Blog Post #9

The question that we needed to answer was "What can teachers and students teach us about Project Based Learning?" On the first website, Seven Essentials for Project Based Learning, I learned that students must perceive their work as "personally meaningful". I thought that this was a very interesting quote. Also, as an educator, you must follow 7 steps to have your students produce a successful PBL. The 7 steps are:

1) Need to Know

• Teachers need to tell their students what they need to know for the PBL

2) A Driving Question

• This is the "heart" of the project. What will the students be looking for?

3) Student Voice and Choice

• Let the students pick something that has actual meaning to them.

4) 21st Century Skills

• In the article, it said the you should have your students participate in "team-building" activities.

5) Inquiry and Innovation

• Have your students gather multiple questions based on their topic for their PBL

6) Feedback and Revision

• It is very beneficial for your students to critique each other. It helps them realize where their mistakes were, and what they can do to fix them.

7) Publicly Presented Project

• Students will put more care and effort into their work when they are told that they will be presenting the project in front of their peers. They will care more about the quality of their work.

On the second website I looked at, Project Based Learning for Teachers, I watched a video that told you what would make a very good PBL. The creator, Tony Vincent, said that having a deep driven question that your students will care about, will make the PBL very successful. This was also very similar to what was said in the first article I read. Also, PBLs completely meet the Common Core Standards, so that makes the Project Based Learing even better. I liked that quote that was said by Albert Einstein: "I never teach my pupils. I only attempt to provide thee conditions in which they can learn". I thought that this quote said a lot. You can help your students as much as you need to, but they really haven't learned the material if they can't do it by themselves. So, PBL is the best way to see if your students have actually mastered the skills in which you have provided them with. 

I liked the Ten Sites Supporting Digital Classroom Collaboration in Project Based Learning website because it gave you 10 websites to use to help with your students PBLs. If I were to ever conduct a PBL with my classroom, I feel as though the websites listed off would be the most beneficial for my students. The 10 websites are:

1) Titan Pad

2) Wall Wisher

3) Corkboardme

4) Google Docs

5) Microsoft Live

6) Today's Meet

7) Will you type with me

8) Linoit

9) Skype in Education

10) Quick Screen Share

I also learned from the Two Students, that having your students create something that they will enjoy and like, will make them work 10 times harder on the project. These two boys created a pump for a ketchup bottle to prevent liquid from coming out when you squeezed the bottle. I thought this was such a great idea! The students also used a 3D software to make and print their project. And it looked like their invention worked! From the Project Based Learning in PE, I learned that creating a physical fitness program really helped the middle school students live a healthy life. They had a list of things to follow, and it seemed like they really liked them. This would be a great thing to do with elementary students so they can start to learn what is healthy and what is not healthy for them. I learned a lot from exploring these different websites, but most importantly I learned that having your students pick a topic that they will actually CARE about, will have the best end results.