Day 18 ~ 23

Day 18 ~ 23
• sent emails to the students
• asked ms. peggy about the selected students’ advisories
• got permission from Ms. Battioni and Ms. Wilson
• went through interview with Rick Choi and Thomas Kim

From Day 18 to 23, we had almost finished the second project and finished half of the third project at the same time. During these days, we sent emails to all the Bayside students about our CPO project. The email was in purpose of letting all the students and teachers to know about our CPO project, and to let the selected students to be more recognized by others.

In order to continue the second project smoothly, we decided to not continue the third one before completing the second project. As a result, what we needed was the students’ interview. At first, we wanted to visit their advisory in their advisory time, which is our lunchtime just like we did on the first project. Although we processed the interview with Rick Choi easily, we had a hard time in meeting with Thomas Kim, and wasted few days to visit the empty advisory. So we decided to just interview him through email, and we got the reply mail on the day we sent him. Consequently, we almost finished the second project – except for completing the poster #2.

Day 16 & 17

Day 16 & 17

•       Thursday 5 min: Mr.Sweeney

•       Interview with Ms. Robins

•       Chinese CSOL4 & CLD1 class - song

•       Ms. Battioni: email received

On Day 16, we actually did not make much progress. Although we had the plans, all we had to do was wait for Ms. Battioni’s reply e-mail and coming out with more creative projects. Also, the interview with Mr. Sweeney was delayed to next class, since he was very busy with preparing Prom.

On Day 17, however, we completed two interviews. One is from Ms. Battioni, about the aurasma project in the middle school. She left us great replies of all the questions that we asked her. Moreover, we interviewed Ms. Robins for the literary journal project about A Long Way Gone in grade 10 classes, and she also recommended few of her students. Consequently, we completed two interviews, and now we just have to view the recommended students’ works and interview their thoughts. If we finish Ms. Battioni’s and Ms. Robins’ project at the same time, then it makes us three projects completed in total!

Day 14 & 15

Day 14 & 15
- Ms. Battioni: interview
- Outline of poster #2
- Interviewed Mr. Sweeney; plans for 10 Humanities: journal

On day 14, we started the new design for our poster #2, which will be about aurasma project. We tried to continue contacting Ms. Battioni for more information about the Animal Farm aurasma project, but since she was too busy these days, we decided to start another project first and work on two projects on the same time.

As a result, we decided to start a new project in HS area. What we thought might be interesting was the literary journal project that grade 10 did after reading book A Long Way Gone, which is about child soldiers. We interviewed him for some recommendations, but because he was not finished in grading all the journals, we came up with a decision, to re-interview him later on next Tuesday. We asked if his other classes, junior economy or theory of knowledge, are doing some project, and he replied that actually the theory of knowledge class is doing a big project that will be completed in the end of May. The juniors have to pick a big topic about knowledge issue, come up with a bigger question and somehow analyze it as a presentation format. For example, if one's topic is related to religion battle, his or her question might be: does religion divide the people or unite the people? He also added, that the format of presentation is free.

Day 12 & 13

Day 12 & 13

• Interview with Ms. Battioni
• ready to print out the poster
• go to Ms. Chen
• put posters around

On Day 12, we finally had an interview with Ms. Battioni, the humanities teacher of grade 8, about the aurasma project. We went over our questions for teachers, and firstly asked her for a general explanation about the aurasma project. She replied, that currently her class is working on making an aurasma that incorporates Animal Farm by George Orwell. She added some explanation about that story: Animal Farm is an allegory, extended symbol parallel story, which talks about the Russian Revolution. Since every characters in the story represents an important role in the Russian Revolution -- such as Napoleon to Stalin, Boxer to the worker class -- she requested every student to analyze a chosen character. The analysis should include overall summary about the character itself, how it contributes a role in the story, and a description about the connection between the animal with the actual character in the history. However, since her class was not completely finished with the aurasma project, we asked her if she can answer the rest of the questions, which are generally about the student who showed his or her creativity in the project, and she accepted. 

On Day 13, we finished our poster about the first group, about Avivi and Donald's art work. However, because we worked the poster by using Piktochart website that has many problems about printing, we decided to ask help to Ms. Chen. She once have helped the students to print a big poster. Consequently, we were able to print out 6 copies of the poster, and we sticked 2 per floor, except the first floor. Now, we completely finished our first project. 

Day 11

Day 11

• See Ms. Battioni for aurasma project
• Ms. Grezeszak's class also does aurasma later
• Ms. Knoflick recommended Jared, Ryan and Nikita

Today, after completely finishing the student interview section of previous project and update the blog, we decided to find another project for next overview, about subjects other than art.

Consequently, we went to find Ms. Battioni to interview her about the aurasma project, but since we heard from Mrs. Kruse that they are just starting their projects, we decided to interview them later when they complete the work.

On the other hand, we went to ask Mrs. Grezeszak about the 9th graders' geometry. She replied: they are also going to make an aurasma video and display to the parents. 

In addition, we went to Ms. Knoflick for last -- because Ms. Lauder was in class -- and asked her for recommendations for FITT plan project. She recommended Jared Robinson, Ryan Yao and Nikita Frantz, all in 10th grade. As a result, we interviewed Ryan and Nikita. On next class, we are going to plan an interview with Ms. Knoflick, and also e-mail Ms. Lauder for some recommendations among all the atom model projects. 

Day 10

Day 10
• Scheduled meeting with Avivi and Donald
• Four suggestions for next project
• Ms. Battioni: Humanities Aurasma (Next Thursday)
• Ms. Lauder: Science Atom Structure
• Ms. Grezesak: Geometry Models
• Ms. Knoflick: PE FITT Plan (Next Monday)


As the last step of our first project, we emailed the students’ advisory teachers and scheduled an interview with the students in advisory time. We figured out that since middle school has advisory when high school has lunch, we would visit 7 Metal and 7 Earth A during our lunchtime. The first overview will be completed soon.


For next project, although there was an IB Art Show yesterday, we decided to overview a project based on a subject other than art, to make our blog contain various subjects. Consequently, we walked around the school, and came up with 4 possible projects, which are: Ms. Battioni’s Humanities Aurasma which will be due in next Thursday, Ms. Lauder’s Science Atom Structure that are already hanged in her classroom, Ms. Grezesak’s Geometry Models that are finished and displayed in her classroom, and finally Ms. Knoflick’s PE FITT Plan that will be due on next Monday.

At first, we wanted to overview a project based on Humanities subject, so we went to visit Ms. Battioni. Although there were already many projects done in that subject, such as the Revolution, she suggested us the Aurasma project that will be very interesting. We will interview her next Thursday.

Moreover, for backups, we thought Ms. Grezeszak’s geometry class and Ms. Lauder’s science class have finished a great project that looks very interesting. They are both models, one is displayed on tables that show different shapes of geometry, while the other is showing the atom structures, hanged on the ceiling. In addition, the project that we are also doing currently in PE – which is planning our own FITT plan – might be also interesting, so we will also talk to Ms. Knoflick about this.

Day 9

Day 9
• Backward plan
• Decide personal goals
• Schedule an interview with the students

On this day, since the teacher has introduced a type of planning strategy, which is called backward plan, our group started to plan the ultimate goal as a group as well as the personal goals. Backward plan is planning projects in the opposite way of executing. For instance, in backward planning you first decide the ultimate goal, then the processes, and lastly how to begin this project, etc., which will be in the order of completely opposite from the order that you will choose in the future.

As a group, we decided that our ultimate goal is to promote students work in the school community by comfortable ways, in order to make their projects more memorable and valuable. For individual group members, we decided the personal goals according to our roles. For instance, if the role is to update the blog, then the goal is to learn techniques for decorating and making the blog more attractive. If the role is to communicate with necessary people, then the goal is to speaking, writing or making questions more effectively. If the role is to periodically record our progress and write reflections, the goal is to diligently writing reflections that clearly shows what steps did we take and how did we accomplished.

Moreover, the communicator also sent e-mail to selected students, in order to arrange the time and have interviews with them. Since the students are in middle school while we are in high school, we will have to use our lunch time – which is advisory time for middle school – in order to have good interviews and to finish our first work.

Day 8

Day 8
• Interview with Ms. Yung
• Purpose and requirements in the projects?
• Poster template complete
• Updated blog, became prettier

On this day, our group has made a big progress in the CBL project. First, we went to Ms. Yung in order to get actual permission, for whether we can post the student’s work for our project, and she allowed. Moreover, we made another interview with her, asking if there were any purpose or requirements in the 7th graders’ art projects. She answered that the students were required to use magazine papers in order to represent one of the wild animals in its habitat. The students were also supposed to tear out the magazine pieces and make some colors outstanding by using art techniques.

After the meeting with Ms. Yung, one of our group members went downstairs where the gallery is, to take a photo that shows the picture in good quality. As a recorder and reflection writer, I wrote down about our progress, and our results from today’s acts. I also updated some components of the blog, so that people feel more comfortable and easier to read the passages and enjoy the students’ works.

Day 7

Day 7

• Plan out questions that we are going to ask Mr. Gray
• Mr. Gray wasn't there
• Went to Ms. Yung and interviewed
• Viewed the 7th graders' art work and chose which student to interview

Today we have made a good step forward. Firstly we prepared the questions that we will be asking to the teachers, including Mr. Gray. However, because he was not in his office and he looked busy with other teachers, we decided to interview him later.

Although we had some troubles when finding a teacher to interview, because they were all having classes or very busy working, we were able to go to Ms. Yung and interview her about the art projects. We briefly explained about our project, and asked her if she recommends any projects that were very interesting or impressive to her. Consequently, she replied that the 7th graders’ projects were interesting, which was making a photo using scraps of magazines.

We went down to the 2nd floor to see the displays of 7th graders’ works and voted to decide which project we thought was good and impressive. We came up with a student’s artwork, and now we are planning to ask permission to Ms. Yung later (because she was very busy), and start the interview with the student. Moreover, we are also going to interview Mr. Gray and Ms. Lee tomorrow. 

Day 6

Day 6

On this day, we presented about our project in front of the class, Ms. Curtis, Mr. Burns, and Ms. Kruse. The purpose of this presentation was to introduce our Challenge Based Learning project, to explain our goal, action plans, challenges and essential questions we are trying to answer.

In order to successfully run through this presentation, first, we divided parts and assigned each part. Then we wrote the script to make the speaking more effective and send the written script to the group member who was in charge of creating the powerpoint. While making the presentation, we made sure that the group member uses more visuals than text so that the presentation is less boring. We went over the video about 5 main presentation skills, memorized the script, and practiced the presentation like real for several times.

Overall, our presentation was not bad. The teachers gave us great comments on our work and gave positive feedbacks on our Creative Project Overview project. They commented: they love how we have thought of the concept of showcasing creativity of the students to the whole community. Moreover, Ms. Curtis added that  students will be able to gain confidence by our project, which makes a positive effect on overall.

What we might have done better is that we could have showed our emotions and feelings to the audience — such as some enthusiasm towards the project --, or project our voices for clear listening, or included some body motions, in order to engage the audience better. 

Day 4 & 5

Day 4 & 5

• Got acceptance in using black bulletin board
• Start preparing the presentation
• Be aware of the presentation skills
• Decide what to include on the posts: summary of the project (written by the student)(optional), what they want to say about the project (interview)

In those two days, our team really started to take actions in our plans. On Day 4, although the time given was extremely short, we were able to get permission from Ms. Curtis, the principal, to have access to the black bulletin boards. The bulletin boards are originally in purpose of showing the art works of both Middle School and High School students. However, now we can use the extra bulletin board if there is any, or discuss with the art teachers and share the boards together.

On the next day, which is Day 5, we started the planning session of the presentation that will be very significant. It is important, because all CBL groups in our technology class are presenting their CBL projects, and the group that presents the best will receive 1000 RMB, as a support for our project. Consequently, we decide our roles in the presentation and which section will we present. 

Day 3

Day 3

• Made a website
• Can we display the students' works like art works do?
• Make a presentation
• Have permission whether we can display the works
• Email Ms. Curtis
• Let's also involve in the elementary school!
• Decided the name of the project

Today, our group had shared the website from Anna, which looked pretty good. We put our daily reflections and pictures on the blog, which was later fixed due to other additional problems. We discussed how we are going to put our collected information, and decided to organize the categories so it is easier to see. I, Ha Young, have took pictures of us discussing so we can upload them on our reflections.

Next, we talked about how we are going to show our works to the people; if we are going to do it only in online or also offline. We got up with an idea to print out the QR code of our blog, and paste it around the school. By doing this, people who are not interested in school e-mails can check with the code. To carry out this plan, we sent an email to Ms. Curtis to get permission on pasting things on the bulletin boards.

Lastly, we were curious if we are going to search for the projects of High School, or also Middle School's. By discussing and asking the teacher about this idea, we decided to deal with the whole SIS community, and we also added Elementary School. Moreover, we made a name for our group, which is Creative Projects Overview (CPO). 

Day 2

Day 2

• Have Big Idea & First 5 Steps
• Topics overlap with other group?
• Make website / wall to put other students' works and promote them
• Fix from the very beginning
• Decided the roles again

We came up a better plan than the last day, and also had the First 5 Steps. However, after we examined the plan with our teacher, we came up with a conclusion that our topic somehow overlaps with other group's. Actually there was another group working on similar topic with us, which was: guiding the students or teachers to the proper use of MacBook and other Mac programs. The teacher thought that as we progress on our plans, that group and our group will have a overlap on the project, which does not make effective results.

Although we considered the plan that we built up until now was very precious, we changed our plan according to the teacher's advice. She advised us to plan a project that involves the students in a different way, such as posting the students' good school works on a blog and promoting them. This project will result in a valuable site where there are students' excellent works, which students themselves can review afterwards or helping the teachers who are planning to have a similar project in their classes.

So we came up with a new Big Idea: promoting students' work so we would not forget them easily even after the project is over. Since this project is noticeably different from the previous ones, we had to newly decide the roles. We made another role called communicator, email sender, in order to divide roles that will efficiently help us to run on the project. 

Day 1

Day 1

• First planning day
• Nursery room?
• Decided roles
• Public survey?
• Art or Outside lunch?
• Guide people's use of technological presentation tools
• Drew up a list of tools

It is the first day of Challenged Based Learning (CBL) project, and our goal was to decide the big plan as well as the individual roles of group members. At first, we collected the members' ideas about the CBL ideas that they had from the past. 

We tried to decide the Big Idea by have a vote, and consequently making a nursery room in our school was selected. However, as we were planning the details -- such as the Essential Questions, the First 5 Steps, etc. -- we thought that this plan is too unrealistic for us, the students, to accomplish. 

As a result, we changed our Big Idea from making a nursery room to guiding people's use of technological presentation tools. We all thought this idea was very excellent, since the majority of students, including all four of us, were having trouble in using technology to have an effective presentation. We drew up a list of tools, such as Glogster, Blabbering, Voicethread, etc.