*Knowing WHO you teach impacts WHAT and HOW you teach:
As I think about my little kiddos, I must remember that they are all coming from different backgrounds and have had different experiences. Collecting data about each of them has given me insight about their family and homelife. This data also shows me that because of their ages, they haven't been exposed to a lot of food that I plan to introduce to them through my project. For some of them, my classroom is the first school setting they have been in. So as I teach these 3 and 4 year olds, I have to constantly explain and model how and when to do pretty much everything! However, I see this as a great thing because I, along with my staff, have the honor of molding them. On one hand, I feel this is the perfect age to begin the PBL approach with for a couple of reasons:
1. My kiddos are naturally super curious, and curiosity was mentioned in chapter 2 as the engine for learning. This age group is definitely curious and always want to know WHY. They have not been jaded by "traditional" instruction.
2. My kiddos are always moving, so implementing the necessary movement for our PBL project will be a natural fit.
*Applying Mind-Brain-Education Science Insights to Projects:
Including differentiation and scaffolding in my PBL project will be crucial for all of my little kiddos because their brains are operating at different levels. In order for each of them to be challenged, as well as not become too frustrated, I will need to be design each activity very carefully. This also reminds me how important student choice is and what an important part it plays in PBL. Based on what I know about my students so far, I will have to start the project with building much knowledge about names of fruits/veggies and which foods fit in each of these categories. This will involve a lot of literacy and science. It seems that this project will last about 4-6 weeks, which is longer than I had initially expected. When I developed my project this summer, I wasn't thinking about how I might end up having a classroom made up of mostly 3 year old students!
*Physical Classroom Environment:
I set up my classroom this school year with PBL in mind since I was going to be implementing the project. So, I felt a sense of relief when I was reading this chapter. According to what is described, I seem to be on the right track in this area. I removed a good bit of furniture to be sure to have space for movement between various areas. I purposely left a lot of wall space for our charts/documentation that we will collect throughout the project so we and visitors can follow/refer back to the process/journey.
I can truly say that I am excited, anxious, and nervous ALL at the same time!
Tieraney,
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite characteristics that you embody is your positive outlook. You know the developmental stages of your preschool students and instead of complaining about what they cannot do or listing perceived deficits, you always consider what is wonderful about the stage their in and what you can do to create an environment and develop inquiry based learning activities that foster curiosity while also supporting the project based learning experience. You discussed how you have identified areas that your students will need support in including the vocabulary of fruits and vegetables as well as both social interaction skills and literacy skills with the environmental print and their own representation of what they are learning both orally and on paper. I am glad that you were able to set up your classroom this year with pbl in mind and after reading the assigned chapter you feel validated in the decisions you made regarding classroom environment. I am glad to know that you have left open spaces on the walls to fill with students' learning as they grow throughout the pbl learning experience.
Sincerely,
Dawn