How would you introduce PBL in an elementary school that does not use PBL?
First of all, I would test out PBL in my classroom. I would have a class blog, and I would introduce my students to blogging. If there are not personal computers or iPads available for each student at my school, I would just designate a time for each table to use the computers that we do have in the classroom. This may not be ideal if there are 25 kids in a class, but we will have to start somewhere and make do with what we have. Next, I will add more projects and group work. I would document and video the progress of the students blog posts and the projects that they are working on.
Blogging with my students:
The first thing I would do is teach them how to blog, and give them the rules about using the computers and the internet. I will have them make their first blog post about themselves. Then they will begin blogging about their day; telling what they learned, what they did, if they enjoyed it or not,
etc. After they are comfortable with blogging, they will start blogging about certain subjects. I would give them a choice to pick a subject and write about the content that we went over that day. This will give them the opportunity to learn more about the subject that they choose and will also make them more interested if they get to choose the topic. They will also post about projects that they do and they will share pictures of the finished products. Parents will be able to view their child's blog post so they can see what they have been working on throughout the school year.
Projects in my classroom:
I would love to incorporate projects in every subject. I really love the idea of combining subjects to create a better understand of how the subjects connect. For example, if I teach a science lesson, I would make them do a writing assignment about something that they learned that day during the science lesson. This can be done for any subject. They can write fiction or non-fiction. I would give
them that choice.
A project that I would love to do is where they act out scenes from their history book. They would dress up, write scripts, make it into a movie, etc. They will also preform these in front of the class. Another way of doing this project would be to have them choose to either act it out, make it into a song or musical, or make a rap about it.
Introducing my ideas to my principal:
After trying out blogging and doing projects in my own classroom, I would present the videos and the documentation of all of the projects that we have done, to my principal. I would show the progress that my students have made and tell how much more they enjoy learning this way. I would then ask if I could present my ideas to the rest of the teachers and help them get started using PBL in their classrooms. This is how important PBL is to me. I would be willing to be a PBL director at my school, if that is what it takes to get my school on board with PBL, that's what I will do.
Wow! This was really thoughtful. This is a great point in order to introduce PBL to other schools. There were alot of added words that shouldn't be there and alot of commas missing. If you went back and corrected those errors, it would be much better post.
ReplyDeleteI believe project based learning in the classroom is the way to go. It is a good way to teach, so that the students may be in charge of their own learning. Seeing Mr. Capps explain how he uses PBL in his classroom just shows how interested the students are about learning, and using it this way will be the best way to teach many standards through a single project.
ReplyDeleteExcellent. Everyone should read this post!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post.I like how you would try PBL out before introducing it to the principal.There are many free websites to help teachers to create a free blog for their classroom.
ReplyDelete