Reflection: Emerald High School
The visit was a little bit of an eye opener. I haven't been to see other subjects in a PBL setting. The students were engaged and attentive. You could tell learning was taking place. I liked how the history class was kind of team teaching the initial part of the unit. I think that would be a good way to get things started.
I noticed how small there classes are. I know it's a rural country type school. Small class size coupled with 90 minutes of class time would be great. I think our 3 middle schools each have more students than Emerald. I liked what the chemistry class was doing. Those kids were really doing a good job in groups. One thing that stuck out to me were the groups sharing information with each other.
Before we all came back together I got a chance to go down to the gym and talk with one of the PE coaches. High school PE is a little different that middle school. They are only required to have PE in the 9th grade, unless they fail of course. Also ROTC counts as a PE credit. Because of these two factors, class size is very small. The coach I talked with had 6 kids during that block of 90 minutes, wow. They do one PBL per semester. I bet its a whole lot easier with long classes and few students.
Overall, I like what they are doing, and it was a fun trip. I'm glad I got to talk with a PE person and get some ideas. It seems the entire district has bought into this, which is why it appears to be working as well as it is.
Clark,
ReplyDeleteI was so fascinated by how the students in the Chemistry classroom worked so well in the silent debate. they were then able to come back to a whole group session and discuss the concepts. You can tell some much collaboration occurred in the teachers' end so that the students were so well prepared. To really make PBL successful, everyone should buy in and be able to work together. The more support, the better the situation will be.
Hi Clark,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your reflection on our visit to Emerald and am glad that you were able to visit the P.E. teacher and find out specifics about how they implement pbl. The district demographics are different because of the rural setting and that does impact variables like class size. I am glad you were able to find some take aways that you can try out such as the way the chemistry teacher promoted collaboration and the ways that both Emerald and Fairforest Middle are intentional about pbl being a school wide focus that can be utilized and applied in your setting.
Thanks,
Dawn