Project Week

As an urban school, Fenway is fortunate to be able to take advantage of all that Boston has to offer. From experiential learning to community building days, we attempt to find as many ways as possible to explore Boston as well as give back to the community around us. Project Week is a unique opportunity for Fenway students to explore all the Boston has to offer. Each spring, Fenway students and faculty spend an entire week learning outside of the classroom. Projects in the past have included:

• Being a Tourist In Your Own City
• Biking
• Camping
• Community Service Trips
• Cooking
• Creative Writing with GrubStreet and 826 Boston
• Dance
• Music and Music Video Production
• Mural painting
• Sports
• Visual arts

 

What is Project Week (PW)?

Project Week is a week of co-curricular education set aside during the regular school year in June. It is a time when the Fenway community recognizes the fact that education does not take place only in the classroom.  Fenway uses, “the city as our classroom”. Each year there are approximately 20 project week groups offering a wide variety of activities in the arts, sciences, service and outdoors.  Such courses provide an opportunity for growth, improved self-confidence, learning, and, of course, fun. 

Project Week courses are as varied as the young people who participate in them. Project Week is clearly different from our regular classroom curriculum, but it is not a vacation, and is not optional. Rather, it is a community effort to explore different topics and ways of learning. It is a celebration of the belief that useful educational experiences can take place outside of the classroom and that experiential education is a valuable endeavor.

 

Why do we do Project Week (PW)?

Project Week at Fenway provides an opportunity for students to dive deeply into an existing area of interest or explore a new interest during an immersive learning experience of their choosing. Project Week courses are challenging and experiential; they involve, not just inform. Students explore, create, study, think and do. Project Week allows students to experience learning without the external controls that steer much of their education (e.g. classes constrained by bells and achievement measured by a grade). While each Project Week course is unique, all course culminate in: 

• a final product or performance, and/or
• shared experience, and/or
• a reflection upon what was learned (adapted from Westwood Project Week) 

 

How does it work with the end of term 4?

Term 4 will end before the start of Project Week  

 

Is passing project week a graduation requirement?

Yes.  Everyone participates in Project Week and it is a graduation requirement.  In order to pass, students must attend all days.  Students who fail Project Week will have to make up the requirement.

 

Where does Project Week take place?

For Project Week, Fenway uses, “the city as our classroom”.  Different groups go to different places and every student gets a permission slip with the details of the itinerary of the week.