Wrapping It Up
Let's take a moment to bring together our inspirations from the three days
Bella Patel - Laurel School, Shaker Heights, OH
bPatel@LaurelSchool.org
💡😎 Allow for time and space for ideation before proposals (G10)
💡😎 Help students write a plan of implementation and set goals; follow through with regular meetings about plan (G11)
🗣 Learned so much from all of you - so much sharing of resources!
Sarah Bogard, Fountain Valley School of CO
sbogard@fvs.edu
I started off a little overwhelmed and worried about teaching Capstone for the first time, I helped support the classes last year but teaching is different than supporting and I don’t want to let our students down.
The session on motivation was helpful because it reinforced that we are on the right track while also giving some tools to strengthen the track we were on.
I learned a lot and am glad to know that this community is here for support.
Hawai’i Preparatory Academy
Dagan (dbernstein@hpa.edu) Greg (gmckenna@hpa.edu), Amanda (adewey@hpa.edu), Molly (mlai@hpa.edu)
👬👭👫 Emphasis on empathy
👥 Finding community
⚒️ Build in the boxes so the students can build out of them
🤔 Creating a Hawai’i state capstone requirement
💡 Use Trello format with physical, real trifolds?
🤔 Have students use futures thinking as a strategy for gaining allies for their changemaking/capstone work. Futures thinking as a way to help students argue for how their project will create an optimistic, exciting future
🤔 “ it’s hard to be practical and creative at the same time. “
❓ how might I formalize faculty/student check-ins? Offer a protocol/routine? How to set expectations around frequency?
🤯 Peer-to-peer student accountability buddies.
😎 Fresh commitment
🗣 Capstone Consortium support?
www.sequoyahsip.org rjsakai@sequoyahschool.org
💡 Liz’s idea of Sweet Sixteen
🤔 Ariel’s Thinking about the Future exercise
❓ Liz’s Learning, Solving, Making, Doing
🤯 Jen’s proposals are Letters. Reflect by asking: I tried, I notice, I wonder
😎 Be active with questions and answers on the Mighty Network.
hink in new ways?
I had many eureka moments during the conversations about partnerships. Our Capstone Faculty’s interest and commitment to helping foster partnerships for students within and beyond our campus has been rooted in casual and helpful enthusiasm rather than in dedicated space and time. I have pages of ideas now for more of a multi-step process approach that feels more in line with what partnerships deserve. I am now committed to working with the team to strengthen and deepen this aspect of our program.
Having a student-centered approach, meeting them where they are, and helping them to design their future is so much fun. The joy of learning and exploring can be at the center of capstones. The NCC team is thoughtful, caring, and great to join!
❓ From RJ: How might we give students the skills to engage in partnership?
💡 Session on building partnerships co-hosted by college counseling team, advancement office, alumni affairs, coordinator of experiential initiatives, student leaders in service, etc.
🤔 Partnership is also student-student (collaborative projects)
😎 Committing to designing structures to support intentional, equitable partnerships between students
(I need to head out to an appointment so likely won’t get to share this slide out verbally, but thank you to everyone for this amazing experience)
“The Future Will Reward Clarity and Punish Certainty”
-Bob Johansen
“Better to rehearse the future than be blindsided by the present”
Phu Tranchi - ptranchi@oakwoodschool.org- Oakwood School, N. Hollywood, CA
Pondering the future of Oakwood’s “Senior Projects” - what they are and what they can potentially become. The past year has forced a favorable inflection point for the program upon which I hope to capitalize. Hearing about the different programs across the Consortium gives much food for thought with inspiration from Futures Design thinking.
Future Wheel - Setting Up Scenarios
Ideating fantasies for the POSSIBILITIES will allow me to promote the structural support necessary to allow our seniors to conceptualize meaningful projects. Need much more support and better framing of what the project should and can be.
Tensions
Formal/Informal
What the world needs/What you want to do
Passion/Impact (not mutually exclusive)
Access to high quality technology and tools/Inequitable access to resources
Optional/Requirement
What’s the right size?
Sarah Venkatesh, Trinity Episcopal School�svenkatesh@austintrinity.org�Innov8 program
💡 Fresh ideas? Assist students with partnership-formation with a website that serves for match-making but don’t make arrangements for them. �
🤔 Think in new ways? Spend more time in “problem space” AND potentially let the project be about the students more. �
❓ Futures Thinking: Hard not to compare to Design Thinking and wonder where the empathy/observation fits -- everywhere? Perhaps I should not think of it as a sequence? Also, making predictions was not in my comfort zone. But perhaps if I can ground a prediction directly in someone’s lived experience, I could do it more confidently.�
🤯 A "Eureka" moment?: Divergent thinking (as seen in design sprint exercise) is joyful for people. Avoid squelching creative thought. Bring the prototyping back.�
😎 Fresh commitment: Reapply my teaching of video production, website & graphic design, and audio production to help students develop voice.
Jocie Kopfman, Co Capstone Teacher
The Harley School
💡 HPA’s roadmap give me fresh ideas and inspires me to spend more intentional time documenting our program
🤔 Broadening my idea of what qualifies as a partnership.
❓ Where could I add more SEL in my curriculum?
🤯 Elevator pitches to community members before they write formal proposals
😎 It’s helped me feel excited to start planning for the year
🗣 Thinking of the consortium as one of my class’s partnerships
💡 Fresh Ideas:
From RJ: Practical tools for community network building
From Liz: March Madness bracket to narrow project interests
🤔 New Ways of Thinking:
Futures thinking, and practical activities to elicit it
❓ Grappling: Financial support for students with few resources
🤯 "Eureka" moment: Maintaining bottom-up within top-down
😎 Fresh commitment: Involving more teachers/community
members in the Capstone program/process
🗣 Capstone Consortium:
This group has been a HUGE help during my first year as
Capstone Coordinator. Thanks to leadership for organizing this
conference, as well as events/newsletters throughout the year!!
Seth O’Bryan, Harley School, sobryan@harleyschool.org
THANK YOU CAPSTONE SUMMIT LEADERSHIP TEAM - awesome design and doing
Jen Friborg
Belmont Day School
jfriborg@belmontday.org
"Enjoy this magical moment. Find the joy."
"We want students who are curious, empathic, and empowered."
How can I do my beat to ensure that, by design, student projects are not reinforcing racisim, power inequities, other structures of inequity and stereotyping?
Capstone is a vehicle for students to be seen, known, have a voice.
For iteration and broadening topic ideas
Futures Wheel
Futures 2x2 exercise
Books:
Range (D. Epstein)
Drive (D. Pink)
Specific steps to consider:
use "milestones"
consider a "failure resumé"
develop a clearer way to support students financially as needed
consider more choice in presentation format
refresh our emphasis on the personal connection with the topic: What is the story of your interest and your learning journey?
Jon Calos
Emma Willard School
jcalos@emmawillard.org�jon@capstoneconsortium.org
Value of future planning > keeping the “best” parts of the pandemic
Adaptability of capstone > any model can work if planned well > find a vet if you need more support
Soundtrack!