8th Grade Humanities: Rick Choi & Thomas Kim

Project Introduction

Ms. Battioni: Students chose a partner and worked together (Collaboration ESLR) to create an expert analysis of an assign Animal Farm character AND the person, idea or historical event that character represents in the time period of the Russian Revolution and immediately afterwards. They had to use their character's actions, dialogue and other details about the character and the historical figure he/she represents. Finally, they had to create a trigger image, make a short 2-minute video and Aurasmatize the whole thing!

Student Interview

Rick

Do you mind having a project posted around the school?
No, I don't mind.

What do you feel about your project? Are you satisfied with your work?
Yes, I am quite satisfied with my work. But if we had a little more time, I would have maybe edit the sound effects better than now because I couldn't here it very well.

What were some challenges? How did you solve those?
There were some challenges in preparing the costumes. I solved the issue later naturally.

Did you have any inspirations / motivations for this project?
No, actually it was straight forward.

How do you feel about the recommendations?
I'm quiet satisfied with the teacher's recommendation. :)


Thomas


Do you mind having a project posted around the school?
Yes, actually I mind.

What do you feel about your project? Are you satisfied with your work?
Yes, I'm satisfied with it.

What were some challenges? How did you solve those?
One challenge was the time. We had to finish the Aurasma project in a short time, so we solved it by doing some individual work at home.

Did you have any inspirations / motivations for this project?
Well, the main motivation was the teacher assigning us the project as an assignment. I think we managed to make a "creative" project because the character we featured in our video had a clear connection to the real world, so it was easier to make a video.

How do you feel about the recommendations?
Good!


Teacher's Opinion
they…
- worked very well together on all parts of their project.
- independently conducted additional research on Karl Marx, his ideas and writings
- expertly analyzed the connections between Old Major and Karl Marx and
- communicated their information clearly and in an effective and entertaining way.
- independently managed their time in and out of class to produce work that showed creativity, engagement and complex thinking.


Selector Opinion
We viewed their projects in front of Ms. Battioni's room where all the other aurasmas are presented. We think that their project was very interesting, since it contained humor through several acting as well as deep analysis about the Old Major. Their work contained both humor and analysis. Moreover, the image that shows their aurasma was also interesting. It is a picture that represents the Old Major both as an animal and a human.

Student Interview #2

Rick:

1. Do you mind having a project posted around the school?

No, I don't mind. 

2. What do you feel about your project? Are you satisfied with your work?

Yes, I am quite satisfied with my work. But if we had a little more time, I would have maybe edit the sound effects better than now because I couldn't here it very well. 

3. What were some challenges? How did you solve those?

There were some challenges in preparing the costumes. I solved the issue later naturally.

4. Did you have any inspirations / motivations for this project?

No, actually it was straight forward.

5. How do you feel about the recommendations?

I'm quiet satisfied with the teacher's recommendation. :)

Thomas:

1. Do you mind having a project posted around the school?

Yes, actually I mind. 

2. What do you feel about your project? Are you satisfied with your work?

Yes, I'm satisfied with it.

3. What were some challenges? How did you solve those?

One challenge was the time. We had to finish the Aurasma project in a short time, so we solved it by doing some individual work at home.

4. Did you have any inspirations / motivations for this project?

Well, the main motivation was the teacher assigning us the project as an assignment. I think we managed to make a "creative" project because the character we featured in our video had a clear connection to the real world, so it was easier to make a video.

5. How do you feel about the recommendations?

Good!

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!

Project #3 Teacher Interviews

Ms. Robins

What project did your class work on?The 10th graders were working on making a literary journal based on a book about child soldiers, which is A Long Way Gone written by Ishmael Beah. They were required to include enough drawings, analysis, photos, and a lot of stuff that can make their works more interesting.

Do you have any recommended works for our project?Yes. I was impressed in several journals done by Deanna Pistono, Maria Philip, Anastasia Irina Groenestijin, and Cindy Park.

Why do you think it deserves to be recognized?
Their journals were really creative. Their use of expression and the works of connecting literary elements with visual ideas were quite impressive to me.

Project #2 Teacher Interview

Ms. Battioni

• What project is your class currently working on?

Students chose a partner and worked together (Collaboration ESLR) to create an expert analysis of an assign Animal Farm character AND the person, idea or historical event that character represents in the time period of the Russian Revolution and immediately afterwards. They had to use their character's actions, dialogue and other details about the character and the historical figure he/she represents. Finally, they had to create a trigger image, make a short 2-minute video and Aurasmatize the whole thing!

• Do you have any recommended works for our project?

Yes, Rick Choi and Thomas Kim analyzed Old Major and tied his actions, ideas and speeches to those of Karl Marx, who is considered by man to be the "Father of Communism".

• Why do you think it deserves to be recognized?

I mention theirs because they…

- worked very well together on all parts of their project.
- independently conducted additional research on Karl Marx, his ideas and writings
- expertly analyzed the connections between Old Major and Karl Marx and
- communicated their information clearly and in an effective and entertaining way.
- independently managed their time in and out of class to produce work that showed creativity, engagement and complex thinking.

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.