Project Based Learning and My Role as a Teacher/Principal

Wow! Yet another example of how my Connected Educator class is timely in terms of my professional life. I'm meeting with parents on May 14th to discuss the new schedule for next year, so I had to redesign the schedule.

As luck would have it, Chapter 8 in the textbook also talked about what principals could do to improve collaboration amongst colleagues at school. I gave it a great deal of thought.

So, based on the schedule I created, a Grade 3 teacher would have a schedule that looks like this...

And it creates many opportunities for collaboration. It's not going to create a full integrated Project Based Learning environment yet, but next year is only my first year as the ES principal, and I need to take things in baby steps rather than completely trying to rock the boat in my first year. I'll save that for year two to give the veteran teachers some time to adjust, and to get the new teachers on board.

What I like about this 3rd Grade schedule is that the Language Arts block is a common time for the Grades 1, 2, and 3 teachers to create leveled classrooms (based on reading levels) as part of a  Literacy block. This Literacy block is something we've done for the past two years at my school, and most of the students see a two-grade level increase in their reading level over the course of one school year. There are two class periods a week where the Tech teacher can come into the classroom (or the students can use the Mac lab) to team-teach a lesson. I also want one of the mandatory Activity lessons to be a 9 week course called "Animation" so that students can experiment with different Web 2.0 tools in an enrichment class.

Every other week, the Music and Art teachers can teach an integrated class (something we had in the schedule two years ago, and I missed it this year). An integrated lesson in Music might tie in reading notes with fractions, or in Art, students could sculpt landforms out of play dough (one of my favorite projects). And in addition to time to meet or plan after school, there are two periods per week for the Grades 1, 2, and 3 teachers to collaborate during a planning period. As they learn to better collaborate, it should make the transition into PBL easier.

I'm really proud of this schedule, and the fact that it was my first major document I created using Google Spreadsheet. The CE 5160 coursework (again!) proved timely. I'm also optimistic that it will give teachers better opportunities to create a Project Based Learning environment since one of the fundamental tenets of PBL is collaboration (by both teachers and students).

In this blog, I've already given a few examples of how I worked with my Grade 1 and 2 colleagues to develop a "limited PBL" with the lower ES students during Service Learning and Leading Week in March. The Grades 2 and 3 teachers collaborated with the Grade 1 colleague on Google docs since she was confined to a room at Halla Hospital; however, the week was limited, in part, because it was only a week (time) and it doesn't adequately meet all of the requirements of the the Essential Elements checklist developed by BIE. These elements include: Focus on Significant Content, Develop 21st Century Skills, Engage Students in In-Depth Inquiry, Organize Tasks Around a Driving Question, Establish a Need to Know, Encourage Voice and Choice, Incorporate Revision and Reflection, Include a Public Audience.

Our essential question asked: Why do we recycle? And as a way to guide student teams, we organized several activities both within and outside of the school.

Students researched and created lapbooks on the cycle of life and conservation.  (Significant Content)

Students raced to sort items between recyclables and contaminants. (Organize Tasks Around a Driving Question)

 Student teams created Keynotes on recycling after developing a template in their Korean Social Studies class.  (Develop 21st Century Skills)

Students designed and created recycling boxes with the Art teacher. (Encourage Voice and Choice)

We visited the Asia Climate Change Education Center on Jeju. (In-Depth Inquiry)

 

Students went with the Music teacher (and chaperones) to a play about recycling at North London Collegiate School. (Encourage a Public Audience - at least NLCS managed this).

And we established Friday as a day for revision and reflection, but again, it was too rushed and limited. We gave the students some choice about what information they could include in their lapbooks and Keynotes, but no choice in the medium. The same was true for their Recycling box images and messages. And while parents saw some of the projects the students produced when they visited on Parent/Teacher Conference Day, there was not a much larger public audience. It just happened to work out that the NLCS play, Planet Plenty (written by one of the teachers), tied into Recycling/Conservation; that wasn't planned. We were just trying to have an activity with a neighboring school.

After the week, though we did notice a change in the behavior of the students. They have fewer problems resolving issues on the playground, rarely complain when they are assigned to a mixed group (by age or sex), and display more care about their classroom environment (picking up trash, sorting recyclables).

It's not that we didn't try, but part of the problem is that we are only given a week for this part of the curriculum; I plan to rectify this next year by adding an additional week to Service Learning "Week" and giving the students an opportunity to collaborate with a group of students from, of all places, Oklahoma (Where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain)!

As I was trying to figure out what I was going to do for a final project for my CE5160 class, I received an email out of the blue from a teacher in Oklahoma asking if we could collaborate on a project for her school's culture week next year. Apparently, there is a large enough Korean minority in the school that the teachers there want to find a way to integrate some of the curriculum into their lives. Since one of the teachers spent 10 years in Japan, she just searched on the web through ISS (International School Services) for a school which might collaborate, and lo and behold, after several exchanges of email, we're on the path to a flat classroom project.

Over the next few years, I'd like to develop a broader, project based learning program for the school, but I recognize that this won't happen overnight. I'll include Eric Isselhardt's blog in the new professional learning network I am developing for my role as a principal. I'm already considering his advice from his post on Creating Schoolwide PBL Aligned to Common Core.

He says: We know that without excellent classroom management, project-based learning efforts devolve to classroom chaos. In addition, we are still grappling with how to best prepare our students to be successful in a project-based learning environment when they have difficulty working together cooperatively. As we move the school closer to a true project-based learning paradigm, we are actively working as a team to address those core issues.

I'll heed his words, and start promoting cooperative group work and strong classroom management.