BWP Session 2 ~ Keeping Your Project on the Rails

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Better with Practice:PBL Implementation Tips from the Field

March 4

2 p.m. and 5 p.m. PST

Share Ideas

Join us in the group PBL~ Better with Practice

in Classroom 2.0

www.classroom20.com/group/pblbetterwithpractice

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A Quick OrientationA Quick Orientation

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Better with Practice:PBL Implementation Tips from the Field

A group-sourced webinar series about making the most of project-based learning.

Three sessions, each repeated at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. PST

February 18 How to Create a Culture of Inquiry March 4 Keeping Your Project on the Rails March 11 It’s Not Over When It’s Over:

The Project Spiral

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Project Foundry

Project Foundry is a proven online project based learning management system built by practitioners who understand the value of the pedagogy and inherent need for a streamlined tool that engages students and ensures meaningful academic results.

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http://projectfoundry.org

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Let’s Warm Up:Discuss in the chat…

How might a project go off the rails…for your students? …for you?

So, what do you do?

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Better with Practice:PBL Implementation Tips from the Field

Your Hosts

Suzie Boss

and Sponsor

Jane Krauss

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PBL ~ Better with PracticeToday’s Guests

Neil StephensonCalgary Science SchoolCalgary, Alberta

Sue BoudreauOrinda Intermed.Orinda, CA

Lisa ParisiDenton Avenue Elem.New Hyde Park, NY

Nichole KotasekMinnesota New Country SchoolHenderson, MN

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Today ~ Keeping Your Project on the Rails

Act 1: Launching In and Letting GoSpotlight: Neil Stephenson

Act 2: Building Project ChopsSpotlight: Sue Boudreau

Act 3: Scaffolding SuccessSpotlight (A): Nichole KotasekSpotlight (B): Lisa Parisi

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Act 1:Launching In and Letting Go

Connie Weber, describing the launch of a project:

“For the teacher, there's this giant Letting Go. Now, that requires some effort. I can see it in my mind—it's me walking away, turning my back, going somewhere else, not allowing myself to hover. It's me communicating, ‘I'm at your service,’ and, ‘May the force be with you.' It's me utterly and totally handing over the reins, let come what may. The project is theirs.”

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Act 1: Launching In and Letting Go

Photo courtesy Connie Weber

George Mayo expands on letting go:

“That's the beauty, and excitement, of PBL in my opinion. It's not only a leap of faith, but it also has a lot to do with trusting your students and knowing that they will rise to the challenge.”

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Launching In and Letting GoSpotlight: Neil Stephenson

Professional Development and Outreach Coordinator,Calgary Science School

• 600 students, grades 4-9• 1:1 laptop school

I love this job because I get to support teachers in designing rich, inquiry-based learning projects.

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Launching In and Letting Go The Cigar Box Project

Students lived the disciplines of historical thinking, information literacy and graphic design as they used 21st- Century tools to reinterpret events from Canadian History.

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Letting Go…

http://thinkinginmind.blogspot.com/2009/04/cigar-box-project.html

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Act 2:Building Project Chops

• Why projects are a work in process

• How milestones help us manage

• And a reminder that students and teachers need time to practice project skills

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Act 2:Building Project Chops

Tip: Students may need to start with the junior version, but still benefit from playing the whole game

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Building Project ChopsSpotlight: Sue Boudreau

“Young people can make a difference to

tomorrow’s world. We’ll help you show

them how.”

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Building Project ChopsBusiness Project Management for Class Projects

Start with the end in sight:Students use their rubric to

grade projects from last year (and/or an example I made)

Pre-teach some skills: ppts, work flow charts, team work

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Building Project Chops The Chicken Paprika Plan

1. Define 'success'• All parts of dinner ready at 6.30pm. • Food doesn't get cold• Tastes good • No one gets food poisoning!

2. How would I measure success?

• All parts ready at 6.30, cooked.• All dishes at least 60 deg. C.• Guests finish what's on their plate, some ask for seconds or the recipe.• No one reports throwing up.

3. List tasks and time4. Organize into a work flow sequence 5. Find the "critical path" 6. Plan ‘backwards’

©Sue Boudreau 9.10.09

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Building Project ChopsProject Management Steps

• Brainstorming tasks and times on Post-its• Work flow charts, critical path• Who does what by when - action plans• Timelines and working backwards• Interim deadlines in hmwk agendas. Parent sign

off• Log books• Doing it!• Check-ins with journals, evidence of progress i.e.,

photos, receipts, parent notes• Poster presentations

See Sue’s handouts on PBL~Better with Practice

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Act 3: Scaffolding Success

Kim Trefz on finding the right structure:“…no ‘instructions’ on how they were going to solve

their problem but just the steps for forming a hypothesis, coming up with a problem statement, using Diigo to bookmark their research, weighing the pros and cons of their solution.

There are steps needed to ensure that students are going through the entire process for being great problem solvers and developing great habits of the mind.”

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Act 3 - Scaffolding SuccessSpotlight (A) Nichole Kotasek

As an advisor at Minnesota New Country School, Nichole is honored to have the opportunity to learn as much from her students as they learn from their projects.

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Scaffolding Success

QUOTE[PF Screen shot]

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It's great to be able to go to the 'Students' page and see where every student is on every project within one click.

-Riverbend Academy Mankato MN

Project Foundry

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Act 3 - Scaffolding SuccessSpotlight (B): Lisa Parisi

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Using many tools:• Class wiki• Student blogs• Podcasts +more…and observing

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Wrap Up and Reflect

It’s the PBL Express!

Get outta the way!

State-of-the-art

All aboard, baby!

Efficient

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Fine-tuning Our Practice

Next slides - More “fine tuning” gems from members of PBL~Better with PracticeLast slides - Guest resources

Please thank our sponsor, Project Foundrywww.projectfoundry.org

Host a free webinar in the Learn Central Elluminate roomwww.learncentral.org

There’s more…

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Fine-tuning Our Practice

From Kevin Gant:Start a project or inquiry with a conversation, NOT the project description. Through a conversation, you can get at student interest, start to understand their prior knowledge, and you prime the pump for presenting the central question of the project so that it will be best received.Are you revisiting this conversation throughout the project?

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…More Fine-Tuning

From George Mayo:

It's important to use every second of class time wisely, and unless you have clear deadlines and timeframes, students will start to slack off. One complaint from my students is they feel like they often don't have enough time. I like it when I hear that. I always want them to have a real sense of urgency as they work on each step along the way.

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..and More Fine-Tuning

Kyla asks for suggestions to get students to think independently: So many of them are too willing to let me or other students tell them "the answer."

Sue Boudreau offers an inquiry activity:Primary kids use their senses to predict what’s in a paper bag. What does did it feel like? Is there more than one thing inside it? What’s the evidence? Does this new evidence support their last guess? And on like this, until... the denouement. Potatoes. The class was ecstatic because someone had guessed correctly.

Fine tuning: A small activity, used over and over with different objects, sets the class room culture around it being OK to guess, to be wrong, try again. A lot of inquiry is about making being wrong a GOOD thing.

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Let’s Continue the Conversation

Add questions, comments in Classroom 2.0 group: www.classroom20.com/group/pblbetterwithpractice

Another live event—March 11

It’s Not Over When It’s Over: The Project Spiral

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Resources

Act 1 LinksCigar Box Project: http://thinkinginmind.blogspot.com/2009/04/cigar-box-project.htmlNeil Stephenson’s blog: http://thinkinginmind.blogspot.com

Act 2 LinksSue Boudreau’s Take Action Project: www.takeactioncurriculum.com www.takeactionscience.wordpress.com www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Take-Action-Science-Project-Curriculum/199857622102?ref=nf

Act 3 LinksFrom Lisa Parisi:http://herricks.org/webpages/spcollaborative/http://lisaslingo.blogspot.com/ 

Reinventing Project-Based Learning blog:http://reinventingpbl.blogspot.com

Project Foundry:http://projectfoundry.org