Capstone: In Review

This was a very challenging project for me on a number of different levels. My first issue was that I had a very had time choosing a topic to focus on, I felt pulled in many different directions. My second difficulty is that not only have I never had to do something like a Capstone project before, as it is a fairly unique project, but I have also have very limited experience doing research and writing research papers. My partner, Taunya was a very experienced researcher and paper writer, so I was inclined to allow he to take the lead organizationally. For me this is a very unusual position to be in, as I find myself more often then not taking on the leadership role when I work with groups. As we moved through the process of defining our question and gathering our research, I found that these were skills that were difficult for me and I was glad for the guidance of a more experienced researcher.

As we began the writing process it was difficult for us to not move to a more traditional research paper/thesis model and stick to the parameters that were unique to the capstone. We knew what we wanted to look for, and after researching, we knew pretty clearly what we thought our answers would be, but making it fit into the Capstone model and making sure that we included all the pieces that we felt was expected of us was really tough. In the end, we ended up doing significantly more writing then was originally necessary, but all of the writing that we did was useful and helped us in our clarifying and focusing process.

Another challenge for me was learning to use embed citations. I never really took writing classes in college, and though I feel that I am an excellent writer, I have trouble with some of the more conventional things like using APA format. I feel like I grew a lot in my ability to do proper citation in this manner through the course of this project.

Taunya and I both went through a period where we were very frustrated with this project. We felt like we knew what we were asking, what the research said, and what kind of plan we wanted to have, and yet we felt like the way that we were communicating that wasn't fitting the prescribed format, or rather wasn't being understood in the same way that we understood it. It wasn't until we sat down with our adviser for the project and explained it to her, who then explained her expectations for us that we finally felt good about the product we were creating. Were I to do this project, or another like it again, I would make an appointment to meet in person with my adviser much earlier in the processes, and to continue those visits frequently.

It seemed like having your 'ah ha' moment was a big deal, and after watching a few presentations, it sort of became a cliche, but the truth of the matter is, we did sort of have an 'ah ha' moment (though we avoided calling it that in our presentation). While we were researching and categorizing and then trying to narrow down this huge field of information, we decided as part of our part III to make a graphic. And I created this hokey chart with what was then four elements (we later combined two of the elements so we only had three) and highlight what each element shared in common with each other element. In creating this chart, we realized that though we had a really wide variety in our solution, and it seemed huge, it had to be huge, we couldn’t use one part without the other because of the way that they all supported each other. This really gave direction to the rest of our refinement and the way that we chose to implement our plan. It also helped us to keep our plan streamlined and manageable.

One thing that I am very grateful for is that my group had a variety of content areas that we represented, not just one. Having my math/social studies, and Taunya’s social studies/language arts kept us thinking about how our plan could be applied across the curriculum. We won’t have the power to change our whole school, but ideally our plan would be implemented not only in our classrooms, but in every classroom, so having already considered the challenges that might present themselves outside of our shared content area (social studies) better prepares us to aid our colleagues in implementing this in their classroom.

There were a lot of aspects of this project that were hard, aspects that I didn't want to do, or didn't understand why I had to do them. However, I am grateful for the opportunity to do this project. For the experience of doing research, and putting together a research based plan. I feel like that experience will serve me in the future, giving me the experience I need to feel confidant about creating research based plans in the future. I'm grateful that I had a committed, hard working partner who's strengths balanced my weaknesses and with whom I worked well. And most of all, I am grateful that provided that I have a job this coming fall, I will come armed with a plan to make my classroom exemplary.