Wishing

The Overall Project - This project went very well. Even though the product for this inquiry project is one that can never be complete, I think I gathered quite a bit of information in the time I had. At this point, I have finished the inquiry part of my project. I only need to get the website to a "finished" point for the project. I envision this family website to be one that continues to grow over the years, both in the addition of family members by birth or marriage or with documents and information about ancestors.

Strengths and Weaknesses - The strengths and weaknesses for this project go hand-in-hand. I have had several family members on both sides of our family do extensive research on our ancestors. For that reason, I was able to gather a lot of information in a short amount of time. I didn't have to do a lot of the "digging" for information that they had to do. However, I had to take the information they gave me and analyze it and to make sense of all of it. It's not always easy to read information that someone else has done, because the way they organize their information may be different than yours. I also had to make connections between one generation to the next. What I feel was one of my weaknesses for this project also has to do with gathering this information from family members or going to the library to gather other information. Because a lot of information was already done for me and I had a lot of documentation, I didn't have to do a lot of digging myself. I think with more time I could have added to their documentation on various family members, and it is something I envision doing in the future. Another weakness I have is confidence in myself. Many times when I first read through a project, I think to myself "Oh my, how am I ever going to do this." I should know by now that I can do it, and I can do it well. However, those same thoughts ran through my mind several times throughout this project. Looking back, I don't know why I should have had those thoughts, because I think I've put together a rather successful project and learned quite a bit about the inquiry process.

Challenges - The biggest challenge I had for this was on the "personal" side of my project. After sending out the questionnaire to family members, I was then reliant upon them returning it to me in a timely manner. I started early so that I would have plenty of time to sort through the information, ask questions about their responses, and include on the final product. While I envisioned this being a big obstacle to overcome, I'm happy to say that most of them had the information back to me within the next couple of weeks. Another challenge was to make sense of some of their information they gave me. I asked them to tell me who their parents and grandparents were as a starting point for me. While I know who my parents and grandparents are, I don't know many relatives past that. While this was a starting point for me, it was sometimes difficult to tell which side of the family some of them belonged. I had to use the information that my husband or uncle had gathered to determine this.

What could be done differently? There are many directions a person could go with this type of project. One classmate commented on one of my postings and gave me the idea to include video or audio recordings of older family members. That way future generations would be able to see and hear someone who may have passes before they were born. I think this is a really awesome idea. Unfortunately for the conclusion of this project, I will not have time. However, it is something to think about in the future.

I mentioned in earlier blogs about how I was comparing life from one generation to the next. It might be neat to make a timeline noting when family members were born. You could make another timeline that depicts how the toys and games changed over the generations.

Personal Inquiry Experiences - My personal experiences really aren't much different than those of the students who come into my library everyday. While my ideas and thinking may be a little more advanced because of the life experiences I have had, the actual thought process (or inquiry process) really isn't any different. Each person needs to begin by forming questions and making personal connections. Then at the end of the project a person needs to be reflective.

I really like what Virginia Rankin says about the reflective teacher on page 513 in the "blue book." There are two terms she discusses that I feel fit perfectly for me in this project and could also be adapted for students in their inquiry projects. She writes: "Inquisitiveness - determining the right answer can be as rewarding as finding the right answer." For my project, there were no right or wrong answers to the questionnaire I sent out. I had fun asking these questions and then reading through them to learn more about each person. Next she writes: "Risk Taking - do not be afraid to seek answers that may be difficult or impossible, the process often uncovers new areas of inquiry that will be even more rewarding." How true is this term for my project? I enjoyed asking family members those questions and it only left the feeling of wanting more details about their growing up days!

When students begin working on an inquiry project, the teacher should emphasize the importance of asking valuable questions and the idea of editing them often throughout the process. Finally at the end of the project, the students should be encouraged to think about how they did and what they could do differently the next time. They can also think about how they could expand upon what they just completed.