1.

What you produced and accomplished during this project

The Poet Laureate Project was an extensive, fascinating, multi-part project. We have
spent months creating different pieces to this project. We started out with researching our region
or country, I was assigned Catalonia, Spain. From there we began to craft our poem. We learned
the subtleties of good poems, the importance of form, and the agonizing process of creating a
good poem. Because my poem was based on the Tragic Week of 1909, I also crafted an
explanatory essay from my research notes explaining the event. This part of the project was
enlightening and interesting but fairly generic and because we are a Project Based Learning
school, generic doesn't cut it. The second part of this project, which I enjoyed so much more was
the creation of our book, History Through the Eyes of the Living. I was a member of the Book
Design Team. We were in charge of creating all things book; the cover art, layout, Table of
Contents, Introduction, Notes page, everything. I was primarily in charge of creating the Title
Page. I chose the font, words and layout of the front cover. However, our whole team worked
really well together and we collaborated on every aspect of the book.

2. What you're most proud of achieving during this project

My favorite part of this project was by far the Book Team aspect. This has been the first
project where the success of the project is fully on the students. This is the first time Ive been
given this kind of responsibility from my teacher. Being on the Design Team, it was our job to
present all of our work in a professional, appealing way. It fell on us when the Copy Editors did
not catch a grammatical error, it fell on us when someone did not format correctly and although
that was extremely stressful, it was also so incredibly empowering. I had such a purpose, I felt
such a responsibility to make this beautiful work. When Project Based Learning is done
correctly, it should invoke that drive every time.

3. What you remember best from the project...

Lily and I sat on her bed, looking at our screens, our research notes far from finished. We sat
down with the intention of banging them out but, unfortunately, it didn't happen like that. We
began at 8:30 and did everything but our notes. For hours we talked, drew and yelled at our lack
of progress. We drank tea, ate, listened to music, hit our head on pillows as we racked our minds
for different search words and clicked between tabs. Wed approach our computers only to
willingly side track ourselves again. By 12:20 we began to worry about our lack of progress
and our mental state. Her dad walked in and was perplexed at our crazed procrastination. He
laughed but his clear disappointment rubbed off on me and Lily. He left the room and we looked
at each other, resigned, and said, Let's do this. We sat at our computers and finally did our
work. For an hour and a half we didn't talk, just researched, recorded and pieced our event
together. It was like wed hit our Flow state, we were determined. The sound of fast typing and a
Spotify playlist filled the room. Finally, at 2 a.m. we were done. We were exhausted but
incredibly satisfied with our eventual effort. That whole night feels like a hazy dream, the
exhaustion clouding our actions but also producing a strong desire to...just do it. The thing that

really stuck with me from that night is to just do it. This project had a lot of components where I
had to just do it and that night helped me just do it, so I wouldn't have another night like Lilys.

4. Lessons youve learned

This has been the longest project Ive ever been a part of. It's startling to think of the time
it's covered. It's almost become an old friend, maybe not a friend, maybe a peer instead, that has
been there for so much of my sophomore year. Ive grown as a person in and outside of this
project and my end products can attest to that. As I look back on this project I can see the red
flags that led to a weaker essay and poem. I started this project out as an unmotivated, unengaged
student. I had come off of the Moment in Time Project frustrated with my work and unenthused
with school as a whole. That lack of passion and motivation is apparent in my event selection. I
didn't take the time to really dig into it. I simply looked at a couple sites, gathered the surface
information and went with it. Because my event was weak, my essay and poem could only be so
strong. I was off to an unsatisfying start but I continued on, the first red flag. The frustration only
increased when I began to create my poem. I was indecisive with my form and ended up
choosing the Sestina because of a poem I really loved, Operation Memory, not for the actual
poetic form, another red flag. It turns out that I really struggle with writing poetry, yet I didn't
really reach out to Stephen. Instead I put it off again and again, until the last weekend when I had
no choice but to pound out a good, but not great Sestina. This was probably the biggest mistake
for me in this project. However, I didn't realize this until we were creating the book.
Honestly, I wasn't invested in this project until we were put onto the Book Teams. The
book teams made this project, real, powerful and lasting. When I created the cover page for the
book, that's when something changed in me as a student, not only in Humanities but my other
subjects too. It made me excited and motivated again. It gave me a serious job that I couldn't half
ass, otherwise our whole grade would be affected. It pushed me to want to do something that was
beautiful. After making the book, I realized how I should have put so much more effort forth in
the creation of my poem and my essay. I realized that I should have managed my time, used
every critique and then some, and reached out to Stephen. I am disappointed in myself that I
have created something permanently printed on a books pages that I dont think is beautiful. I
also realize that that is entirely on me and the red flags I ignored throughout the process.
However, even though I struggled with aspects of this project, this project showed me the power
of Project Based Learning. Everything that our grade accomplished and created around this
project is incredibly impressive and Im very honored to have been a part of it.
5. Transferable Skills
Although this project is over, it won't just go away. Apart from being eternalized in the pages of
History Through the Eyes of the Living, Ive gained skills I will carry into the future. Because of
this project I am much better at assuming responsibility because of my improved ability to meet
deadlines. There were quite a few deadlines that had to be met in this project. Although I
sometimes did put the work off until the last minute, I met the deadline every time and towards
the end was noticeably better about not waiting until the last minute. Because the Design Team

did put a lot of responsibility on me, it really helped to make me better with handling it. I
enjoyed being held that accountable and proving my ability to handle the responsibility. With the
increased responsibility came the necessity to make more decisions. I've always struggled with
decisions but after this project I am much more capable of making them confidently. I think I'm
so much better at making them because I had to, I couldn't shrug them off to someone else, and
even though that was difficult, it turned out to be so powerful. This project was something, I'll
always have on my bookshelf and in my mind.