The in-depth project focuses on learning a new skill. Its main goal is to develop this skill over a five month period, gaining experiential knowledge.  Practice makes perfect in this case, too!  Learners may do some  secondary research to get their topic focused and gain some basic background knowledge; however, most of the learning is hands-on/ primary experience.  The following blogs exemplify learners who have taken steps in this direction and are developing a feel for their skill.

Snowshoeing with Jen and Jen and Zoe

Playing the Guzheng with Louise

Juggling with Michelle

Contortion with Chelsea

Music composition with Toren

Golfing with Conrad

Through the eyes of traceur, called Daniel

Film editing with Bronwyn

Cake decorating with Emlyn

Fruit and vegetable carving with Isaac

Jess drawing comic characters for now

Yoga with Katie

Cloning with Vincent

Quirien Mulder ten Kate

In-depth Study: Two Universal Goals.

The in-depth project is the TALONS’ program final large component of the school year.  The in-depth project has two main goals:

1. Know something about everything and everything about something.

In school you are usually taught about many subjects.  In this project, the goal is to learn a great deal about one field of activity, usually not available in a school setting.

2. Learn what others tell you is important and learn what you decide is important.

In school you are told what to learn and how to learn it.  In this project, you will decide in what field and with what strategies, you will become an “expert.”

REMEMBER:

We are interested in three components of your study.

1. The process: as young people, you will be learning patterns of behavior that will emphasize your strengths and that will help you overcome any difficulties.

-          Project will last at least five months

-          Your bi-weekly blog will demonstrate the process:

2. The product: The product will include three areas:

i.            The evidence of learning

ii.            The source of self-esteem

iii.            The cause for celebration

3. The mentor: The relationship with the expert in your field.  This relationship will include three areas:

i.            Meeting with mentor on regularly basis

ii.            Expanding network in community

iii.            Getting feedback on progress

iv.            Obtaining an in-depth understanding of chosen field.

The learner’s first entry this week introduces their project, reasons for their choice and a description of their mentors.

Sample in-depth blogs for this semester:

Immy introduces us to rowing and her mentor.

Victoria continues to explore her passion for ballet

Sam is making jewellery.

Having a mentor for in-depth is the critical piece.  Anyone knows a local drum teacher who could mentor Max?

Follow Katie on her journey of yoga.

Ventriloquism with Galen

View Julie’s prezi about the history of fencing

Learn cake decorating alongside Emlyn

Juliana is developing skills in soap making

Follow fashion design with Carlin

Jess is drawing web comics

Bhangra dancing with Aman

Jeffery is taking advanced first aid

Alphabet photography with Alysha

Tie knots with Hayley

Driving lessons with Stephanie  

Learn to animate alongside Christina

Take golf lessons with Conrad

Sara will share her learning with photoshop/graphic arts

Screen writing with Richard

Once upon a time there was a writer called Megan

Learn alternative guitar from Sepehr

Grade nine learners researched, wrote, presented and recorded 6 to 10 minute TED Talks–their final exam for English 9 and Science 9 this year.  They share their understanding of a topic of choice connected to science 9 and/or science 10 learning outcomes, demonstrating their research and presentation skills learned in class during this past year. Powerpoint slides, video clips and/or a hands-on demo are added to illustrate their topic. As part of this project, they listened to five TED talks preferably related to their chosen field and learned how TED talks are structured and presented.  After having posted their own TED talks, they will comment on at least five of their peers’  TED talks, learning about five additional topics as well as furthering the discussion by leaving comments.  You find links to their posted TED talks below.  Please feel free to provide additional questions in the comment section of each edublog.

Richard discusses Panspermia

Sara discusses going green

Michelle discusses cancer and cancer treatment

Conrad discusses global warming and reproduction link

Megan discusses why we should not eat beef

Louise discusses oppositional defiance disorder

Toren discusses perception of time

Chelsea discusses dreams and memory

Alvin discusses steroids

Iris discusses lost memories

Jen  S. TED talk

Sepehr discusses stem cell research

Immy discusses superbugs in meat

Jen. A. discusses what gymnastics does to your body

Leanne discusses instinct

Emily discusses terraforming Mars

Derek discusses biolumminescences

Zoe discusses dopamine systems

Lexi discusses stem cells

Kelsey discusses spleen cancer

Macguire discusses how fear works

Stephanie discusses how light affects sleep

Jonathan discusses antimatter

Albert discusses technological singularity

Clayton discusses how we experience space

Daniel discusses collapsed lungs

Sharing our personalized learning!

We still have three more weeks until in-depth night! However, due to, for example, finishing last minutes details for our adventure trip, the trip itself and one science experiment report completion, we are wrapping up our in-depth blog posts with just one more.  These final posts illustrate how we are  presenting our five-month long learning journey .  Each presentation/ display/ performance should capture the essence of each project!

Enjoy a sampling of posts below that illustate the ways our learning is going to be shared with our mentors, family members, Talons alumni and future Talons, teachers, adminstrators and school district support staff on May 30th.

Jonathan juggling in the audience.   Jason carving fruit.

Rebecca immersing us in Spanish culture. David finalizing his costume.

Richard presenting an investment seminar. Meghan doing makeup.

Liam presenting one of his sparring matches. Elleni doing magic

Conrad playing guitar.     Michelle reading part of her story.

Megan’s ceramic art gallery. Toren sharing his music compositions.

Nick’s computer progamming for a game. Jonathan Z. and his bonsai trees.

Sara’s art gallery opening.     Iris playing guitar on stage.

Clayton projecting his movie. Jenn A. sharing her sustainability strategies.

Chelsea’s flexbility routine on stage. Kelly’s ballet stage performance.

Leanne presenting a Shakespearean monologue.

Louise sharing her wire crochet projects.

Derek is playing guitar.    Albert will share his home-made laptop.

Kelsey will share her bookmaking talents.

Stephanie will use her medical terminology.

Learn about webdesign from Andrew.  Raiya applying Mehndi for guests.

Jenna displaying her photography. Immy sharing her home-made paints.

Zoe sharing her martial arts skills.

QMtK

In-depth projects are also an opportunity for Talons learners to teach others.  We learn best when we can teach “it” to someone else.  When they tell you, “I get it!” then you know you got “it” too.  Talons learners may present short seminars to the entire group. Check out Liam’s post for an excellent example. Or, they may teach the entire earth science 10 unit to their peers in small sections per quad. In the latter case, they wrote lessons plans with objectives, materials, outline what the teacher teaches and the learners learns, assessment strategies, timing of parts and so on.  These lesson plans looked like professional teachers’ lesson plans.  They taught the lesson alone or in pairs.  The grade tens looked and sounded like professional teachers in term 3 when they presented lessons on thermal energy, climate change and plate tectonics.

Blogs are another tool to share succintly and to teach others what they are becoming experts in. 

Like to learn to play electric guitar? Check out Conrad’s recent post.

How about some magic? Read Elleni’s post.

Juggling is challenging. How about unicyling at the same time?  See Jonathan T.’s post for more info.

Ever wondered how computer games are designed, read Nick’s blog.

Throughout many of their in-depth projects, learners also explore possible careers (Planning 10) related to their topic.  Check out Andrew’s blog.

QMtK

We are concluding month three of our five month long term in-depth project.  This post will be rather short as three other talons leadership 11 learners and I are hosting a garage sale for building a schoool in Ecuador tomorrow and I am supervising a bike trip on Sunday for the talons program as well. 

In addition, I have reached another milestone in my Ph. D. process by completing my final draft of my thesis this week.   My committee and I are ready to select internal/external examiners and start preparing for my defence, hopefully in July.  This journey has been very insightful and has been about a lot more than my thesis proposition. 

I have linked the following posts below because these posts also illustrate that  learners are learning a lot more about themselves in some cases then their actually area of study!

Check out the following blogs: Emily, Daniel, Jason, Richard, Kelly, Megan, Andrew and Raiya.

Have an inspiring read.

QMtK

The BC Ministry of Education mandates the curriculum for each grade and each subject. The Talons program provides some choices in what, when and how learners learn. The in-depth project is another example that illustrates this philosophy.  The following links exemplify what happens when learners explore passions and interests that matter to them.   Incidently, many of their skills match learning outcomes in electives offered at our school. In our case, learners decide what learning outcomes to address, how to assess their work, and how to represent their learning.   They also set their own pace.  Sometimes their project is on hold for a few weeks and other times they have a marathon session that leads to long hours of dedicated learning.  What these projects have in common is learning that is in-depth, focused, intense, personal and meaningful to them at this point in time.  I also believe that not everyone knows what is best for them at a certain time. Adults have a role to play in setting the course; however, learners, when given the chance, can chart their own course some of the time as well. They often take more care with their own learning when they have ownership over it. Even though their choice of projects varies widely, they are learning a lot of the same lessons:

Persevering when things get tough

Showing commitment

Overcoming challenges

Asking for help when needed

Being reflective

Being humble and flexible

Being motivated

The following learners demonstrate these skills and exemplify a great variety of projects.

Meghan is learning about make-up.

Nick is writing computer code.

Daniel is break dancing.

Louise is wire crocheting.

Emily is making jewellery.

Alvin is writing a book.

Veronica is doing vocal training.

Jennifer is reducing her ecological footprint.

Michelle is writing a story.

Jonathan is juggling.

Albert is rebuilding computers.

Sepehr is writing video scripts.

Clayton is film editing.

We are almost half way with in-depth projects before our celebration evening on May 30th. In addition to the mentoring aspect, the emphasis is on the process more so than the final project.  What skills are we learning?  How does this project offer us insights into ourselves? While writing our blogs every two weeks, we are reflecting on our learning along the way, our struggles and triumphs and what is ahead of us yet to be discovered.

We tell our learners that we learn the most when things are challenging.  No exception for me this week. My dissertation has taken another detour; therefore, no time to learn to embed technology into my post this week. 

However, Mr. Jackson has set up a math wiki and science wiki for our classes.  As soon as my own studies are back on track, I will return to my previous goal, stated in week 6. We tried to tape my math “lesson” yesterday because a student was going to be away and thought it would be helpful to post this lesson for her viewing at home later. This was a first for me. It was fun. I joked with the class about being self-conscious about what to wear, making sure there were no stains on my clothes, for example.  Not sure why it mattered now, because I never pay much attention to that sort of thing!

It is interesting how we sometimes think about the little things that may get in the way.  I know the little things do not really matter, in most cases.  ”Don’t sweat the small stuff: can be heard in our room.

In Talons, we do not use the more traditional, teacher-centered way of instruction for long periods of time and only when absolutely necessary.  At times, direct teaching is an opportunity for teachers to scaffold the Talons’ learning, to preview challenging concepts, to extend the lesson (add tangents!), to raise awareness of the applications of math whenever possible, and to clarify common conceptual errors.  None of these processes are written or highlighted in the workbook pages. We frequently condense three, four or even five lessons in a  30-40 miniature lecture followed by several days of independent and quad study to grasp the briefly taught concepts.

This facilitation approach is similar to the in-depth approach.  The learner meets with a mentor when needed, learns a new skill or sub skill, practises the skill at home and returns next time for feedback and so it continues.

Interested in learning alongside one of our learners? Check out the following blogs:

Immy is being resourceful in her own community, collecting natural objects to be turned into paints!

Sara is learning how to draw and paint. Check out her photos.

Megan is learning to use the potter’s wheel and to play with clay.  Check out her photos posted two weeks ago.

Iris is learning to play the guitar.  Listen to her song.

Jenna is exploring photography.  Check out her posted photos.

Toren has finally found a mentor and is trying to contact two other experts on music composition in our Tri-Cities.

Liam is practising using a sword and much more.  His PE classes are paying off as well!

Jason’s vegetable/fruit carving classes are helping him to discover art.  Check out his latest successes.

Stephanie is learning Latin/ Greek prefixes, roots and suffixes and is volunteering regularly at a medical clinic.

Veronica’s vocal classes are described vivid detail.

See you in two weeks.

My own studies need my attention.

PS: A public note of encouragement for Talons learners. Your “This I believe” essays received constructive criticism this week. They were chopped, bits deleted and sometimes entirely new essays were written.  It is my turn this weekend to begin to rewrite mine.  Writing is hard, as is almost everything else, if you want to learn to do  it well. 

Keep practising your in-depth skills.  When your skill matches your challenge, you will have an optimal experience or be in the zone!

This is another example that we are in this together. We are learning alongside of each other.  There are no boundaries for learning, our new district’s vision!

Keep enjoying every learning moment, no matter how hard it gets.

QMtK

Talons learners have just completed week six of their in-depth projects.  They report and reflect on their progress every two weeks. Many recent posts provide the reader with great insight into what we are learning and what we are struggling with.  As we say often in our program, we learn the most when we challenge ourselves. By navigating through these challenges, we become more effective and enriched learners, getting to know ourselves a little more each time.  Our in-depths projects immerse us in one of our passions for a prolonged period of time, not frequently seen in secondary school.

If you have not already figured it out, my in-depth is learning more about technology, especially blogging.  As “teachers” of Talons, we role-model or learn alongside of our program’s participants. In today’s blog, I am trying to figure out how to insert hyperlinks. Inspired by a recent professional development day keynote speaker, Ross Laird, we know technology is here and our youth know how to use it well.  See his website for more informative articles and posts.

He claims that many parents have not adopted the technology that their children are using, so it is up to us, the educators, to become  the learner’s mentors. Learners can access any subject’s content online anywhere and any time. Thus, an educator’s role is shifting from being a lecturer to being a mentor. We support the development of the whole child in Talons and that includes their social and emotional development as well as their intellectual development.

Our in-depth project is all about mentorship, learning alongside an expert and focusing more on skills than content that can just be read in a book or online.  The Talons learner focuses on practical knowledge as well as propositional knowledge, especially during their in-depth.  Learning alongside the other, like an apprentice and master, also provides opportunities for wisdom and intuitive knowledge to be shared during the process.

So with some trepidation I enter the blogging world.  I support Chet Bowers’ work when addressing the negative side of technology in his book, called Let Them Eat Data. For example, he warns us about the loss of local, ecological knowledge.  This local knowledge is often not accessible online; however, it may be a critical piece to the community’s way of living and survival.  

Another author, Bill McKibben dispells the notion that this generation is better informed in his book, called The Age of Missing Information. His argument supports the notion that being outdoors in nature provides us with direct experiences filled with information that no television can provide. He concludes that less is more.  The timing of my thesis is just perfect (more about that another time!).

Technology is here and it is not going to go away any time soon.  How do we balance the use of techonology in schools with all the other worthwhile learning opportunities?

Talons learners explore their passions for learning in their blogs.  I will highlight some of them below and share others in my subsequent blogs.

Learning how to play the guitar is exemplified by Conrad’s blog. Follow his blogs and you can get some awesome instructions!

Becoming more flexible is explored in Chelsea’s blog. She shows us how one can become more flexible as we follow her 30 day flexiblity program.

 Owen’s Blog reports his learning while programming robots. Videos of his robot moving about show us how challenging programming can be.

 Andrew’s blog reflects on his progress in writing HTML code. His latest reflection #3 tells us more about life while learning HTML code in the process.

While dancing through life, Kelly’s blogs reveal her path of self-exploration, giving us a glimpse of what it is like to live and learn every day.

Jennifer S. explores the wilderness using several different modes of transportation. Her tips and travels are revealing a journey that is bigger than just being outdoors, following trails.

Also, trying to become more environmentally conscious, Jennifer A. is trying to reduce her ecological footprint. She shares her suggestions that reduce our impact on this earth.

And lastly for now, how about writing a Shakespearan play using his writing style. Leanne’s blog  illustrates that her passion is worth exploring more and more deeply as well. She is immersing herself in a personal experience that brings together her interests and skills for writing.

And so another blog has been posted.  The links work! My next goal is to learn to embed technology. Be back in two weeks with another in-depth update.

Quirien Mulder ten Kate

Talons Program Mentor

Building on recent conversations in Talons, “What do I believe?”, Jacqueline Novogratz’s  TED talk provides another worthwhile perspective.

Here are small sections of her talk that spoke to me.

She states,  ”Your job is to be human.”  What is the cost of not trying? We must do what we cannot meaure.  Put yourself in somenone’ s shoes. Live a life of immersion. Make your dreams come true.  Stand on moral ground. One persons’ actions can spread. We need moral leadership and courage in our world. We live a life of fear and sense of otherness, distancing ourselves and living with blame.  Or, we can take the more difficult path of transformation, justice, accountability and compassion.  Stand  up for change.

We need leaders and we need to lead.  We cannot do it alone.  We can change a small portion of acts.  Our lives are short! Our time on our planet is precious.  We all have each other.  Live a life of immersion!  That is all that will sustain us.

Quirien MtK