Category Archives: Design Think

Carondelet News Channel (en français!)

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I had originally planned to begin a new unit in my French 3 classes this past week and a half leading up to Spring Break, but everyone was showing signs of exhaustion after the completion of our last chapter, projects, and oral quizzes (on a light topic such as environmental issues and endangered animals in Francophone countries). They did a great job, so I wanted to reward them with something different than usual as we transitioned into Spring Break. I wanted a creative challenge that we could successfully complete in a week, and the pressure was on–I honestly had no idea how it would turn out, but I was excited to tap into my journalism background and do a journalism mini-project-based unit.
Over the past week, I taught my students all they might want to know about the news and media in French. I helped them expand their vocabulary in French after reading recent headlines, listening to topical news podcasts, watching daily news broadcasts, and parsing through satirical news sites in French to see if students could figure out what headlines were real and what were parodies (ask me if you want to see the presentation–the headlines are hilarious). We even debated current events and students defended their opinions about the news and journalistic integrity.
During our final long block period (today’s class), I charged the students with creating a class-wide 15-minute news broadcast. Running through some modified design thinking exercises, students in my 5th period (sole Carondelet-only) class pitched and then voted on their ideas for the show, concept, title, and logo and came up with the following:

In groups of 2-3, the girls were responsible for the following 2-minute segments: 

  • Introduction and Carondelet-local news (including Mr. Cushing’s departure from the school as he prepares to go on tour with the Spice Girls)
  • San Francisco Bay Area news about a local scammer and Anne Hathaway impersonator
  • International news chronicling the Carondelet trip to France next week in the wake of today’s Notre Dame Cathedral fire in Paris
  • Sports covering the Carondelet swimming, rugby, and lacrosse teams
  • Arts and lifestyle covering the construction of the art class’s school bus in the inner court that was tragically stolen overnight and replaced with a gigantic croissant
  • And the broadcast closes out on a very high note covering the erratic weather we’ve been experiencing recently.
They quickly edited their videos using either iMovie or the Apple Clips app which Karina and I presented about on Friday (and I’m looking forward to creating a screencast or future blog entry showcasing all the cool features Clips has to offer if you weren’t able to attend our Grab-and-Go session last week). 
Here is the folder of all their videos if you’re at all curious to see what they were able to produce with the quick 80-minute turnaround during today’s class. I had a lot of fun helping them think through their scripts and watching the final production (which we won’t get to watch as a class until after break), and I am so proud of them for their creativity and sensitivity and attention to world news as it relates to this class.
This was one of my most favorite long block periods of the entire year, and I am looking forward to getting even more creative next month when I roll out a food truck race competition in my French 3 classes.
That’s it for this blog, see you on the other side of Spring Break, everyone!

When Going Back to Step 1 is a Good Thing (and Your Students Agree)

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As I pass the midway point in the Semester, I have found that my Social Advocacy class is realizing that each team needs to be on different steps in the Design Think process. In the first half of the semester all of the teams were approaching the Design Think model in a linear fashion, and I believe that this served them well. Now that they have be testing their prototypes, they are realizing that they need to rethink their original plans.

In the class we discussed the idea that when we test, we are trying to discover the problems with our designs. Instead of taking the approach that we will succeed, rather we are eager to explore ways that we can grow in our designs. Realizing that we won’t have a perfect solution, this changes the emphasis of the project. Now instead of the teams look at the impact that they will be making on the social justice issue, they are invested in putting the user (the people effected by the issue) first and wanting to revise what they have planned to better serve them.

One specific group that I would like to highlight are a group looking into ways to reduce date rape on college campuses. They had an initial idea of using the idea of “Angel Shots”, but creating their own version of it to avoid copyright and permission issues. This faltered for a variety of reasons, but it hasn’t put a damper on their project. During a video conference with a Post Graduate student from Cambridge University, the team presented their project to date. Madi Vorva (Post Graduate Student) invited them to seek out other organizations and clubs to partner with them. Now the team is effectively going back to the Empathize Phase to learn more from people in college invested in this issue, just as the girls from Carondelet are. At our last meeting the team was reaching out to women empowerment clubs and Professors of Gender Studies at Colleges.

Although it could be seen as a negative that they are essentially back to step one, they see this as an exciting step because they know what didn’t work. They know that they need more support to make this project a success.

Interestingly I haven’t had any of my students ask what this will do to their grades. Throughout the project the emphasis has been on growth in the project, and that we are never done. Our goal is to keel pushing forward, and the most important people are those effected by the social justice issue. We aren’t the most important people. Our grades aren’t the primary focus. People matter more, and that is our motivation.

A Lesson in Design Thinking

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The new class “Frosh Creation: Think, Make, Share” more commonly known as “TMS” is off and running! This is the class all of our freshmen are taking that attempts to bridge the worlds of art, music, and computer science together. This year Christina Ditzel, Andrew Kjera, Joan Tracy, and Amy Way are team teaching the course. 


Today’s class was a lesson from Joan in Design Thinking. In the lesson students were tasked to physically build a prototype for a client, based on a specific need. Here’s how it worked: students were given a picture of their client and were asked to make observations about who their client is, and what their life might be like. Then they were given an item to design for this client. For some it was sportswear, for others it was a place to sleep. They had the remainder of class to physically design and build their prototype from the materials we had on hand. Our students found this exercise frustrating, fun, stressful (in a good way), and creative. In other words, everything we were hoping this lesson would be!

Students work to build their prototype




The lesson’s success got me thinking. While this was a great hands on lesson for those who want to get their hands dirty and use real materials, is there a way that I can design a lesson to solve a sonic problem? I’m brainstorming ideas now, but if you have any thoughts I’d love to ‘hear’ them (no pun intented.) 


What’s your “Big Question”?

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One of my main goals for the new Introduction to Philosophy class is to encourage students to explore big questions and concepts that they find interesting or relevant to life today.  I want students to move beyond passively learning about philosophers, ideas, and theories throughout our history of thought to actively evaluating and connecting these concepts to their own experiences and world views.  To this end, I have assigned my students a “Big Question” project.  Here is a link to the details of the first stage process.  The project is inquiry based and will be developed throughout the first semester.

Currently, students have chosen and refined a “Big Question” of interest.  They are researching what other philosophers and schools of thought have said about this concept.  As the semester progresses, students will continue to make connections between what we are learning in class with the question, find articles and media that develop it, and finally come to their own understanding.

I am impressed by the questions with which my students have decided to grapple.  Here are some examples.  Is an utopian society possible?  What is the nature of love? Why are human beings so often dissatisfied?  What is beauty?  I meet with students individually to discuss the question.  I also communicate with each student through Schoology as they research and struggle through difficult reading.  So far these discussions have shown students working with these ideas, clarifying what and why she is interested in the topic, and how she is seeing these ideas’ relevance today.

This exercise does highlight the need for a different way of organizing instructional time during the day.  These topics require sustained focus, questioning, and thought.  Our current school day and year don’t allow students this kind of time to deep dive.  With the time we have, students are beginning to scratch the surface of sustained philosophical inquiry.