PBL Showcase - Full Grade Level PBL | E116

Welcome to the PBL Simplified, brought to you by Magnify Learning, where we help teachers, school leaders, and afterschool workers find their sweet spot through PBL!

Make sure you follow us on Twitter: @magnifylearning, @ryansteuer

Visionary Leaders who employ PBL can create authentic learning experiences and inspiring classrooms for students of all ages. Project Based Learning also enables school leaders to fulfill their vision for academic growth and a thriving school community. 

In this episode of the PBL Simplified Podcast Ryan will answer the Need to Know “How do we create PBL Office Hours?”and also give you a different solution. For the Leadership Leap Ryan summarizes The Power of Sleep. Sleep is important as a Visionary Leader. Check it out in the links below.

In the main PBL Showcase episode we have the team at Dixie Magnet Elementary. They talk about their successful PBL Unit of rebuilding the playground to fit all accessibility levels, implementing standards into this unit, how they brought in community partners, and a student success story.

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PBL Showcase - What do Teachers Think About PBL? | E94

Welcome to the PBL Simplified, brought to you by Magnify Learning, where we help teachers, school leaders, and afterschool workers find their sweet spot through PBL!

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This PBL Showcase will feature excerpts from teachers I interviewed during a PBL Jumpstart. I was able to talk to them on their third day to get some of their thoughts. We'll hear things like, I used to think this, but now I believe this, so we'll see mindset shifts. In a PBL Jumpstart, you get to live out PBL while creating a PBL unit. 

Our "need to know" for today is based on this question: I'm a social studies teacher. How do I connect my subject matter to relevant topics now? The teachers are experts in the field. Just asking the question in a little different way enables teachers to find a way to relate their lessons with the lives of kids today to help the kids feel more engaged and to work with community partners to add employability skills. 

Episode Highlights: 

[02:22] Can teaching ancient history solve a real world problem? You are the expert who would know the answer to this question. How could you make the lesson relevant to make the students more engaged? How would you bring in a community partner for employability skills?

[03:19] Asking this question in just a little bit of a different way enables social study teachers to connect their lessons to kids' lives today. 

[04:16] Don't let community partners be a hurdle. You can bring in someone local that has knowledge on the topic. 

[07:35] Christine Guthrie used to think PPL was engaging, but now she knows it's empowering. She has a structure to engage 21st century skills while empowering lifelong learning.

[07:51] Ethan used to think PBL was centered around a project. Now he thinks it's centered around a solution.

[08:00] Carl used to think PBL would be stressful and hard for students and himself. Now he thinks it will be a good process to engage students.

[08:19] Kristen thought PBL would make it hard to hit their standards, now she thinks she'll hit them in a more meaningful way.

[11:52] I also have four more teachers for you to hear from. You'll notice a theme from them about how they now realize how valuable the community partner aspect is. 

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Creating a Vision to Reach Every Student | E82

Welcome to the PBL Simplified, brought to you by Magnify Learning, where we help teachers, school leaders, and afterschool workers find their sweet spot through PBL!

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Dr. Robyn R. Jackson is the CEO of Mindsteps Inc. and the creator of Buildership University. She’s the author of multiple educational books and the host of the School Leadership Reimagined Podcast. She’s helped thousands of teachers and administrators turn their classrooms into success stories. 

She’s passionate about all students being successful and pursuing your vision with passion. 

We also have a “need to know” where I talk about visioning and expectations from what you would like things to look like three years from now. I also talk about the importance of progress over perfection. This episode is inspiring for everyone who wants to be their best self in their schools and classrooms. 

Episode Highlights: 

[02:40] Need to know: visioning and expectations. If we talked three years from now, what needs to have taken place in order for you to be happy with your progress?

[04:04] Envision what things would look like in the future. Progress not perfection.

[08:30] Robyn's “why” is that every child deserves to be successful at school. 

[11:11] What would your school need to look like for every child to be successful? This taps back into our fundamental belief of creating success for every single child.

[12:10] A student story about why it's important to help every student write a successful research paper. Holding students accountable can change the trajectory of their lives.

[17:17] Don't limit your goals. Set big goals to get off the hamster wheel and onto the momentum creating flywheel.

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Buildership® University What’s Stopping Your School From Achieving Success For 100% Of Your Students? We Help Principals Turn Your School Into A Success Story In The Next 3 Years... With The People And Resources You Already Have buildershipuniversity.com

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Empowering Learners to Present | E81

Welcome to the PBL Simplified, brought to you by Magnify Learning, where we help teachers, school leaders, and afterschool workers find their sweet spot through PBL!

Make sure you follow us on Twitter: @magnifylearning, @ryansteuer

The PBL Simplified book will be out and in your hands by January of 2023! The foreword is written by New York Times bestselling author Dan Miller. We know there is change in the workplace and change in education. We need empowered learners, not passive learners that sit back and take in information. 

Today's opening "need to know'' is about engaging learners in the classroom. When you model engagement in your teacher professional development, then you equip them with skills and ideas they can take back to their own classroom. 

Today's main topic is around how we get our learners to present to different audiences, so that they're confident in taking the next step. We want our learners empowered and ready to present in front of any audience. I share three transformative principles that will improve learner presentations. 

Episode Highlights: 

[03:56] What does professional development look like in our school? Teachers will replicate the learning environment that you present to them.

[04:47] We need to model an engaging learning environment for our teachers, so that they can take the same tactics into the classroom.

[06:30] Every school needs to have learners presenting to an audience outside of the classroom.

[07:12] 1. Make learning transparent. All learners are capable of high-performance presentations, but they need to be taught those skills. Share best practices.

[10:53] 2. When you bring in presentations, horizons are lifted. Learners begin to see new opportunities when presenting to outside partners.

[13:58] 3. Make feedback and reflection part of your culture. Learners want to reflect and refine their work before they present it. 

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PBL Showcase - Impact of PBL on Young Learners | E80

Welcome to the PBL Simplified, brought to you by Magnify Learning, where we help teachers, school leaders, and afterschool workers find their sweet spot through PBL!

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I'm Ryan Steuer from PBL Simplified. I have a book with the same title coming out in January. In this book, you'll hear about a lot of student stories revolving around Project Based Learning including wins and fails. I include the failures, because things don't always turn out perfect. Still, it's really helpful to hear the stories to solidify the skills, tactics, and processes.  

This is a special episode that focuses on the kindergarten and 1st grade learners from Foster Heights Elementary in Bardstown, KY and their insights and takeaways from their PBL Unit where they made a book about local community members. The book, The Influential People of Bardstown,  was created and designed by students and then sold to raise funds for a local senior citizen community. The funds were used to purchase technology that allowed the senior citizens to connect with family members. If you want to hear from the teachers that designed this PBL Unit, they were featured in Episode 76. All of these teachers went through our PBL Jumpstart Workshop and then moved to the next level by taking part in a PBL Advanced Workshop from Magnify Learning. This episode highlights just one of many awesome PBL Units they created and completed with their learners in the last year!

Episode Highlights: 

[06:33] A young soccer player explains what it's like to be a student at Foster Heights. It's fun! 

[08:36] They visited multiple business and community partners. The artwork also took at least a day.

[10:15] They do a lot of fun projects at Foster Heights. Making the books was the favorite project. You can be learning even when it doesn't feel like it.

[11:42] Another learner shares his focus group experience. They also sold the book and raised money to purchase iPads for nursing home residents. 

[13:56] There was so much excitement and growth in these learner responses. You don't have to wait for your learners to be perfect.

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Creating Inspiring Learner Stories in YOUR School | E79

Welcome to the PBL Simplified, brought to you by Magnify Learning, where we help teachers, school leaders, and afterschool workers find their sweet spot through PBL!

Make sure you follow us on Twitter: @magnifylearning, @ryansteuer

I am fired up with today's leadership episode. Our “need to know” for last month was how to publish your book, because I believe that everyone has a book inside of them. This month our “need to know” is going to be focused on learner presentations. How do we get our learners ready to present publicly and give them opportunities at your school? 

Everyone can have amazing learner stories as long as they take the time to create three processes. We begin with implementing Project Based Learning. The second is implementing opportunities for your students to practice throughout the school day. The third process is to invite visitors to your school. 

Episode Highlights: 

[01:54] How do busy leaders find time to write? Get your ideas and words to the page. There are also ghost writers out there that can help like the people at Ghostwriter School. 

[06:23] I go over three processes to create amazing learner stories. 1. The first process is to implement Project Based Learning.

[06:53] Project Based Learning creates opportunities for learners to present. They can practice in smaller environments before they're in front of a large group.

[09:55] 2. Create opportunities for students throughout the school day. An example would be talking with a community partner.

[10:44] The more reps the learners have when it comes to talking to professionals, the easier it will become. You can also take the learner's outside of the school environment to give a talk.

[11:40] 3. Invite visitors to your school. A real world event will get everyone including the leaders moving towards the end result. You could start with inviting educators and learners from a different school.

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Writing a Book as a Full Time PBL Teacher | E78

Welcome to the PBL Simplified, brought to you by Magnify Learning, where we help teachers, school leaders, and afterschool workers find their sweet spot through PBL!

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Show Notes

Andrew Larson is a full-time PBL Facilitator at the secondary level. He’s also the author of his new book with a tentative title of Life Is A Project: The Six A’s of Project Based Learning. We’ve been talking about books all month, and Andrew shares his processes and thoughts on how to make it happen while being a full-time teacher.  

We also have a book-related “need to know” focused on how you can get that book written. We know everyone has a book inside them, but very few do anything about it. We start by taking the ambiguity out of the equation. Once you know what you're going to write about, the outlines and chapters begin to fall into place. This episode combines getting that book out there with the benefits of quality PBL. 

Episode Highlights: 

[02:07] Need to Know: How do you get your book written? Everybody has a book inside them, but very few get published.

[02:21] Take the ambiguity out of the phrase “I want to write a book.” Sit down and write out the title, niche, and start to outline the chapters or main talking points.

[03:07] Now start collecting ideas because you have a place to put them.

[05:39] You should write your book. Other people can benefit from your unique perspective.

[07:34] Andrew became a Project Based Learning Facilitator after his district opened a project based school in 2008.

[10:42] His book is an authentic outlet for his content. 

[12:03] The tentative title for Andrew's book is Life Is A Project: The Six A’s of Project Based Learning. 

[13:32] After working sporadically for three years, Andrew committed to waking up at 4:15 AM and writing for an hour. 

[16:28] Andrew structured his book by answering the questions in the six A's rubric. 

[17:09] His goal is to help project designers check the boxes for PBL units. 

[21:28] Journaling can help capture your story. A consistent structure is also helpful when writing the book that is in you. 

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Student Empowerment - Marianne Renner TEDx | Episode 74

Marianne Renner is a transformational leadership coach with a fantastic backstory. By the time she was 32, she had owned her own business, founded a nonprofit for at-risk youth, was a bodybuilding champion, and led youth dance teams. She shares this remarkable story in her TEDx Talk. In this interview, we talk about how important mindset is for teachers and students.


PBL Showcase: P.E. PBL Unit and Design Thinking | E72

Welcome to the PBL Simplified, brought to you by Magnify Learning, where we help teachers, school leaders, and afterschool workers find their sweet spot through PBL!

Make sure you follow us on Twitter: @magnifylearning, @ryansteuer

Jordan Manley from STEAM Academy in Lexington, KY is here. This is his seventh year of PBL, and he went to Magnify Learning training right out of college. We spent an awesome week together. Jordan has always had a ton of passion. He teaches health and PE at STEAM Academy. It's a small school with around 400 students. Jordan loves stretching himself and working on new projects with the other teachers. 

Does PBL apply to courses like PE? Jordan gives a great example in how investigating the origins of pickleball was an exercise in design thinking. We also get to learn all about their project of designing better net games that made PE class more fun and interesting beyond having competitions and tournaments. Jordan breaks down the entire journey of making PE a better experience for his students.

Episode Highlights: 

[03:28] They have a partnership with the University of Kentucky. Jordan trains student teachers. 

[04:05] The PBL theme for Jordan's PE class was net and wall games. Classes like badminton, tennis, pickleball, etc. 

[06:03] They asked a question of how they can design better net games for their classmates. 

[07:34] Design thinking is a five-step process of empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test.

[10:30] The students brainstormed with whiteboards and then designed and tested games. The iterative process and testing was a huge win.

[13:19] Jordan talks about focusing on the experience of the students. They used a framework that focuses on personal relevance, appropriate challenges, emotional safety, and social connections.

[20:38] Use the design thinking model to implement PBL in your classroom and find teachers who want to go down that journey with you. Look for teacher confidence. 

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Workforce Skills Needed - Dan Miller (48 Days) | E69

Education is more than just learning information. It’s about preparing our learners to go out and make it as individuals. This episode is about the importance of the soft skills that will carry the students through a successful life and features an interview with Dan Miller, the author of 48 Days: To the Work You Love.