Passion Project: Week One

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Week one for my passion project, so far, looks like this:

First steps:

  • I put a call out on Twitter for some advice as to what software options there were out there
  • I searched Google for “book creator software”
  • I downloaded and tried out Blurb.com/booksmart

Thoughts as I explored:

  • I had a little play with Booksmart and it seems easy to use but maybe not very creative. There are many templates and you just fill them in. I found out that to print, obviously, will cost – I wonder whether I can download and print elsewhere? Probably not as that would be how they make their money – much like the Apple books you can create from iPhoto. It’s not a huge amount of money, but getting the final product mailed to China is always a challenge.
  • What I’ll need is one I can do and have printed here, which will obviously be cheaper. Photoshop? I hope not, as that’s pretty hard work and very time consuming. I’m not very good at Photoshop.
  • Hmm.. rather than a book which can be published, I should investigate some sort of digital book – I’d like it to be in digital format and interactive: connect to my Tripadvisor reviews, restaurants and hotels I mention, sites I explore, Google maps, that sort of thing.
  • I had a reply to my tweet from a company which had a link to a great blog by a teacher of grade 1s and 2s who’s doing an ‘I Wonder’ version of genius hour.
  • Spoke to the Grade 11s and asked their advice about format – one student recommended iBooks Author, which is an app/software I can use on my Mac Air, so I’ll check that out. I can’t find it in the app store, so it may be a downloadable software. I’ll check it out. My Mac Air doesn’t have much space on it, so I hope it’s not too large a programme. I didn’t get a chance to try it out yet.

Progress:

All the students have to complete a proposal by the end of this week, so I modelled what I mean by completing my own. PASSION PROJECT my proposal

It was a good process to go through as it continued to help me clarify my thoughts and ideas. I’m sure it will continue to morph and change as I go through the project, but that’s kind of the idea.

I had a lovely comment from my sister-in-law about my previous post, who commented that it’s a good idea for everyone to think about their ‘passion project’ and “to take stock of where we are and where we want to go and what we want to do.” She also commented how much she’d enjoyed reading it, which is always gratifying. I’m finding that not many people are commenting on my blog itself, but rather where I share it.  Wherever the comments are, though, it’s always good to know that people are actually reading what I’m writing and thinking about it enough to make a comment. Makes me think I’m on the right track.


Passion Project

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We have returned from our winter break and are recovering from end-of-semester exams, and so the students here at LIS have started in earnest on their passion projects, even though it’s just a few weeks until our Chinese New Year break. I am trying to get them to solidify their thoughts by making them write a proper proposal, which will be presented to me, other teachers, the students, and the head of school. We will have a ‘gallery walk’ of the proposals so that everyone can make comments and suggestions on each proposal.

It did get me to thinking though: what’s my passion? If I could pursue anything I like for one hour a week, what would it be? I’ve been trying to give myself the same expectations as the students – in other words, I can’t just curl up on the beanbags in the classroom and read a book, much to my dismay. I have a feeling that I’m going to model this by completing a proposal of my own and pursuing my passion too. Whether I’ll be able to do that whilst helping the students with theirs, is open for question, but I should not pre-empt problems without thinking of some possible solutions – as I’m always telling my students.

So, I’m going to thought-process this out loud.

What do I love to do?

  • Eat, eat, eat.
  • Travel
  • Spend time with my husband
  • Spend time with my dog
  • Read
  • Teach (yes, really, I love doing that)
  • Craft activities – knitting, cross stitch, etc.
  • Jigsaws
  • Photography

(In no particular order, of course 😉 )

What could I research/produce in one of those categories? Or a combination? What things would make one of the above more fun / easier / less annoying?

Food – I could put together a cook book of my favourite dishes. I love cookbooks with pictures so I could even make the dishes, photograph them and put them together. Possible difficulties: very time consuming and not that original.

Travel – I could find a way of synthesizing my photographs and compiling some sort of digital travel log – with anecdotes and tales of my travels, illustrated with photographs. Making a book would be fun. The research side of it would be to search other digital books of this kind – and digital books in general. Also, I’d need to explore my pictures, see which are the best, and which ones would best illustrate my adventures.

Spending time with Stephen & Romi – not really much scope for a creative project here – other than finding ways to have more time.

Reading – a pleasurable activity, but again, not much scope for a creative project. I’ve been explaining to the students that the passion project is not an excuse to sit on the beanbags and read, as pleasurable as that sounds. We have DEAR for that!

Teaching – there are plenty of research opportunities here and plenty of projects I could be persuing. Spoilt for choice, really. But this seems more like work that non-work, although it would be a great opportunity to pursue the things I’ve been wanting to, such as project-based learning, and more educational technology platforms. Certainly one to consider.

Craft activities – Hmm.  Lots of possibilities to create here, of course, but what about innovate? What’s the research angle? I could try to knit something without a pattern – I’ve never done that. I would have to research tension, and yarn weights, and how to create a garment. Another one to consider, for sure. I also thought about cross stitch, but I don’t think the research element of it would be so satisfying. And it would end up being an excuse to sit and cross stitch for an hour each week. Pleasant, but not really what we’re trying to achieve with this project.

Jigsaws – I could make a jigsaw from one of my photos – but I’m sure there’s an app for that so not much research involved. Might be fun, but doesn’t grab me as a passion project.

Photography – Definitely scope here too. I would like to find out more about how to make my camera work for me. I tend to take my photos on the ‘auto’ setting. Years ago, when I had a less automated, non-digital, camera I spent many hours in a dark room, processing and printing my photos which I LOVED. I seem to have lost some of the knowledge I had about focus and depth of field. Definitely scope here for research as well as producing something – a collection of photographs, for example.

So that narrows it down to four: (1) teaching; (2) knitting; (3) photography; and (4) creating a digital travel photo story. It’s a tough decision.

  • Teaching: This seems like work to me, so I may do this another time.
  • Knitting: Seems like a good project but how excited about it am I? How innovative can I be?
  • Photography: Definitely experiential, but something I can do another time and seems more like discovery that creation.
  • Digital travel story: This does interest me and fits the creation criterion. And fairly innovative. It combines four passions: technology, photography, traveling, and writing. Seems like a winner.

So, there we have it. My passion project is going to be to create a digital book which combines photography and stories of my travels. How exciting!

The next step – for me and my students – is to produce a proposal. I have given them a template for this, so I shall use the same one.

I’m so glad that this is really beginning to take shape. So far the students seem to be fairly interested. I have a couple of students who want to re-design the school uniform, one who wants to re-design our classroom space, others who are creating something in Mincraft, another who is taking his sister’s toy apart to see how it works. I’ve told him that he has to then use this knowledge to make something.

Watch this space, as they say. 🙂


Let’s get blogging!

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Alrighty then. That’s all the student blogs set up. Let the blogging begin. I’m hoping this will be a way forward for my students to share their learning with a wider audience in an authentic way, as well as encourage them to reflect on their learning, explore their passions, and share their successes.

As the students began to explore their new blog space in class today and yesterday it seemed like there was a positively charged atmosphere in the room, so the signs are good. They will be able to use their blog to write their reading reflections, chart their progress in their passion projects and generally have a voice.

This will also be a useful tool for their student-led conferences at the end of the year and they can use this blog as their e-portfolio.