One of the reasons I was so grateful for this class this
semester is that it allowed me to get back in the classroom in a teaching
role. I am so glad I got to have this opportunity. So often,
teachers make things look easy when I am in observing and I forget how much
planning and thought goes into creating lessons that are engaging but also
organized. I was reminded of this multiple times during my PBL
unit.
One area that I did not plan enough for was the area of social
skills and interaction among the students. In the future I will make sure
to have discussions about those expectations and create an anchor chart of
those behaviors that I want to see. Students struggled with working
together and being able to collaborate. I had several that ended up
working alone because it was so difficult and stressful to them to be in a
group. I should have been a better facilitator of that process and I will
plan to do so in the future.
Another area that I will focus on in upcoming units is designing
ways for students to do safe research. When students were looking for
information about flooding, it was really difficult to find articles that they
were able to read and videos that they were able to watch that were on a nine
year old’s level. I had created a symbaloo that had some sites on it, but
I really need many more. I also needed to have safe search engines listed
there as well. I was able to scramble and help students find information,
but it was difficult for some of their topics.
I really enjoyed this unit and being in the teaching role again
and look forward to implementing another one next semester.
Hi Melissa,
ReplyDeleteLike you, I always appreciate opportunities I have to work with students and teachers in the classroom, co-creating curriculum and working to implement it effectively. I am glad this opportunity was mutually beneficial for you and for the teacher who you collaborated with.
You shared how in reflecting on the unit you realized students need more opportunities to interact and to build the essential social skills necessary for effective project based learning such as collaboration and independent work time. You also brought up a great point about the importance of providing safe research. Several sites that I have appreciated recently are webmix sites such as symbaloo and tizoms that allow the teacher to pre select and link only accurate and appropriate sources for students to view. Kidrex is a great site as well as Newsela and readworks.
Overall, how did students do comparing their end products with their formative baseline? I too, am looking forward to the implementation of this spring's pbl opportunities as well!
Sincerely,
Dawn