Blog Post 9

Hey guys, today I will once again be providing some of my thoughts on a group of videos and articles assigned to us. The main topic of discussion will be that of project based learning. For those unfamiliar with that term then this must be your first time visiting my blog because it is a subject frequently discussed. With good reason this type of strategy is an effective way of providing our students with the best education and learning experience possible. So without further ado let us break this stuff down!



The first article up is titled Seven Essentials for Project Based Learning. This is an informative article that details you guessed it the seven essentials when dealing with PBL. I stumbled upon this article way back in May when I first heard the term project based learning and it was very helpful to someone like me who was new to the concept. I was thrilled to see it made it to our required reading list. Here are the the essentials in a nice list form!

1.  A Need to Know-  The subject matter that your class is important and the students should always be aware of that fact. We should instill a motivation for the students to want to learn more about what ever they are learning at the time. Perhaps show a video or have the read an article to get them interested in the topic. 

2. A Driving Question- Ask the students a thought provoking question that gets their attention and captures the essence of the lesson. 

3. Student Voice and  Choice- This is in my opinion one of the most crucial elements to the whole project based learning system. If you give the students room to give their own thoughts and feedback into a project they will obviously be more invested. 

4. 21st Century Skills- This one is pretty straight forward. We should always make sure we are using the best learning tools available to us. When I say that most everyone will jump to the technology aspect of today's teacher. The is by all means a correct deduction but there is more to it than that. Perhaps just as important if not more is allowing the students to collaborate with one another while working. As stated in essential number 3 above, the students should voice their opinions with that of their peers and learn how to work with others. That is such a good way to prepare them for the real world jobs they will soon occupy. 

5. Inquiry and Innovation- Give the students freedom to do things their own way. You can have them research a question in the best way they see fit. This is a great way to have your student become more engaged with their work. 

6. Feedback and Revision- We all make mistakes. Our students need to find out as soon as possible that we need feedback from our peers to help get the best performance out of ourselves. We should always be open to the critiques from our peers. This will help us see what did and did not work about our project. We can then take it and reflect upon it. This will not only help whatever you are currently working but also all your future projects as well. So be sure to offer some constructive thoughts about this blog post in the comments below!

7. A Publicly Presented Project-  If you show a student that their work has an audience, you will find that they will want to really pour their best into their work. I can very much vouch for this point because I want you the reader to be able to read a quality post when visiting my blog. I work harder when I know something is going online. 

The next is a video done by Tony Vincent titled Project Based Learning for Teachers. This a fun video but warning if you have a history of epilepsy I would not recommend you watch this video. It kind of hurt my eyes. Tony goes gives some of his insight into what PBL learning is and how it benefits our students. He gives some pretty cool examples of topics that could be used for PBL. 

Project Based Learning in PE was a very interesting read as well. I am just being honest the idea of doing projects in PE is kind of foreign to me. When I went to PE the coach would just roll a couple of basketballs onto the court and that would be that. It seems I am once again behind in the going-ons of today's classroom! The author says he gets his students to develop fitness plans and all kinds of other stuff. He goes into detail about one project that he developed and I encourage everyone to follow the link above to check his stuff out. 

The video High School Teachers Meet the Challenges of PBL Implementation the process of switching to PBL is detailed in a very human way. It shows the teachers begin to shift to this way of doing things and the challenges that arise when undertaking such a monumental task. Some of the teachers have been doing things a certain way for decades and to suddenly have to change that is jarring to say the least. They are troopers about it though and are able to recognize the benefits of PBL. It shows the hard work that these teachers put into their craft. They meet constantly and collaborate with one another to develop some engaging new projects for their subjects. This was such a cool video because it allowed us to be a fly on the wall and see some of things we may very well deal with in the future. 

In this last video Watery Ketchup  it puts on display two high school students who answer the hard questions about our ketchup caps. What did they do you may be asking. Well these two took it upon themselves to design a new cap that effectively stops your first squirt of ketchup from being a watery disaster. This was just a really cool video that shows what cool stuff students can achieve when they are giving leeway to explore and resolve problems on their own. The price increase this would have on the ketchup turns me off a little (I am cheap) but none can deny the awesome work that these two did.