PBL and PBJ

Go ahead...push play...you can't help but like it or dance along.  I don't know about you, but I hear this song and my shoulders just start moving!

Anytime a colleague brings up PBL (Project Based Learning) this is the first thing that pops into my head.  Someday, I want to make a rendition of this song, but singing (or rapping) about Project Based Learning.

Project Based Learning has been thrown around quite a bit in the education world over the past five to eight years and for good reason!  PBL engages all students at all levels.  It also provides teachers the opportunity to get a sense of what each students knows as they work through the problem the project presents.  I have found, there are times I think a student completely knows and understands a topic after we have read about it, but then we go to work on a project where they have to apply it and I find they have only memorized the facts they needed to know to complete an assignment.  Application of knowledge is what leads PBL.  Last year was my first year of making project based learning a priority in my classroom.  This year I want to take it to another level and making the learning process project based learning.

Last year, I looked for activities that provided my students with hands-on experiences.  Sounds good, right?  Well, I have since learned that project based learning shouldn't happen after you teach a concept, it should happen as that concept is being learned by the students.  GettingSmart.com wrote a great article on the importance of project based learning in the middle school years.  Check it out here!

During this upcoming school year, I plan to implement more project based learning into my classroom, but I have some work to do in learning about how I implement PBL into the learning process.

Well there you go...now I have a problem (How do I implement PBL into the learning process for my students?) and I'll have to work through that problem (project based learning) to find a solution to that problem.  I guess I'll do a little PBL myself!  🧐

What do you do to bring project based learning into your classroom?

Tona

HE>I

ReferencePeanut butter jelly time song. (n.d).  Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/