Project Reflection:
Our first project in Humanities was not a disappointment. In fact, it was far from it. This was a very busy 2+ months. We covered a lot of ground. This project was centered around The Hero’s Journey, also known as the Monomyth (meaning one story). We learned about the stages of the Hero's Journey, including The Call to Adventure, Crossing the Exit Threshold, The Road of Trials and Temptations, The Abyss, Apotheosis/Reflection, Crossing the Return Threshold, and Rejoining the Community. This is a theory developed by a man named Joseph Campbell. He believed that all stories follow one common theme. We began by building background knowledge on this theory. We read a very interesting article: Life’s Great Adventure. We then created Hero’s Journey Posters to display our understanding. Now we had a foundation, and were able to start identifying the Hero’s Journey in Movies/Books. We watched two movies, Star Wars and Moana. Then we read two books: The Alchemist and Siddhartha. We engaged in Socratic Seminars about both of these books.
We then launched into the Storytelling part of our project. We eased into it gently with a number of games and brainstorming activities. We listened to other people’s Moth Stories, and Ally told a few stories of her own. Finally, when we all had stories to tell, we started to critique. We went through many rounds of practice, until we felt our stories were polished enough to present in front of the class. We recorded these stories, and then transcribed them into a document. We edited the transcript documents to make them flow like written pieces. We have a website which can be found here: https://narrativesfromthenest.weebly.com Our Exhibition was called “Narratives From the Nest.” Students and community members volunteered to put their names in the hat. Names were drawn semi-randomly. I chose to take on this challenge, and put my name in the hat. It was called, and I got to tell it on stage, without notes, just a story from the heart.
I didn’t think of myself as the type of person to put my name in the hat, and tell my story on stage in front of a room full of people. However, I was able to get out of my comfort zone, and expand my confidence. I was very proud of myself for doing this, and it went so well, I actually found myself enjoying it. There was never a question of “if my story was good enough,” because through this project, I learned that we all have our own stories, and we all go on our own personal Hero’s Journeys.
From this project, I will mainly take away the idea of the Hero’s Journey. I see it now in every book I read, and every movie I watch. I am also starting to recognize aspects of the Hero’s Journey in my own life. I also now have a really polished, descriptive story to tell my friends and family, and the knowledge to tell a whole lot more.
We then launched into the Storytelling part of our project. We eased into it gently with a number of games and brainstorming activities. We listened to other people’s Moth Stories, and Ally told a few stories of her own. Finally, when we all had stories to tell, we started to critique. We went through many rounds of practice, until we felt our stories were polished enough to present in front of the class. We recorded these stories, and then transcribed them into a document. We edited the transcript documents to make them flow like written pieces. We have a website which can be found here: https://narrativesfromthenest.weebly.com Our Exhibition was called “Narratives From the Nest.” Students and community members volunteered to put their names in the hat. Names were drawn semi-randomly. I chose to take on this challenge, and put my name in the hat. It was called, and I got to tell it on stage, without notes, just a story from the heart.
I didn’t think of myself as the type of person to put my name in the hat, and tell my story on stage in front of a room full of people. However, I was able to get out of my comfort zone, and expand my confidence. I was very proud of myself for doing this, and it went so well, I actually found myself enjoying it. There was never a question of “if my story was good enough,” because through this project, I learned that we all have our own stories, and we all go on our own personal Hero’s Journeys.
From this project, I will mainly take away the idea of the Hero’s Journey. I see it now in every book I read, and every movie I watch. I am also starting to recognize aspects of the Hero’s Journey in my own life. I also now have a really polished, descriptive story to tell my friends and family, and the knowledge to tell a whole lot more.