LifePractice PBL
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February 26th, 2013

2/1/2013

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My PBL partner, Kevin Honeycutt and I are frequently asked questions like, “Do you know anything about PBL for (insert curriculum topic here).”
Usually the topic is something like “Financial Wellness for New Mothers” or “Religion of the 18th Century” or “Spanish for the Deaf” or “Advanced Mathematics for Budding Actuaries.” Really, it doesn’t matter the title of the class. What’s happening is that the school leader is struggling to help a teacher in a specialty area feel included in shifting education from something being done to kids to something that the kids are doing. And they see that PBL has helped in other classes. They’re really saying, “Can you help by giving this teacher resources that are specific to her area?”

Kevin and me, working with a great group of teachers in Texas.

The answer for this is yes, we can help that teacher with Project Based Learning, if that teacher is willing to work alongside sharing his/her content knowledge to build projects. But if that teacher is looking for a set of scripted lesson plans s/he can buy off the shelf and just “follow” for his/her specialty class…well, we’re probably not going to be able to help with that.

Because you see, Project/Problem Based Learning isn’t about a set of “wash n wear” lesson plans. It’s about engaging kids with the topic — whatever topic it is — in very active ways. If a teacher understands PBL, then any known academic content can be integrated. If you want to help that specialized teacher find lesson for that specialized content area, then allow him/her to learn the basics of PBL and s/he’ll be able to build the PBL for that specialized space.

So what about our LifePractice PBL recipe cards? Aren’t those lesson plans?

Actually, no. If you check them out closely, they’re not scripted lessons; instead they provide ideas and seeds for the toughest parts of PBL: driving questions, integrating, creative product, and creative grouping. They are not about someone who has never had any PBL training picking them up and using them like a traditional lesson plan. Like anyone picking up a recipe card for the first time, we still have to have the basics of cooking in our tool belts. And so would any teacher using our LifePractice PBL recipe cards need some initial training and practice in PBL. They don’t have to be experts to use them, but they do need some training.

If you’re a school leader who’d like to implement PBL in your schools, we’ll be there 100% for you and your teachers, providing engaged training to help all of your teachers partner their content knowledge with the tenets of PBL. If you want that specialty teacher to have assistance in moving her classroom toward a PBL approach, the first place to start is with high-quality learning for her.

Contact us for more information.

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Doomsday 1 LifePracitce PBL recipe card
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Hot off the Presses! (the series continues…)

3/6/2012

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Set 6 of the LifePractice Project Based Learning "Recipe Cards" is now ready for purchase. That means there are seven new projects lined up and waiting to help your students become highly active and engaged learners! 

The new projects include rigorous content standards in Social Studies, Science, Math, Reading, and Writing, coupled with exciting anchoring artifacts that are guaranteed to ignite your kids' imaginations:
  • States' Rights? Or Wrong? It's 1786: Rewrite the Articles of Confederation.
  • The Time of Our Lives Invent a calendar that improves the one we currently use.
  • Phar Lap's Mystery Solve the mystery of the famous racehorse's death.
  • Move It Off the Grid!  What would it take to move your school off the grid?
  • The South's Civil War Submarine Tell the story of the Confederate ship, H.L. Hunley.
  • Pandemic! Predict and stop the world's next catastrophic disease.
  • Creating a Greater Good Can we make money by doing the right thing?
These “project recipe cards” are intended to guide teachers though the basics of PBL and are great to use with K-12 students in groups or with individual students. Each project has your kids practicing life as TimeTravelers, Artists & Inventors, Historian Challenges, StoryTellers, ProblemSolvers, Scientist Challenges, or Career & Tech Education as they develop those all-important College and Career Readiness skills. Using the cards, teachers are able to integrate core content and deeply embed creativity, problem solving, and collaborative learning in each student, with or without the use of technology tools. Most importantly, students are having fun learning high-quality content in a hands-on and authentically integrated environment. 

But if you ask your students, they'll tell you the best part of the projects are the anchoring artifacts. These are the "fun" learning the kids cannot resist and are purposefully created to deliver the rigorous and standards-based driving questions. This way you can be sure your kids are also learning the important core content of our classes. You see, students who may not be turned on by math may enjoy re-creating a ½ scale model of the Apollo13 capsule and end up happily working on fractions and ratios in context all day long!
  • To order the brand new Set 6, or any of the PBL recipe cards, visit our online store:  
  • To learn more about LifePracticePBL, please Like us on Facebook.
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Brag on your kids and the wonderful work they're doing!

2/1/2012

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In today's world, innovation in the classroom can be both rewarding and dangerous; rewarding in that we can see our students come alive, but dangerous because of those who might be afraid of the unknowns of change. How do we take away the power of the danger? We show how our work is undeniably impacting kids' learning in a amazing ways. 

We would love to share photos of your students doing remarkable learning with the PBL recipe cards in your classroom. We will be happy to send you a media release form for your students' parents to sign, should you wish to share photos or videos of your kids in action. 

Or you can download the form below.

Once you have the forms signed and returned to us, we are delighted to feature the work you've done with others who are contemplating making the switch to PBL. 

It goes along with the idea of whether or not the tree falling in the forest can be heard. If you're doing amazing things with kids, unless you share that out, no one will ever know. 
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Learning by Doing, or "Defining the Not-So-Obvious"

12/30/2011

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Just thinking aloud here...

If someone asked me what learning by doing means, I might stammer out a very long, and very wordy explanation, which is never a good start for me. I'd probably say something intellectually stunning like, "Well, learning by doing is when you learn <pause> while you're actually doing something."   
                                                Yep. Ginger E. Coyote, genius. 

My sad “definition” would break every single rule for how to define words and terms. So sorry Mrs. Fredrickson. 

So how would I define learning by doing?  ...that is, if I gave it a little more thought?

I think maybe we have to define what the phrase is trying to differentiate itself from. How is learning by doing different from what we traditionally know as “learning”? 

     Learning by doing is less... ?
     Learning by doing is more... ?
  • less passive and more active   
  • less paperwork and more creative work    
  • less teacher-directed and more student-directed
  • less "student" and more "learner"
  • less "memorize it and forget it" cycle and more "love it, learn it, live it" cycle  or it could be "live it, learn it, love it" cycle. Sometimes we don't know that we love something til we learn more about it.
What else?

My Plurk friend Laura Sheely suggested more global connections and more discussion, while another Plurk friend, Mark Hall, suggested more relevancy and less “busy.” 

I agree whole heartedly with both of those. 

But I also believe that many educators think they might know what the term, "learning by doing" means. I mean, aren't those 3 little words obvious?  Maybe not. As we examine it more closely to mine for a diamond-value definition, it takes on an entirely different complexity. 
Learning by doing.

What else? 

How would you define learning by doing to someone who has not even considered this concept, or to someone who might think s/he knows what it is, since the phrase is so (deceptively) simple. 


cross-posted at GingerLewman.org
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There are ‘Knowledge Warriors’ Among Us

12/16/2011

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In my years of creating a successful PBL environment from scratch at Turning Point Learning Center, I made nearly every mistake and experienced nearly every hurdle known in the world of education. If, by posting this, I can help teachers new to the PBL world to know that they’re not alone, that these are common struggles, that there are tips and solutions for the struggles, then I’ll continue to post...post...post away. 


It is not easy to start a PBL classroom, and if someone has told you that it is, you might consider not listening to that person again. 

First, teachers have to unlearn all the old ways we were taught to be a "good" teacher, and the decades of experience we had as students. We have to begin to teach to all students, pushing each to work and learn as deeply as they can go; not simply aim and talk toward the middle range of kids, hoping the slower will catch up, that the faster will be patient, and that the disengaged will stop being lazy. That's simply not good enough in a PBL classroom. 

Secondly, we have to forgive ourselves when we make mistakes. That’s no easy task for teachers when we've been told so long that mistakes = bad learning and bad teaching. After making a mistake, it’s terribly difficult to forgive ourselves, because our failures are irradiated under the white-hot spotlight of someone doing something different while surrounded by over a century of tradition. Of “teacher knows best.” 

Lastly, there is another battle that is much more hard-won, often more personal and even bloody. That’s the battle with colleagues  who feel that, by doing something different, you're attacking their professional dispositions. You can add administrators as the cavalry in the battle, who may not understand that your classroom looks different, sounds different, is different than the other classrooms across the hallway. And rounding out the blood-soaked battlefield, a teacher also faces parents who are focused so much on grades, test scores, GPA, and college entrance exams, even for their 4th graders. 

These colleagues, administrators, and parents aren't yet believers of what PBL can do for their children and in the midst of change, when a teacher who is trying hard to fight her own dragons, reaches out for help to her children’s closest allies, she may find herself facing opponents instead. They don’t intend to be but can’t help themselves. One friendly face of a colleague, a supportive word from a parent, or a comforting shield from an administrator can make all the difference in the world for the battle-scarred warrior teacher.

Jumping the PBL Implementation Hurdle: Supporting the Efforts of K–12 Teachers

The above research article from Peggy A. Ertmer and Krista D. Simon in the Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning at Purdue University talks plainly about the challenges ahead for those teachers who believe in the real-life skills-building, authentic engagement, and a deeper understanding of content that PBL brings to our children today.

Keep your chins up, you educators, you knowledge warriors marching through the PBL crusade that is filled with brambles and snares. Look sharp, but know you are doing the RIGHT thing for yourself and for your children.  

Cross-posted at GingerLewman.org
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Reality Check, Please!

11/29/2011

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cross posted from www.GingerLewman.org 

Often, teachers think they’re ready for the realities of a “learning by doing” environment, when in fact, they’re only slightly willing to let go of the belief that “teacher knows best.” In reality, Project/Problem Based learning has many flavors, but the constant is that it requires an active, responsive mindset of all learners in a dynamic learning environment. And the teacher had better be the lead learner, willing to share teaching duties with his/her fellow learners. 

Sure, that may sound like some mumbo-jumbo, but a teacher who looks at him/herself as THE expert in the room, above the learners dooms the entire class to micro-managed misery.

Likewise, the teacher who looks only within the four walls of his/her classroom as the learning environment is short-sighted and sorry. The world is so full of readily-accessible information now, we deprive our students of rich, authentic experiences when we stick only to the mapped curriculum.



Today, we’re going to do an informal self-check to see what your comfort zone is for implementing Project/Problem Based Learning in your classroom.

On a scale of 1 - 10 (it doesn't really matter which end is which, does it? We're not keeping score), how comfortable are you…


…with differentiating content (what kids are learning), process(what they're doing to learn it), and product (what they turn in to you) for students on a daily basis?


…managing with one teacher who is working with multiple groups in a room at a time, each group doing something different?


…with not all students learning the same content in every single project?


…with some noise and mess in your room?


…with your students working with potentially dangerous tools and or messy supplies, such as hot glue guns, hammers, nails, screws, paint?


…with NOT covering every content standard in the book?


…with students who are more expert than you are in your content area?


…with supporting other adults in *your* room?


…putting in 12 hour days?


…not knowing with 100% accuracy where a project will take your students in their learning?


…with helping students resolve their own group conflicts, even though it takes more time than you thought it would?


…with not using multiple choice tests and quizzes for your gradebook?


…asking students to help you create scoring rubrics?


…teaching students how to self-assess, peer-assess, and self-reflect as a real and meaningful process of evaluation?


…with supporting your students blogging, video conferencing with experts, creating wikis, GoogleDocs, FaceBook pages, Edmodo groups, Prezis, SketchUp 3D models, video games?


…finding additional resources (experts, technology, supplies) beyond your school for (and with) your students?


…going to bat against tech dept and/or your Admin in order for your students to be allowed to access websites and other tech tools?


…with other teachers questioning your content and approach to learning because the kids are too loud, or are having too much fun to be *truly* learning?


…your own abilities to do the right thing for kids to the absolute best of your abilities at all times of the day and night? 



If you read through those questions just like a list, go back through and pause after each one. Go ahead. Time is flexible in our world of learning. 

Think about which ones you truly embrace and which ones make you wonder. Which ones make you nervous? Why? 

Please consider leaving a few thoughts about one (or more) of the realities. Where are you on this list? 

PBL teachers, which realities have I forgotten to add?

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Bringing the Outside In: experts in your classroom

10/12/2011

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cross-posted from www.GingerLewman.com

The students in grades 5-8 gathered in the lunchroom as the teacher tested the Skype connection with Christopher Orwoll, the CEO of theKansas Cosmosphere and Space Center. Students were quietly gathering their food, choosing tables, and clutching their already-prepared questions in hand. This was the first-ever working lunch for many of the younger students and it was exciting! 

Soon, several students were lined up, asking questions they had carefully crafted to gain the most essential information that would help them move their parts of the project forward. Mr. Orwoll was standing in front of the actual Apollo 13 capsule and was even moving the camera on his end to various angles and shots so the students could better see the Apollo 13 capsule and other actual space artifacts. Students asked about specific dimensions and functions of various items, as others snapped photos of the video conferencing event, while even others, listening intently, were quietly munching sandwiches and carrot sticks, intermittently scribbling notes for their team between nibbles and sips. 

After the almost hour-long video conference, the younger students marveled that they had been looking at the actual Apollo 13, while older veteran students remembered back to other projects and other experts they had talked with during video conferences. While Mr. Orwoll’s information about the Apollo 13 was extremely helpful, it had become almost commonplace for the veteran students to be able to talk with experts in the field. For now, they were ready to run outside, stretching their legs and refreshing their brains for a few minutes before heading back to work on their model and artifacts with the newfound information. 


While preparing for your LifePractice PBL project, teachers find it easier to call on other teachers who would be a useful supplement to learning. However, in the course of preparing for a project or even during the project, you will likely find yourself asking questions you don’t know the answers to. Or you might find that your students are asking questions that are really smart questions that deserve answers, but despite their best work and your help, you just don’t have the right answers for them. So should you drop those questions and concentrate on only the ones that you and your colleagues can address? 

Of course not. 

In addition to in-house educator experts, strongly consider who else in your local and online communities (Professional Learning Networks), such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Plurk, might be able to serve as a content or skill expert beyond the school-based context. As you need these experts, call on them to assist the students with the learning. 

Likewise, you might decide call upon outside expertise during the preparation of the project. Using experts during The Prep phase helps to ensure that high-quality, rigorous learning is being embedded at each step of the expectations. These specialists may be available to come to your room to share their knowledge with you and your students, or you may need to connect with them via email, phone conference, or video conference, like these students did with Mr. Orwoll of the Kansas Cosmosphere. If a personal meeting is not available, consider using a video conferencing tool, such as Skype, when possible. The combination of visual and auditory connection allows for learners of all ages to have an experience that is very similar to the f2f relationship. In fact, with a little practice, it can become as natural as opening up a virtual “window” on your wall to talk with someone who is just on the other side.


Suggestions for working with non-education experts

As you're gathering names for your “library of experts” that your students are able to call upon for their projects, it is good to remember that many experts will often lead with information, doling it out to students in very large and highly detailed portions. It is your job to help the expert understand the levels of learning and skill in your classroom. Also, this is the prime time to let them know that "empowerment through inquiry" is at the core of the work for your students. Some experts might have a tendency to lecture at students and those will need your assistance with sharing information in portions that are appropriate for your students' ability levels.

While experts should expect to be asked for information and can volunteer some additional information beyond what students have directly asked, the best way for him/her to interact with the students is to ask questions which might cause the student to do deeper research and learning. Sometimes a student may go off to research, only to come back a while later needing to ask that same question of the expert. That's OK as long as the student has truly tried to find the information on her own.

Overall, be cautious; not all experts will be comfortable with the inquiry technique. As the teacher, it’s your job to prepare the visiting expert for this type of learning format. Visit with them ahead of time about the project and your expectations. Provide sample questions, if possible, and in the case of student-contacted experts, let him/her know you’ll be ready to intervene if needed, for any reason. Ultimately, it is your responsibility to ensure that students are gaining high quality, information that leads to deeper engagement of learning, while continuing to foster quality connections with the community. You will need to take the necessary steps to make that connection a lasting and positive interaction for both your visitor and your students.

And don't forget the thank you note afterward!
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Common Question, UnCommon Frustration, Easy Solution

10/11/2011

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cross-posted from www.GingerLewman.org

"If they're not all doing the same work, how do you know they will all be ready for the tests?"

I’ve been asked this question more than once when talking with a group of teachers about Project Based Learning. Usually I get so worked up, that I’m nearly unable to stammer out a coherent thought, and that seals the deal in that teacher’s mind that PBL doesn’t do anything to support learning. 

I know this is simply not true, but I needed to work on a more insightful response that  addresses the question directly, gently, and effectively. I needed an answer that will actually help the teacher understand that the tests are not the end-all of learning in the world, regardless of what others might be telling them. I needed an answer that leaves the questioner better for having asked the question.

So today, I worked on my answer, 140 characters at a time. And it goes a little something like this:

Well, we like to work from the understanding that not all students are the same. Nor do they have the same needs. Instead of working from the premise that all students need is to simply pass the test, we feel that all students need to practice thinking; that they need to see themselves as an active part of the learning process; that they need to know that they're stronger by actively finding others who have strengths and interests beyond their own and working to better themselves, as well as helping out others with their own strengths.

These skills are ones that will carry them into the world of lifelong learning. These skills are the ones that will help students become learners and get excited about learning. And kids get excited about projects. Well more excited than doing test prep.

Think about a time your students were actually and truly alive in your class. Picture it. What was the lesson that was going on? Regardless of the content, I'm guessing it was active. That it required the student to be active. That it wasn't the norm. And while I'm sure it was quality learning, it was also about more than just getting the right answers for the test.

So if we can get that sort of life out of them, while making sure they're working on projects that are rooted firmly in the standards we know they need, where can we go with them? Will they remember the classes and lessons where they worked, finding the answers to questions on the study guide?  Or will they remember the classes and lessons that were exciting, and where they were fully alive and active? 

Which will they remember? And won't remembering this information, rooted in solid standards and learning, trigger better results on those tests?

So your task as the facilitator of a PBL project is to be sure that each student is getting what s/he needs out of the project. It's not about each student getting the same. It's about knowing your kids, and helping them to know themselves and each other. The tests take care of themselves for most kids after that.

Sure, there will always be stragglers, but that's why we have intervention time and we give them special attention to help move them forward as well, even if it means in addition to our PBL projects. 

That’s why project based learning works and that’s how we can ask students to learn differently and still do alright on those tests.  

So the next time I’m asked, you’ll know where we’re going. 

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Real Life Practice

9/29/2011

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cross posted from www.GingerLewman.com

Real Life doesn't come at us in 1 or 1.5 hour, subject-based increments. It comes to us all at once where we have to be ready to switch from one skill to the next with flow. 

And rarely are we ever faced with solving a set of “ever-increasingly-difficult-section-of-math-problems-that-are-similar-but-not-quite."

If we're to be getting kids ready for Real Life then we need to be giving them Real Life Practice right now.

What is authentic in your schools right now?

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7 Ways to Harness Emotion for Lasting Learner Engagement

9/22/2011

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cross posted from www.GingerLewman.org

1.Students enjoy learning when they can be successful. 
Who wants to come to school each day, only to be told where they’re wrong and constantly reminded of their weaknesses? If that’s all your boss concentrated on in your work, would you want to be there for long? Provide whatever environment it takes to foster successful learning opportunities for every single student. Think about learning styles and working in strengths areas first. Once you build trust and confidence in learning, then you can move into areas of weakness.


2.Measure frustration levels carefully. 
Students should often experience frustration when they’re working, especially in areas of strength. Get to know your students’ thresholds and support them through the truly tough parts. Giving up and walking away is not an option. Persistence through the frustration will be some of the best learning your students will ever experience with you.



3.   Emotion is a powerful memory generator. 
Be sure you’re setting the stage for the right emotions to start a project with, to work and learn through, and to end the project on. Students will always remember the events and teachers who provoked the most powerful emotions (don’t you?). Be sure you and the work experiences are remembered positively.


4.   If you’re worried students aren’t working during their project work, there is a simple solution: get out of your chair and talk with them. Sit beside them. 
At the end of the day, you should be very tired from shifting around the room.


5.   Foster student-to-student mentorship and community trust. 
One of the most powerful ways to create a community of trust is by helping students to rely on each other for assistance before running straight to you. When a student asks a question, find out who s/he has asked first. If three people have been consulted, directly answer the question asked and be sure that everyone in the class/group hears the answer. Remember, “As a teacher, I’m a resource, not THE source.


6.   Foster student-to-student mentorships.
I’m not talking about matching kids up with strangers and having them do some sort of artificial, out-of-context “team-building” or “trust” activity. Absolutely not. It’s much deeper and infinitely more complex. 

Every single day in all actions, we should be promoting student-to-student mentorships by following the five tips above. Additionally, a very simple way to foster everyday mentorships is by asking students to point out each other’s strengths while working within group projects, both during the work and afterward during the presentation/reflection portions of the project. This way, students get to know who has what skills and expertise and will be able to call upon those peers later in other projects, both in and outside the classroom.

At first, complimenting each other will seem awkward because so much of society is focused on putting others down to make ourselves look better (look at TV sitcoms, teen Facebook pages, and some popular music). But when students begin to truly compliment each other’s strengths, they begin to look at one another in a new light. And they also begin to see themselves in a new light as well.

This strategy isn’t something that can be implemented or perfected overnight or even over a quarter. We’re spending time healing the wounds that society has torn lose in each of us.  Unless we nurture that healing environment, we’re allowing what schooling continues to foster when we only work toward students’ weaknesses. 

This #6 strategy and the results are the icing on the cupcake of a trusting environment. It compels others to look at the strengths of their peers and allows them to call on each other for assistance in areas of strength and need. Each student is built-up in others’ eyes. 

This is one of the most powerful LifePractices I’ve ever seen at work and I assure you that it does work. 


7.   Laugh and smile often.
Teachers simply don’t do this enough. Truly laugh from the belly. Laugh at a joke that’s actually not very funny. Laugh at yourself. And laugh because you’re having fun teaching. 

We can and should all laugh multiple times every day.

Because if you can’t laugh, it’s time to go. 



Want more? 
Keep up with relevant links, tips, and conversations on the LifePractice PBL Facebook page. 

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