Projects, Projects, Projects

One project down, two to go! There's been a great deal of discussion both with students and within the fifth grade team about the onslaught of project deadlines that seems to be hitting our students pretty hard.

Both Mrs. Lewis and I talked with the kids about this issue. We both see this as the perfect opportunity for self-discovery when it comes to time management and long term projects. At first, the millions project seemed distant. And, it's clear that many students poured a tremendous amount of time into decorating their simple machines over the weekend. I believe that got a lot of them worried about the time required to do the same job with the millions. Then, the Veteran's Day project was piled on top of that and it seemed to break open the floodgates.

Mrs. Lewis and I are more than happy to extend due dates and work with students on devising a more structured timetable to complete which ever projects they're struggling with. It's important to remember, that we can only help with the problems we know about. So if you or your student is stressed, let us know and we're happy to help. I've already worked with a few to push back due dates in order to take some of the concern off of their plates.

The truth of the matter is that when they reach middle school and classes operate independently of one another, the sympathy won't be there. They'll be responsible for budgeting time. However, we don't want to toss them into the deep end quite yet. We see the concerns and issues stemming from the projects as a great opportunity for students to realize for themselves that they, in fact, need to work on this management. One of the biggest realizations of some of the students was that they had questions about the assignment that they did not seek clarification for but because the due date was so far off, they didn't seek out clarification.  Mrs. Lewis and I are always available in the mornings, at lunch or recess or after school to help out, but our students must learn to be proactive about expressing their needs.

 In the end, we want our students passing in their very best work and we're happy to guide them along that path. Enjoy the pictures of the simple machines below, I sure did. It was a wonderful opportunity to blend scientific knowledge and creativity, a discipline and a habit-of-mind that should be synonymous.

Some students went above and beyond in the engineering department, making their figures pop up and down as well as constructing hidden doors or additional objects building on their simple machine knowledge.  Other's knocked it out of the park in the creativity department. Congratulations to all students for devising some truly original and remarkable products. We truly hope that you're proud of your work. Not that it matters, but you made your teacher proud!