Sarah Garner; Blog 5 We did it!!!!

What I Used To Think/But Now I Know

Going into this course with only one semester of teaching under my belt, I was extremely nervous. I was unsure if I had the experience to complete this course. I learned about project based learning in my undergrad, and I was always wanted to learn more about it. When this opportunity arose I was hesitant because I will be going through induction next year and SAFETY the next. It was a lot to put on my plate, but I love a challenge. So I buckled my boots and prepared myself for my first graduate level experience, learning more about something that I found interesting. As I stated, I learned a little about PBL in my undergrad, but not much. I believed it was just a project at the end that would take up all my time, and the students would not learn anything from it. However, PBL is so much more than that. You start with the project and end with the project when PBL is incorporated correctly. The students learn through a real life scenario that could possibly be accomplished in real life. The students learn to think critically and how to problem solve. These qualities learned through PBL is connected directly to the Profile of a South Carolina Graduate.  It is important for our students to understand this correlation because it shows them that they will be ready to enter the workplace. They will graduate high school, either pursuing higher education or not, they will be able to enter the workplace with qualities employers are looking for. Through PBL the students have pride and a sense of accomplishment about their project. The book Setting the Standard for Project Based Learning stated, “PBL is an instructional approach that encourages both students and teachers to dig deeply into a subject, going beyond rote learning and grappling with concepts and understandings fundamental to the subject and the discipline.” As I went through high school, only four years ago, I never learned through project based learning. I learned through drill and practice, memorization, and very few projects. I never truly dug deeply into a subject. That makes me extremely sad as a teacher now.

Throughout this course, as I learned about PBL I applied my learning to my own project that I am going to use in my own classroom. I started with the project in mind, as I learned I applied to my project, and I am able to use it in real life. We constantly had to collaborate and communicate with our classmates through different protocols. This class modeled exactly what a PBL classroom should look like and I will be able to go back to my classroom and model it for my students.