Unproject Student Reflections Vol. 1

Reactions to an Unproject
The unproject was an assignment that had little structure. Most if not all of the work was done at home by groups of students. They used the knowledge of Web 2.0 applications to create a finished work that explained FRACTIONS. As with most projects some kids fly and some never get off the ground. This project offered those who just wanted to "taxi on the runway" or those who want to fly opportunities for success. This is a great enrichment activity for students. I hoped to not limit the creativity of students. I think I succeeded.

I asked the students to reflect on their UNPROJECT in thier BOB's or blogging on blogging. These are blog posts that reflect on the unit which has just passed. Here are a sample of responses.


1) Did you like the unproject?

• Yes, I like the unproject because you got to do whatever you wanted to do for 10% which made it awesome because you did have to do a certain thing, you could just do what you were the most comfortable with.

• I did like doing the unproject because it was fun doing it and i got to show my "CREATIVE" side.
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  Yes, I really like doing our un-project because we didn't have specific rules and instructions to make or do our project. So we were free to do anything that we wanted, like a movie, a song, a game and more! I think that this un-project was fun because my partner and I got to choose what kinds of projects that we wanted to do that was comfortable to us.

2) Did the unproject make you work harder than you usually would ?

• Yes, it made me work harder because we had to do something other than some paper work.
• The good thing about it is there wasn't any writing to do, it could be whatever you wanted pretty much.
• Hmm.. the unproject did not make me work harder than i would in a project because we had the chance to choose what we want to do with our project.. not the traditional powerpoint, photostory, etc.
• Actually yes it did. But i work harder then anything when I work on computer because thats what I mainly do at home anyways so i can just work on something and still chat on msn while working :D.
• This un-project did kind of made me work harder because sometimes I was trying to get our project to look like something that would satisfy me and I had to do a great amount of tries to get the right ones but overall, it was fun to do and I didn't think it was hard.

3) What did you like best about the unproject?

• What I like best about the unproject was how Jeff and I got to act things and make our own movie about fractions. We had some pretty funny times haha.
• The thing that i would of thought was the best of doing the unproject was that we got to choose the partner I wanted and the way I was to show our topic.
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4) What would you change about the next unproject?

• I wouldn't change anything about the next unproject because it was so fun and you got to do whatever you wanted. It was awesome.
• thing i would change about my unproject was to film a scene at school, outside, or even at the mall. I would like to make it like that "street magic" thing you see one tv and go up to complete strangers and ask then to tell the kids at our school something about fractions.
• I would change the quiz , the quiz was a bit difficult to make because you got one right answer, then you have to make up some other possibilities and its just hard cause its a smile question. So if i had the chance to i'd change the quiz and make like a game or something.
• The best part about the un-project that I liked was that we got to choose and do any kind of project that we wanted and that we could do anything for our project so that I didn't really have to worry that I am going to lose some marks because I didn't follow the instructions. Also, another thing I liked was that I got to show my creativity in our projects.

5) Did the unproject make you learn more because you were doing a different type of project?

• It kind of made me learn more because of how some people explained how to do certain things which made it much easier for me to learn about and I caught onto things a lot quicker.
• Yes, the un-project did make me learn more because I learned how to use something called "spresent" and that I learned how to use it's gadgets and make a whole new thing that I new I couldn't even make.

Some Students chose to answer in paragraphs.

• I had fun and I liked the unproject that we did. My partner was Paola. The unproject wasn't hard for me at all because all we did was explain mixed, proper, improper and equivalent fractions, and we also had to explain how to convert mixed fraction into improper fraction and how to convert improper fraction into mixed number. We also had to make a lyrics and we had to sing it, but it make me work harder because we had to use recorder and stuffs and we also did the project all over again when we had mistakes. The best thing i liked about the unproject was when we sang and rap. That was really fun because I went to Paola's house to record and watch, eat, and chat. I would add more informations and take the project more seriously and have more pictures too if we're going to do another unproject like what we did before about fractions. This unproject didn't really made me learn more because all we did was explain the different kinds of fractions, that's all, but one thing I learned was how to use the COOL EDIT because that's where we recorded our song.

• We had an unassignment project that was unassigned to us and i chose the shawn as my partner. We worked together on it everyday in the break, we stayed up at night, talked on the phone all day and so on. For me... I don't want to put this into harsh words or anything, but i personally don't like projects or assignments and especially unassignments. The unassignment project was just like other projects i've done... it did make me work harder because i'm a procrastinator, but otherwise, it wasn't all that hard. The thing i like about doing the project is i got used to using this graphics program called Adobe Photoshop... i always see my brother use it... i guessed with the designs it carried, it can make my project creative. The thing i would change for the next unassignment project is the selection of the choices we had to choose from. I would like to create a video with friends. The unassignment project didn't really make me learn more, because i explaining what fractions are aren't all that hard... i was born with a fraction on my head. It did make me learn how to use other wikitools and picture programs.

• I had fun with doing my fractions assignment. My partner was Sarah, and I think we really worked hard as a team. We made a PowerPoint slide show for our project. The project really made me to work more harder than I usually would. If Mr. Harbeck didn't assign the project, I would have been fail the tests that we had during this unit. The best part of all was to make a slide show. The bubbleshare didn't work so I used slide.com instead, and it turned out really well so I think it was the best part. If I have another chance to do this project again, I'll write the information more specifically and will have more pictures and questions to explain more. This project made me learn more too.

These are real student voices. I have not made any edits to their words. I will add more here later as more BOB reflections roll in. I think you can see that the students enjoyed doing this project... no I mean UNPROJECT. Take a risk and create one too.