Day (Click for Project Description)

Teacher Reflection: I intended for this project to be short but powerful, and I watched as the intention of the project being "short" was thrown out the window, as students took the project description and ran, creating extremely powerful and interesting work. The amount of choice given in this project was inspired by graduate classes I am taking through the HTH Graduate School of Education, and I watched as students blossomed under the amount of choice they were being given. Students were allowed to create in any medium--they had to create something that answered the philosophical question: Can good come out of evil? How different the products were when they emerged was rather inspiring. Natalie Au brought in a flower in a mason jar that she had filled with dirt. Peter Fisher had created a diorama. Nikki Jimenez had created a beautiful painting. Johanna Guatemala had written and produced a song and created a CD case to match. Sol Manuel Garza had created a cabinet filled with drawers that represented different parts of Elie Wiesel's life. Zach Schroeder had created a short film. I also attempted to have students design their own rubrics, and while this was a good activity for students to see how teachers design rubrics, keeping up with 55 different rubrics at the end of the project was rather tedious work. In the future, I may co-design a rubric with my students that is a little more vague and can be applied to any type of art work that may emerge from this project. I really enjoyed seeing the possibilities open up for my students with this project.