>>Steven: I was a bad student. Skipped school quite a bit, and I
really didn't find education exciting until I got to college,
because then I got to control how I was going to learn. My name is Stephen Zipkes, I'm the founding principal Manor
New Technology High School, in Manor Independent School
District, Manor, Texas. Manor New Tech is a 100 percent
project based instruction school. Students at this school
not only get the knowledge, but they learn the application, so
the knowledge than becomes relevant when they have to apply it
to a real world situation. >>Mary: I'm super excited about
this project about the Hunger Games. My co-teacher, Michael Chambers,
he is the expert in history. I sat down with Michael
and said, you know what, I think this is how we can fit it in,
let's look at your state standards and let's look at my standards
and see what is coming up next. >>Michael: So what's your standards
you're going to be covering in this? >>Mary: We're going to do 5A,
which is analyzing scenes, 5B, analyzing different characters'
moral dilemmas, and this is huge. >>Steven: We have no choice
on what we teach, really. The state tells us
what we have to teach. >>Mary: What are yours
again, that we're hitting, so I can go ahead and write this out? >>Michael: WH 12, history of the
student to understand the cause and impact of World War
II, describe the emergence and characteristics
of totalitarianism. >>Mary: We hooked the kids into
the project with the entry event. And then we do what's called
the knows and the need to knows, and that's where the student
will give us a list of things, what do you know about this content, so they go through their prior
knowledge and then they talk about what do they need
to know, so we're talking about leaving the students
breadcrumbs in these entry events, and those breadcrumbs
would be like clues. This idea of wait a minute, I kind
of-- I've heard this word before, I don't know exactly what that
means, so that's a need to know and I'll ask that at another time. >>Student: You probably need to
include that picture that I had on the research, because we used
that in the question for Columbia. >>Student: Okay, we done here? >>Mary: The process of a
project is constantly changing. We have to look at what the students
are doing, how they're learning, do we need to go back and
do some more scaffolding? Really, if I have a student who
is three quarters of the way, or almost done with
an entire project, and has not been doing very well,
I really step back and wonder, where was I this whole time? Why wasn't I paying more attention
to where the student's progress was? >>Steven: Our students are
averaging 60 projects a year. So they're averaging 60 to
65 public speeches a year. By the time they graduate,
over 200 public speeches. They know how to talk. >>Student: Right now, my
favorite project is called, Create your own Project. >>Student: My favorite project
this year was in chemistry, and what it was about,
we were using chemistry and reactions to create a soda. >>Student: It's a video production
class, and we're making a kids' show. We're calling it the Dojo Show. >>Student: We're learning
about spatial diffusion, black death, the Columbian Exchange. >>Student: Reactions
like double replacement, combustion, things like that. >>Student: I like it because
it gives me a whole lot of room to be creative. >>Mary: You'll notice that we're
covering a lot of the state standards that deal with working in groups
and how you are giving feedback to each other on content. At the end of the class period,
you need to have a complete and finalized presentation. So critical friends will be over
on that side, everyone else, continue working on your
presentations, and we'll get started. >>So this half of the class
has been working on a protocol that is called critical friends, where they're getting feedback
on their presentations. >>Student: We're going to do
a skit on our moral dilemma. >>Student: Here's our choices. Do we take him back to the
Germans so they can kill him, do we attempt to take
them to a medical center, so they can heal him
and save his life? >>Student: Hmm. What should I do? Should I let my country suffer
from the lack of resources? >>Student: I like the fact that
they're doing a skit instead of a PowerPoint or something, because
they actually make it interesting and they, like, interact with
the audience and everything. >>Mary: The, I likes,
are just obvious, what do they like about
those presentations. The, I wonders, are maybe
some clarifying questions that they might have
about those presentations. >>Student: I wonder why he,
like, chose the specific music to go with the presentation? That's what I wonder. >>Mary: And the next steps are some-- that's where the critique
comes in, some feedback. >>Student: Put some more
emotion into your speaking, like really sell why you
would choose a reason. >>Mary: They're going to present
their papers, but how they present, it always-- how they
present is their choice, but they always do
something multimedia. >>Of course, we're having
presentations this morning. What you should have, each
group should have one slip-- >>Student: As everybody knows, we
read the book, "The Hunger Games". >>Student: So what
is a moral dilemma? It's a situation where all your
choices are morally challenging. >>Student: Ours was to risk
your life to save another. >>Student: There's three Jewish
prisoners and they escaped from a German concentration camp. Me and Jorge, Abe, and Jeremiah,
escaped fine, but our friend, Philiam, is wounded and he will
die if he doesn't get help. I can't choose my own selfish
desires to keep a friend, then doing what is right and just and
letting him go through all that pain. Thank you. >>Mary: I'm assessing them on various
pieces of the oral communication, like how they organized their ideas,
and how they delivered those ideas, what kind of tone they used
during the presentation, and any kind of rhetorical
strategies they-- >>Student: I'm more of
an independent student, of me grabbing knowledge
than someone telling me. I believe it has prepared
me to take the state test, because it's a new way of
learning and it sticks to you in a way that's different
from an oral teaching class. >>Mary: When you put them in
this setting, then suddenly, it just makes sense to them. They see the potential that
they never saw in themselves, and I get excited about my content
again, because it challenges me, and when I get excited about
my content, they get excited, and when they get excited, it
just feeds me more, and it just-- to me, it makes it all worthwhile.
