This week I had the opportunity to conduct my Peer Presentation. My principal, Jay Seegars, made arrangements so that I could be out of my classroom during three planning periods, one for each grade level.
The goal of these presentations were to present the essential of PBL to the entire Dawkins faculty and guide them to tip their toes in the PBL pool with a Mini-May PBL. I was very fortunate that Dawn was able to join me for most of the day.
I understand that many teachers find it intimidating to talk in front of their peers, but I was nothing but excited to share just a little bit about what I had learned over the past three semesters.
I did not know that Dawn's middle school science teacher was one of my peers. It was quickly clear to me that I was working with the fourth generation PBL....Mrs. Edge had inspired Dawn, Dawn had inspire me, I was trying to inspire my peers. I was part of a legacy. I was starting something, I was another link in the chain.
Using the "8 Essential of PBL" I was able to talk about some of the biggest changes PBL had made to my teaching, some of the biggest changes in my students using PBL, and some of the great PBL units you all had created.
The eighth grade teachers came up with some great ideas that they will be working to firm up before May 12th. The seventh grade teachers were already doing some great projects that they were hoping to tweek to PBL units. The sixth grade teachers immediately picked the August Eclipse. They realized that they will not have time in August to teach about the eclipse so they were hoping to use the Mini-May PBL to cover that topic. They are well on their way to a great unit of study.
My hope with the Mini-May units is that teachers see the benefits of PBL for their students and are more willing to continue on the path to PBL next year.
Thank you for all each of you have done over the past year. Your willingness to try and share has been inspirational. I hope your students all know how lucky they are to have you for teachers.
Can't wait to hear what happens next! See you in the District Newsletter!!!!
Most Sincerely,
Marie
Hi Marie,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed being a part of your pbl peer presentations at Dawkins and I thought you did a solid job of considering your colleagues' perspectives and their timelines and the groups that I were a part of were receptive to the implementation possibility for the pbl Maymester. Please keep me posted on how these go and how I can continue to support your work.
Like you, when I did my professional development session, I was surprised by how many people were into it. I don't know if I've just missed that somehow, or it's something that a lot of people do but don't talk about (which would seem about right to, seeing as how the model seems like a natural fit with many disciplines).
ReplyDeleteIt's so good to hear that this is spreading at your school! I haven't seen as much willingness or excitement from my coworkers (each grade level has been asked to do at least one PBL unit next year), but there are definitely some who are excited to try it out with their classes next year.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea that PBL is spreading through your school. It is awesome to see how the inspiration is flowing from one teacher to the next. I think the best advocates for PBL is the teachers who are actually using PBL in our classrooms.
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