“My other favorite part was making the book-there was authors, illustrators, and photographers, and it’s just really fun making it because you get to learn even though you don’t feel like you are. ”
“I was the one who took pictures-learning how to get the camera, and get positions, and what to take pictures of and what to do with the pictures.”
“I was in a focus group...and I was an author and I wrote some of the parts of the book. My favorite part about it was when we went to Doodles by Rebekah and we saw her and worked with her and what she used. ”
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
SHOW NOTES
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.
RESOURCES & LINKS RELATED TO THIS EPISODE
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