Blog #9

Project Based Learning (PBL) is a very popular teaching/learning method and is becoming more and more common in schools. We can learn a lot from those who implement or participate in PBL regularly.

Seven Essentials to Project Based Learning is a very beneficial article for those who are unsure of how to implement PBL in their classroom. Listed are seven distinct things that are crucial to every project. The seven essentials listed in the article are as follows: a need to know (an introduction to the material), a driving question (used to focus the students' efforts), student voice and choice, 21st century skills (collaborating and communicating), inquiry and innovation (generating more detailed questions in addition to driving question), feedback and revision (critiquing one another's work), and a publicly presented product (reflection on completed project and what they gained in terms of knowledge, skills, and pride). These seven things are definitely necessary in executing PBL in the classroom. This is a very good starting point for those who do not know how to integrate this method into their teaching style.

The video Project Based Learning for Teachers is very helpful for those who are unsure of why they should bring PBL into their classroom. It expresses a very easy way to know why PBL is useful: the four C's. It shows that PBL teaches collaboration skills, communication skills, critical thinking skills, and career/life skills. These are all skills that we want our students to leave our classroom with and keep with them forever.. They are also skills that are essential to have upon graduating and entering the real world.

PBL: What Motivates Students Today is a video compilation of different students expressing what their main motivators are to do well in school. The students' answers range from receiving positive feedback from teachers to wanting to have good grades to get into college. Some students also talk about positive and negative consequences as motivators. Some students want to do well so they will be rewarded with things such as money and candy, and some students want to do well to avoid negative consequences such as being grounded at home. Everyone is not motivated by the same thing, so it is important for teachers to learn what motivates each individual student and use that in the classroom. This video is a great reminder of that.

Ten Sites Supporting Digital Classroom Collaboration in Project Based Learning is an article that I will definitely be saving for future reference. This article presents the readers with ten websites that assist in classroom collaboration through the use of technology. Some of the websites, such as Titan Pad, seem to have a purpose similar to that of Google Docs or Padlet. Most of the websites do not even require you to make an account. You can just provide the students with the URL and they can begin collaboration. I really like the idea behind Linoit. It is basically a digital cork board that students can access from anywhere. The "cork board" can contain images, sticky notes, videos, and more. The article also provides you with links that include ways you can use some of these websites in your classroom. This article is definitely a helpful resource worth keeping.

In the video High School Teachers Meet the Challenges of PBL Implementation, several teachers discuss the difficulties they have faced while trying to implement PBL in their classroom. One of the biggest issues seems to be that teachers who have been teaching one way for years are now having to change their way of teaching. I will not have to face that issue since I will start my teaching career using PBL, but it is nice to hear someone say how difficult it is to transition but how rewarding it actually is. Another problem mentioned is that some teachers do not know how to implement PBL in a certain subject area (mostly math and English). Some teachers expressed that although it may take some time to figure out how it fits into their particular subject area, they enjoy having a voice and being able to execute their own ideas in their classrooms. The teachers' words and the statistics at the end of the video really helped me realize how big of an impact PBL really makes in the classroom. I really enjoyed this video and it has made me even more excited to use PBL in my future classroom.