It feels extremely weird not writing a blog post for almost a full month (yet again), so let me catch everyone up. The library redesign project is all finished now, and we made a really snazzy report detailing what each group thought of for that space. I was really proud of the report, and while I wanted to do a reflection on it Thanksgiving break came and flew by like it never happened.
The first half of Design Lab was very introductory, as this is the first time the class has ever been tested in my school. We’ve learned about design thinking, we’ve done the two major redesign projects as a class, and now the second half of the year is for the students to take charge of themselves as individuals and create our own design projects. It’s even scarier than it sounds, because I really struggled coming up with any ideas at all. It’s very daunting going from a teacher and class guiding your thoughts and actions, but now that the time came I had no idea what in the world I wanted to redesign.
We had a couple of days in class to think of things and look for ideas on the Internet for our new projects, and I was really nervous about it until I heard my classmate, Katie, talk about how she wanted to redesign the gym classes at our school. I loved this idea since I personally have always hated gym ever since 6th grade, and so I asked her if I could jump on her project with her. She was talking all about how gym classes should be more open, and instead of having to do team sports not everyone liked to do there could be different options of activities kids could sign up for to do something that made exercising more fun.
This was great until I had my little epiphany – why don’t I design a Ghenglish class for 11th and 12th graders? It’s been a problem that’s been bothering me all year that I never really found a solution to, because once I finish 10th grade I can never take a class just for Gifted students again. I love Gifted class because of the community it builds for Gifted students, people who are different and like-minded, and even though not everyone is close, we’re all comfortable with each other. Even though I’ve had this issue in my head for months, i never thought of it as a design lab project until the realization hit me in the middle of art club. Luckily Mr. Heidt and Katie were both still at school, and Katie loved the idea. Mr. Heidt said it was a good idea as the state mandates for there to be a Gifted class available to every grade level, and honestly I’m so happy to find a project that makes me this excited. Gifted is something I love, so it’s great I can work with it for D-Lab.
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ext, I probably need to start working on the actual project and hashing out ideas. We had a little discussion about everyone’s projects the Friday before break, but it didn’t amount to much. I’d love to talk to Ghenglish students about whether they would want to take more Ghenglish classes, and I’d need to do research on what should be taught in a Ghenglish class for higher level students. Taking Ghenglish throughout all of high school would stop many kids from taking AP English, but for the sake of sanity it might be worth it.
Adventures of a Teenage Dreamer 