day 1

Today, we had day 1 of our PBL training.  It was the kind of staff development that makes you think. And that's a good thing. 
I won't get into much of it here today because I'm waiting to see what the next two days will bring before I talk too much about it.  I also won't get into much because my colleague @sraspanglish has beaten me to the proverbial punch with her great post on day 1 of our Buck Institute ( @biepbl) training.  You can read her post here: http://sraspanglish.blogspot.com/2012/06/buck-institute-day-1-deliverable.html
She did a great job showing the cool kinds of #pbl training that we are receiving and the thinking processes involved.
I won't post my project here because, to be honest with you, it pales in comparison to the exciting project she has described. Also, because I can't seem to wrap my head around what I want the students to do.
I'm going to let this one stew for another night while I collect my thoughts.  But a quick takeaway from today.
#1. The learning must be authentic.  Which means, why do the students WANT to do the project?  Have you hooked them with a great driving question?  Does the driving question lead to more questions?  Are they intrigued by the question?  Are they intrigued by the product?  There must be a real world application somewhere, somehow and the students must see it.

Comments

Unknown said…
Besides the sweet talk, of course, I really like the point about how driving questions must lead to more questions. That was indeed a revelation!
June 25, 2012 at 11:17 PM
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