Mission X 2015

Saturday, June 6, 2015

What is Mission X?

Scratch that. What WAS Mission: X, at least for 2015?

Mission: X was the name of our spring LA curriculum. Mission X was an expression of project-based learning with an emphasis on independent student choice and continual teacher feedback. Students set goals for work to be completed weekly and were graded on process, progress, and product. I guided them in the choice of their work, which had to involve reading, writing, and making. The mission lasted over 8 weeks. I met weekly with students, provided feedback continually in class and on Google docs, and pushed them to develop and refine their activities. There were stages, opportunities for self-correction and development, and a festival at the end.

General Values

They learned some comfort with uncertainty and frustration, which were the states in which they worked to make their own decisions. The more decisions the student made, the stronger the student became. I wanted the student to make as many decisions as possible within the world of rules I created and maintained for them. They may not have been in the mood to do anything until they started to do something. They always had to be actively working on something. They did not need a goal in mind. They freed themselves from working toward a defined product and stayed open to following the work where it led, which often surprised them and inspired them further.

LA Connection

To connect this mission to the work we had been doing in LA all year, I started from our approach to books and movies: “Act like a hero in a world of rules.” The students acted like the heroes in the world I created. I created the world and the rules. The student was the hero. The student chose, made plans, acted, failed, regrouped, adapted, and kept going. Our goal was to make the journey, step by step, week by week, and become, at the end, a hero.

Project-based Learning: Choice within Limits

The underlying principle was to differentiate the educational experience among many kinds of learners. I created an environment in which the students, independently, made as many choices as possible while I guided them, added mini-lessons and mini-requirements, provided continual feedback, and kept them actively working throughout the trimester.

The X Festival for Students

The X Festival was June 3, from 1:15 to 3:15 pm, inside and outside the Lodge. During these two hours, students displayed their work for each other. Most of the following photos I took during the X Fest.

The Virtual X Festival: A Showcase for Everyone

I created this website as a virtual X Festival to showcase all activities from the students during Mission X.

So what happens when you have no end goals or end products in mind? What happens when students can choose (with my approval, of course) their activities from week to week, following their curiosity and my suggestions as they develop and refine their work?

Ironically, you get a whole lot of end products.

Students wrote 5,000-word stories, 10,000-word blogs, and 14,000-word journals. They made 2-minute video poems and 5-minute music videos and 15-minute movies.

They wrote books, comic books, children's books, and grammar books. They wrote letters, poems, zines, and journals. They made movies and one grammar app, hosted several talk shows, and designed a murder mystery.

They made to-do lists and bucket lists, advised boys about middle-school girls, and explored self-esteem through quotes and collage. They learned calligraphy, created hand-lettered zines, and reviewed TV shows, novels, and movies.

They interpreted music lyrics, learned and taught guitar, and created websites about cars, cooking, health, fashion, beauty, yoga, football, basketball, restaurants, life hacks, photography, and more.

On this site, you can see photos of the students and their work, read the summaries written by the students, watch videos and read journals, follow links to their blogs and websites, and enjoy Youtube videos of student talk shows. Enjoy!

Mr. B.

Sabrina Navarro

MISSION▪X SUMMARY Sabrina Navarro

When I first started Mission X, I didn’t really get it. All I really knew was that it had to have a meaning and words in it. I didn’t want my Mission X project to be some project that I’ll easily forget about. I wanted to have fun while doing it and for it to be memorable. I wanted it to be unique and big. I sat in my seat and spent about 10 minutes until I figured out what I wanted to do: A PINATA. But then I had to figure out how I was going to use words and what meaning it would have.

I decided that I can use the pinata as a way to show people about how you can overcome the bad words that you may be called. I started constructing two boxes, one pink and the other purple. Then I made a sign pointing to the purple box that said, “Insults,” and another sign pointing to the pink box that said, “Compliments.” I cut out different colored paper into squares and then I set it next to the pink box, and then I cut out white squared paper and set it next to the purple box. I had people write their own compliments and insults and put them in the boxes.

The 7th grade also participated in my Mission X. Once I thought that I had enough compliments and insults, I started on the pinata. I looked up how to make a pinata on Google and then followed the instructions. Once the pinata was done, I glued the insults that were on the white paper on the outside of the pinata. Then I filled the inside of the pinata with candy and the compliments on the colorful paper. This way the insults are on the outside, but when you hit the pinata, the compliments and candy come out

The point of my project is to show how strong words really are. Words can be mean, and you don't have to put up with it. You can either hang out with people who brighten your day or darken it. It’s your choice.

X▪T I P

It’s helpful if you have a whole folder to put your things in for that project.

Mayella Strodel

MISSION▪X SUMMARY Mayella Strodel | Buy Mayella's book from Lulu here.

In the spring trimester, we did a project called Mission X. It was a project in which we chose what we wanted to do.

Originally when we started the project, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I researched many different topics and ideas. I really wanted to write a book. I thought it would be really interesting if I had a book full of advice, tips, hacks, and recipes, and I could make it really funny. Sometimes it's hard to sit through a really boring book. My book is very interactive and holds your attention.

I had help from my teachers and my classmates. I have transferred my book several times. At first I wrote my book in a Cartoon Network journal Mr. Barringer gave me. Then I thought it would look better if I rewrote it in a different journal. After filling up that entire journal, I typed the whole book into a Google document. I also had to write in a Google document in order to have it printed.

Mr. Barringer and I researched different printing companies, so that my book would then be a paperback book. Now I have a book that is printed and bound together, professionally.

X▪T I P

If you are going to write a book or something else, write about something that you like or is important to you. This will help you because then you will want to work on this project.

Emmy Belloni

MISSION▪X SUMMARY Emmy Belloni

During Mission X, I mostly worked on planning a Murder Mystery. I started in Camp by writing chapters from stories I am co-writing with friends. However, that would be hard for Mr. B. to edit, so I came up with the idea to plan a Murder Mystery.

I started by creating the rough idea of where the mystery would take place. I went on to write a template for character information. I filled out the forms and created the eleven characters who are involved in the Murder Mystery and some of their basic information. After I completed the character bios, I created and filled out a character-relationship chart. The chart is basically a paper with all the character names written in a circle, and arrows drawn from character to character. On the arrows, I wrote a brief description of what the relationship between the two characters is or was.

Once that was done, I drew out a map of the scene of crime. I started with just a sketch of the room, then I added some of the clues that the investigators could find in the room and wrote a bit about them and what they mean.

At that point I realized that it was time to do more clues than just what were on the poster and the scene of crime. I wrote all the clues down on a Google doc and categorized them by whether they were spoken or an actual object. After that, I wrote out what the characters were doing on the day of the murder.

When I was midway through that, Mr. B and I created the idea to make tarot-type cards to display the character information. I drew pictures of all of the characters on index cards cut into 3 by 3 squares. Mr. B and I edited the character profiles, and he formatted the cards and sent them to be printed.

Once that was over, I went back to the “What Was Happening on the Day of the Murder” charts and completed them. At that point, Mission X was almost over, and I was satisfied with my Murder Mystery planning being complete.

X▪T I P

Don’t stop creating work! Mr. B. has given you the opportunity to be boundlessly creative, so take it!

James Folds

MISSION▪X SUMMARY James Folds | The Upshift

This year, I based my Mission X on cars.

At first I made up some questions about cars, such as, “Will self-driving cars become a real practical thing in the future?” I would answer these questions on a Google doc. I did not know where I was going with this, so I started asking my peers and teachers to submit good questions to me so I could answer them. I had around 4,000 words of questions and answers on my Google doc.

I wanted to take my writing further and do something with it. So I started a website called the Upshift. I put all my questions on the website. I added different pages to my website, like a news page for automotive news. I also added a Top 3 page where I choose what I think are the best 3 cars from different categories (minivans, sedans, etc.), and I wrote about them. Since I travel to see car races, I thought it would be a good idea to write about my experiences that I had there. I wrote about a race in Austin, Texas, and one in Los Angeles, California. I added a small page on the racetracks that hosted the races.

I spent the last couple weeks adding visual supplements to my entries to try to improve the viewer’s interest on that topic. Right now I would estimate that I have 6-7,000 words total on my website with 30-35 entries covering different topics and cars. Overall I think that Mission X was really fun and interesting.

X▪T I P

Work steadily and be consistent with your entries on a website.

Maddison Khire

MISSION▪X SUMMARY | Maddison Khire | Sites: Youtube Channel, Classroom Ninja Channel, Top Life Hacks blog

Over the last two months in Mission X, I have worked on four different things.

The first thing I tried out was making rollerblading tutorial videos which worked out pretty well. The only problem was that I had to bring my rollerblades and video-recording gear to school every day. My channel was called The Madd Rollerblader, and I planned on making it a twenty-eight episode/lesson series, but instead I stopped at lesson five.

Then I decided to work on something easier to do in school. I made a channel called The Classroom Ninja. I made cool gadgets that other kids could make in school during class. Running out of ideas, I stopped at my third video.

Websites are really easy to work on anywhere, because all you need is a computer. Therefore, I made a website called Top Life Hacks, which were my favorite life hacks. Life hacks are little things you can do in life that apply to daily activities and make them easier. For example, to see if an AA battery is dead or not, you can simply drop it on a table from forearm length and see how many times it bounces. In this way, you can determine its relative charge. If it bounces once and flops over, that means that it is good. If it bounces a couple times, then its charge is gone. After working on this for two weeks, I started to run out of intricate life hacks that were complicated to explain. They started to become more simple and could be expressed in a single picture or phrase. I decided this wasn’t going to work either.

Lastly, I have been working on a paper about my life and thoughts. This has definitely been the easiest to work with and fun to do. At the beginning, I gave a summary of my life and what I did in each grade. Eventually as I got to the present, I now talk about my opinions and thoughts. I have learned something from each project that will benefit me in life for the years to come.

X▪T I P

GoPros do not have the best audio, so make sure you are close to them when speaking.

Wesley Neal

MISSION▪X SUMMARY Wesley Neal

This trimester, I thought of an idea of having a journal of an archaeologist from the future.

It was a little hard to wrap my head around a situation of not knowing what an Iphone is. When I was making the entries, it was hard because I knew exactly what the object was used for. I had to really think outside of the box and put myself in the shoes of someone that had no clue what our lifestyle was like.

I thought it would be very interesting because these tools are not very simple. It would be harder to see what a pen is than what a rock attached to a big stick would be used for if you had never heard of either.

I made videos of how these tools would have been used. These videos were very fun to make because it was very funny to see these tools used in these ways.

I thought it would be fun for other people to guess what certain things were used for, so I made do-it-yourself ones. You could imagine being an archaeologist from the future.

I put all of the videos together in one movie that contained funny clips of me getting hit with a soccer ball, eating with scissors, and Axel massaging me with a basketball.

I had a lot of fun doing this project, and I hope you can enjoy it as much as I do.

X▪T I P

Don’t be afraid to expand your project, like putting your writing on a website or making videos.