the team should proceed.
Over the next two production weeks, students send images and text to those designated as Web developers, who are assembling the web site which organizes all relevant information. This site is reviewed by the Hub teacher, who places it on the Web when it passes muster. The final presentation is a "student-curated exhibit": pages are arranged in presentation order, with supplemental information linked. Each page contains an image, graph or report, with captions explaining its importance. Students determine who will be presenting which aspects of the site during the Board Meeting. The E-School's computer projection system will be used during the meeting, but Board members have been encouraged to visit the website during the previous week to ask questions and troubleshoot issues.
The Process Concludes
After the presentation, Doris Miller meets again with the students to offer her PMI (Plus, Minus Interesting) feedback on their presentation. The team meets to reflect on her input, discussing how the project could have been better managed for the next time, what their skill needs are, and how they could more effectively work together. During the final week of the project, students develop individual evaluations that cover these and other issues, emailing these to their Hub teacher. Based on these, the teacher prepares evaluations for each student. These are discussed in one-to-one conferences during the next Hub meeting, as the rest of the Hub reviews submitted project proposals and selects a possible new project.
Because all projects will remain on the web, each new project can build off the strengths of the old and correct limitations. The project example above is ambitious, and would not be one of the first attempted by a new Hub. However, the efficiency and skill level of E-School students will develop quickly, and they should be up to a project like this by the second semester. The opportunity to solve real problems, have access to the full range of available resources, and maintain frequent contact and feedback with each other and with their teacher should provide students an opportunity to produce a much higher quality of work than they have in the past, giving them a new sense of their capabilities and, hopefully, their future careers or courses of study.
Email Us with questions or comments about this example project. The more we can refine this description to meet your concerns, the better it can serve as an orientation for our work.