The MYP Personal Projects Presentation, March 3rd 2021

March 5, 2021

The MYP Personal Projects Presentation, March 3^rd 2021

What is the MYP Personal Project presentation?

Before the submission of the final report to the IBO, MES students make 15-minute presentations in front of the school community to share their interests and to show results of their work. Teachers, parents, coordinators and Grade 8 students are present.

On March, 3 2021, 15 Grade 9 students at Presnya campus presented the outcomes of their projects. The topics were mostly connected to the global context Personal and Cultural expression. The students impressed the school community by the diversity of their hobbies and interests, such as learning English through songs, poetry and problems of the modern society, bullying in schools, helping orphans during the pandemic, meaning of life, training plan for BMX and many others.

What does the MYP Personal Project Presentation mean to the school community?

After the presentations we made a survey among 9- and 8-graders, their parents and teachers about their impressions of the event.

Grade 9 students are proud of themselves and deeply relieved of the tension of an oral presentation. “Today we had an exciting event held in our school - The presentation of our personal projects. Although it was very stressful, me and all my friends were very grateful and proud in the end. We feel really fulfilled and excited about what is yet to come!”, says Olga S. Her project is called Poetry and the problems of our modern society. Yulia Kh. explored the topic of Learning English through songs. She adds: “Everybody, including me, were very nervous before the presentation, because speaking in front of an audience is a challenge. In spite of the stress, my project presentation brought me a lot of positive emotions. I am very grateful to our teachers for their support. Their trust gave me confidence”.

Teachers always enjoy seeing their students showing their best in an unfamiliar situation. “I loved the presentation, because it shows me, a subject teacher, how diverse our students’ interests really are. It will help us to communicate and teach them better”, states Philip L., Geography teacher. “In my opinion, my group of presenters had the brightest and most creative products. Alexandra M. created a professional video about the school. To create it, she researched various sources: books, websites, and interviewed a journalist who had graduated of MES. Punk clothes designed by Sonya T. will certainly attract attention of true fans of this clothing trend. She depicted the process of creating her masterpieces in detail, told about the difficulties she had had to face”, shares her impressions Olga K, Math teacher. “MYP personal projects highlight the contrast between teacher-guided and independent learning. This experience shows that MYP students are ready to take responsibility for their own learning”, claims Polina L., the Personal projects coordinator. “There is hardly anything of equal personal and educational importance than the students’ projects”, emphasizes Irina N, the MYP coordinator.

The 8^th-graders are impressed by the importance of the work and its results. “It was very interesting for me to listen to the ninth-graders, because I am going to do my project next year. It was obvious how nervous the students were, but in the end they did very well”, shares her emotions Evgenia D. “It was very interesting to learn how a personal project is presented. All the projects were very interesting and inspired me to find a topic for next year”, tells Maria F. Arina P. adds “The variety of topics and products was surprising. They were very interesting. It was great to be present at this event”.

The parents have embraced the opportunity to see their children from a different perspective. Elena K., mother of Kristina K. whose project was named «We recycle, and you?» , sent us an extremely long and touching feedback. Here is and extract from it: “It was really interesting to see each work presenting a new way, a unique point of view. Even the topics that seemed familiar were shown in a different, unexpected interpretation.

For the students, the personal project was a way to express their point of view, to share an idea that interested them with an audience of their peers and adults. Moreover, the presentation was an opportunity for the students to try out public speech, their ability to capture and hold the listener's attention, which is very important for their future. I liked the way the students tried to do the final product in an extraordinary way. They used humor, different media, simple and understandable schemes, pictures, even large-sized objects, which certainly made it easier for the audience to get the idea of the project. For educators, teachers and parents, personal project is an opportunity to get to know a teenager, to see his personality, actually, hear him! I was glad to spend time with such creative, intelligent, interesting people, and I thank everyone who was involved in the personal projects for their work”.