Planning Projects

Planning Projects

• Generating Ideas
• Standards and Curriculum
• By and large, your projects will likely need to first fit into a given curriculum and state or national standards. These, however, may be vague or even nonexistent depending on your work situation! Try mapping things out as generally as possible with an eye toward meeting any necessary expectations, and move from there.
• Do you have a classroom subject that always proves tricky for your students? Maybe this is the perfect place to put some hands-on projects to make things more concrete and engaging.
• Available Materials
• What is already at your disposal and is there an available budget? Your students can make amazing things from the cheapest toothpicks or the most elaborate metalworking tools. Use what you have on hand and push your own creativity. Will items be reused, collaborative, or taken home with individual students? Can it be 2D or 3D? Where will you store the projects? How will you label them with names? Do you want to leave something up for alteration over time?
• Also, Pinterest is your best friend for new ideas from old materials. Don't be afraid to modify things you find, either!
• A Wave of Inspiration
• Sometimes the best ideas come when you are walking to the copier or standing in the shower. You may need to work backwards and see how they fit the standards, but these, in my opinion, are the best projects. When you are excited about them, you can't help but give that excitement to your students as well.
• Timing 
• Seasons
• Some projects just work better at certain times of year, whether it is due to the subject matter or the need to be inside or outside. Consider the level of challenge as well - not so good to leave the more difficult projects at the start or end of the year.
• Other constraints
• Students are often held to mandated testing schedules or may begin to miss class more due to field trips, sporting events, or snow delays. Keep your most flexible projects for these times.
• Interest Inventories
• Can we collaborate?
• As much as you can amid these other parameters, see what the kids want to learn! In my class, they typically just request making slime, and I give that a hard pass since they're already doing it at home most likely and, well, it's slime. Just no. But when they tell me they want to learn how to draw cheetahs or make castles - we can work with that. They will teach you a lot about what it's like to be a kid today.