What Makes Project Based Learning Effective? #Edchat #EngChat

By von_brandis

I've been meaning to write about my adventures in Project Based Learning for a while. It's a topic many teachers are interested in, but are unsure of how to implement it or know if it is working. After much thought, I have broken down Project Based Learning into the 5 parts that make it effective in the classroom.

Long before my Epic Romeo and Juliet Project, the first major project I created was during my student teaching 10 years ago. I thought it would be a great idea to do a mock trial in my class after reading Huck Finn. I wanted to have the students put Mark Twain on trial for being a racist. At the time, there was some more uproar across the nation on whether or not Huck should be taught in schools. We had discussed the topic in class and I thought this would be a great way for students to explore both sides of the issue and make up their mind.

As I look back at the project (and ahead as I prepare to bring it back), I notice all of the things that made this project work that lead to deep understanding. Here are 5 major parts of Project Based Learning that make it valuable to the classroom.

1. OWNERSHIP is key. For this project, the students were not listening to me on why Twain was or was not a racist, they were showing me and the rest of class what they thought. They were invested in winning their argument. They knew that their work was going to determine if he was guilty or not. Although I gave the assignment, the students were in charge the rest of the way. It was their project and they wanted to do it win. When students feel they own what they are doing, they will work harder. When the audience is larger, they want to impress everyone. These are not crazy ideas, they are the results of owning the work they are doing. OWNERSHIP is a major factor in the value of PBL.

2. CREATIVITY is the another major part of the PBL and is closely linked with OWNERSHIP. Students were allowed to be creative in their work as a lawyer or witness. Witnesses needed to stay within character, but could add their own elements on the witness stand. Allowing the students to create gives them a bigger sense of OWNERSHIP.

3. Another part of the PBL is the COLLABORATION. Students were working with each other trying to decide the best plan of attack. Witnesses would meet with their lawyers and discuss how the questions they were going to ask and how they should dress. The Jury worked on group projects researching the previous public opinions on Twain and his writing. Students were sharing ideas freely with one another. I had three sections of American Lit at the time, so I had three trials running. Lawyers would help others in the other classes and trash talk the opposing lawyers as well. It was all in good fun, but the collaboration had students working hard with one another to accomplish this goal.

4. Depending on how you set up your project, CRITICAL THINKING, is also an important part of PBL. With my Twain Trial, students needed to think about both sides of the argument. Students needed to prepare their witnesses for potential cross-examination questions. They needed to anticipate problems each witness presented and be prepared to counter them. In a world were homework can be tedious and memorization rules supreme, PBL is a great way to get kids thinking critically.

5. Lastly, Project Based Learning has to be FUN! It seems obvious, but I have seen many projects that are very tedious. They have kids go through the motions and leave very little room for FUN or CREATIVITY. Projects are a chance for students to break the regular routine of reading and writing in some classes. Most kids are excited to do a project because they finally see it as a chance to express themselves in a format other than a test or essay. The FUN comes from the freedom students feel. Working with their friends (COLLABORATION), taking charge of their learning (OWNERSHIP), solving real problems (CRITICAL THINKING) and allowing students to create (CREATIVITY) all lead to the students learning in a FUN environment.

Next week, my students will be creating their own Transcendentalist Society. My friend and I tweaked a lesson from Gwen S. Price. I'm excited because this will be the first major project my students have done this year and they will be using the iPads for the first time. My kids are excited to get to work on the project and I can't wait to see what they create. I look forward to sharing their work with all of you.

If you have any thoughts on bringing PBL to your classroom, please do not hesitate to contact me.

- @TheNerdyTeacher

Quick Hits #3 - App Edition #Edchat

I hope everyone had a very wonderful Thanksgiving or a pretty good Thursday for non-American readers. :-)

I wanted to share some quick thoughts on some apps I have been playing with lately.

iAnnotate PDF - $9.99

I really like this app. I have been looking for apps to use on my iPad since I knew I was getting a class set and this app has been very useful. It allows the user to take any PDF and annotate it freely. You can use a variety of tools to highlight, underline, strike-through and even stamp. Once you are done annotating the document, you can save it with the annotations and email it to yourself or others. I like the app because it would allow students to annotate pieces I send to them and they could send it back to me with their thoughts.

The app also allows for Dropbox integration which I love. I can pulls documents from Dropbox and annotate them and send them back to Dropbox. I recently uploaded my class list to the app and used it to enter in grades while I check writing assignments. After I had completed all of the checking, I was able to quickly reference the grades on the app and enter them into the online grade book. I can keep the PDF there and continue to annotate it over time. I have found it to be very valuable.

The app might seem a bit pricey, but I think it is a fair value for how I want to use it and how I hope to use it in the future. If you are looking for ways to annotate PDFs of the go, I suggest you take a look at iAnnotate PDF for your iPad.

The Tower Pulse - Free

For those of you who do not know, I am a co-adviser to the the school's new online newspaper, The Tower Pulse. We started last year and have picked up steam this year. I help on the tech end of the paper and my co-adviser works on the journalistic end. It's been a great marriage and the kids have turned out an amazing product. I thought it would be cool if I could turn the paper into an app for the students to download for free to access the content on the go. After some searching, I found UppSite.com. UppSite takes your WordPress site and converts it into an app. It will create a free Android app and help you set up an Apple Developer account so your app can be made available on OS Devices. I already had a Developer account, so I was able to create Android and Apple apps. After two weeks, the app was ready to go on all devices. The kids are excited and I cannot wait to see how many people download the app. If you have a WordPress site and are looking to create an app, take a look at UppSite.com.

Charlie Brown Christmas - $4.99

This cartoon is one of my all-time favorites. There is no question about it. I love every part of this cartoon. I stumbled upon the app looking through the store and downloaded it without question. That is not the wisest of decisions for app purchasing, especially at $4.99, but I was not disappointed. It is the complete story told by the original voice of Charlie Brown and has all of the original voices from the cartoon. It is the complete cartoon with many different interactive elements. My son, Leo, is only 6 months old and he was mesmerized by the app. He would touch the screen and turn falling snow into giant snowflakes or touch one of the Peanuts characters and they would dance or talk. He loved it and that made the app priceless in my mind. If you loved the cartoon growing up, you will love this app, and so will your kids. Here is a video from the creator of the app with more details. 

 I wanted to share some cool apps I've been using the past few weeks. I will have some more app suggestions in the near future as my class set of iPads sees more action with the students. I hope all of you have a great weekend.

- @TheNerdyTeacher

My Edublog Award Nominations #Eddies11

It's that time of year to nominate your favorite Social Media users in education. You can find more information on the Edublog Awards here. Below are some of the people I think are truly amazing in what they do every day and are an inspiration to me.

I want to thank everyone who has nominated me for awards this year. I appreciate all of the support all of you have given my silly site. :-)

• Best individual blog - The Tempered Radical - Bill Ferriter

I finally had a chance to meet Bill a few weeks ago at a conference and he is great guy. I have followed his blog for some time and I tend to agree with most of what he writes about. When I don't I love the fact that it challenges my thinking on various topics. I highly suggest you check out his plug and follow him on Twitter (@Plugusin) for some great ideas and resources. 

• Best individual tweeter - Steven Anderson @Web20Classroom

One of my goals is to get up early enough to tweet a resource before Steve. That has yet to happen in over a year. Most of my resources come from Steve and they are gems. I've been able to work with Steve and he is just one of the nicest people on Twitter and in person. He works tirelessly to share the web's knowledge to anyone that will listen. He is a hard worker and crazy Tweeter. He is more than deserving of the best individual tweeter award. 

• Best group blog - Connected Principals

I love this blog because it gives me insight into what administrators are thinking about school issues. I love to get different perspectives on education and I feel this site is great at providing that different angle. The contributors are people I consider all-stars in the world of education and I always look forward to their new posts. This is a must follow on the Google Reader

• Best ed tech / resource sharing blog - iLearnTechnolgy - Kelly Tenkely

I have known Kelly for about 2 years and consider her a great friend. I was new to the world of ed tech and I stumbled upon her site and was amazed at what she had to offer. She was the first person I followed onTwitter and was the first person to respond to a question I had asked. She is one of the hardest workers in the world and still finds time to work with me on Project PLN and other project ideas. Her site is something I always point teachers to in my district and on my site. She has something for everyone and is more than deserving of this award. 

• Best new blog - Erin Klein - Kleinspiration

I met Erin at Edcamp Detroit last year. She is full of amazing energy and her new site shows it off. She is always looking to share awesome resources and her thoughts on educational issues. It is always refreshing to hear a new voice in the educational field. I'm also a little biased because she is from Michigan, but if you read her work, you will see why she is worth following. I look forward to more amazing work to come from Erin in the future. 

• Best twitter hashtag - #edchat

#Edchat was the first hashtag I followed and has led to many great friendships and wonderful ideas. It's a great place for teachers to start listening if they are new to Twitter and it's also a grew place to start engaging because of how friendly everyone is. #edchat is a no-brainer choice for me. 

• Best teacher blog - Upsidedown Education - Amanda C Dykes

Amanda writes with such heart. Her blog is filled with her passion and she wants the world to see it. Whether it is after a good day or bad day, Amanda lets us know how she is feeling. Her honestly is something I admire. I love her blog and am always looking forward to her new posts. She also has awesome shoes. :-)

• Best librarian / library blog - Shannon Miller

If it were not for Shannon, I would not have been able to do my Epic Romeo and Juliet Project. She is an amazing person always looking for different ways to connect her students to classrooms all over the world. She is advocate for teacher librarians and has resources galore for those that are interested. I always look forward to seeing her at conferences because she is just a great person to be around and I know I will learn something awesome from her. She is truly an amazing librarian and friend. 

• Best School Administrator blog -  Lyn Hilt

I just want to say that Lyn Hilt is the bomb. That really does sum up everything I need to say about her. I love her fresh ideas and honesty on her blog. She is always willing to share her thoughts on a topic and is one of the first people I turn to for advice. Correction, she is the bomb-diggity. 

• Best open PD / unconference / webinar series - #edcamp

There are so many great webinars and unconferences out there, it was hard to choose one. I decided to go with #edcamp because of the impact they have had on me and many other teachers I know. I was lucky enough to go to decamp KC and NYC in the past and they were awesome experiences. So much so, that decamp Detroit was born. I love the fact that teachers who do not know each other can come together and share their thoughts and new ideas. It's a wonderful venue for learning and I look forward to attending more of them in the future. 

• Lifetime achievement - Jerry Blumengarten (@cybraryman1)

Jerry is the wikipedia of education. He has every bit of educational technology indexed on his site somewhere. I point all new teachers to his page for more information on various hash tag chats and all-star educators. He has been doing this for years and loves being an active member of the education community. He is on my list of people that I have to meet. Jerry is very deserving of this award. 

These are my nominations for the #Eddies11. Take the time to post your own nominations and share them with others. Follow this link to see the rules and nomination process.

-@TheNerdyTeacher

Interview with #AdobeEduAwards Winner Ross Cooper

Ross Cooper wad one of the winners of the Adobe Edu Awards this year and I had a chance to interview him about his winning submission, Ross Cooper, Ross Boss Projects: Pinball Wizard. I did a post on Ross and his awesome Pinball Wizard Project earlier this year because I thought his project was very interesting. Take a look at what he had to say about his winning project and some other things he is working on this year.  

What gave you the idea to use Pinball as the basis of your project?

I currently work for the East Penn School District. Last school year, the district began a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics or STEM initiative. This program started at the elementary level. Two of my fourth grade teammates and I volunteered to be a part of the cohort. For the school year, each team was asked to develop at least one STEM unit.

My goal was to create a project that was both multidisciplinary and authentic. When looking over the areas of science that we would be teaching, I thought that the building of pinball machines would accomplish these objectives, and at the same time it would merge multiple areas of science: electricity and magnetism, and force and motion.

What worries did you have going into the creation of the project?

The biggest worry was making sure that all of the correct materials were purchased, especially since this was a project that was completed by 5 fourth grade classrooms (about 140 students). I knew that there would be some trial and error, but I wanted to minimize the mistakes as much as possible. A good friend of mine helped me to engineer a prototype and decide on most of the materials. Then, it was a matter of creating a comprehensive list of materials and purchasing what was needed. One of my fourth grade teammates has a good friend who is a manager at Lowe’s. They both helped out immeasurably.

Where there any surprises along the way?

The biggest surprise was the difficulty we faced with incorporating a working electrical circuit into each machine. The project requirements state, “When the ball makes contact with a specific part of the machine, the light bulb should light up.” This was easier said than done. Throughout the building of the machines, both the teachers and students experimented with the best ways to make this happen. Learning along with the students made the inquiry-based learning that much more powerful.  

How did the kids receive this when you first let them play?

After the project was complete, the students spent a couple of hours playing each other’s machines. They were very excited to show off their work, and to experience what the rest of the class had to offer. During this time, awards were distributed as students voted on each other’s machines.  Categories included Most Likely to Light Up, Most Fun to Play, Most Creative, Most Beautiful, and Best Use of a Science Theme.

What do you plan to do with the prizes?

First, all of my wonderful students are more than welcome to spend some time on the MacBook, as I promised them that this would happen if I won the contest. Once I familiarize myself with some of Adobe Creative Suite 5.5, I will also try to provide them with hands-on time with this as well. Even though students at the elementary level do not typically use such software, I still believe that exposure to it is important, as it helps to provide inspiration and promote creativity. Also, by seeing how the “pros” execute their work, it helps to authenticate any parallel tasks that are done in the classroom.  

On a personal level, I will be using the MacBook on a daily basis. In learning the Creative Suite, I will probably start with the Flash platform, Illustrator, and Photoshop. These are the programs that are most applicable to my daily classroom instruction.

Do you have any other fun game based lessons you are working on for class?

Right now, I have an exciting science project planned for next month. The students will not be creating games, but the project is based on Angry Birds and Challenge Based Learning. The link to the project is here.

How important do you think it is for teachers to share their lessons with others?

Right now, the field of education is experiencing somewhat of a change due to the widespreadintegration of technology, and the emphasis on problem solving, project-based learning, and STEM. As changes takes place, and as these new approaches become prevalent, teachers need more support. Therefore, the sharing of lessons is now more important than it ever has been.  

How has Adobe software impacted your other lessons?

Every year I teach a handful of projects in both Language Arts and science. Each one of these projects is taught through the use of an interactive website that is drawn up in Illustrator and Photoshop, and then animated and completed in flash. Once each flash website is published, it is embedded into my teacher website through the WYSIWYG editor. Each flash website contains all information that is needed for its respective project, such as an overview, directions, rubric(s), relevant content, and links to applicable activities, handouts, websites, and videos. Pinball Wizard and Angry animals are two examples of such projects.

To view this and many more great lessons, go to the Adobe Education Exchange and sign up.

Thanks again to everyone who participated in this year's contest.