Classroom Fun - PBL Updates

Student: "Mrs. Wilson...can I conduct a social experiment in order to see what really makes people happy?"

Me: "Absolutely"

Student: "Really? Ok, good. I love this assignment."

Me: Smiling from ear to ear and thinking....that's #whatsup

We are about three weeks into our PBL project in my English II class, and it has been an interesting learning experience for me as a teacher to step back and let my students take ownership of their own learning. Due to other curriculum items and our reading of my favorite novel, The Great Gatsby, our PBL activity is something we do on a weekly basis. Every Monday, the students get the entire period in order to research, analyze, reflect, interview, and inquire what it means to be truly happy and how one can attain this happiness. As we near the end of the unit and school year, the students will take the information they collected and created from their Google + Collection and synthesize it in order to create an infographic that answers our driving questions. Although the first few weeks were slow, I am finally starting to witness my students taking ownership of their work and direction when it comes to this assignment.

One Student's Interview Questions

One great piece of evidence....my students's question listed above. In addition, students are writing questions and interviewing friends and family. Some students went to the lunchroom during class and interviewed over 10 students for their projects. Students then asked to create a video montage of responses in order to add to their Google + Collection. One student came in with a copious notes on her phone that she was typing into her Collection. When I asked what she was typing, she told me she talked to a bunch of different people over the past week in order to get their perspectives. True inquiry, creativity, and ownership. Wow...my students make me excited about the process and potential that come with a PBL activity.

On the other hand, some students do struggle with an open ended project. They want clear instructions. They want set guidelines. They are worried about points and how they can "lose" points if they don't do something a certain way. When they ask me a question and it is not answered directly, they struggle to comprehend that they are in the driver's seat when it comes to their work with this assignment. This makes me sad, as it appears the students feel the only way they can think is if they comply with my expectations. While I think it is important to set some ground rules/expectations, I do believe that students should be allowed to be curious, ask their own questions, and use their interests in order to drive research. Yes, this can be time consuming and hard to fit into a jam packed curriculum, but don't we want our students to be critical thinkers? Curious? Creative? Collaborative? Problem solvers?

All of these skills are expectations in our curriculums and, more importantly, in the real world. I am seeing more and more that they need opportunities in the classroom environment to take ownership of their thinking and learning. And they need us to facilitate, motivate, and challenge their thinking.

I love my job! #whatsup

Here is my PBL Assignment sheet. If you are interested in seeing some of my students' work, please let me know. I will ask their permission to share their Google + Collections and final infographics.

Ideas and Taking Action

My mind has been spinning with great ideas of how to improve my classroom. I am blessed with opportunities to attend conferences and collaborate with other talented, passionate educators, and these opportunities motivate me to take new steps in making my classroom student-centered. I recently joined a cohort for a Future Ready Teacher Leader Certificate through the EdTech Team. My excitement continues to grow each day as I continue to connect with more educators and learn from their experiences while also sharing my own. My mind continues to race with new ideas for my classroom, and I know it is up to me in order to take action and risks in the future. 

My first big step this year was revising my research project and turning it into an Inquiry project. While it took time, I am extremely happy with the process and my students' work. Will I do things differently next year? Yes...of course, but this will only make it more successful. The risk in changing the project was invigorating, and it provided an opportunity for my students to think creatively, analytically, and critically. They took ownership of their own research and writing, and this ownership was powerful to observe and facilitate. 

My next step is creating a Project Based Learning activity for our fourth and final unit. The unit focuses on aspirations and what it takes to pursue happiness. In addition, our anchor text is my all time favorite novel, The Great Gatsby. At this point, I am in the planning stages but look forward to creating a learning opportunity for my students in which they contemplate what it takes to attain happiness. The project will take place while we are reading, and each week I hope to give the students a day to research and share using some sort of digital platform. Google Collections is high on my list for a digital platform, as I have just started using it professional and personally in order to organize my ideas and share my learning. Potentially, students can research, question, reflect, create, and then post writing, links, images, questions, and videos in their collections. From there, they can share their reflections in our class Community, which will speak to a larger audience and provide an opportunity to learn and communicate with each another. I may also challenge my students to share their collections on Twitter or through another digital platform in order to expand their audience outside of our classroom. Obviously, the opportunities for learning are endless. 

Ideas will continue to come in...but it is my job to take action. Stay tuned as I continue to brainstorm, create, learn, reflect, and share throughout this process. #whatsup