Will My Name Be Shouted Out: Creating a New Project

I really like that O'Connor, instead of using the same lessons he had been giving, changed his lesson plans to make his students' writing better. Most teachers would just continue their lessons as if all their students were writing brilliantly, because either they're too set in their own ways or can't think up a new lesson. O'Connor's idea for the Bensonhurst Project was a good one. I know that when I'm told to write one story from different perspectives, I enjoy the writing assignment and usually produce good writing. His fear of students not wanting to do the project because they have to take the narrative of the "bad guys" was a reasonable fear. What O'Connor should have know, though, is that secretly everyone wants to be the bad guy occasionally. It spices up life and makes things interesting. Also, emotions associated with "bad guys" such as anger and sadness are easier to portray than ones associated with "good guys", such as happiness and fear.

It's also good that O'Connor waited until after the holidays and his leave of absence was done before he started the project, because a continuous stream of classes is needed to have well-executed and thoughtful projects handed in. If I was really excited about giving my students a project to do, I don't know if I could have waited until after the vacation was over. I know that a lot of my teachers would give us projects to do over the holiday vacations, but they never turned out as well as they would have had I done them in class or during a work week.