I always start off my holidays with a list of things that I want to have accomplish but I usually don’t even get through half of the list because I always find an excuse that I have something "better to do".
This winter I’ve decided is going to be a little different.
Our homework for the holidays in the IA was inspired from Mat Cutts Ted Talk “Try something new for 30 days”. He made a good point of saying that the next month—like any other month—is probably going to fly by, so why not try something you’ve always wanted to do for the next 30 days?
On the last week of school, Mr. Topf mentioned that his 30-day habit was going to be to write for an hour a day. He wanted to write a book about the IA that serves as a guide for people who are interested in implementing similar systems in their school. He told us that we could contribute in anyway that we’d like, and since I love to write, I told Mr. Topf that I wanted to help out, and here I am now co-writing the book!
In his TED talk, Cutts mentioned how he’s always wanted to write a novel, so one of his 30-day challenges was to join a contest where tens of thousands of people tried to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days (that’s 1667 words a day). He also mentioned, however, that it’s better to choose challenges that are sustainable than ones you’ll probably never accomplish, thus, I’ve committed to write for an hour a day, for thirty days, and so far it’s been working great!
The Monday after school ended, Mr. Topf and I met to get a start on the book, and like with any project in the IA, we began with the purpose.
This winter I’ve decided is going to be a little different.
Our homework for the holidays in the IA was inspired from Mat Cutts Ted Talk “Try something new for 30 days”. He made a good point of saying that the next month—like any other month—is probably going to fly by, so why not try something you’ve always wanted to do for the next 30 days?
On the last week of school, Mr. Topf mentioned that his 30-day habit was going to be to write for an hour a day. He wanted to write a book about the IA that serves as a guide for people who are interested in implementing similar systems in their school. He told us that we could contribute in anyway that we’d like, and since I love to write, I told Mr. Topf that I wanted to help out, and here I am now co-writing the book!
In his TED talk, Cutts mentioned how he’s always wanted to write a novel, so one of his 30-day challenges was to join a contest where tens of thousands of people tried to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days (that’s 1667 words a day). He also mentioned, however, that it’s better to choose challenges that are sustainable than ones you’ll probably never accomplish, thus, I’ve committed to write for an hour a day, for thirty days, and so far it’s been working great!
The Monday after school ended, Mr. Topf and I met to get a start on the book, and like with any project in the IA, we began with the purpose.
P U R P O S E
1. TO INSPIRE STUDENTS, TEACHERS, AND ADMINISTRATORS TO TACKLE SIMILAR PROBLEMS IN EDUCATION BY USING OUR STORY AS A GUIDE.
2. TO SYNTHESIZE EVERYTHING THAT WE'VE LEARNED DURING OUR FIRST YEAR AND TO RECOGNIZE THAT THIS IS STILL A "BEAUTIFUL WORK IN PROGRESS" (that's the title of our book!).
1. TO INSPIRE STUDENTS, TEACHERS, AND ADMINISTRATORS TO TACKLE SIMILAR PROBLEMS IN EDUCATION BY USING OUR STORY AS A GUIDE.
2. TO SYNTHESIZE EVERYTHING THAT WE'VE LEARNED DURING OUR FIRST YEAR AND TO RECOGNIZE THAT THIS IS STILL A "BEAUTIFUL WORK IN PROGRESS" (that's the title of our book!).
Once our WHY was clear, we decided to structure the book according to the IA's mission statement. If our goal was to inspire people through our story, we felt the best way of structuring our book was by what we try to live up to every day, and that's our mission statement. The first part would focus on how we exemplify a culture of excellence, the second part would focus on how we are creating a passion for learning, and the final part would focus on how we adapt the way we learn to improve the way we live. The coolest part of all was that each chapter of the book would we written from the perspective of a student (me) and a teacher (Mr. Topf) because both parts have been equally as important in the creation of the IA.
After a week of writing, I must admit that it’s actually been a lot of fun, and I won’t lie, I’ve gone past my one hour commitment most days, but that’s simply because I truly value what I’m writing about and am eager to write more. Once school starts, I probably won’t find as much time to write, so I’m taking advantage of my time now. Nonetheless, I will try to maintain to my one-hour limit for the next week because I have other schoolwork that I need to finish before my trip to the US on the 17th.
Personally, the best aspect of this challenge is that I’ve been able to deeply reflect on my experiences in the IA: the struggles we had, the mistakes we made, and the progress we’re making. It’s unbelievable to think how much we’ve grown individually and how much we’ve grown as a class. I hope that if anything, this book will be an inspiration to people looking to tackle similar problems in education. It’ll show them that a system has already been implemented and can be implemented anywhere around the world as long as there are PASSIONATE , HARDWORKING people as the driving force.
After a week of writing, I must admit that it’s actually been a lot of fun, and I won’t lie, I’ve gone past my one hour commitment most days, but that’s simply because I truly value what I’m writing about and am eager to write more. Once school starts, I probably won’t find as much time to write, so I’m taking advantage of my time now. Nonetheless, I will try to maintain to my one-hour limit for the next week because I have other schoolwork that I need to finish before my trip to the US on the 17th.
Personally, the best aspect of this challenge is that I’ve been able to deeply reflect on my experiences in the IA: the struggles we had, the mistakes we made, and the progress we’re making. It’s unbelievable to think how much we’ve grown individually and how much we’ve grown as a class. I hope that if anything, this book will be an inspiration to people looking to tackle similar problems in education. It’ll show them that a system has already been implemented and can be implemented anywhere around the world as long as there are PASSIONATE , HARDWORKING people as the driving force.