Helen Reed - Final Reflection

 Final Reflection - PBL Class - Summer 2016 - Helen Reed

I have grown in my thinking of PBL from this week long class and am excited for how my thinking will continue to grow and change throughout this entire course.  Project Based Learning is a way for teachers to teach and an engaging way for students to learn. PBL is all about the students and allowing them to question and investigate a real-life problem in order to arrive at a plan and solution. While before I was familiar with the engineering design process and associated that with PBL, I now know that PBL can involve the design process, but has its own essential elements. PBL focuses around a driving question which guides the students through their learning in the form of a project. By having a driving question, both the students and the teacher can make sure that everything they are doing is focused on discovering an answer to that question. I also used to think that the teacher was the main one responsible for providing the students with feedback. I now know that through protocols like Critical Friends and Gallery Walks, students can provide their peers with just as usable and beneficial feedback as the teacher can. I loved both of those protocols we did during our week long course and I am excited to use them in my classroom this year. While I know that I will need to tweak the Critical Friends protocol so it to work for my students, I am confident that through modeling and practice my students will be able to give great peer-to-peer feedback.  Also, by providing the feedback midway through the project, the students will have time to revise their work. Allowing for this time is another thing I learned. When you give your students time to make revisions, they will. If you do not allow for it, then they will not. When students get the opportunity to make revisions they are seeing for themselves how they can continuously improve.

The greatest impacts I see for my students by using PBL in my classroom are becoming problem solvers, learning to empower themselves, and collaboration. When my students begin the PBL unit I planned, they are going to have questions. They are going to wonder why different types of severe weather occur, why do these storms cause so much damage, what can people do about these storms, and so much more.  By allowing my students to wonder and then guiding them towards fulfilling their inquiry they will begin to empower themselves. I will guide them to resources and share in their wonderment. Allowing the students to take full ownership and control over their learning they will become more independent and self-directed. As the students realize they can be in control, I believe that they will learn so much more because they have a real-life purpose for their learning and are invested in it, so they are even more determined to understand and learn. I also hope that my students become better collaborators through PBL in the classroom. If students can begin to learn to collaborate with one another in elementary school, they will be experts by the time they enter the real world. Collaboration is a skill that everyone uses. If students can also learn to collaborate with others whom they do not get along with, they will also grow so much. Working with others doesn’t mean that you have to like them all, it simply means that you must work together while working towards the same goal. If everyone is invested and has ownership in the project, then students should be able to communicate and collaborate with one another more easily. All of these impacts also correspond to the Profile of the SC Graduate. Prior to this class, I knew the Profile existed, but I really did not think of how the characteristics could relate to my fourth graders. I now know that what I am doing in my classroom and through PBL is indeed helping my students achieve the Profile of the SC graduate. I want all of my students to graduate from high school, like every other teacher out there. But I also want my students to be well-rounded citizens who will take on the role of leaders after high school. By having them in fourth grade participate in groups, create solutions to problems, revise and critique their work, they are participating in activities that successful adults do in the real world. When my students leave my classroom, they will have had practice doing these things.

For myself, I hope using PBL in my classroom will help me grow more as a coach. I loved the example used in our class of the students are the ones who play, but as the coach you are the one who supports from the sidelines. The coach guides and helps students along the way, but will never play the game for them.  While I used to think that I needed to have the most control in the classroom over the learning, I now know that the students need the most control over their learning.  While my role as a teacher is one where I wear many hats, the students can be empowered to take control of their learning. By using PBL in the classroom, students will be the ones deciding how they want to learn about different problems and what they need to do in order to solve them. I hope to grow in my role as a coach and be there to guide my students when they have difficulties and cheer them on when they have successes.