There’s an air of excitement at VU this week leading up to the winter break. Homework for some has been light, but others are working on multipart projects. Last night I helped one of our students write a four paragraph essay about a biography he read, one of several components of his project. He has been so focused on finishing this project, working on it over the course of a couple of weeks, that I’ve been impressed. We had an instruction sheet with a checklist, and we kept referring back to it as we worked so he could track his progress. Aside from the project itself (which he did a great job with), it’s been a valuable experience for him to follow the process in such a deliberate way. He’s planned, prepared, and executed, and next time I see him, I want to make that explicit again to reinforce a growth mind-set. He won’t always find school easy, but if we can teach him that perserverance and hard work will pay off, it will be an invaluable lesson.
As students have worked on their projects this semester, it’s become apparent that their lack of access to computers can be a disadvantage, both to obtain information and, in the case of the projects, for presentation. Our students need easy access to computers and printers to keep up and to be able to present their work in the same way that their peers do. That’s on my wish list this year. Can you help make it happen?