Laying Out Your PBL Year (Alg 1 version)
Math and PBL can seem hard when you put them together. Look at your calendar and pick a time in the year where you can devote 3 or 4 weeks to a project and start there.
PBL Teachers are Like Magicians
[Originally Written for BIE.org in 2016. Updated here.] If you have ever listened to me talking at edcamps, sxswedu, or in a facilitated pbl training, then you have heard me say “we need to be more like magicians.” One of the key elements of PBL is the idea of Sustained Inquiry. Sustaining inquiry, as a […]
How I am Learning About PBL For Young Students (Part 1 – Research, Research, Research)
When I started down this PBL path, I was a veteran teacher with over 10 years of traditional teaching experience. Now I am at the end of my teaching career and I am on a quest to better understand how to use pbl with young students. As a new pbl teacher, I learned from the […]
Welcome to My New Website
Today I moved up in the world from Google’s Blogger platform to WordPress. I plan on keeping posts rolling along now that I’ve gotten all fancy. I migrated all of my posts over from Blogger to this platform, so all of that history is still available. In the existing posts, from Edutechmusings.com, you will find […]
Creating a Culture of Wonder
Photo by Samet Kurtkus on Unsplash “SCHOOLS SHOULD BE BUILT AROUND STREAMS OF WONDER. THESE STREAMS OF WONDER SHOULD CONSTANTLY BE IN MOTION ALLOWING YOU TO DIP INTO THEM AGAIN AND AGAIN. ” – Chris Fancher, Educator and Author January 26, 2014. That’s the date on the draft post I was thinking about writing. It is one of […]
5 Things to Jumpstart PBL in the New Year [Math Version]
@amyshamblen You’ve enjoyed the holidays and you have a few more days until school starts back up so you’ve been catching up on your reading. Several of your friends have gone to trainings during 2018 where they have learned about Project Based Learning and you are intrigued. But everything you have read gives you […]
Which Came First PBL or Small Group Instruction?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/smu_cul_digitalcollections/ Ye Olde Chicken-Egg story. Why am I wrestling with this? Because many consider me pretty smart about Project Based Learning(PBL). And, our school which calls itself a PBL school, is pushing small group instruction. So, is PBL just a version of small group instruction? Not sure. And when you infuse a very structured form […]
Fix Those Problems (Math Teaching 101)
http://wronghands1.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/math-problem.jpg First, and foremost, I am a student of instruction. My resume says I have taught math from 6th grade to college algebra; I taught middle school science; I taught introduction to engineering design and digital electronics at the high school level. And, I facilitate teachers in using project based and problem based instruction (PBL). […]
It’s Always the Right Time to Write
http://www.flickr.com/commons School starts up on Monday and I’ve started thinking about all of the January hurdles that are approaching. There’s “Benchmark Week” when all of our core classes will be taking benchmarks that are designed to see where we are in our progression towards the state mandated testing. It also gives our students a feel […]
Loving What I See At Our School
Today I was able to get into a few of our math classes. I started with two of our 6th grade classes. Since they plan with me and we all plan together, I knew that they would be teaching the exact same concept but we really push the idea that every teacher is their own […]