Project Based Learning

This week, I read three inspiring articles about schools that incorporate project based learning (PBL).

"More Fun Than a Barrel of . . . Worms?!" - Diane Curtis, Edutopia
http://www.edutopia.org/more-fun-barrel-worms

Geometry Students Angle into Architecture Through Project Learning" - Sara Armstrong, Edutopia
http://www.edutopia.org/geometry-real-world-students-architects

"March of the Monarchs: Students Follow the Butterflies' Migration"
- Diane Curtis, Edutopiahttp://www.edutopia.org/march-monarchs

In Newsome Park Elementary School in Virginia, students explored the topic of cystic fibrosis (among other projects that were mentioned). In Mountlake Terrace High School near Seattle, groups of geometry students designed plans for a new high school. In Rockledge Elementary School, the class investigated the path of monarchs. Listing these projects in this way makes them sound very simple. However, they are anything but simple!

As is inherent to PBL, in each of the examples, the students did not learn information in a void, but rather, they immersed themselves in projects that evolved from real-life issues that connect them to their school, as a whole, and the community. The students at Newsome Park had a classmate with cystic fibrosis and wanted to learn more about what was happening to their peer. At Mountlake Terrace HS, students met with, and were critiqued by, local architects. In Rockledge Elementary, the class was able to go outside and spot the monarchs on their path through their state.

These projects were designed so that the students were incorporating a lot of content into their work. “Math, writing, reading and other subjects are interwoven into classroom projects and applied just as they would be in the real world. Use of spreadsheets, Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, computer slide shows, drawing and word-processing programs and digital cameras and scanners become second nature to the students” (Curtis, 2001).

Teachers must spend significant time thinking through the dynamics of the projects such as what the expectations are for the project and group work, timing, length, group size and any extra costs. In some cases, they must arrange to have community members assist. Teachers play an initial role of helping the students to become interested in the project. They must be flexible. As indicated by Patty Vreeland, educator, teachers have a responsibility to incorporate the standards and know them very well.  Vreeland also notes that teachers using PBL must work harder than traditional teachers who have a set lesson plan each day (Curtis, 2001). Alternately, when students are working on projects, they are going to be at different phases and also are susceptible to questions arising that could take them in a new direction at any moment.

In PBL, though the teachers are working hard, the students are working even harder as they are the ones doing the creating instead of the teacher being the center of the class. In the articles, among dozens of other things, students are making drawing and scale models of the future high school, recording temperatures leading up to the arrival of the butterflies and compiling information about cystic fibrosis. The busy students are in charge of their education! They are active and engaged. Equally important, as mentioned by teacher Eeva Reeder, is the process of reflection (Armstrong 2002).

The hands-on work required by PBL creates true learning and understand. With traditional learning, repetition of information is important to shift data from short term to long term memory. But by creating meaningful activities through PBL, the information makes such a big impact that true learning occurs as things naturally shift to long term memory.

Arguably the best part of project based learning is that students are interested, invested and engaged while in the classroom (and out of the classroom)! In the video about designs for the future high schools, one student was so excited to present his group’s design to the architect that he was inspired to work his best. So many students do not have the intrinsic motivation that in necessary for traditional learning, where learning for learning’s sake can be meaningless to some. With PBL, however, children aren’t learning for learning’s sake, but rather they are learning because they (and possibly their school, community or world as a whole) can benefit from their final product.

This blog post is not about me or my feelings, but I can’t help but comment that this kind of learning is the learning I long for my students to experience.      

References

Armstrong, S. (2002, February 11). Geometry Students Angle into Architecture Through Project Learning. Retrieved May 9, 2015, from http://www.edutopia.org/geometry-real-world-students-architects

Curtis, D. (2001, October 1). More Fun Than a Barrel of . . . Worms?! Retrieved May 9, 2015, from http://www.edutopia.org/more-fun-barrel-worms

Curtis, D. (2002, June 6). March of the Monarchs: Students Follow the Butterflies' Migration. Retrieved May 9, 2015, from http://www.edutopia.org/march-monarchs

Thoughts on Flipped Classroom

Today is my first day taking a course called The Flipped Classroom. I have been interested in it for several years, when I heard of my co-worker using this method. Then, I was more intrigued during my Connected Educator Month course last fall. I spent a significant amount of time reading the blog of a fellow Spanish teacher. The idea of spending class time to use the skills learned at home is very exciting to me. I want more time for creativity on the students' end...I love teaching. I love being creative and designing fun lessons. But I think it's time to shift much of that work into my student's hands.
In my first few lessons, a teacher addressed the question "what if students don't want the videos?". Basically, they can watch them during class (assuming there is a means to do this) or they can be brought up to speed by peer learning. She mentioned that most students want to be part of the classroom activities, they don't want to be behind or stuck solo at a computer, so that is helpful.
I anticipate getting more and more interested in this method as my course continues. Stay tuned!

Update: Another teacher includes a Google Form with their video. Students take a few notes while they watch and solve a problem before submitting the form. He provides a doc to help them with their summary skills. He receives a spreadsheet with everyone's summaries and can compare them
Then he made a Wordl from their responses! They keywords popup and they can discuss how big some of the words are and discuss if they should be that big (are those terms as important as their height suggests).

Many teachers also reply their videos at the beginning of class when they are taking attendance or passing out materials.

Connected Educator Month Reflection

Throughout the month of November, though I was a little late to the party, I participated in Connected Educator Month and it was a really wonderful opportunity for me! It has been 11 years since I graduated from college and 3 since I received my master’s degree and I am starting to feel the stagnation set in! Lately I have been feeling like I have been doing my students a disservice by not including more technology in the classroom (especially technology that could so easily enable them to communicate with actual Spanish speaking people) and this month not only confirmed it but made me feel a sense of urgency about the need to do so.

I feel a bit embarrassed about how little technology opportunities I provide for my students and I am sure that a segment of my co-works feel the same way or would feel the same way after participating in CEM. As someone pointed out in one of the conference sessions I attended, we, as educators, must be connected in order for our students to be connected! It seems so obvious, but I do not think a lot of teachers feel that way. It seems overwhelming to keep up with all the changes, but I think that by being connected, we can stay connected as new teaching tools and technologies are developed. Additionally, I want to be part of a culture that wants to be connected and I can be part of that cultural shift in my school. And to think—a month ago I did not even consider that there needed to be a more connected environment!

Over Thanksgiving break, I spoke with some of my cousins (one is a senior in a local high school and one is a senior in college) about things I have learned in CEM. A lot of what I talked about, they had never heard of. My college-aged cousin said that she felt so underprepared in comparison to other students when she went to college! I need to do my part in preparing the students at my school.

I really appreciated the variety of opportunities provided by CEM. Though I have a master’s degree in technology in the classroom, my studies focused a lot on action research and many of the tools we learned about in CEM probably were not even in existence at that time! Within the past few weeks, I watched videos and checked out tools and websites that I normally would not have, and I learned about all kinds of thing that I otherwise would not have. I loved the moments when I was watching a video from a conference that I thought was going to be boring and then I found that it was so interesting that I had to keep stopping it and reviewing sections so I could consume all the information that I could about it!

I love that technology provides for an excellent avenue for students to pursue their passions and for students to have a voice. I long to make the Spanish class experience become much more global. I want to give my students an authentic audience. I want to provide activities that cause my students to care about Spanish and therefore learn the language much better-it can be so useful in our society!

As I reread my initial goals for CEM, I see that I was ready to step out of my normal routine and get some new ideas—now I have too many new ideas! I see that I had ideas of connecting to other classrooms and now I know exactly how to do that through Edmodo and Educational Skype! I think it’s funny that I mentioned the use of Pinterest, as it was the only creative technology tool that I could come up with less than a month ago. Now I know that students can also showcase their work in Canva, Tackk, Thinglink, Tuzzit, or Moovly. They could use google docs or blogs. They can explore places through virtual tours. They can “app smash” and use more than one app to create a final project. I do agree with my thoughts in my goal-I do not plan on making a lot of changes quickly, but taking my time and implementing new things in a way that does not overwhelm my students or me!

I think the biggest difference between my initial goals and what I am thinking now, is that the blinders are off and I now see the need to be connected and have a growing Professional Learning Network (and encourage my co-workers to do the same-after all, a co-worked connected me to CEM!), as opposed to just making sure that my students are connected to other students, technology, the community and the world.

I think that from here on out, I will be filtering my lesson plans through the lens of CEM. How could I do this differently? How could my students work together? How can I give them more freedom with this topic?

A few reminders for myself as I embark upon a new era of teaching: It’s okay to take baby-steps. It’s okay to make mistakes. It’s okay to be nervous. However, it’s not okay to do nothing!


Check out this Wordle that I made. It feels really great to see all the things in my head from the past few weeks put together in a creative word bunch. I can't wait to dive in :)