Alana McSharry- Blog 1- Reflection on Spring PBL

1. What components of your second pbl plan did you target for improvement?
For the second pbl plan I wanted to improve the inquiry process for the students. In this plan students will have the opportunity to participate in different activities throughout the unit. One inquiry based activity was a demonstration on how water evaporates over time. We began by reading books about rain and the water cycle. Then we filled a container with blue water. We drew a line on the container and wrote the date next to the line. We discussed that the water would evaporate and add moisture to the air and that the moisture would become rain if we were outside. We placed the container on top of the refrigerator and would look at the water throughout the unit. We checked the water level in the container after eleven days, twenty-three days and thirty-two days. The students observed the evaporation of the water and had a better understanding of the water cycle and how rain is connected to it. The plan was to incorporate similar demonstrations throughout the unit.

2. What components do you feel your students will be more successful? Least successful? Why?
The students will be successful creating the artistic representation of their chosen weather. My K4 students enjoy art and will successfully navigate this part of the project.
The students will have a harder time with writing about the weather. The students will have the knowledge but the difficult part for them will be writing about the weather. They will need guidance and help from the adults in the classroom.

3. What will your students need to overcome any anticipated obstacles?
Many students will not have experienced some of the weather such as tornadoes, hurricanes and floods. The students will have to gather information through listening to books or watching a video about the listed weather. The students will also need the opportunity to observe a demonstration of the weather. All of these activities will help the students gain knowledge and overcome the anticipated obstacles.

4. How will students be provided opportunities for feedback and revision on their process and product from you, from peers and from outside audiences?
The students can receive feedback through conferencing with the teacher. After the conference the students can revise their work.
I need to improve the area of feedback especially from other adults and their peers.

5. Are there opportunities for you and for students to self-reflect on their learning throughout the pbl?
After looking at the plan I noticed that I needed to add a self-reflection component for the students. The students can reflect on how much information that they learned from the first half of the pbl unit. The students can also reflect on their artistic representation of their chosen weather. They can think about the weather and consider if their representation matches their chosen weather.

Rachael Le Mee, Post #1: PBL... from zero to hero?!

So, I've gone a little off the deep end with my PBL excitement. I'm shooting for THREE PBLs this semester! (Hence the zero to hero title....)

Because I am lucky enough to have a whole new group of kids second semester, I got to reteach my Pieces of Me identity unit, and it was AWESOME round two! The highlight was definitely getting to have our authentic audience.... parents and teachers came to each exhibit in a gallery walk, and kids got to be the curators and explain their pieces, and there was just so much more pride and agency this time around because they knew this was going to be REAL! I was able to get an audience in by having a set, more rigid schedule this time around, and there was no surprise of sex ed. Students reflections were thoughtful, and most shared that they really enjoyed the process and independence they got while working on the project. My plan was for this project to be independent, and then our following two projects are going to build.... a partner project next, then a small group project!

Starting next week, we're sort of doing a mini-PBL as part of a workshop/personalized learning pathway. We are studying growth mindset, and students are going to be charged with creating a prototype for a planner/agenda/journal for a specific group of middle schoolers of their choice.... Ex: kids who have a lot of extracurriculars, kids who have a hard time staying organized, kids who like daily inspiration, entrepreneur kids, etc. They will work with a partner to research what's currently available for teens, choose a "target market" group, design the planner, and then create a prototype of it. Throughout the process, students will get to give each other feedback and ask questions in a shark tank kind of way. To wrap up the project, the prototypes will be set up in our school lobby or a learning community, and other middle schoolers will be given tickets to visit and vote for their top three most desired journals based on appearance, practicality, and how useful the design is for them as middle schoolers. I think this will be a great tie to the real world of business and drive/growth mindset. 

Our final PBL will be the one Dawn comes to see my implement that you guys know about... my "What's Going On?" social action project. We've started reading current events and will use the events we've learned about to get started with generating specific project ideas and finding mentors March Madness bracket style. I can't wait for all that's to come. I'm feeling high with the success of the Pieces of Me revamp, and looking forward to having the kids feed off that energy of authenticity!

Hope everyone is enjoying this time with their kids too! :)