Looking at the projects that were presented, I think the first thing that really caught my attention was how personal they were to the women that created them. While I was working on my own project, I can’t believe how involved I became with my subject, but my approach was strictly from the standpoint of creating a good working model for future classroom use. The projects,on the other hand, went WAY beyond anything I could have imagined creating because they were so personal. These projects had heart! They were created with a sense of passion and/or conviction. The multigenre pieces were creative, informed and so well thought out.
I loved the box of documents that were created for learning about Abraham Lincoln. But to go to the trouble of finding a box from the same time period – unbelievable!
The butterfly project was a lot of fun. I was trying to figure out how I could use it in my own room, but butterflies are not in my grade level’s SCOS. But then I figured out that it would be a great way to research poetry about butterflies – that would put it in my Language Arts strand.
Those that created projects based on family members were especially memorable because of the love and attention that can only be given to something so personal. Beyond a multi genre project, pieces of history were archived – that is powerful.
What really caught me up was the Elvis project. I looked at this from such a scholarly point of view (I am feeling so fuddy duddy about my approach), that I forgot how whimsical and fun the subject matter could be. Kids love music and anybody wearing a gold lame’ suite is going to get their attention. This gave me the idea of having my students research different musical artists associated with time periods or events in my social studies strand.
I came away from the presentations feeling inspired. I couldn’t have learned more had I been at an all-day workshop on the topic of multigenre projects. This was a ton of fun, but mostly, it was an incredible teacher resource.
