Mary Kennedy-Easley Blog post #5

What I Used to Think/But Now I Know

            There’s so much to be said about learning through experience!!  Before taking part in this professional development class, I thought that I had already started the process of PBL in my classroom.  It wasn’t until I actually experienced the process of working through the learning experience that I realized that is the true core of teaching the PBL model. 

            I used to think that the simple act of giving the project and the students’ successful completion of a project as successful PBL instruction.  I now know that there are aspects of PBL that I completely overlooked.  One of the more important parts that I was overlooking was the process of critique and revision.  It allows students to collaborate and share ideas to improve upon work throughout the development process.  The importance of this aspect is that it legitimizes the act of learning through mistakes or learning through the thought processes of solving problems.  It’s ridiculous to think that students will just produce great project products without looking at drafts through the lenses of someone else who may know or see something that the producer would have never seen. 

            Through my own experiences in this class I have come to the conclusion that there are some great techniques to get students comfortable and find great ideas through the critique and revision process.  If a bunch of really intelligent teachers can find avenues of growth by simply opening themselves up to peer ideas, I know I can use these same techniques with students to find ways to improve upon work without the fear of hurting feelings.  There was not one moment that I felt uneasy or hurt by the critique process that we took part in during our learning experiences.  It taught me that if the environment and structure of the exercise are presented correctly, it create immense growth and produce a sense of ease by simply knowing growth is essential for the new obtainment of knowledge. I was genuinely surprised at how “comfortable” I was with opening myself up for critique.  I can’t wait to see the looks on students faces as they become surprised by how much they can grow as well.