The Thick of It

I always found popular culture intriguing because it represents what is relevant RIGHT NOW.  I think many students share this sentiment but often find popular culture and current events quite distant from what goes on in their classrooms.  With the recent super storm, Hurricane Sandy, students in Morristown, New Jersey were in the thick of what was on the news and flooding social media networks.  I thought this was a great time to capitalize on their interest with what was going on RIGHT NOW.  When we returned from our seven days off from the storm, I immediately presented the students with “The Hurricane Sandy Relief Project.”  The project has two components, a short term (individual), and a long term (group).  The short term project involves donations, interviews with the those involved, and immediate relief for victims.  Often in our society, donating time and money is seen as the endgame.  I disagree.  While donations are essential and necessary, they do not change an infrastructure in a way that creates long term improvements for the community.  Therefore, students are spending more time on the long term aspect of the project.  Students are required to focus on one issue related to the Hurricane.  Some of their topics include the gas crisis, the electric grid, price gauging, and Morristown preparations, etc.  They are required to research how this issue unfolded during Hurricane Sandy.  Then, they will write a business proposal to the appropriate person with a plan of how to improve on their topic of choice.  They will include a statement of need, a budget, and an overview of their creative suggestion.  Lastly, they have to “sell” their idea to their classmates.  The goal is to eventually send off the best proposals/presentations to local government officials, power companies, or local community members, whomever the relevant recipient may be. 

                We are halfway through the project and students are collaborating effectively with Google Docs, sharing ideas at any time of the day via their computer, phone, or tablets, which allows me to immediately see any changes they make to the document and to keep track of their pacing.  Google Docs is a teacher’s dream as I don't feel the need to hover over them in class, I can keep track of who is doing what from anywhere.  It is a phenomenal monitoring system.  The greatest thing I have noticed is how invested students are in this project.  Because they feel an intimate connection to the Hurricane, they care immensely about the success of their proposals.  I (the teacher) am not the final viewer of their product, in fact, I am the first of many.  Their product will be judged by their classmates and ultimately their community.  The stakes are high for this assignment, students refuse to stay married to their product, they see it as adaptive and ever-changing.  They don’t want to continue with a “bad” idea, as many of them do with their traditional assignments.  Once they start a traditional assignment, they are hesitant to revise and change it, because they know that their perhaps sub-par idea will receive an acceptable grade.  This assignment is about more than grades, thus they are willing to revisit, revise, and reflect.

                From an educational standpoint, this project allowed for genuine, meaningful research, collaboration, and communication.  They are learning a variety of skills such as persuasive and informative writing, public speaking, and prototyping.  They are also beginning to think about important marketing questions; what presentation will impact their classmates the most?  What is the best method to capture the attention of an audience?  How will our classmates connect emotionally to our product or idea? I love that students are beginning to understand the process; discussion, research, discussion, dividing of tasks, writing the proposal, and  bringing the proposal to life with a presentation.  Ordering is difficult for many students, as they are quick to jump around and find it perplexing to follow a pattern.   This project guides them in how thinking should be sequenced for the best possible product.  I look forward to sharing their presentations and proposals in the coming weeks.