Project Interviews

We need to determine which interview from each group is going to be re-posted here, on the class blog. In your groups, you need to read each group member's interview, leaving a brief comment on each one offering warm or cool feedback about the quality of the answers. Consider the following questions when you read the interviews.

Has the student really answered the question asked of them? Does the answer go deep into the student's experience or does it remain on the surface? Does the answer convey their individuality and personality in some way?

After reading each interview, make sure you leave a one-two sentence comment on each interview. When you are finished reading all the interviews your group must select the most illuminating and interesting interview. After you have reached a decision, leave a comment on the selected interview that states "We select this interview to represent our group." Oh, the student whose interview is selected will received extra credit for the progress report and third marking period grade. Good luck!

Thursday and Friday Agendas

Thursday

Today you will use your class time to meet the SMART goal you set for yourself yesterday. When you have finished working on your goal take a moment at 10:40 to leave a comment on yesterday's post on YOUR blog about what evidence you produced today to meet your goal. I will be checking your blogs and updating the new marking period in Edline, so this comment will count. Please use your time wisely and make some progress.

Friday

Today you will begin an email interview with your new group feedback partner (check the group posters near your table if you forgot!) . The purpose of the interview is to help your partner become aware of their thinking about the project. How does someone become aware of their own thinking? It takes conscious reflection on one's actions, beliefs, knowledge, and ideas. We do this all the time when we make decisions that affect ourselves and others. We also tend to think more about what we say when we talk publicly or in front of others. Your interviews will be published on your blogs and selected ones will be published on the class blog.

We will conduct the interviews by sharing our questions through emails between the interviewer and the interviewee. Today, you will develop specific questions for your interviewee based on the following protocol for two rounds of questions. Your questions should cover the following areas:

Round 1

• Clarify the project goals and purposes. Why are they doing the project? What is important about it? How do they expect it to turn out in the end?
  
• Planning. What actions have they taken so far? What actions do they still need to take? What will be the evidence they produce? How will they collect data? What obstacles or roadblocks do they expect to encounter?
• Taking Action and experimenting. What are the different ways they have been working? What programs, skills, and research have they been doing? What has been new for them?
  
• Assessing and Gathering evidence. What evidence have they produced so far? What have they made? What date have they collected?
  
  
  Round 2
  
• Studying, reflecting, and evaluating. Have they met their goals? What have they learned so far doing the project? Have they learned new information? Have they learned something about themselves?
  
• Modification. Have they had to make any changes to their project or plan? Has their thinking about the subject changed? Would they do anything differently now?
• Revisiting goals and purposes. Does the project still make sense?
  

Write out a specific question based on each • bullet point about the project. Email me your 7 questions to review before we move onto the next step of the project. For example a clarification question might look like: Joseph, why is it important for you to research herpes and STD? What do you want to tell people?

Again I will be checking my email and updating Edline. Your questions must be emailed to me at the end of the period (your emails have the date and time)

New Weekly Goals Post #7

Today you need to reflect on last week's goal by adding a comment. After you've reflected on your progress, you will need to post a special SMART goal for next Tuesday. I will be out of school Thursday and Friday for a project I have been working on. On Thursday, you will have the entire class period to work on your project. To that end, I would like you to set two (2) SMART goals for this week.

• The 1st goal can be your weekly goal to accomplish by next Tuesday.
  
• The 2nd goal must be a goal you will accomplish on Thursday.
  

Using the SMART goal template your second goal will start like this "By the end of 2nd period on Thursday I will........and I will know I have achieved......because........

Next week, when I get back I will be looking for concrete evidence that you met your goal for Thursday. It will count as a 'quiz', so set a goal that you know you can meet and produce some evidence for. For example, Angelica might set a goal to produce THREE new slides for her presentation on Japanese fashion. I will want to see the new slides next week.

On Friday, you will be starting the 1st part of an interview that you will conduct via Google Documents with your new group partner.

SMART Goal Setting

In order to help you set and meet your individual goals, we are going to look at protocol for goal setting that professionals use. The idea is to set smart goals that you can accomplish. So why do we call them SMART goals? Take a minute right now and think about each letter in the word SMART: S-M-A-R-T. What word might each letter stand for that would help you set and meet goals? Try and figure out at least one and leave your inference as a comment.

SMART goal indicators

• S - Simple - keep your goals directly related to the task at hand. Use your backwards plans.
• M - Measurable - your goal should show growth with demonstrable evidence.
  
• A - Achievable - your goal should be something that you can accomplish with effort.
• R - Realistic - no amount of effort or hard work can overcome an unrealistic goal.
• T - Time Table - your goal should have a deadline.

After looking at some examples of student goals, which can be found on any of the student blogs, you have to re-assess your own goals and see if they are SMART goals. If you feel that your goals aren't smart or are missing any of the indicators you can use the following template to help you set or re-set your goals.

SMART Goal template

By next blank blankI will blank blank blankand I will know I achieved blank blank blankbecause blank blank.

Does your 4th weekly goal include all the information that the SMART template provides? Everyone can practice using the template by restating your 4th weekly goal using the template and add it as a comment to your original post.

Searching For An Expert

By now everyone should have developed a list of questions and an introduction you would like to ask an expert in your project area. But how do we find experts? While there are some experts in the school that you can contact, everyone in here can start searching for an outside expert to ask for help and briefly interview with your questions. In fact, one of the best ways to gain new knowledge is to interview a person. That way, they share their knowledge in their own words, which means they are putting that knowledge in their own words from their perspective. This is a higher order of thinking that just giving you a list of facts and/or advice.

To start your expert search, you should begin by searching locally in Brooklyn and New York City in general for people with careers related to your field. For example, Mariah might search for chefs, television, New York

Let's look up the results that pop up and see if we can find contact info like an email address for Mariah.

Now that you've seen it's possible, spend some time trying different combinations of keywords in Google and see if you can find as many contacts to email your interview questions. Send me an email at the end of the period with all the contacts your are able to discover. Include the person or business's name, email address, and area of expertise.

Goal Reflection #2 and Goal Setting #3

Well, today it should be pretty clear that when you set your mind to something, you can achieve it. Before you reflect on last weeks goals and set new ones to move your project forward, consider what President-elect Barack Obama has achieved. It is a historic moment for America.

Think about Obama's path to becoming the next President of the United States. What goals do you think he set for himself? What was the most challenging one and how do you think he met that goal? Leave a comment below.

Your individual project should seem a little easier today, considering what Obama achieved yesterday after years (maybe decades) of hard work. Now you need to reflect on last week's goals and set new goals for yourself. Tomorrow you must present written or physical evidence that you met your most recent goals. Please follow the protocol for goal setting:

• Go to your project blog and leave a comment on last week's goal setting post reflecting on whether or not you achieved your goals.
  
• If you met your goals, please clearly explain how and what evidence you will show me tomorrow.
• If you did not meet your goals, clearly explain why you did not and what roadblocks impeded your progress. At this point, you must also answer the question "How will failure to meet my own goals affect me in life?"
• Post a NEW entry on your goals for next Tuesday, November 11th with the title GOALS #3.

Editing, Revision, and Introduction

Yesterday you submitted (or should be finishing) a minimum of seven questions for an outside expert in your field. Before you start searching for experts to contact you need to revise your questions for spelling, grammar, and punctuation. You need to make sure all your words are spelled correctly with proper capitalization. If we are going to ask people for help we need to convince them with both the questions we and how we ask them. Appearances are incredibly important when dealing with new people and new circumstances.

Based on the questions I've seen so far, everyone needs to go to their SENT box and open the email with the questions. Copy and Paste the questions into a new email and use the CHECK SPELLING feature in the top right of the tool bar. Send the questions again to me AND your feedback partner to double-check your spelling and grammar.

When you have finished revising your questions, you need to write a brief introductory preface for the email that you will send out to potential experts in your field. The preface should cover the following items:

• Introduce yourself and explain that you are working on an independent portfolio project at Brooklyn Prep High School.
  
• Explain how your project connects back to you and your interests.
• Explain how you discovered the person, group, or business's contact information.
• Ask them if they (or someone they know) would be willing to share their experience with you through a short email interview.
  
• Thank them in advance for any help that they may provide in your efforts.

Please save the preface as NAME_preface in your Google Documents and share the file with me.