Heritage Fair

When I picked up Miles from school today, Jack, the Educational Assistant, told me Miles had “been very studious today.” He waited for me to realize he was joking. Jack’s a great guy, and we are glad he works in Miles’s class. “But only I knew how to read his work,” he laughed.  He is also the unofficial I.T. guy for the school, which is a good match for our computer smartie, Miles. This also means Jack easily recognized Miles’s attempt at “Latin” today.

Miles had been working on the second part of his Heritage Fair Project, (the reflection piece). By answering the questions in Lorem Ipsum. I learned today, that’s a way of injecting nonsensical words that look like readable Latin in a text format as filler. When the teacher came over to check out his answers with a quizzical look, Miles told her he had written it in Latin. So, she asked him to translate it. Then came the argument… why had she told him that he was all done the Heritage Fair, to then give him more unexpected Heritage Fair work? She shook her head. She’s a lovely teacher, actually.

Grades 4 to 7 curriculum includes choosing a topic in Canadian History and doing a presentation, ultimately assessed by judges that come to the school on a certain date and chose the best ones to go on to the next round of competition for prizes. Parents buy the big poster boards and kids decorate them with information and pictures, etc. The students are required to include 5 “products” such as maps, timelines, fact files, pictures, 3D models, etc. chosen from a list of at least 30 possibilities.

Over a month ago the teacher gave Miles the long list of products he could show and reminded him about the project very often. As the weeks went by, she was getting frustrated that he hadn’t begun. Good timing was that teacher-parent conferences came up and I brought Miles. We helped him narrow it down to 5 components and scheduled a calendar that home and school could work in tandem with. The best thing lately has been that we bought him a portable scanner so paper is less of a big deal (worksheets were getting lost, assignments got missed). So, now he scans his work, texts, etc. and e-mails them to an account that he, school, and home can access anytime. Progress:)

Anyway, back to the Heritage Fair. He put a lot of effort into his final presentation on the topic of The War of 1812, specifically Laura Secord.  He did research and learned how to do a bibliography. Do I need to also tell you that this took over our family life? That as much as we wanted to encourage independence, we knew he needed a lot of scaffolding and breaking things down into small pieces. And the promise of chocolate. The only way we as parents got through it was to steal wry looks at each other over his head that equated to Is This Our Life Now? or Are We All Hating This Moment Equally? or Do We Laugh or Cry? or We’ll Eat Chocolate And Have Wine Once He’s In Bed… We also found fun with Miles by turning Laura Secord stories into“What was she thinking when…” and I can tell you now that Miles came up with some hilarious off-the-cuff answers. Finally the day came for the presentation. The best motivation seemed to be the box of Laura Secord chocolates that we agreed he could have after the judging. It was a three day process. The kids presented to their classmates, and other Grade students cycled through, hearing verbal reports, which they had to hone and perfect for the final presentation to the judges. 

Day 1, he was so exhausted and overwhelmed after that he couldn’t sleep. Day 2 he took the morning off, stayed for afternoon presentations -got through it…  and Day 3 he was so DONE!  Chocolates… chocolates…. just think of chocolates…. he said to himself the whole time. He even sent me a video text of him smiling and eating a chocolate to “tide him over” during the last hour.

When he was handed the blue paper with new homework about the Fair, he was not excited. Here are the questions and answers:

Reflection on the BC Heritage Fair Project

Excellent work on your projects!  Everyone should be very proud of their accomplishment.

A final assignment:
You are to provide a one-page typed reflection on your Heritage Fair project.
You are to include the following components:

• 1. Introduce your topic and question.

  My topic was Laura Secord. My question was, “Was Laura Secord A Heroine?” I think she was. 

• 2. How would you describe this project as a turning point for you?

  According to the definition of turning point, which is a follows: turning point: noun a) a point at which a decisive change takes place; critical point; crisis. b) a point at which something changes direction, especially a high or low point on a graph.

  I would not categorize this project as a turning point in my learning this year, unless we recognize that it did have some striking resemblance to a crisis because it was very stressful. And it interrupted my sleeping patterns.

• 3. What new skills did you acquire over the course of this project of which you are most proud of?

  The new skills I acquired over the course of this project (of which I am most proud of) are:

  • I learned to use a hot glue gun.

  • I learned that hot gluing can be somewhat dangerous.

  • I learned where the War of 1812 museum was.

  • I learned how to make a map on the computer.

  • I found my new favourite font.

• 4. How has this project changed your thinking on this topic?

  This project did not change my thinking on the topic as I had never thought of it before.

• 5. What would you have done differently?  (Are there any other products you would have chosen instead?)

  I would not have done anything differently and there are not any other products I would have chosen instead. I put a lot of effort into this project, and I am proud of myself. I learned a lot of interesting things about Laura Secord. I admire her for her courage. And I like Laura Secord chocolates.

It is easy to forget that executive functioning skills are learned and some kids need extra help breaking tasks down into manageable chunks – and that most kids are very capable once expectations are clear and assignments are well defined, and sometimes adapted. Asking ambiguous questions can lead to confusion, and resistance. What I love about these answers are, they are honest, logical… and bring many opportunities to not take ourselves too seriously.

Sometimes Ian and I find it hard to balance supporting the learning outcomes stipulated by the public school system, and clearly respecting the individuality of our kids, and we are lucky to have a few staff in Miles’s life who allow him room to express himself and make use of helpful adaptations, like taking math tests orally, as one small example of many. Great things happen at school because of great people.

We care about his personal progress. That’s it. We believe it’s important for him to do his best in the present, be proud of successes and recognize that school is a place where information and learning opportunities are offered, but certainly not the place that has any power to define who he is as a person, or what qualifies as a turning point in his learning. He holds all the power to do that.

There are so many opportunities to broaden the educational horizons for our kids and stand by them when school tries to box them in too hard, while still maintaining and building good relationships with the adults who work with them. This is also progress. And a fine balance. We’ve seen the best outcomes when everyone sets aside ego and focuses on common ground – the best interest of the child. I always believe this is possible, until it is proved that it is not. But staff who work with Miles this year have been so creative and flexible; while we are not always on the same page, we are in the same book – Inclusive Education. And we are not the only family trying really hard to collaboratively improve educational experiences for all our awesome kids! I salute you.

And, I salute Miles:) Well done.