This, I Believe

In this Post You'll Find

• The introduction and thinking behind the project
• Brand new student "I Believe" Video
• Pictures from the premiere of our display
• A video walk through of the "installation" 
• Our favorite Steve Jobs tribute images
• Closing thoughts

Introduction
The year began with a simple, open ended question: What do you believe in? Students developed a moral compass detailing 4 beliefs that define who they are and how they navigate the world. While the statements don't represent a tremendous volume of writing, they do represent a great deal of reflective thought. Most students began with anywhere from 4 to 12 statements and then evaluated which ones were the most crucial to their vision of themselves.

The act of evaluating, whittling down the ideas to just 4 essential statements required the class to either make some difficult decisions or synthesize the essence of multiple statements into one. Then, they were tasked with choosing the one statement for display.

Students entered their one statement into a spreadsheet. From there, they chose how they wanted to be photographed to go along with their "belief." Before I sat down to put the pictures with the statements, I had only seen their top 4. I was nothing short of elated as I scanned over the list of what turned out to be an incredibly diverse and eclectic range of thoughts.

Just as we were wrapping up the project the tragic news of Steve Job's passing circulated the globe. All over the world, thoughtful tributes were being held and the images spread far and wide through the internet.

Because both Jobs and Apple were so dedicated on selling their customers on beliefs rather than products, it seemed fitting to wrap our project into our own memorial. You don't have have to be an Apple customer to appreciate the innovative spirit Jobs embodied. Because while a cooperation's goal certainly revolves around profiting, Jobs was dedicated, maniacally at times, to providing the highest user experience. Changing the world was a foundational belief of Steve Jobs and he acted on it, revolutionizing both personal and mobile computing.

The message of our "I believe" project coincides directly with the belief of changing the world. It seemed fitting that we dedicate these messages to a figure who acted on his beliefs to better our society. I hope every one of the following statements finds the same fruition.

Student "I Believe" Video






Video Walk Through






Pictures 

Favorite Jobs Tribute Images

Closing


I couldn't have had more fun putting this together with Mrs. Lewis. The ideas for the display changed hourly up until the afternoon we hung the work.  Then, the changes happened minute by minute. Finally, at just past 8:00 pm on the Friday night that we finished, we sat back and smiled. It's projects like these that make you count down until for Monday mornings.


That Monday morning the students milled about outside reading and discussing each other's ideas. The big question of the morning was, "Why is there only one word on the large bulletin board?" 


Sometime that morning another teacher popped in the room. She just had to tell the class what an effect their words had on her. "I was walking by and the images just grabbed me. I just stood there reading through all of your ideas." She was visibly excited, gesturing with her hands and the enthusiasm in her voice rubbed off immediately on me. "When I got to the end, I felt really good. Hopeful." She said with genuine emotion. I was so excited for the students. They were able to clearly see what an impact the expression of ideas can have.


This expression can take many forms. Be it an open response, a narrative, images, video, music, drama, poetry- and the list goes on. Above all else, I hope that students take away two lessons from this project. The first is that even a short, concise idea when well thought out can have a significant impact. Second, the extra time it takes to creatively and originally express ideas is equally important. After all, what good is a message if nobody receives it?

Now that this project is behind us, the fun work of coming up with the next idea has already begun... And this time, we have iPads to utilize!