Project Based Learning

If you have happened to read my innovation proposal or literature review then you know that Project-Based Learning is my focus. What better way to get students involved with their education than to actually have them facilitate it?! While watching this video, one of the things that stood out to me was how the students presented their work to the council member. This step is so important in PBL because students feel more motivated to try harder if they know that someone with power will be looking at their work. They are inventing their projects for a certain audience and that audience is not the teacher. Students like to know they have a voice and can influence a positive change. They work harder, smarter, and more efficiently through PBL. The knowledge they gain is deeper planted in their brains rather than the "sit and get" model of learning. I cannot wait to see the outcomes of efficiently implementing PBL in my classroom this coming school year.

Creativity is a crucial part of the learning process. The standard learning models do very little to spark this creativity in students. Most of the time they are bored and disengaged. However, if they are using their brains to create something to showcase, they will be fully engaged and enthralled in the learning. The collaboration involved in PBL instills great skills within students by teaching them how to efficiently work in a team to get certain tasks done for one common goal. This is real-world learning at its finest! The critical-thinking skills that go into PBL are so much more than just listening to a lecture and answering some multiple-choice questions. They really deep dive into their projects and demonstrate those higher-order thinking skills.

Take a few minutes to watch these little community members in action. Notice how excited and engaged they are!

(Edutopia)

Reference:

Edutopia. “Project-Based Learning: Raising Student Achievement for All Learners.” YouTube, 20 June 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGWqBZSFgxE. Accessed 4 July 2023.

Relationships

I have met many educators in my 6 years of teaching. Many of those educators know the power of forming relationships with students in the beginning. However, there have been a few of those educators who clearly just come to work to do their job and leave. They do not put their heart into forming relationships and connecting with their students. Honestly you could tell they did not like their jobs at all. This is heart breaking for the students that have to deal with this.

Our students deserve a person to be in their corner each and every day. If our students can tell we do not want to be at school, why would they? If we are not excited about learning, why should they be? If we do not respect them, how are we to ask them to respect us?

Every year I start out with many team building exercises and get to know each other type questionnaires. However, this year, I am going to strive to build those relationships even more! I want my students to always know that I am there for them and believe in their full potential. If we are sure to do this with each and every child, then when we have to be the "bad guy", they wont see us at that.

I teach fourth grade, so obviously I have to deal with some discipline issues in my classroom. However, I think I have only had to get a principal involved maybe twice, and that was for something that occurred when I was not present. I know that this is because of the relationships I have built with my students. Even my most difficult students respect me and the rules in our classroom. We have a social contract, that we call our family contract. This contract outlines how we all would like to be treated and how our classroom should run. We refer to this contract often during disagreements and whenever needed. Even if I have to intervene and provide some type of consequence to a choice a student made, I make sure that I tell them I love them and I am not mad at them. About 99.9% of the time, that child will give me a big bear hug after they receive their consequence. Why? Because they know that I love them and know that they are more than their bad choice.

I challenge any educator reading this to start the year off really building those relationships with your students. I promise it will pay off! "Every child deserves an adult who will never give up on them." (Pierson, 2013) Be that person to every child that walks through your classroom door!

Reference: Pierson, R. (2013). Every kid needs a champion. Ted.com; TED Talks. https://www.ted.com/talks/rita_pierson_every_kid_needs_a_champion

Making Learning Fun

I am sure you can tell by now if you have read through my blog, that I love watching Ted Talks. I recently watched a Ted Talk given by Joel Baraka. He is from Africa and attended an overcrowded school that relied on wrote memorization from lectures and notes. They would then be tested on the material. When I say overcrowded, I don't mean 28-30 kids in a classroom, but 200 in a classroom. It is a wonder that the students were even able to write notes or hear the lectures. (Baraka, 2022)

Joel Baraka was given the chance to attend a school in South Africa when he was 19. In this school, he was given the task or creating a meaningful innovation. Knowing his own personal struggle with non-engaging education, he decided to make a board game for students. He received permission to pilot this game at his former school. He was awoken the next morning by six students that wanted to play his game again before school. (Baraka, 2022) This game proved to be a success by providing a fun alternative to the boring standard learning model that they had been using.

In America, we are blessed to have access to plenty of learning board games. However, we need to step beyond that to expose students to new engaging materials. Students have played the board games. I am not saying that we should never play those games anymore, because honestly, they are still fun! I even love to play the trivia board games with my students! We just have so many opportunities to increase engagement at our fingertips, if we just step out of our comfort zone. I feel this can be done through project based learning and providing real-life projects.

Take a listen to Joel Baraka's innovative board game and the response he received.

Reference: Baraka, J. (2022, December 20). The board game getting kids excited about school. Www.ted.com. https://www.ted.com/talks/joel_baraka_the_board_game_getting_kids_excited_about_school