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I only had two students participate in this Quest, but that actually worked out really well. They enjoyed working together and put together a really lovely photo book this year. And, we sold enough books that we more than broke even so we can give a little money back to STAB (maybe to fund other Quest activities for next year?) I am beginning to think that 2 - 4 students is optimal for this particular Quest, but of course that depends on the students who are involved, too.

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What a fantastic group! We have so thoroughly enjoyed diving into the art of Long Form Improvisation together, specifically studying the form of The Armando. Through a series of warm-ups and exercises the students honed in on identifying "the game" of a scene -- what is ""the funny" that could be further developed. We then progressed into long form. Based off of a random word, one student gives an off-the-cuff true to life monologue. The rest of the group takes details from the monologue to transpose into initiation lines for scenes that are then improvised. The students have progressed to clap-in's, time jumps, throwbacks, and wipes, all part of a vocabulary that allows them to do 20-30 minute long Improvisations, all without stopping and explaining or directing. Super hard and super cool!

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The Rock Band students have learned the Beatles' song "Come Together, and are working toward a live performance.

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The students pitched at TomTom and then we had to decide "then, what?" The students decided to focus their effort on understanding their teachers' and peers' experience in middle school and creating an opportunity to share their findings with the administration. They spent one class interviewing teachers, and then spent a second class interviewing students in other Quests. They listened to the recorded conversations and began to identify themes in the feedback. Our next step is to consider: "What have we learned?" and then "How do we want to share it?"

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I was the teacher-facilitator for Jack V's Video Game Design Quest. I suggested he offer a Quest after he worked very diligently to learn a game design platform on his own and completed an original video game during T3 Digital Arts last year. He did a lot of research and gathered a lot of resources to share with his Quest. I tried to meet with him for 10-15 in between each Quest (usually before school) to debrief and hear his plans for the next time. I think this was critical to the success of this Quest and our working relationship. I've been part of other student-led Quests where this didn't happen and now I would insist on it for any future collaborations. His vision for the Quest didn't always live up to the reality, but he took notes well and we agreed I would only really step in during class for behavior issues and minor suggestions (any major suggestion I had for things like next steps or change in direction, we'd talk about in between). It was really great to see Jack in this leadership role. It was just 7th grade boys who signed up and for the most part they were very engaged and productive. I loved how much they shared tips & tricks with each other and gave good feedback. It's the best student-led Quest I've been part of.

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This Quest came from a couple of 7th grade girls and an 8th grade boy. The costs were really high to get started... more than $500 and we had to take money from the art budget in addition to Quest money. (which we were thankful for). It has also been amazing having Nugent working on the Quest as a partner, I don't think it could have happened without two teachers for help with materials, set up, clean up, and so on. Even when the students are doing these things, it takes a lot of individual guidance to do them well and for safety and cleanliness it was imperative. The accolades the students are receiving from their peers, and adults, is very encouraging and inspiring to the students. We have to keep paintings set up on the easels to dry... some take more than 2 weeks to dry.They have a great sense of accomplishment seeing their work up and they are even interested in an exhibition at a public venue, which they are researching.

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"Bob Ross" painting in progress

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We are currently working toward writing a 10ish-page screenplay.  When finished we will workshop them, revise and begin thinking about shooting a few, so that we all can hear what words on the page sound like in the mouths of characters.
Danielle Feinberg, from Pixar, visited the class recently while we were giving a table read of a screenplay.  She and McKenzie were given scripts and read along.  She then told us how most Pixar movies do not rely on screenplays submitted from the outside; rather, a Pixar director or someone from the creative team pitches three ideas.  They all jump on the one that sounds most promising and begin to flesh it out.  It takes four years to make a Pixar movie and the story can be changed up until the last few months.  When Ms. Feinberg left, you could feel the new energy in the room, because she made what they were doing seem even more real--and very possible!

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Our Quest started out really strong, the kids were excited to learn how to use the Silhouette machine, and start making laptop decals and stickers for themselves and their friends. Some of the students have been more successful than others with the larger scale projects that we have been making for the Maroon and White Auction.
Edited to add that we raised $175 through our 5 completed auction projects!