Blog #5: I used to think..../ Now I know...

I used to think:

• I knew what PBL was, and was using it regularly in my classroom. 
• PBL was best suited for higher achieving students only.
• PBL would be easier to incorporate in elementary school because all subjects are integrated. 
• PBL is much easier for the teacher than planning day-by-day lessons and activities.

Now I know:

• I was assuming that my end of unit projects was considered PBL. During the last school year, I wrote what I believed to be a PBL on rates, ratios, and proportions that turned out to be more along the lines of independent learning.  There were some of the PBL required criteria such as collaboration, conferencing, and reflection, but it was not a true PBL experience. Now I know PBL is learning through completing the project.
• PBL is effective with low-income students if you build stamina and agency within the students prior to the PBL experience. Offering inquiry-based experiences in small chunks helps to build the stamina needed to complete a full experience. Low-income students are quick to give up, so it is important to build the stamina along the way.
• PBL is just as easy to incorporate in middle school if you have a cooperative team who will help you. I do not understand all of the science, social studies, and language arts standards, but my teammates are very willing to help me understand what the standards are and how I can incorporate them into the math class.
• PBL is much harder than I anticipated! I spent much more time planning the PBL experience than I have on my other units. It is definitely not the "easy way out" of lecturing. The planning is much more complex and the outcome is much greater. 

Blog #3 - Student Agency

I have incorporated the "Power of Yet" into my classroom for several years. Title I schools contain a large population of students who believe you must be born smart and not that hard work and perseverance will foster intelligence, especially in math.  There are many ways in which a teacher can promote agency in her students. One way is to allow students to productively struggle in their work. Many times, especially in Title I schools, teachers and paraprofessionals will "hold the students' hand" through difficult tasks and problems which does not allow student agency to begin developing. When these students get to middle school, they are conditioned to ask for help before trying. When the teachers try to let the students "productively struggle", the students give up because they do not know where to begin. Productive struggle is a must for students to build stamina and to develop a growth mindset.

Another strategy is to provide academic feedback. If students understand where their mistakes and misconceptions are, they will be more willing to take another look. The only assignments I do not allow corrections on are unit assessments. My students are allowed to make corrections on all other assignments. Giving them this opportunity causes them to look back at their work and find their own errors and misconceptions, make that correction and learn from their mistakes. I am very confident in these two strategies and utilize them daily to build as much student agency as possible.

Angie's Video Selfie Reflection

		Score
Identifying What’s Important	·        This lesson was a pre-cursor to my PBL. The students were grouped and had to solve clues using content they had already learned ·        Before I began the video, I had reviewed group work expectations, and the students watched an introductory video from Blabberize explaining the task. ·        I asked students to work together to figure something out before asking for help from me or my co-teacher. ·         The students work well collaboratively at the beginning, but lost some steam before the end of class	Proficient
Making Connections	8.EEI.1 Understand and apply the laws of exponents (i.e. product rule, quotient rule, power to a power, product to a power, quotient to a power, zero power property, negative exponents) to simplify numerical expressions that include integer exponents. 8.EEI.2 Investigate concepts of square and cube roots.  8.EEI.3 Explore the relationship between quantities in decimal and scientific notation. 8.NS.1 Explore the real number system and its appropriate usage in real-world situations. 8.NS.1a Recognize the differences between rational and irrational numbers. 8.NS.1b Understand that all real numbers have a decimal expansion. 8.NS.1c Model the hierarchy of the real number system, including natural, whole, integer, rational, and irrational numbers. 8.NS.2 Estimate and compare the value of irrational numbers by plotting them on a number line. 8.NS.3 Extend prior knowledge to translate among multiple representations of rational numbers (fractions, decimal numbers, percentages). Include the conversion of repeating decimal numbers to fractions.	Proficient
Context	·        Students were extremely engaged in the beginning, but several lost team before 30 minutes has passed. ·        The low level of mathematical understanding effects the sustained inquiry	Proficient
Drafting Next Steps	·        I definitely need to practice sustained inquiry in longer increments and more frequently ·        Need to spend more time “hands off”. My students are used to having their hands held and need more time to become independent	Proficient

Kathy Feigenbaum - Blog Post 5

Kathy Feigenbaum

Blog 5: What I thought I knew/ What I know about PBL

Somehow, I was oblivious to PBL.  Last year I got an email about a PBL convocation at Furman at the end of the school year, and I asked around. “Buzzword” was the response I got. So, I signed up for the program to see if I might learn anything that would help me in teaching middle school Spanish. After the one -day event I was convince enough to sign up for the endorsement classes. It still seemed like it applies more to math and science, but I really liked some of the aspects. At least I can bring some of these (like student-driven learning) to my classes.

What I know now is that PBL is amazingly effective. My students were more engaged than ever when we were working through the We Need to Learn Spanish-Why? project.

I also know that there is a lot of time and work involved in planning such a unit. We need to have an authentic engaging question or problem to solve, student buy-in and sustained inquiry at a challenging level of work, technology, collaboration, choices, reflection, and opportunity for revision and the chance to show the product beyond the classroom. So much work that I think it will take much of my summer to prepare PBLs for the upcoming school year.

I would love to share this PBL experience with a colleague – either by level or by subject matter. I still feel isolated, and that makes the challenge more daunting. If I can overcome the hurdle of how to apply PBL to teaching a foreign language, I think I can handle the work that goes into preparing these invaluable experiences.

Tina Sanders - Genius Hour Reflection

Genius Hour Project- Reflection

By: Tina Sanders

I was really anxious about this project. I don’t think I really understood it before I felt like I had to get into it. Researching the process itself, made me a little intimidated because it seemed like most places I found projects were in older student settings.  But, when I started talking it over with Alana, it began to make a little more sense and a plan began to form.  It is very helpful to have someone to bounce ideas off of. That is one reason I fell in love with the IB program and once our school decided not to renew it, I began to search for some other inquiry based teacher method. 

Each year that we share with students about what trash does to the animals when it’s left in their habitats, they take it to heart. They are saddened by what it does to the animals. They become very aware of their footprint on the environment. (We often hear a tale or two about their parents throwing trash out the window while going down the road.)  Then, we discuss how everyone makes mistakes and what we do next, is just promise not to do it again. We take a walk around the school and pick up trash to show how they can make a difference in the lives of living things. 

Then, we introduced the idea of them bringing in recyclable items to reduce our footprint on the environment. They really got into bringing things in so much so that we had to stop it early because  of the ant issue (due to parents not rinsing things out) we talked about in class.  Once everything was in, the creative process began. Students chose which pieces they wanted to use and the masterpieces came to be. Students shared their creations with their classmates. Then, they proudly took them home.  I believe this made a difference in their lives and the lives of the animals that could have been impacted by trash they could have thrown away.

Kelsey Grant Blog #5

What I Used to Think...
There is no way Project-Based Learning can be used in an orchestral setting.  It will take way too much time away from performing on instruments.  I won't be able to directly connect it to anything we are doing in class, especially in a beginner classroom where my focus is on learning how to hold, take care of, and play an instrument for the majority of the first year.  The students won't want to do it because they aren't playing their instruments.  It will be so much work for me and will bog down my planning because it's so new to me.
But Now I Know...
Project-Based Learning can be fairly seamlessly incorporated in to my curriculum, even with beginner orchestra students.  I am now able to cover the non-performance based standards, such as composition and making connections to culture and other content areas, much more thoroughly than I was before, and in a way that is meaningful and memorable to my students.  Though it did take time away from playing, it forced me to become more efficient in my teaching and time management.  The students took ownership of their learning.  It was a rough start, and honestly there are a lot of things I will change for my next unit, but I really did enjoy the process.  I know now that the weekly schedule did not work for my classes.  When we condensed it down to several days or partial class period of work in a row, the work was much more efficient and I spent less time reviewing and redirecting.  I was able to identify several weaknesses in my own teaching and instruction, such as reflection, effective assessments outside of performing, and personal time management and organization.  My next project will not be focused around a concert performance either.  It was too much of a time crunch once we got down to focusing on performances and PBL projects.
I am looking forward to developing a cross-curricular PBL for next semester!

Alana McSharry- Course 2- Blog 5

What I Used to Think/ But Now I Know

I thought project-based learning was about students deciding on a topic and learning about it. It seemed to happen without the standards that we all have to teach in South Carolina. During the summer I learned that the project has to relate to the South Carolina standards and be authentic and relevant as well as producing a final project and a public project. The project Exercise, Eat, Sleep and Be Clean is authentic and relevant to young students because they learn healthy habits that might last a life time. The final project was the My Health Plan book. In this project the students drew a picture of each healthy habit, dictated a sentence to match the picture and read the sentence on the bottom of the page. Most of the students drew a picture and dictated a sentence in their My Health Plan book that showed them participating in healthy habits. For the final project students created videos and a book to present to the public. They chose the content of the videos and book. My assistant and I guided them through the creation of the videos and book. The public project was a great showcase of what they learned during the project.

Before implementing the project I knew students enjoyed learning from speakers or guests but I rarely have them in the classroom. At the beginning of the project I invited the nurse, the physical education teachers and the cafeteria manager to speak about their area of expertise to the students. The students enjoyed listening to them and learning from them. It helped to maintain their interest in the project of healthy habits. At the end of the project the experts came back to the classroom so they could view the videos and book produce by the students. Both the experts and the students enjoyed the presentation and the whole process. The students were eager to share what they learned with the experts. Ending the project with this activity closed the circle of learning for the students and the experts. This part of the project was the best and in some ways the easiest to implement because of the generosity and availability of the experts. It takes other people to help implement a project well.

During the summer I understood that the students need to drive the learning with my guidance. Throughout the project I had a difficult time balancing between teaching students and allowing them to explore the topic. I know that K4 students can drive their own learning because I observe them doing it every day during work time but it is still hard to let go of that part of my teaching. I hope to teach more student driven lessons as well as allowing students to explore the information during the next project-based learning unit plan.

In the next project I am thinking about having the students work on exploring the weather. I will develop a project that has a driving question and is authentic and relevant. I would like to ask the parents and the administrative staff to attend the public project. I will give students more opportunity to make choices about their learning and their final projects.