I was sick on the day of the last class. Frankly, I have been sick a lot this semester. I think that I am facing that thing that none of us want to face - getting older. I don't bounce back as easily as I used to. When I put in long hours--sometimes really long hours--I find myself suffering for it. The point is that I have a hard time just letting go. I want my PBL work to be the best that it can be. I want my students to get out of it what I/we want them to get out of it. I worry too much about it and work too hard on it and it wears me out!
Funny thing is... I get worn out, work through recovering and go back and do the same thing all over again. Here I am in the last day of my PBL unit and I see myself doing too much again.
I used to think that I knew a lot about Project Based Learning (and I guess I did know a lot about the kind of projects that I used to do) but I often feel that I am only barely grasping the concepts in this format. It's great. I can see the benefits. I am seeing more every day. But every time I think that I have something down I keep finding myself confronting unanticipated problems or questions. This really has me out of my comfort zone but I take comfort in that discomfort because it keeps me sympathetic to my students whom I am asking to work out of theirs.
Hi Ray,
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry you were sick in our last class and missed the pbl presentation of your spring unit plans. I am glad that you have learned from this course and are growing in your understanding of the essentials of project based learning through your application. I know the student driven structure of this type of approach requires continuous reflection, monitoring and adjusting, and working to provide the balance of challenge and support so our students can grow in not only content knowledge, but also in independence.
What were your student results in comparing your summative data with your formative baseline data? What evidence of growth were you able to reflect on?