Blog Post #9

After reading Seven Essentials for Project-Based Learning, I was amazed at how much I agreed with the whole article and how much I wish this was used when I was in school. At the very beginning we were asked if we remember the days where our teachers would just hand up papers of directions and tell us we had a project due. I definitely remember those days and I remember those days being terrible. I remember dreading doing any kind of project in school because we were never intrigued by it, we were never interested in doing another project that didn't seem for our benefit. Although, i'm sure it was for our benefit, but at the time it didn't seem like I learned anything from those projects.

There are 7 essentials for PBL: a need to know, a driving question, student voice and choice, 21st century skills, inquiry and innovation, feedback and revision, and a publicly presented product.  In this article I am impressed by the way the teacher introduced this project she was going to have her students work on. She started off by showing them a video which led to an interesting discussion to where she was able to introduce her project. The kids were already intrigued by the video and the discussion that they were looking forward to working on this particular project. They then came up with a driving question and were able to come up with their own questions to feed off of the driving question. After coming up with their own questions they were able to use those questions to research and find information on the given project and work on it. To me, this is how projects in the classroom need to be. The standards were met, they kids were able to learn the material by collaborating and creating a project that was fun and engaging. 

In the video What Motivates Students, several different students are asked to answer the question, 'What motivates you?'. One of the students said that positive feedback motivates him. Even if there is something that needs improvement, just pointing out the positive things and making the student feel good can be real motivational. A few students said that having a successful job is what motivates them. I found that very interesting because I feel as you get older that is the reason most people stay motivated and for them to be so young and already have that reason as motivation is astonishing. Another kid said that if he doesn't do well in school his mom won't let him go to his baseball games which is definitely a reason to be motivated at that age haha! Things that work to keep certain kids motivated is also explained in this video. Kids who do well throughout the day get awarded special prizes or get to eat lunch with the teacher. Those methods can really work to keep kids motivated because at such a young age they like to be rewarded for good behavior and with rewards and compliments comes consistent good behavior. 

After watching the video Students Solve the Case of Watery Ketchup, I came to the conclusion that somewhere in the world some students, like the ones in this video, are inventing things through PBL. The last thing one of the students said was that it was fun to take a class and research one thing year long. With that year long class, they were able to come up with a solution to the watery ketchup by inventing a new top to put on ketchup bottles. 

I've never really thought about the certain classes where it would be difficult to enforce PBL until I read PBL in PE. Even though Project-Based Learning was successful in this class, the more I thought about it the more it dawned on me that it would be difficult to try to use this frequently in a Physical Education class. PE classes are designed to keep kids active and fit, they aren't designed for projects and work, but this teacher made it happen which was very impressive. He got his high school students to come up with a physical fitness program for middle school students. After they did that they would be able to observe and critique their program they created. 

Overall, I think what the students and teachers in these articles and videos are saying is that PBL is a great idea. More people should be looking into teaching this way because it engages the students into wanting to learn and it keeps them motivates. Also, you never know if one of your students could be the next Bill Gates without letting them research and think on their own.