For the past ten weeks students of Mr. Provenzano’s class have been thoroughly going in depth of the romantic classic Romeo and Juliet; as like other high students. But instead of reading the book and learning it by taking tests, the students of Mr. Provenzano’s class excelled beyond that and remade a movie of it in modern day language. A parent of the district heard about this project and thought it was a waste of time, that the class should be taking tests, and not be working with kids in another state to learn the material. The students read the book in the beginning and Mr. Provenzano gave his class background information and some help on a few statements that were hard to understand. From there, the students did all the work. The students read and then translated the play to modern day speaking. They put themselves in the positions of the characters to act it out, but in present day prospective. This project was a visual, hands-on project; and by doing this visually the students got a better understanding of the play, the themes; and how the characters and how Shakespeare wanted the readers to feel. As for working with others students in another state, it helped the students be open to different ideas, and learn to work with other people, and use people skills. This project has helped the kids learn responsibility, communicate with others, prepared them for the future, go about things on their own, and has had an emotional impact on them. There are many points of view, on which people can look at this project, but because of all the life skills, and that people learn better hands-on, and visually; the project was not a waste of time.
In this epic Romeo and Juliet project, it considered of two different schools from different states; Michigan and Iowa. The classes in both states were always communicating with each role of the movie and made sure the customs were the same and that the scripts were along the same storyline; since the acts were split up among the schools. They couldn’t always use class time to use Skype, so they would update a blog, and a wiki space with new information and plans. Another way the kids would communicate ideas was through email. Throughout each discussion that toke place each group had to be open to the other ideas and state what they were thinking of doing, and their visions of the way they planned the movie or scenes to turnout. It was not always easy to get a hold of each other when each school needed to and when they did, the kids had to present themselves, their school, and their ideas in a friendly, open manner. The students of this project has learned different ways of communicating and a proper way to present themselves, ideas, and their school or community, but it has also taught them responsibility.
A huge part of this project was making the deadlines. Everyone were pressed against time to have the whole project complete because students were leaving school early to get a jump start on spring break. Each individual had its own jobs to complete including updating everyone by using a blog, through email, and through a wiki space. And for some individuals depending what their job was making sure everyone knew what they were suppose to wear, say, be, etc. And if one didn’t complete their tasks, the whole project would be delayed. So whatever the job the students had, it was huge that the jobs were completed, or the final production won’t even happen. Also no one was there to pick up the slack. So the amount of responsibility the students had was a lot. Even if a student was responsible before entering this project, they came out even more responsible than even before, because this project gave them an example of how life might be in the future.
As in any movie, this production had directors, cameramen, writers, prop and costume designers, and soundtrack and with people to advertise the film. And the students did it all. The students had to organize schedules, and find times and places to meet; with the obstacle of going around every ones personal obligations. They had to make sure everyone had their work completed on time, and make sure everything was correct, and the way it was envisioned. This project took up a lot of time, time on the weekend and afterschool. So this project not only gave a real life scenario of how it is to work in the movie production business, but with any job. With any job people have to commit themselves to work even when they are on vacation, or have other commitments, and they would have to balance their priorities. And this project gave the students a chance to see how it is, trying to balance their lives on their own. This project let the students experience life in the future, but it has impacted their lives in an emotional way as well.
This project frightened a lot of the students when Mr. Provenzano first explained it in the beginning of the year; because of how much work it was going to be. It was a lot of work, but it wasn’t so bad because they had all of their classmates help out. This project brought classmates closer, because they got to spent more time with each other, besides the 45 minutes they have in class each day. By spending more time with another students got to learn and see new talents, and qualities in each others that they haven’t seen before. The students also got to meet new people that never met before in others hours, but also in another state. This project has had unforgettable moments that the students will look back on, and have stories to tell their kids or learn from their mistakes. Moments like the thousands of takes they had to get the lines right, or relocating to a spot that they won’t suppose to be because of weather conditions. It all has had impact on their lives. Making new friends, finding out more about the friends they had had been apart of the project, but a big life trait that come out of this was the student’s independence.
Mr. Provenzano told us a brief description of each person’s job, and what he expected, but then after that he was in the shadows. Mr. Provenzano wanted his students to be able to experience as much as a real life scenario as possible, and the only was to do that were to put the students in charge of everything. There were directors though who would overlook over thing that is going on. The director was the person who every one went to for figuring out problems, and organizing everything. Mr. Provenzano was only involved when things got really out of hand, or when the students won’t listen to the director. Without having this independence the students would not have gotten all of the life skills and experiences out of the project. Also it would be like sitting in a classroom and taking tests. So how much they got out of the project was up to them.
During a 10-week period of time, the kids successfully completed the project, had fun doing it, and learned about the play, but also had many values come out of the project. The kids learned communication. They learned how to present themselves, ideas, and others, but also they learned different ways of getting a hold of someone. They how to be independent, and along with that came learning how to be responsible. This was an opportunity that introduced the life of a common worker, and how much time that needs to be sacrificed to succeed. And through all the hard work, they kept memories, and friends that will last a lifetime. Even though some may object; with the many values that came along with the success of the epic project, it was not a waste of time.
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