I (along with Brittany) gave my PBL peer presentation this week. We teamed up with our Literacy coach to be a 'work station' during our evidence-based literacy focus professional development. Before the meeting, we talked with our Literacy coach about what information she thought teachers wanted to learn about, related to PBL. Going off what she told us, we decided to go over the 8 Essentials of PBL and include examples of each component from our past projects. We created a Blendspace (https://www.tes.com/lessons/NTvKZTdVRdWpVA/pbl-essentials) so we could include links to resources, websites, pictures, and links to videos and documents we had created. We thought this information would allow teachers who were interested in learning more about PBL a basic overview. We also thought having access to specific resources, such as the BIE website, the PBL Essentials checklist, and examples of our rubrics/framework would be useful.
While only five teachers chose to attend our PBL work station, I thought it went well. Brittany and I were able to go through most of our Blendspace and talk about each component. I believe the teachers liked the resources and examples we were able to provide. Our Blendspace is available to the entire staff on our ItsLearning page, so everyone can access our resources, if they desire. We also let the teachers know that we would be happy to answer any questions they have or to even brainstorm with them something they currently do in their classroom that they want to turn into a PBL. At the end of the work station, teachers had to post on TodaysMeet something they took away from their chosen work station. It was great to see the comments teachers wrote and that they are willing to try PBL in their classrooms. https://todaysmeet.com/EBLiteracy
You both did a fantastic job on your blendspace! Shanna and I will be presenting to the entire faculty in April, and I am nervous about it, but I hope you don't mind if we take a look at your presentation if we need some guidance on how to create ours, because yours is great! Thanks for sharing! I'm glad you were able to inspire a love for PBL in other teachers in your schools, and I love the way you shared your documents so that teachers could see some practical ideas on how to organize their units.
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DeleteThanks, Jessica! You are welcome to use our blendspace as guidance (and I think Helen would agree)! I am all about sharing resources and ideas. I know your coworkers will be very impressed when they see what you and Shanna have done with your students this year. I'm sure they will be inspired to try PBL with their own classes.
DeleteYes, absolutely! Hope your presentation goes well! I think seeing implemented projects was beneficial to our teachers, and I hope the same for you.
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ReplyDeleteHi Helen,
ReplyDeleteI am thankful that Mrs. Register provided you and Brittany with the opportunity to share your experiences with project based learning through a regularly scheduled professional development day. I love the way she utilized stations so you were able to discuss pbl with teachers in small groups instead of with the whole faculty at once. I've found small groups are more conductive to conversation and teachers feel more comfortable asking questions during this more informal structure. I thought you both did a great job creating your blendspace and the feedback on today's meet was overwhelmingly positive. Thank you for doing this!
Sincerely,
Dawn