Business Plan Project--Day Three

I'm a bit behind in blogging.

Friday was the last day of the Business Plan project.

As had become very predictable on Thursday (and even to some extent on Wednesday) almost every group needed a turn on the camera.

It wasn't as bad as I had originally predicted. There were some definite conflicts, with students having nothing to do but wait while another group used the camera. I hope that some of those students made the connection that, if they had done the requirements of the project in a different order, they could have been recording on an earlier day instead of sitting around idle, waiting on a camera, and worrying about failing the project.

The largest disappointment was that hardly any students actually edited the video. One group, that had taken the initiative to stay after school and record on Thursday, was able to edit. They added some color filters, a title, and some scrolling credits. And, they were able to edit out mistakes. I was very proud of this group. But I was very disappointed that out of five classes, only one group accomplished this.

A few students with access to equipment, or who had stayed after, were completely finished at the beginning or part way through class. This was a great convenience for me, because I was able to use them as assistants to help classmates with the camera and the software. It was a shame though, that they were able to help with very little editing since no one was editing.

Most of the students did the best they could in a single take, and saved that as a movie.

I think I would approach this project slightly differently in the future. Part of the point was the put some responsibility on the students. And, from what the teacher said, this is not the first long term out of class project in which most of the students put everything off until the last few days of in class time. I think, if it were my class, I might take a page from one of the Science teacher's books. During the creek project, the science teacher left the students to do the large project outside of class time. However, about half way through, she had a check up day where all of the students had to prove some sort of progress.

These are freshman students. I am a firm believer in teaching responsibility by placing responsibility on students. I think, in my own classroom, I might take a half way approach between the Science teacher and the Social Studies teacher. In earlier long term projects, I would have check up points, either half way through or even more frequently, when students had to turn in proof of progress for a grade. As the year progressed, I would continue providing students with time lines, but have fewer check ups. This would hopefully at least give students another tool for organizing their project and managing their time, while placing gradually more responsibility on the students without the incentive of "points."