“This is an opportunity for them (seniors) to design their own project, for them to decide where do they want to go in this world, what they want to do post high school for them to design a project that meets a creative need, a career-oriented need, or a service need....But this is a big project, it involves connecting with a mentor in the community, it involves independent work, it involves things that happen outside of class. On the day they are presenting their projects they are so proud and so eager to talk about their projects and tell their stories, so it leaves a big impact on them.”

— Rachelle Antcliff, High School English Facilitator, CSA New Tech High School | Columbus, IN

Welcome to the PBL Playbook, brought to you by Magnify Learning – where we put teachers back in their sweet spot. Make sure you follow us on Twitter: @magnifylearning, @askgiebs, @MissB103, #PBLPlaybook.

Josh and Andrea continue the PBL Project Blitz series where once a month, they highlight a PBL project by veterans in the PBL classroom.

In this episode of the PBL Project Blitz, our hosts chat with Rachelle Antcliff (@RAAntcliff), a senior English teacher from CSA New Tech (@CSANewTechHS) in Columbus, IN. Rachelle dives into the annual senior capstone project, which allows senior students to truly craft their own PBL project, based on their own interests as well as community needs. This project gets at the heart of truly authentic PBL, as it involves community engagement and involvement, student-driven learning, and student ownership of the process. Rachelle also talks about what it is about PBL that sets this senior capstone apart from the traditional high schools, as it is a district-wide graduation requirement.

Stay tuned for more awesome projects as the PBL Project Blitz series continues every month!