What to expect for a project

Authentic connections with real-world professionals make huge contributions toward positive students outcomes, so we're excited and humbled to help you bring them to classrooms.

Project partner connections

A Sidekick project can include 5 connections with a real-world partner, 1 prior to the start of the project and the rest during the project. Not every project includes every connection, depending on teacher and partner preference or availability.

We tried to design this process for changing schedules. Except for the entry event, these connections occur online with flexible timing. Like everything else in a Sidekick project, treat these connections as starting points. Feel free to skip a connection and coordinate your own.

(Mandatory) Planning call

We've found a short conversation between the teacher and the partner is essential to successful project connections. In a short amount of time the teacher and partner can solidify the partner’s role in context with what is going on in class, what to deliver at the end of the project, what to expect from the kids, and the day’s schedule.

Partner time commitment: 20 minutes

Teacher time commitment: 20 minutes

Timing (for student submission): 1 week or less before the in-person entry event

Annotated expert work sample

Not every project incorporates an annotated expert work sample. For the ones that do, this is potentially the first "interaction" students have with partners. Students get authentic, credible insight into how a professional thinks about work like what they're doing. Connections like this may be fully online yet some of the coolest ways students connect with the real world.

Partner time commitment: 20 minutes

Timing: 1-2 weeks before the project start date

Check out the in-depth guide on annotated expert work samples at this link.

In-person event

This is the richest interaction students and partners have with the students, meant to boost student engagement in the upcoming project, build a personal rapport among students and partners, and allow partners to point students in the right direction from the start.

Partner time commitment: 1 day

Teacher time commitment: 1 day

Timing: Near the day the project starts

Check out the in-depth guide on in-person entry events at this link.

Project feedback

This is like the expert work sample but in reverse! Feedback also ties the classwork students do and their connections with partners into one coherent project.

Partner time commitment: 40 minutes

Teacher time commitment: 40 minutes

Timing: soon after the halfway point of the project

Check out the in-depth guide on giving project feedback at this link.

Exit video

At the end of projects, students present the work they've done to the partner under the pretense that the partner has an interest in what they've produced (in education-speak this is called an "authentic audience"). The partner then records a video message as a response.

Partner time commitment: 20 minutes

Teacher time commitment: 20 minutes

Timing (for student submission): near the day the project ends

Timing (for partner response): 1-2 weeks after the project end date

Check out the in-depth guide on closing videos at this link.

Additional partner connections

The following connections are often valuable additions.

Project updates

Especially during projects with long stretches between partner connections, we may ask to hear just briefly from the classroom on how things are going. Think of these as the project's weekly newsletter, blog, or journal entries. Teachers familiar with apps like Remind, Seesaw, or ClassDojo know the drill.

Teacher time commitment: 5 minutes

Timing: once a week (recommended, not required)

Check out the in-depth guide on project updates at this link.