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   (Part 2 of 2)
    As I said in the first part,  what we want the new school to be doesn’t exist and the teachers, administrators, and I have the chance to mold the school in whatever fashion we desire.  And, I am a teacher who has been trained by the New Tech Network (NTN) to use project based learning (PBL).  This is the ultimate PBL assignment.  I was given the entry event when I went to the job interview.  I know that a thriving middle school where teachers are using PBL as the means to teach their content is my final product.  It’s time to create my Knows and Need to Knows.

{Clarification:  There have been some questions such as “Are you building a whole new school?”  This school is, currently, a traditional middle school (6 – 8) with about 750 enrollment.  Starting with the incoming 6th grade we will be building a school that uses PBL to teach the curriculum and we will be affiliated with NTN.)

Now for the NEED TO KNOWS:

    The Need To Know list I have written is only some of the many questions looming in the back of my head.  As with any project I will revisit this list often and eliminate any that become known.  Then I will shift them to my Knows list.  Some of these I may not know until we already have students in the classroom.  But, by reviewing and reflecting I am actually firming up my foundation of knowledge about what it takes to create a school like we are about to create.
    This Summer I will be have “Scaffolding “sessions to increase my knowledge.  After each one I will be writing a post about what things I can take with me to eliminate any of the Need to Knows.  These scaffolding sessions may actually add more Need to Knows – and that’s OK.  As with our students, there are times when the teacher holds a Workshop (what we call these in the NTN)  and the students realize that there are concepts that they don’t know or foundations they have that are weak and need reinforcement.
    Let the Workshops begin…..

One Response

  1. I will be following this journey closely. For obvious reasons. How can I create a similar blog so that my journey can be documented as well.

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