PBL & STEM/STEAM

"Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs is an internationally recognized expert in the fields of literacy, curriculum and instruction, and educational reform. In the first part of our interview, Heidi exposes the pitfalls of American literacy instruction and explains what we can do to improve it."

"What is iObservation? iObservation is an instructional and leadership improvement system. It collects, manages and reports longitudinal data from classroom walkthroughs and teacher observations. Teacher growth and leadership practices inform professional development differentiated to individual learning needs for every teacher and leader to increase his/her effectiveness each year."

"WHAT CHILDREN WRITE TO AUTHORS "You've got mail" is an understatement for me during the months of November and December. Each year, the post office delivers white plastic mail bins by the dozens filled with correspondence from children across the country. I am not the person to whom they are writing, but I and my staff are the ones who read their very personal letters. "

"Test How Fast You Juggle Tasks" Fantastic interactive article to see how you are not only at juggling tasks, but focusing when taksing, and more!

"Welcome to Worlds of Words. You will find many useful resources on this site for building bridges between cultures. These resources include multiple strategies for locating and evaluating culturally authentic international children's and adolescent literature as well as ways of engaging students with these books in classrooms and libraries."

Loved this quote form the article ... "Primary school students who used them for a year became instructors for teachers who had not used the gadgets before. One prep class actually created an instructional DVD to be used by staff explaining and demonstrating how to operate a (hi-tech) whiteboard," Mr Light said."

"Walking into one of our four STEM classrooms at Huntingdon Area Middle School, you won't see students working quietly on worksheets. They'll be huddled up in small groups, collaborating, brainstorming, critically thinking about how to solve the world's problems. The expertise of four diverse teachers from different disciplines created a project-based, rotation model that has given middle school students a new realization that skills they learn in a classroom can be found in real-life situations, not just on a test."

"roject-based learning (PBL) is a powerful tool to promote student engagement. It allows students to investigate real-world challenges and problems and create high-quality work for authentic audiences. It allows students to work collaboratively and individually to learn the content and skills they need to be "future ready." Books by John Larmer and Suzie Boss are great tools to get started designing these high quality projects, and educators can reinvent projects of the past to make sure they are truly engaging. Here are three tips to consider as you design and redesign PBL projects for your students to make them even more engaging and focused on learning."

"As educators, we give feedback to students on their work all the time: in the moment, daily, weekly, and at the end of a unit or year. And research about formative assessment tells us that feedback is a foundational practice that makes a difference in student learning. But how can we make sure our guidance truly encourages our students' learning and growth at each interval? The literature includes some practical ideas to help us get there. It tells us that there is a continuum of feedback, which starts at one end with a focus on what's right or wrong. At the other end of the continuum, the type and amount of information provided turns the feedback into instruction. Let's take a look at three different feedback models derived from the literature and the insights we can take away from each one."

"Every Monday morning, all three sixth grade classes make their way to the Curtner Learning Lab, a recent renovation that included knocking walls down to combine the library and two classrooms into a 21st century learning center, with ample space, flexible rolling furniture, and Chromebooks for student use. Working in teams of three, the students log on to the Chromebooks with their Google accounts, open a team Google Doc used for collaboration, and get right to work on the PBL unit on climate change "

Educators like us across the globe are big fans Google Apps in the classroom. Through our work, we have seen Google Apps make learning more rigorous, relevant and engaging for students. We've watched Google Apps introduce and improve the digital skills that today's learners need for successful, sustainable careers in our digitized world - with one significant caveat: As with any technology used in the classroom, its power to transform is only as good as its strategic implementation.

"Studies have proven that when implemented well, project-based learning (PBL) can increase retention of content and improve students' attitudes towards learning, among other benefits. Edutopia's PBL research review explores the vast body of research on the topic and helps make sense of the results. In this series of five articles, learn how researchers define project-based learning, review some of the possible learning outcomes, get our recommendations of evidence-based components for successful PBL, learn about best practices across disciplines, find tips for avoiding pitfalls when implementing PBL programs, and dig in to a comprehensive annotated bibliography with links to all the studies and reports cited in these pages."

"I can't do this! I hate geometry! I'm too dumb for this!" In our classroom, the word "can't" was the worst four-letter word a student could use; after all, even the last three letters of "geometry" insist that you T-R-Y….TRY! The student's outburst is a classic example of fixed mindset. Fixed mindset tells the student to avoid challenges or to give up easily. Project Based Learning helps students understand that intelligence is just like any other skill - it can be developed. In a 2014 TED Talk, this is what Carol Dweck describes as growth mindset. The image below shows key differences between fixed and growth mindset."

"Goal setting and PBL serve as cornerstones for new school models. Is self-directed learning every student's future? These days, there are few that would disagree that education needs to start looking more like the world students will one day work and live in and less like, well, school. What that might look like in the future is anybody's guess, but it may be safe to assume a lot more will be required of students than simple passive learning. Four school leaders recently spoke about their innovative school models and visions for student success in an increasingly digital world during a panel hosted by Clayton Christensen Institute cofounder Michael Horn at this year's ASU GSV Summit in San Diego. The new models overwhelmingly favor some combination of project-based learning coupled with self-directed goal-setting and skill building for students' life after school. Here are the four school models and their approaches to teaching and learning."

"Have you tried Project-based Learning in your history or social studies classroom? Was it awesome? Was it challenging? And, if you haven't tried to implement PBL, what's stopping you? Predetermined curricular standards? Pushback from admin? A difficult fit with the school culture? We'd like to argue that you can and should implement Project-based Learning in your history classroom. It doesn't have to be perfect. Take some elements of PBL and try them a bit at a time. Small steps can turn a stale unit into a truly meaningful, real-world learning experience - even if it's not pure PBL."

According to veteran PBL teacher Don Wettrick, "Nothing is better than a project that gets community buy-in." He says connecting students with an authentic audience is key to driving engagement and helping students relate what they are learning to the real world: "My top two goals are to help students find great opportunities [for real-world problem solving], and then cheerlead them to a great audience."

If you had three wishes for STEM education, what would those be? These are three of my priorities: Classrooms would be places of exploration, creativity, and discourse. Learning would be meaningfully connected to the world outside the school walls. Teachers would be prepared and empowered to design engaging STEM curricula and assessments. If those are your wishes as well, then here's some encouraging news!

Project-based learning (PBL) naturally lends itself to differentiated instruction. By design, it is student-centered, student-driven, and gives space for teachers to meet the needs of students in a variety of ways. PBL can allow for effective differentiation in assessment as well as daily management and instruction. PBL experts will tell you this, but I often hear teachers ask for real examples, specifics to help them contextualize what it "looks like" in the classroom. We all need to try out specific ideas and strategies to get our brains working in a different context. Here are some specific differentiation strategies to use during a PBL project.

"According to Balltzglier, the program involves: * I- I choose my book. * P- Purpose "Why am I reading this?" * I- Interest "Do I like it?" * C- Comprehension "Do I understand what I am reading?" * K- Know "Do I know most the words?" "Then we put the lesson to music with song, dance, and motions," the teacher added. "This helps make the lesson stick."

"Showroom Models - Roadmaps - Navigate text complexity with a text roadmap, a tool that brings together the quantitative measures, qualitative measures, and reader and task considerations of a text in one format."