Tuesday, November 19, 2013

PBL Learning Team - First Meeting

Wordle: Questions about Project Based Learning

A group of Teachers met today at Kelly Road to discuss Project Based Learning. We've ordered BIE's PBL Starter Kit as a resources and will be working through that together as a way to inform and evaluate our practice. We've also started a blog dedicated exclusively to the group. Its online here.

One of the things we did was share our questions. Here's what we came up with:
  • What questions do we have? 
  • How does PBL work? 
  • How does PBL benefit our students? 
    • motivation 
    • engagement 
    • success 
  • building core competencies (thinking, communicating, personal and social competency) 
  • Definition of “The Educated Citizen” (we heard this recently and understand its in the BC school regulations, but do not know where) 
    • literacy and numeracy foundations 
    • understanding rich content 
    • core competencies 
  • How do we cover curriculum through PBL? 
  • What is “true PBL”, is there “true PBL”? 
  • How much information is required before students jump in? 
  • How much Teacher Direction/ Guidance is needed? 
  • How do we facilitate and let students drive? 
  • What role do driving questions play? 
  • How do we come up with really good driving questions? 
  • What skills and experiences do students bring to projects? 
  • How do different disciplines come together in projects? 
We agreed its the highlighted questions that matter most. Its the difference this way of learning makes in the lives of our students that matters most. We want to be intentional about evaluating our practice based on the difference it makes for students. We are excited to be learning together!

What questions do you have about PBL?

Monday, November 18, 2013

Learning Team using PBL Starter Kit

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0974034320?ie=UTF8&camp=213733&creative=393177&creativeASIN=0974034320&linkCode=shr&tag=learisgrow-20&qid=1381244997&sr=8-3&keywords=project+based+learning
One of the School District 57 Learning Teams going on this year is a Project Based Learning (PBL) group. We are meeting with this vision:
We want to meet together and work through a resource that will allow for open conversations with all teachers regardless of pedagogy or familiarity with PBL. We would also take time to share our own experiences, strategies and ideas regarding PBL and collaborate. We hope to grow our professional understanding of PBL and our ability to implement it in our classrooms. (see full proposal here)
As a way of sharing our learning we will be using a PBLStarterKit label on this blog and a #PBLStarterKit hashtag on Twitter. Please join the conversation!

There are a couple of things I would like to do as we kick off the Learning Team. One is to share our own experience with Project Based Learning. Another is to create a group inquiry question. Finally, we could share the questions we personally hope to have answered by the book and our time together.

What are your experiences with PBL?
What are your questions about PBL?

Project Based Learning. What? Why? How?

Recently I was able to spend a day with SD57 colleauges in McBride learning about Project Based Learning. I packed this Prezi full of links and examples of projects and we discussed BIE's 8 elements of PBL throughout the day.


I gained inspiration for the presentation by the work of Larry Rosenstock and David Truss. Their questions and prompts started some rich conversations. I'll ask the same questions here. We look forward to hearing your thoughts and experiences.
  • Q1. Describe a memorable learning experience from your elementary or secondary school years.
  • Q2. How can we set students up to be curious and motivated?
  • Q3. How can we create opportunities for students to be engaged in deep learning?
  • Q4. What can we do to increase the audience of our students work?