PBL Unit Reflections Notes

● Abandoned projects based on students’ attendance; not enough students to support the PBL Unit
● Student engagement: Apathy towards the project; no interest or excitement of doing the PBL Unit
● Authentic audience - having the projects published in the community
○ Some guest speakers were utilized
○ Panel of experts
○ Expert judges?
■ Some did not feel their student’s work was up to standard to showcase
● Resources in our community that we can utilize
○ Making those connections
● Creativity scares students
● Add more explicit guidelines to help students with interviews
● Open ended to show learning and understanding throughout the semester/year of math learning
(i.e., poster, video, etc.)
● Cross-curricular projects (interdisciplinary)
● Refined PBL based on student learning - being intentional with the unit
○ Having the project at the beginning instead of the end with the content
○ Look at what makes a video look good, i.e., iMovie
○ Green screen?
● Easy to implement project with the content, Teen Choices (i.e., law and addiction)
○ Packet that guides students’ project
○ Guest speakers that dealt with the law
○ Brain study - why do teens make the choices they make?
○ Attendance
○ Students who were in trouble with the law there was push back
○ Personal connection
● Personal school website to showcase student work (Jefferson Voices website?)

Moving Forward: What do we need?

● Support, encouragement, and planning time
○ Cohorts are very helpful
● Need community resources - who can we go to talk to?
● Cross-content project or a grade level
○ Consistency among the content and grade levels
● Need to narrow the planning
○ need guidance for students and teachers
● Need to have training or visit or conference
○ see other schools that implement PBL
○ staff-wide PD from the district
○ attend Jeffco Summer Institute
● PBL aligning to the standards and/or concerns of evaluations due to CAP
○ make the standards fit the unit
○ overcoming the “meeting” the standards
○ short term project vs. long-term project
● Challenging students to create their own projects for the higher achieving students
● Creating a “PBL Board”