Kathy- Final Blog

Kathy Feigenbaum

 Entry #5: What I Used to Think/But Now I Know

I came into the PBL cohort with very little knowledge about it. In fact, in the spring I asked some of my colleagues about it. They didn’t know, either. “Some buzzword,” somebody said at lunch. So, I had to find out. I attended the convocation at Furman at the end of the school year to see if this could work for my situation. I was hesitant at first, but the program went well so I signed up for the cohort. This week has been amazing. Like having fallen in love, I feel exhausted and exhilarated! (I’m quoting a classmate with the exhausted/exhilarated statement. We both felt that way this morning.)

Projects Based Learning is an approach to education that aligns very closely with the Profile of a SC Graduate.  The Profile illustrates three categories of what students need to learn.: World Class Knowledge, World Class Skills, and Life and Career Characteristics. Many of these are aspects we build into PBL experiences.

     World Class Knowledge includes math, language arts, STEM, arts and social studies.  Many of our PBL experiences will revolve around one or more of these content areas. State standards remain the foundation of what we are communicating; it is how we achieve that communication that differs using PBL. 

     PBL allows us to teach the content that SC graduates will need, but in a manner that encompasses the World Class Skills. Students will use creativity and innovation with the experiences we provide. Often, the culminating product is something unique to the individual or their group. The discoveries students make while engaging in PBLs involve critical thinking and problem-solving situations. Many experiences involve working in groups for at least part of the journey. Collaboration and teamwork are need-to-knows for groupwork. Much of the protocol we use are tied to communicating information in different modes,  implementing media and technology. And as students actively engage in the process involved in a PBL experience, they become aware of how they learn.

     Intertwined in the learning of content and skill, PBL also incorporates Life and Career Characteristics. Students develop integrity through the ownership we give them in the learning process. As we show them our trust in their ability to work independently, they feel worthy and acquire self-direction. Because the public product extends beyond the classroom, students gain global awareness. Perseverance results when students become accustomed to problem solving involved in their PBL experiences. Collaborating with peers helps students improve work ethic, since peer feedback can be very powerful. Working together with different classmates improves students’ interpersonal skills through cooperation and compromises involved with the contracts they create and adhere to.

I think that the idea of treading on someone’s (particularly a child’s) dreams will always stick with me. It is something to always keep in mind with our children as the days grow longer and the year slows to a crawl and our patience tries to run thin. I plan to put a feather on my desk as a subtle reminder of this.