Ping Pong Intersession
Build it and They Will Come
This intersession was largely an experiment for me. For a while I've realized that I'm attracted to classes and projects with the simplest goals and concepts so I designed my intersession to be a straightforward as possible. Here's the description I submitted for the class.
After some reflection I decided that parents might not be all that enthusiastic about having their kid come home with a 9ft by 5ft table. I modified our goal to be "Step 4: Donate table to local outdoor space." I reached out to a few local businesses, and a Liberty Public Market was open to accepting our table for their outdoor space. After they accepted I set out our schedule for the 2 week elective
Things That Worked
Having a class and project centered around an activity that students love doing makes for easy management in the class. Students would come early to play, stay in at lunch to play, and stay after school to play more ping pong. It was fun and easy for me to encourage everyone to play a big group game or set up tournaments. This made up the bulk of our time together. We also built a sturdy ping pong table, so we met our initial goal which is something to be proud of.
In class I split the students into tournament groups. These 4 groups of 4 were a nice way to organize the class. In the morning 2 groups would play their tournament games and the other groups would build. In the afternoon the would switch. This way I only ever needed to work with about 8 students at a time as they finished their parts of the project, making for a very manageable work time. This is something I would like to duplicate in the future.
This was also my first "pure" project in a way becauseI have never done a project as focused as this. Typically there are other things that we do in class like readings and short lessons and such. For this there were no assignments other than finishing the table. Maybe part of the reason why it worked this time was because the class only lasted for 2 weeks. I wonder if I could sustain this style of project for an entire semester.
In class I split the students into tournament groups. These 4 groups of 4 were a nice way to organize the class. In the morning 2 groups would play their tournament games and the other groups would build. In the afternoon the would switch. This way I only ever needed to work with about 8 students at a time as they finished their parts of the project, making for a very manageable work time. This is something I would like to duplicate in the future.
This was also my first "pure" project in a way becauseI have never done a project as focused as this. Typically there are other things that we do in class like readings and short lessons and such. For this there were no assignments other than finishing the table. Maybe part of the reason why it worked this time was because the class only lasted for 2 weeks. I wonder if I could sustain this style of project for an entire semester.
Surprises
I was surprised to find a donation site that was so willing to work with us. The pub that we donated the table to was great at communicating and being realistic with their expectations. We delivered the table on time and they actually asked us to make some changes, which is the honesty that I want in a real world connection. I would hate to think that they would accept the table out of obligation.
Another surprise happened after the class ended. When the pub asked me to make changes to the table I was wondering how I would collect the students back to work on it. To my surprise, a few of my students came to me and asked why the table wasn't where we left it. Once I explained, they offered to do the work and are currently meeting with me a few times a week after school to finish up the table.
Another surprise happened after the class ended. When the pub asked me to make changes to the table I was wondering how I would collect the students back to work on it. To my surprise, a few of my students came to me and asked why the table wasn't where we left it. Once I explained, they offered to do the work and are currently meeting with me a few times a week after school to finish up the table.
Things I Will Never Do Again
For this project I didn't leave much room for revision and critique. We mostly slammed through the project, built it and dispersed. If I were doing the intersession again I would like to be more formal about revising work and critiquing it. Talking with some of my former students after the class, they all said that they had thought we should paint the table, which is what the pub owner asked us to change when he sent it back. I must not have created enough space for the class to talk about changes and improvements that they wanted to make to the table.