It's Time Sales Time!

It's been a hectic 4 week project, but we've almost arrived to our vacation sales pitch time! Some students today were finishing up the details for their vacations, while others were cool, calm, and collected, claiming they were ready to go (we'll see tomorrow).

We're fortunate to have a great community that supports our activities.  We have several community members willing to give up part of their day to help judge the winner.  Thanks so much to all of our judges!  We love all the support we get at SVMS!

Secondly, I'm proud of the students' perseverance throughout this project.  Two weeks ago, most of them were moved to another class to prepare for a standardized test.  Initially, I was frustrated about the situation, which none of us had control over, and had considered scrapping the project.  However, taking a step back from the situation, it may have been the best thing to happen.  The situation threw these students into "the real world".  They were no longer able to meet face to face in my classroom.  They were forced to collaborate with each other through email, Google Docs, texting, and outside of class time.  If this wasn't a little "real world experience", I don't know what is.

Tomorrow eight groups of students will bring all of their work together to present a real vacation for people they didn't know nine months ago.  When I started at SVMS seven years ago, I never would've imagined trusting a group of 8th grade students with $500 to plan our actual Summer vacation!  It's been a blast and I'm thinking that this may be a regular event!

Anyone else need a vacation planner?  :)