Taking Risks - 3rd Grade Passion Project

"Always work hard on something uncomfortably exciting." Larry Page

When Mrs. Rivas' 3rd graders go to her website, they are reminded of the big idea of the Passion Project that the VVE 3rd graders are engaged in this spring.

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3rd Grade teacher, Julie Carmona, was inspired by the Runde's Room Passion Project Blog back in December.

After sharing the idea with Mrs. Rivas, Mrs. Brock and Mrs. McDaniel, they decided to start a Passion Project with their students after the winter break.

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Using Mrs. Rundee's blog as a guide, the 3rd Grade teachers discussed their goals for this project and planned their introduction and the first few Passion Project sessions.
Employing the graphic talents of Lorrie Salome, they launched their Valley View 3rd Graders Passion Project Website.

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The students watched a Kid President video for motivation.

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They used a Haiku Deck created by Mrs. Carmona for the introduction of the project. This Haiku Deck is on the Passion Project website>Introduction.

Three Important Things to Know (shown below) were discussed

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Mrs. Carmona and Mrs. Ehlinger spent some time with the class as they worked to understand the Passion Project. There were a lot of questions, some of which are shown in the video clips below. As can be seen by some of the questions...it was difficult for students to understand the "freedom" of the Passion Project. After some initial processing, the students were totally involved.

Students and teachers are keeping up with their plans and projects through the use of a spreadsheet and a Trello board.

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Mr. Solarz's 5th Grade class blog is another resource they are learning from as they experience their first Passion Project with their 3rd graders.

Check out how this is all coming together in the slide show below.

These 3rd grade teachers have been telling me how exciting and a bit scary the Passion Project is.
But....
As Seth Godin says:  If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try.

Be sure to check back for Passion Project Updates!

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