Thursday, April 19, 2018
Kristi Winslow - Final Blog Post
On Thursday, April 19, Sarah Kate, Makisha, and myself presented "What is PBL?" to our seventh grade team. We presented them with a document explaining what PBL is and what PBL experiences we have conducted throughout this year. Makisha shared about her Food Court Wars, her students did a great job with this. I love that Makisha was able to share as a math teacher with our grade level, to show that PBL can take place in any content area and not just in certain areas. Sarah Kate shared about her students interview process and how to conduct themselves and what types of things they will be faced with in the future, and how to be prepared for those situations. "How much real world can you get than that!" I shared examples of my students cells children's books to show our grade level how talented some of our seventh graders are, I also shared with them about the heart valve replacements our students created and how involved and invested my students were with this project. Our grade level was so supportive for this moment and are excited to begin incorporating PBL experiences into their own classes.
This overall experience in PBL has been wonderful and stressful all at the same time. There were times I would think, how will I ever pull this off or how will I ever get my students interested and keep their attention. Well, it has definitely paid off, I believe my students and myself have had more fun this year than any year before. They have learned so much more than they were required to learn and have learned valuable life lessons along the way. I will continue to practice PBL in my classroom in years to come. This is the new way of teaching and I hope my colleagues will jump on board and join me in this journey.
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Kristi,
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely a stressful process that leads to some great learning on both our and the students' parts. It helps when other people in the building and on your team support and implement PBL. It is easier to collaborate and share ideas. Plus you have someone you can share your excitement with and frustration as well. They get completely where you are coming from and may can offer some assistance.
You all are great teachers. I think the kids respond because of your personalities. Y'all have a great report with the kids and they trust you. I'm sure that any PBL you do with students will be awesome because of that.
ReplyDeletePresenting was so much fun! I still can't get over our group picture. All I can see is a black blob where I was standing. It has been great being in class with you and I wish you much success as we continue to incorporate PBL into our lessons.
ReplyDeleteHi Kristi,
ReplyDeleteI am thankful that you had a great group of teachers at FMS to do this journey into project based learning with. I am glad that your peers were receptive to your presentation and appreciate so much how when working with Higgins and Miller you saw elements of effective pbl implementation in their projects. I believe we are stronger when we collaborate and it is clear that your presentation provided opportunities for your colleagues to see what pbl is from actual classroom implementation examples. While I know first hand that teaching in a pbl model can be intense I am thankful that you also see the benefits of this structure with increased student engagement and application of concepts and content learned in authentic and relevant scenarios. I am proud of you!
Sincerely,
Dawn