Here it is, the blog post for my last project of the year! โImpactโ was not only the focus of this project, but also the name of the spring exhibition where we presented them.
The Project
By the end we had to create a portrait of a person from our community who made an impact. We called these people โcommunity impact makersโ. They were the focus of our spring exhibition, which some of our chosen impact makers ended up attending. When I think about community, I think about a small part of the world that is connected through something like a shared experience or location. A community impact maker on a larger scale would be someone who changed the world. We discussed people who made both types of change throughout the project.ย
We started with people who made big changes, then narrowed it down to our community impact makers. Youโll recognize some people who changed the world in this ad we watched in class:
This was what inspired our project, and what led us to define what it means to be a โcrazy oneโ as they say in the ad. A โcrazy oneโ is someone who did something different to change the world and push it forward. We watched movies about some of these crazy ones and discussed them in Socratic Seminars to gain understandings we could use in our projects. There was also an expectation, as it was our final project, for us to take our own initiative on researching and taking lots of notes. The research and note taking continued when it was time to choose our individual community impact makers. With information from many forms of research like websites, books, and interviews, we made portraits to show our audience who these people are, what they look like, and what they did.ย
What I Made
The community impact maker you see in these portraits I made is Gordon Smith. We were encouraged to make our projects about a person who impacted ourselves as well as the community. You can read about Gordon Smith, and why I chose him as an Impact Maker here ๐
When we first started this project, I expected it to be difficult to find a person to focus on. When I was thinking about who I could choose, I remembered an art gallery in my community that I have been to many times: the Gordon Smith Gallery. From that point I began my research on Gordon Smith.
This project was my last opportunity to use craft and take useful notes for the school year. I think that this time I really used this note taking system to itโs fullest. I did extensive research on Gordon Smith from many more sources than I expected to find. 
Most of my research was from websites and videos, however I did try to explore other sources. I reached out about an interview but due to scheduling it didnโt work out. Iโm glad I still made the effort to get more information, luckily Gordon Smith is very well known so there were many resources. I also went in research on other topics (not just the person) like why art is good for communities. Because of my research, I felt very prepared to speak at the spring exhibition.
Figuring out how to put this information into a project was the next step. The requirement was that whatever we created had to be a portrait. I was excited to hear this, because painting and drawing portraits is something I enjoy. I didnโt want to just create a portrait of Gordon Smith, I wanted to incorporate an element that showed his impact on the community.
The idea I came up with for this was three portraits painted on three small aprons. In my research I learned that Gordon Smith painted every day when he was older and in a wheelchair as you can see in the portrait. I thought this showed how passionate he was, so I wanted three portraits to tell the story of Gordon Smith at different points of his life. The aprons I used as canvases for the portraits are the type of aprons with paint all over them that you could find in an art class for kids, to show Gordon Smithโs involvement and passion for arts education. I even presented the aprons at the exhibition with art supplies surrounding them to make it look like an art class.
I was really happy with how the aprons turned out, and the research I did to make them.
Presenting at the Exhibition
I reflected on parts of the spring exhibition (specifically presenting the work) in my TPoL, because I think I learned a lot from it. Here is what I said in that post:
Socratic Seminars
This project brought back something weโve been working on for one last time (for this year at least); Socratic Seminars. We discussed movies that connect to our investigation on what is means to be a โcrazy oneโ. Out of this whole project, for me I think it was my weakest part. At this point in the year I was aware, generally, of what makes a successful Socratic Seminar, but I donโt feel like I always did these things.
The seminar I did best in was about โAmadeusโ, a movie about Mozart. For this one,ย I had taken notes that I tried to build on at home after writing them in class. In this seminar I also was surprised that one of my literature notes from earlier in the year was useful. I had a note about the enlightenment period because my research about Macbeth led me to that topic (I know those topics donโt seem connected but somehow they were), so I felt extra prepared to participate when one of the discussion prompts was about this topic. Being prepared was the key to doing well in the discussion.
When I felt less prepared for a Socratic Seminar was during one for the movie โGandhiโ. I think my research an notes didnโt go as deep as I wanted them to, and I didnโt have a sophisticated understanding of the movie. I also found that putting a lot of pressure on myself to say something, made it actually more difficult to say something, especially something useful to the discussion.
In class, after the Gandhi Seminar, we got to know a bit about what Socratic Seminars would be like next year. There will be more freedom with them, and we will have to keep the discussion going rather than getting prompts from a teacher. Knowing there will be more chances at Socratic Seminars next year feels like an exciting challenge to work on this skill.
What Makes Someone a Community Impact Maker?
In this