The Good, the Bad, and the Odd

After completing a year-long, integrated PBL with my IPC classes, these are my thoughts on the whole thing.  These are presented in no particular order, other than their categories.

The Good

1.     My students became extremely comfortable with presenting, whether to a group of their peers, parents, or outsiders.

2.     They learned how to solve problems, even those that they couldn’t get on the first try.  #failforward is the hashtag of the year.

3.     Everything they learned remained relevant the entire year.  They couldn’t ever put a subject away and say, “Oh we’re done with this topic, so I can forget about it.”  I think this gave them a deeper understanding of the TEKS because of this application piece.  They had to keep using them.

4.     I like the year-long narrative structure because it gave me so much flexibility to pull in more ‘stories’ as needed to suit the TEKS.  We were able to expand the problem as the year went along.

5.     Students tell me that they like being able to use their creativity, and that they aren’t boxed into a particular procedure or method of solving problems.

6.     I like being able to sit down with small groups of students and listen to their ideas.  This gives me a huge advantage in the relationship piece of student/teacher interactions.

The Bad

1.     My room has been an unmitigated disaster since last September.  Several times during the year, I reached my breaking point where I couldn’t take it any more, and had spasms of cleaning.  Possibly of the good – NJHS students didn’t have problems making their community service hours if they were willing to come in and help me tackle the mess.

2.     The level of squabbling on some days made me want to send them all to their rooms.  Oh, wait, I can’t.  I need more corners to send people to for cooling off periods.

3.     The first semester exam was a disaster and the STAAR wasn’t that much better.  One thing that I have to improve is the students’ ability to relate their problem solving to test questions.

4.     On-line research is a skill that is seriously lacking in middle school students.  I had a whole 2-credit class on how to do research in law school – at this point, with technology an inescapable part of their lives, middle school students should be provided the same thing.  Proper research methods will be part of my scaffolding process next year.

5.     The GT students hated me most of the time, because they wanted to know how to do it ‘right’ and I was firm that there wasn’t necessarily a right way.  They were in the mindset that it was all about the grades where I was trying to show them that it was about the process.  As the district moves forward in the implementation of learner centered classrooms, I anticipate that this issue will become easier.

The Odd

1.     We have variously had class discussions about whether human bones make good tools and whether it would be ethical to use them for that purpose, the rugby team from Uruguay, how cavemen made tools, and the things we learned on Minecraft.

2.     One of my classes implemented a very repressive constitution for their last project.  Also, they had a huge debate on whether morality is something that can be legislated.

3.     They know lots of things about Caruthersville, Missouri, and the geography of the southern Pacific Ocean.

4.     We didn’t realize it when we first started, but the initial scenario that @whowe67 and I created gave us almost unlimited ways to expand it to include new topics. 

5.     I liked that I had to be on the top of my game at every moment, but I was brain dead a lot on my time off.  So much so that I couldn’t follow scripted TV dramas – I watched a lot of reality TV and sports last year.

At the end of the year, I was mentally exhausted because project based learning requires more in-depth thinking on the teacher’s part as well.  If I were just coughing up the same lecture from year to year, my creativity and critical thinking would also suffer.  Project based learning is a very involved process for all parties concerned. 

If you go all in on it – doing it full time – make sure you have a shoulder to cry on and another creative mind to bounce ideas with.  I couldn’t have done it without @whowe67, and her guidance, leadership, and encouragement.

I would absolutely do another year-long project.  I think the good aspects of it far outweighed the bad, and the bad can be fixed.  I don’t know that I would do the same scenario of a tsunami-instigated shipwreck, because that story has been told.  Stranded in Antarctica or terra-forming Mars are both intriguing possibilities for the future.