We also have no illusions about how hard it is to make the right decision. How do you motivate yourself outside of that number? How do you improve without a grade? And what do you do when even clicking on the links that answer these questions feels too difficult?
Your goal is to check off each of the seven elements there as you work your way through the seven steps of the Final Project. Whether or not you have a topic in mind — and even if you made great strides with the Senior Talk — you should spend this week reading, thinking, and discussing what is possible.
This is another angle on the Pareto Project idea of finding your passion, but it’s bigger than that — perfect for the final months of your senior year, in fact. Ask yourself:
What are you good at doing?
What does the world need?
What can you be paid for?
The third question is perhaps not as inspiring as the other two, but it’s no less essential. As for the world around us: We are weathering a generational crisis, so you are witnesses to what the world needs. You could (and perhaps should) consider making this Final Project somehow related to this moment in history.
You also have the original set of options for the Senior Talk, as outlined in that February post. Here they are again, with some edits:
Option A: Pareto Projects | One intention of your Pareto Project was to generate a topic for any sort of Final Project. This applies whether you maintained the same passion project for the entire year or rebooted it. The connection to a final project may be obvious, or it may take some divergent thinking. As always, you should ask for feedback when you need it.
Option B: Self-Prescribed Book | Your self-prescribed book project is another option for the Final Project. Could it be evolved into something more substantial? Could it be turned into a video essay or other artifact? Again, the best approach is to brainstorm in class about the connections between your book, any work you’ve done toward a book-driven project, and this Final Project.
Option C: Research-Driven Essay | The research-driven essay may also lead directly into a Final Project. The research portion can serve a kind of double duty, since two of the seven steps outlined here involve research. What else could you do to expand on your statement of purpose, if you got to that step? What could be done with the writing to turn it into something more substantial?
Option D: New Focus | If you like, of course, you can develop a new topic. You can talk with peers, talk to me, ask questions in the comment section below — whatever inspires you. Consider that ikigai concept. Revisit projects you created earlier this year, in previous years, for other classes, and so on.
Regardless of what you think you’ll do for this project, spend as much time as possible this week simply exploring. The best way to find a topic is to read, watch, and listen to as much as you can.
To help, here are some video essays chosen to help you think divergently about topics and what you do with them. Look at them for potential final products, sure, but focus also on the insight in each one.
Lindsay Ellis, one of the people featured there on PBS Digital Studios, has her own channel, and there is a playlist of 35 video essays there. The most recent video there is about Cats, and it deals intelligently with what a musical is, how an adaptation works, and why Cats was such a failure as a movie:
You might also enjoy Polygon’s Brian David Gilbert, who has a terrifically insightful series of video essays exploring video games. Each video turns its original concept into a discussion of societal, philosophical, existential topics. This video, for instance, teaches the monomyth and hero’s journey:
Every episode of Unraveled is excellent, especially if you are looking for atypical topics to pursue.
You might also want to try your hand at a video tutorial of sorts, like the WIRED series that explains concepts through five levels of complexity:
You could try to do something similar. WIRED also has an excellent process analysis of beatboxing that is posted outside of the 5 Levels playlist:
Process-analysis projects can be an excellent way to explore something you are passionate about, good at doing, and able to teach others.
Ask questions about these examples or any other aspect of this week’s work in the comments below.
You will use this week to transition into the Final Project. You must first decide what to do with any ongoing projects. You can use your existing work as part of the Final Project or submit all of it as evidence for your Q4 evaluation. There are other options.
Finally, choose one or more of the following as your focus for the next five days:
Finish a second project (as established here) that you want to finish this week, and then finish it.
Wrap up your work on a second project, and then prepare to move onto the Final Project.
Identify the parts of your current project-based work that could be used for a Final Project.
Begin the analytical and introspective work for Week Two.
Whatever your focus is, you’ll have an assignment on Google Classroom to help you transition into this final part of the year. Remember that you can individualize almost every aspect of this work, from the timeline to the final product, by advocating for yourself.
Use the comment section below to ask questions — especially ones that could benefit others!
Click to see the full image, courtesy of Cognitive Media, RSA Animate, and Ken Robinson.
Senior Talk 🠊 Final Project
We started our year with Ken Robinson’s “Changing Education Paradigms” TED Talk, with plans to end the year with your own senior talks — a chance to experience what Robinson describes in the following excerpt:
An aesthetic experience is one in which your senses are operating at their peak, when you are present in the current moment, when you are resonating with the excitement of this thing that you’re experiencing, when you are fully alive. An anesthetic is when you shut your senses off and deaden yourself to what’s happening…
We are getting our children through education by anesthetizing them. And I think we should be doing the exact opposite. We shouldn’t be putting them to sleep. We should be waking them up to what they have inside of themselves.
During this period of distance learning, the spirit of our second-semester projects remains the same: to wake up the part of you that you’ll need next year, no matter the path you’ve chosen. The more authentic and personally meaningful the work is, the better.
In the wake of COVID-19, of course, we must make some changes. First, the formal presentation outlined in February is no longer required. It is still possible, and if you wish, you can produce and record a Senior Talk that is virtually identical to what you would have done.
The second change is that you can choose from a wide range of possible final projects. You will be given a week just to think divergently about what this final project can be.
In the same TED Talk quoted above, Robinson defines divergent thinking like this:
This is why you’ll be instructed to use as much of your other second-semester projects as possible as part of this Final Project. You are not required to start over. In fact, you are strongly encouraged to use whatever you can from the work you’ve already done to help you.
The third and final change is that you’ll be given the project steps by week, with dates for May and June of 2020 detailed for each part of the final project. Your project should be finished and submitted between May 25 and June 5. See the new calendar posted here: http://sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=4157.
The icons for each step are used with permission from the Noun Project. Details here.
The April 14 update explains where we were at the end of Q3, how to navigate leveled instruction like these posts, and where to find information about every original second-semester project. On April 16, the district posted an update about the adoption of a Pass/Incomplete option for Q4.
All assessment and feedback will continue exactly as it always has in here, with the silver lining of not having to convert grade abatement profiles into a 100-point score. The profiles, skills, and traits are universal and universally useful, so we’ll stick with them:
Even the usual GAP protocol can be used without any changes. There will be regular Google Forms sent to students to collect evidence of their work, which will provide all the fuel for feedback we need. The daily requirements will be the same, as well:
Check Google Classroom once a day.
Check in and set a goal each day.
Advocate for individual help and feedback as necessary.
Most importantly, the idea of individualizing these projects remains at the center of the process. It was that way in February, and it’s that way now. We’ll work together to do what is right by each of you.
