By Wyatt Dunfee
The Junior Retreat is a beneficial day for Juniors to learn about the expectations for their Senior project while on the Ohio University campus. And no, it was not a vacation away from school work, despite its name suggesting otherwise.
Taking place on October 5th, and led by Mr. Warmke, all Juniors who signed up took a day away from school on a trip to the Alden Library at Ohio University to discuss their Capstone Learning project (CLE/Senior Project). Students went through a scripted schedule to make sure they could learn the importance of their Senior Project. First, Mr. Wamke explained what CLE is then he pulled up a video of an evaluation from a previous year. The student in the video learned how to play the guitar and created a CD with a tracklist of 8 cover songs and 1 original song. The next thing explained was the proposal and how important it was to start working on it that day. After that explanation, the Juniors got an opportunity to work on their own proposal. Everyone had around one hour to work on their proposal. And after work time, lunchtime began. Students had 1 hour to eat somewhere in the local area or have pizza in the library. They could have also packed their own lunch. Finally, Juniors learned about the website for their CLE and how they are used for show and tells. Mr. Warmke finished speaking ahead of schedule and gave Juniors an hour and a half more time to keep working on their proposal.
I asked 2 Juniors about how they felt about the trip. Their responses were positive and very telling to the effectiveness of the Junior Retreat. The first student shared their experience of the retreat and how they had already created their proposal beforehand. But that didn’t exempt them from working on it further. After showing it to Mr. Warmke, this student had realized that their proposal needed to be more specific and went to fix it. After working on the proposal, they felt that they had already known everything else about their CLE but still felt satisfied with the trip. A playful comment I received from them was that the other students in the room were very loud.
The second student had a more pleasant and resourceful experience during the retreat. Going into the retreat, this student didn’t think they would have enough time to work on their proposal. They thought that the allotted time given to them would have been too short. Pleasantly surprised, they actually finished their proposal, all their research, and even added onto their project. They found out how they are going to carry out their project and how to apply it for a final evaluation. The only thing that they had any trouble with was finding a mentor to guide their progress through the project. But they have the option to ask teachers for ideas on who a good tutor for them would be.
The main focus of the Junior Retreat is to get students on the same page with what is expected of them. It’s also to get them started on their proposal and on their way to starting their project. Mr. Warmke assured students that the trip would be very useful. Looking at the students who went on the trip, he was underselling the truth. Any student who participated in the trip will feel better going into their senior project and graduating high school.
