May 30 – June 3, 2016

Each Friday we post a list of our favorite articles, blog posts, and other resources we’ve run across that relate to Project Based Learning.

Here’s what we liked this week:

5-Minute Film Festival: Future Ready Leadership
Edutopia
The U.S. Department of Education has released some resources for district-level change, including videos and online self-assessments, in a partnership with the Alliance for Excellent Education’s Future Ready Schools Initiative. Check out the video on “Personalized Learning in Core Content Areas” which mentions projects. And many of the elements in the Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment section pertain to PBL, such as 21st century skills and “collaborative, relevant, and applied learning.”

Why PD Matters So Much for PBL Teachers
Getting Smart
Emily Liebtag says teachers need “ongoing experiences and support” during the crucial implementation phase to help them master PBL, as opposed to traditional 90-minute professional development sessions where they simply learn about a new approach. She provides a great list of unusual PBL PD resources, many of which would be perfect for teachers in the summer.

Donovan Livingston’s Harvard Graduate School of Education Student Speech
Harvard Education
This 5-minute video has been making the rounds on social media. Donovan uses spoken word poetry to make a powerful case for equity in education, with references that speak to me of PBL, even if he doesn’t name it. Lots of great lines with astronomical metaphors, such as, “When I look my students in the eyes, all I see are constellations. If you take the time to connect the dots, You can plot the true shape of their genius.”

A Unique Opportunity
Jan Iwase Blog
A principal of an elementary school in Hawai'i tells how 4th graders think critically in a project about immigration, and shares her hopes for the Hawai'i Innovative Leaders Network, a collaborative PBL implementation effort by BIE and the state's department of education.

Trigonometry Miniature Golf
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
This is a classic high school math project – in 2003 we wrote about one like it at Napa New Tech. Teacher Tim Hickey of Monticello High School in Charlottesville, Virginia explains how his students applied trigonometry and became “creators and makers” in the woodshop and with 3D printers.

I felt celebrated when I shook hands with Obama
The Times of India
Since our PBL World conference is happening soon, I thought it apropos to share this article from an international source about Revathi Balakrishnan, an Indian-American woman who was the 2016 Texas Elementary Teacher of the Year. Guess what teaching method she uses to incorporate creativity, problem-solving and critical thinking into her classroom?

Kindergarten PBL: Happy Habitats
Mount Vernon Institute for Innovation
Love this project – we described a similar one for 5th graders in our book Setting the Standard for PBL – which combines BIE’s model for Gold Standard PBL and design thinking. There’s a nice video about the kinders’ work and a detailed description of how their deep thinking was.

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