As a teacher, I am constantly attempting to make new assignments that not only have purpose for my students but also reach my curriculum. To meet the needs of my students, I created an assignment for them to research and create a paper as well as a presentation on a career of their choice.
To create this assignment, I taught the students to research, demonstrating and using websites. I included different way to start a paper, add topics, a flow chart, as well as other tools to help students understand paper writing and the reason.
Over a few weeks students researched a few different careers in which they thought were the most interesting and taking notes. As weeks progressed the notes were put into a paragraph flow chart and then papers were able to be typed. The flow charts included: what the job was, high school requirements, college, job growth, and skills. The students then took the papers and created a poster that summarized their findings.
As a teacher, I viewed myself as the project manager. I was over 3 classes of students and illustrating them into become successful researchers for their own destiny.
THE EPIC FAIL
Students were not following directions or refused to work outside of class.
Computer issues at the school or students did not have them available to them.
Outside supports is minimal.
Students were not excited about the topic, for many could care less.
As a project manager, I think I would of walked through the topic with more students. I would also spread out and have more deadlines for students to reach to prevent students from not doing work. This could prevent some students from slipping through the cracks. Although students were monitored for research and their flow chart, the actual typing process could not be as closely monitored due to computer/ lab issues. Next time this will be more closely monitored. Although I tried to prevent the failure, it didn't seem to matter. My view of failure doesn't fit anyone else's. Looking at the Rules for Failure, from Choo, I have seemed to follow many but not completely. Although I planned, communicated, and did about everything else I could think of it, it still wasn't enough to get to success.
Maybe next year.
Resources:
Choo, Geoff (2012) Don't Try this at home: Seven rules to guarantee project failure. Retrieved from http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/seven-rules-to-guarantee-project-failure.html
Maybe next year.
Resources:
Choo, Geoff (2012) Don't Try this at home: Seven rules to guarantee project failure. Retrieved from http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/seven-rules-to-guarantee-project-failure.html
Sherry Gallant
ReplyDeleteHi Elizabeth, This sounds like a great project. The sooner your students start thinking about their futures to better their chance of reaching their dreams. I think you might have had a better chance at success if you built more minor milestones into your project. If they had to report at each stage you would have been able to keep track of their progress without chasing them around or depending on them to tell you about problems that they try to solve themselves.
Sherry,
ReplyDeleteExcellent point, and I wish I would have. I was watching research but I couldn't walk them through everything. I did provide them with a flow chart for organization and did check those.
Society sure has changed for do it yourselfers.
Hi Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteWhy do you suppose the students weren't interested in the topic? Was there any sort of analysis performed prior to the project that was used to identify careers as a suitable topic? Could anything have been done to make the topic more interesting for them; perhaps allowing them to choose their own topics?
Brandey
DeleteMy students utilized onetonline.org. They were profiled and then selected their careers. I wish I could say it was lack of interest.. it was lack of want.
Hi Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, this is how we learn through our failures. I'm sure that you will utilize your new found skills in project management on future assignments/projects. When I look back over some of the projects that I have worked on, had I known some of the skills I'm developing now it would have brought some order to the process. As stated, it is important to take stock at the end of a project and develop a list of lessons learned so the same mistakes are not repeated (Greer, 2010). Utilizing a Post Mortem/Post-Project Review to assess projects/assignment will help us develop successful projects, large or small scale.
Greer, M. (2010). The Project Management Minimalist: Just Enough PM to Rock Your Project!
In order to succeed we must fail.
DeleteIn education there are always projects to be attempted, hopefully well planned and implemented instruction. However, after attempting certain instruction the details that were not considered are very evident. Also, even the best instruction may not work for all learners. Sometimes we just need to learn from our mistakes. Greer (2010) identified some questions that project managers can reflect on after a project to help ensure success on a change or even a future project. “Describe any early warning signs of problems that occurred later in the project? How should we have reacted to these signs? How can we be sure to notice these early warning signs next time” (Greer, 2010, p. 43)?
ReplyDeleteDo you think that involving the learners in some of the choices of the project may increase motivation for completion? Maybe the learners could be considered stakeholders in the final product, giving them more ownership of the project. “Did all the important project players have creative input into the creation of the design specifications? If not, who were we missing and how can we assure their involvement next time” (Greer, 2010, p. 43)? As a project manager, we need to have progress monitoring set up for checkpoints throughout the project. Your idea of having more accountability for progress is a great idea. Portny et al. (2008) warns against having late progress monitoring, not anticipating risks, and not holding people accountable for performance when working on or planning a project. Making clear expectations may not be enough to keep learners on track.
Cindy
Resources
Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! (Laureate custom ed.). Baltimore: Laureate Education, Inc.
Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Thanks for sharing. This project sounds like a lot of the projects I had my students do while I was teaching. I especially liked the fact that you allowed the students the ability to choose which career they wanted to research. I have found in the past that allowed the student to choose the topic typically creates a higher level of interest in the project.
I agree in your reflection that next time creating more check-ins with the students during the course of the project would be beneficial. I would even suggest to have these check-ins be a percentage of their overall project grade. This way you, as the project manager, would be able to have a better idea on the progress of each members project. This would allow you to make the proper adjustments or changes throughout the course of the project. Efficient communication is essential when a project manager is dealing with its team members (Portny, et al, 2009).
I hope that next year if you choose to do this project again that you will have more success. It really seems like a good real world issue that the students would benefit from.
I wish I would of posted my rubric. Unfortunately having too many checks ins at times can chase issues for the already problems. Maybe another time...
ReplyDelete