Food For Thought! :P

We entered student information and interview answers into FormSpace.  We noticed that food was a "hot" topic over the 4 campuses.  As a group, we discussed how math, science, reading and writing could play a huge role in that PBL (if students chose this topic). 

An example:  You and your team of chefs have been chosen to open a restaurant in ______________.  As a team, research when*, where*, how*, and consider all of the necessary components* to get a food business running.

*This information will come from students, through their learning and discussions. 

 

Just Another Idea!

Students can could use their knowledge from the research to create free apps!  Some websites (free) that students can use, if it fits their learning!

http://createappsforfree.com/

http://www.appsgeyser.com/

http://www.theappbuilder.com/

Reflections, Rubrics, Driving Questions & More Resources!

I found some resources over the weekend regarding:

Loving this quote!!!

 Reflection pieces:

http://langwitches.org/blog/2011/06/20/reflect-reflecting-reflection/

Reflection piece according to Blooms:

This is a rubric for assessing the writing from all subjects areas and reflections that will emerge from student research.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1530156707000810

Driving questions: "A driving question or problem that serves to organize and drive activities, which taken as a whole amount to a meaningful project."

http://joedeegan.blogspot.com/2009/10/3-steps-to-driving-question-for-project.html

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/pbl-how-to-write-driving-questions-andrew-miller

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/pbl-how-to-refine-driving-questions-andrew-miller


40 Awesome Resources for PBL

http://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/connecting-pbl-and-stem-40-free-engaging-resources-to-use-in-the-classroom/

BIE.com Review on Ideas

We are meeting as a group again to review some items related to BIE.org articles that I pulled regarding: 
-what products and how many to use 
-project walls
-student & teacher created rubrics
-the characteristics of "global PBL"

Below are the articles that we referenced for ideas!

http://biepbl.blogspot.com/2012/12/managing-projects.html

http://biepbl.blogspot.com/2012/10/involving-students-and-audience-in.html

http://biepbl.blogspot.com/2013/02/pbl-design-deep-dive-what-products-and.html


We discussed having tech coming in periodically to administer student workshops.  We sent Micaela and John the span of dates for summer PBL---awaiting their response!

Next steps would be to ask for the acceptance letters and finish up with the student interest survey.  We discussed that we might have to "pull" more info from kiddos as we interview them, to get a better scope of their hopes for learning.  We should have this completed by next Friday, April 26, so that we can move forward! 

Interest Survey and some Bagdad Results

A interest survey was created to get feedback from students on what subject matter is most relevant to them.  We'll meet with them shortly to find out where we need to focus our PBL.

The survey included:
Haz una lisa de:
-3 cosas que te gustan...
-3 cosas que me preocupan...
-3 cosas que me gustaría hacer en verano...
-3 lugares que quiero visitar...
-3 temas sobre los que quiero aprender son...

Three student interest surveys have been completed at Bagdad. I'm finding that the surveys are a great way to get to now the students at a deeper level and it's been a delightful experience for me.
So far the children who have been interviewed have given very brief answers and I've had to probe a little deeper to get more clarity about their desires and worries. Can't wait go do the rest of them!  Students seem to be drawn to the continued learning of "animals."

According to the BIE article by Charity Allen, PBL Design Deep Dive - "What Products, and How Many?" there are several types of student products:

The same product with the same focus or topic
The same product with a different focus or topic
*A different product with the same focus or topic
A different product with a different focus or topic

We're discussing the possibility that a different product with the same focus or topic will be appropriate for our Summer PBL project. This will allow students to show what they know in a variety of ways.

Ideas for PBL

I came across these websites while prepping for a 4th grade collaboration on PBL for their upcoming unit on ecology---just another idea to consider for summer!

https://sites.google.com/site/hamiltonecopbl/pbl-tasks

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/

Glogster EDU

What do you all think including the following application for student use? 

 http://glogsteredu.edu.glogster.com/glogster-edu-single-free/



It's a free education app called Glogster that allows students to customize their presentations using text, pictures, and videos.  I would like it to be one of many presentation formats available to students.  In thinking about how to structure our time during summer school PBL, I feel we'll have to give students a certain amount of time to experiment with new formats so that we don't get 20 posters! :)  The tech department said they could also be available to provide students with some tech workshops as long as we gave them some dates.  Let me know what other ideas you all have!

Love this "teamwork" icon!

In thinking about the DLE classroom environment, we agreed that we would need to consider classroom environment essentials.  As a result, we looked at, and discussed formats for the student generated alphabet.  One of the possibilities is shown below.  The letter would go in the center and other appropriate words would be added as necessary.  An idea for the alphabet was to keep the words related to the focus of the PBL. We also wanted to consider the potential for it to be interactive---students being able to remove and/or replace the words periodically to fit the pace of the learning.  Any ideas?!

 

The planning and organization for our upcoming summer PBL with the DLE team started today!  We brainstormed several ideas to begin this summer's adventure.  That's how this blog was initiated! 

Things to consider were:
-4 week planning grid that teams would plan together
-2-3 regular Kagan Structures that would be used throughout the 4 weeks
-Student interest survey
-Available technology
-Ropes training for our students, as they won't necessarily know each other w/ Greg    
 Glover  
-DLE classroom environment:  alphabet (we discussed a specific format), word walls
-PBL themes are still being decided upon
-A representative image for this project was chosen...more planning to come!