Project Based Learning

Do School Differently, From Day One

In late May, I was able to attend Project Based Learning training by the Buck Institute for Education.   The facilitator was an expert in the field, and modeled not only how to develop a project, but gave us lots of classroom management ideas for PBL as well.

She mentioned three rules of lesson planning:
1.  Curiosity comes first (questions can be windows to great instruction)
2.  Embrace the mess
3.  Practice reflection

Our district's third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers worked in grade level teams to design PBL units to implement in the fall.  In the image below, we were doing a Silent Gallery Walk and providing feedback on sticky notes via an "I like" and "I wonder" protocol.  When using this protocol with your students, remind them that the "I like" feedback needs to be specific.  Simply saying, "I like your project" isn't helpful.  The "I wonders" truly help us get deeper.

We also watched a powerful video about teaching children how to critique.  Ron Berger models a lesson with children, giving feedback about Austin's butterfly.  This is a great video to share with students as a model of how to give constructive peer feedback.

Critique and Feedback - 

The Story of Austin's Butterfly - Ron Berger

The Buck Institute offers amazing Resources for download on their website.  During training, it was helpful for me to walk through PBLs that other educators had completed with their classes.  Be sure to check out the Project Search page to learn more.  It is free to sign up, and you can access documents like the Project Planner and a variety of Planning Forms.  Join their G+ Community or other Social Media Connections to build your PLN.

I love to collect "Gems" - Some from this PBL training:

* Hunches need to collide - ideas take time to develop

* Your classroom should be a place where ideas could mingle, and swap, and create new ideas

* Find the people who have the missing pieces, and that could be used to build and improve your own ideas

* Student questions are the seeds of real learning

* Embrace the messy process of trial and error

* Success is sweet, but failure is good food

* As a teacher, you should constantly be taking the temperature of the room.  Who gets it?  Who doesn't?

And... "This is our class, we can solve it!"

Tech Tip Tuesday

Read the original post on how I use Tech Tip Tuesday.


Tech Tip for this week:

Organize Your Google Drive.  I actually walked the kids through the process, organizing my Drive as I went, but gave them a reference as well.  I usually need to revisit my own drive about once a month to clean it up, as I am not good about filing documents as I create them.

I leave a few frequently used documents out of files for easier access, including my digital "To Do List".

What tech tips have you discovered this week?

Motivation Monday

Jay Silver, Inventor, Founder/CEO of JoyLabz, is an inspiration to the Maker Movement.   He founded Makey Makey: An Invention Kit for Everyone in 2012.  Over the past two years, my students, grades 2-8, have enjoyed "making" things with our Makey Makey.  We launch with the ever-popular banana piano, and branch out from there.

Makey Makey (affiliate link)

I recently read the article on Edutopia: Trees of Knowledge. Silver metaphorically addresses how learners can "sprout new branches and grow their trees to the tune of their own heart's song."  He also references the "roots" to his learning tree.  What "roots" have helped you grow your tree?

To encourage students to create their own viewpoint, and essentially their own world, we can encourage conversation with answers like, "I wonder"  and "Tell me more".  Answer questions with questions to help students grow as learners.  Encourage students to be "active curators of their own viewpoint on the world, not a recipient of my viewpoint."


Click through for some Monday Motivation:

1.  Jay Silver's Ted Talk: Hack a banana, make a keyboard!

2.  Article on Edutopia: Trees of Knowledge

3.  Opinion Piece: The Future of Education Demands More Questions, Not Answers

4.  Jay Silver's Website

5.  Follow Silver @wakeupsilver and @makeymakey on Twitter

Fun Finds Friday

Read the original post of how I use Fun Finds on Fridays.

This week's finds:

1.  Google Keep -  Organize your notes - in text, pictures, or audio recordings.  Keep is tied to your Gmail account, so it is accessible on any device - I love the app on my phone!  You can set reminders, share your notes, change colors, and add labels.

2.  Curiosity Machine - Fun website featuring design challenges across many areas: aerospace, art of science, biomechanics, biomimicry, civil engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, food science, materials science, mechanical engineering, neuroscience, ocean engineering, robotics, and satellite systems.

3. LEGO Color Chart - "Features every color of LEGO that exists."

4. Pop Up LEGO Himeji Castle - Talapz took 15 months to finish the castle, and has previously built other pop up LEGO creations including Todai-ji (Buddhist temple) and a Kinkaku-ji (Kyoto's famous golden temple.

Booked

We usually have NPR's Weekend Edition on the radio as we get ready for church on Sunday mornings.  One Sunday in April, I was blown away by an interview with author Kwame Alexander:  How to Get Kids Hooked On Books?  'Use Poetry.  It Is A Surefire Way.'  There have been very few books over the years that I have stopped, and immediately ordered a copy as soon as I heard about it.  Alexander's new novel Booked was one of them.

Kwame writes books about middle school boys in verse, rather than prose, and he is exceptional at it!  His earlier book, The Crossover, won the Newberry Medal.  Booked is about Nick, a twelve year old boy who loves soccer, and HATES books.  This premise alone is enough to pull in those reluctant readers.  But as readers get to know Nick, they also learn that "He hates books because his father makes him read the dictionary every day."  

My middle school students adored this book.  It was loved by voracious and reluctant readers, boys and girls, whether they were sports-oriented or not.

Booked (affiliate link)

Listen to the impressive interview via NPR:

How to Get Kids Hooked On Books?

'Use Poetry.  It Is A Surefire Way.' 

Visit Kwame Alexander's Website

Follow Kwame on Twitter

Check out Alexander's Book: Page-to-Stage Writing Workshop: Awakening the Writer, Publisher, and Presenter in Every K-8 Student

Read Kwame's acceptance speech for the Newbery Award for The Crossover

Happy Reading!  

Chasing Vermeer

This weekend, my daughter and I attended the Reflecting Class in the Age of Rembrandt & Vermeer exhibit at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.  My goal was to see A Lady Writing, painted by Johannes Vermeer around 1665.  It was on loan from The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. for this special exhibit.

For those who have read Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett, you know that Petra and Calder are searching for A Lady Writing on the campus of the University of Chicago.  Liz Szabla of Scholastic described Chasing Vermeer as "a puzzle, wrapped in mystery, disguised as an adventure, and delivered as a work of art."  It is one of my favorite books to read with my sixth grade reading class, because we are able to work across curriculum areas.

Chasing Vermeer (affiliate link)

My favorite resource for Chasing Vermeer was previously hosted on a website titled "A Different Place".  However, I believe that teacher has retired, and the website is no longer active.  Some other websites have useful material as well:

Chasing Vermeer Teacher's Guide by Scholastic
Chasing Vermeer Sixth Grade Unit by ReadWorks.org

Great Supporting Websites:

Author Blue Balliett Website for Chasing Vermeer - It took Blue five years to write Chasing Vermeer, because she was still a classroom teacher.  The website includes a slideshow of the actual places that inspired the locations in the book.

Find A Lady Writing on Google Art Project
Visit Essential Vermeer for artist information
Writing lesson by Writing Fix: Writing Like an Artist Paints
Wikipedia article about Chasing Vermeer
University of Chicago Map
Powell's Books website
Art Institute of Chicago
Write a message in Secret Code or create your own
Go on an art adventure or play Vermeer games 
Learn more about the Camera Obscura which experts believe Vermeer used

PENTOMINOES

Calder always carries pentominoes in his pocket, and he uses them to work through some mysterious questions.  I give each student a set of pentominoes to "carry around" while they are reading Chasing Vermeer.  They will often have the pentominoes out, just as Calder does, trying to figure out answers to the mysteries in the book.  If you don't have pentominoes available, you can print some out, or you can use virtual pentominoes.

Enjoy the mystery!

Tech Tip Tuesday

Each Tuesday, students can sign up to share a "Tech Tip" ~ something they have recently discovered and think would be useful to others.  We are currently using a shared Google Doc with the above image as our form to sign up and share.  Early on in the school year, I am usually the only one sharing a tech tip.  As the year progresses, more and more students sign up, but I usually have something that I want to share as well. These range from the simple (but useful) keyboard shortcuts, to valuable websites or apps we have discovered, to more complex programming tips.  It has been a great way for us to grow as learners together!