Planning a PBL should be easy with two teachers working on it right? Wrong! Planning a PBL is painstakingly difficult! It takes hours upon hours! When it's finally complete and you're ready to roll it out in the classroom, the level of excitement is heightened to a place undefinable by words! April and I went through the many hours of planning to get our PBL that we launched today ready for the students! We were, as described above, incredibly excited to present the lesson to our students today! We had it right this time, we were sure! About midway into the actual presentation of our entry event, which is what begins each PBL, I think it's safe to say that we were treading water to stay afloat! Our presentation wasn't as smooth as we had hoped. While we had captivated the interest of the students, neither one of us were pleased with how things went! We didn't even need to verbalize the fact, it was obvious. We could tell by simply looking at each other that we had not met the level of our expectations. We tweaked some things for the second go at it and things went better. They continued to go better throughout the day and by our last class I think it's safe to say that we both were feeling pretty good about the presentation! The kids were interested and excited! Whew! We could take a deep breathe! We finally had gotten it right ...... or at least we thought! Enter Matt Anderson and his ten minutes of teaching in our class that reassured us that we were still missing something when we were doing our PBL's. Who's Matt Anderson and why was in he our classroom today? Matt was our 9-1-1 responder after our first attempt at using PBL with an integrated content.
After the first PBL that we presented in our class we went back to the drawing board. We knew that we were way off track on our first PBL. We actually felt pretty much defeated, like there was this mountain placed in front of us and we had no idea how to climb it anymore! We were at a stalemate! So with our heads hung and emotions running high, we stepped away from everything for a couple hours. Once we had stepped back from the situation we realized that what we needed was some help! When we reached out for help, we found an amazing resource in a Professor at WVU. Matt Anderson, who is a seasoned teacher of PBL's, having taught with the method in the inner city of New York. Matt was a godsend for us in our strive to make learning more relevant for our students via PBL's. We contacted him and his response was immediate. The first thing he did was offer to travel to North Marion and simply observe us. We couldn't fix what we were doing wrong because we didn't know enough to pin point our mistakes. We just knew that we were making them. Matt watched us and gave us some amazing feedback! Instantly things began to make more sense to us. Hearing things from someone who had been there done that was priceless! Even though Matt was making things clear to us, we still didn't know how to get to where he was. So, Matt offered to help us plan. He graciously took time out of his schedule to meet us one day after school and plan our PBL that we launched today. So, this brings us back to our PBL that we initiated today.
We were pumped! He had help planning it and when we were going through all of this with Matt, everything was smooth and made sense. When we attempted it today ..... things weren't so hot. Matt came back today and he watched us various times. He was excited at what we were doing, which boosted our self confidence. Then, when we got done with our last session, and the students were researching, Matt asked us if we minded if he talked to the students for the last 10 mins. of class. Of course, we obliged, we were excited to see what Matt had to say. Needless to say, within about 2 mins of watching Matt work with our students, we knew were still weren't getting it! Matt had our student's undivided attention and his dictation was smooth. When he said things we couldn't believe we hadn't thought of it.
When the students left, Matt stayed to talk with us. He also brought another resource for us, Dr. Whitehouse, alumnus of Harvard and Professor at WVU. With clumps of our hair in our hands we pleaded to Matt and Dr.Whitehouse, asking them for help. We just didn't understand why things didn't go the same way for us that they did for Matt. First of all, they both reassured us that we are doing the right thing. The changes we are making are the right ones. Then they began to talk us through the process of teaching through PBL's. They helped us see our mistakes that we had made with this lesson and offered an amazing gesture to us .... they both want to continue working with us. They want to be our support system and help us make sure we are doing things right! We spent over and hour with them today, just talking and mostly listening to them. Their information was such an asset to us! Do we have everything down now that we spent time with Matt and Dr.Whitehouse? ABSOLUTELY NOT! But what we do have is the reassurance that as we try to climb this mountain, when we fall, we have people there to catch us! We have people to coach us! Lesson learned today ..... be opened to constructive criticism and let those who have the knowledge and experience offer guidance and help! Also most importantly, this change in education that we are making at North Marion High School, is the right thing and with the continued hard work of all those involved we will better our students beyond our wildest imaginations!
After the first PBL that we presented in our class we went back to the drawing board. We knew that we were way off track on our first PBL. We actually felt pretty much defeated, like there was this mountain placed in front of us and we had no idea how to climb it anymore! We were at a stalemate! So with our heads hung and emotions running high, we stepped away from everything for a couple hours. Once we had stepped back from the situation we realized that what we needed was some help! When we reached out for help, we found an amazing resource in a Professor at WVU. Matt Anderson, who is a seasoned teacher of PBL's, having taught with the method in the inner city of New York. Matt was a godsend for us in our strive to make learning more relevant for our students via PBL's. We contacted him and his response was immediate. The first thing he did was offer to travel to North Marion and simply observe us. We couldn't fix what we were doing wrong because we didn't know enough to pin point our mistakes. We just knew that we were making them. Matt watched us and gave us some amazing feedback! Instantly things began to make more sense to us. Hearing things from someone who had been there done that was priceless! Even though Matt was making things clear to us, we still didn't know how to get to where he was. So, Matt offered to help us plan. He graciously took time out of his schedule to meet us one day after school and plan our PBL that we launched today. So, this brings us back to our PBL that we initiated today.
We were pumped! He had help planning it and when we were going through all of this with Matt, everything was smooth and made sense. When we attempted it today ..... things weren't so hot. Matt came back today and he watched us various times. He was excited at what we were doing, which boosted our self confidence. Then, when we got done with our last session, and the students were researching, Matt asked us if we minded if he talked to the students for the last 10 mins. of class. Of course, we obliged, we were excited to see what Matt had to say. Needless to say, within about 2 mins of watching Matt work with our students, we knew were still weren't getting it! Matt had our student's undivided attention and his dictation was smooth. When he said things we couldn't believe we hadn't thought of it.
When the students left, Matt stayed to talk with us. He also brought another resource for us, Dr. Whitehouse, alumnus of Harvard and Professor at WVU. With clumps of our hair in our hands we pleaded to Matt and Dr.Whitehouse, asking them for help. We just didn't understand why things didn't go the same way for us that they did for Matt. First of all, they both reassured us that we are doing the right thing. The changes we are making are the right ones. Then they began to talk us through the process of teaching through PBL's. They helped us see our mistakes that we had made with this lesson and offered an amazing gesture to us .... they both want to continue working with us. They want to be our support system and help us make sure we are doing things right! We spent over and hour with them today, just talking and mostly listening to them. Their information was such an asset to us! Do we have everything down now that we spent time with Matt and Dr.Whitehouse? ABSOLUTELY NOT! But what we do have is the reassurance that as we try to climb this mountain, when we fall, we have people there to catch us! We have people to coach us! Lesson learned today ..... be opened to constructive criticism and let those who have the knowledge and experience offer guidance and help! Also most importantly, this change in education that we are making at North Marion High School, is the right thing and with the continued hard work of all those involved we will better our students beyond our wildest imaginations!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.