Project Based Learning Workshop Plans and Questions

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I'm excited to be facilitating a Project Based Learning Workshop this month in the Robson Valley. Its been a fantastic process trying to distil my learning and beliefs about learning into a day's worth of activities and conversations for educators.

Here's the synopsis for the day:

Why PBL? What is PBL? How do we do PBL? Together we will explore these questions through  resources, examples, and the sharing of ideas and experiences. We will look at assessment strategies and learning activities that complement project based learning, and will collaboratively plan new projects and tweak existing ones.

And here's the link to the day plan.

How would you describe Project Based Learning? What do you feel are the most valuable lessons you've learned? What burning questions do you have as an educator as you look at new methods of instruction, learning activities, and new assessment practices? What resources have been most valuable for informing your practice (I've collected videos here and other goodies here)

I welcome your feedback!

Defining BC's New Cross-Curricular Competencies: Part 1 - Communication

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This year I've been on an exciting journey toward a more holistic approach to education. I firmly that we as educators need to ensure that we are developing the whole child, and we are developing their potential in such a way that they can apply themselves wherever they choose in the future. That takes more than content knowledge.

My Teaching partner and I have made a concerted effort to embed the BC Ministry of Education's Cross Curricular Competencies in everything we do. Our students have developed rubrics on these skills, have self assessed them, have been assessed by us and others, have told stories of ways in which they've demonstrated them, and are now using them as labels for their blog posts. In our upcoming report cards we will be including our students own comments on their competencies and their own personal goals. We are excited and encouraged to look back at what they've come up with.

I am proud to say that I have also been invited to participate in a working group to help define these draft competencies. The Ministry of Education is welcoming feedback on the current plans for Transforming BC's Curriculum. I encourage you to check it out and provide feedback to them directly, or let me know what I can pass along on your behalf.

Blogging as a Portfolio

I just attended a workshop  (at the 2013 Digital Learning Conference) by George Couros and have come away with a renewed passion for blogging. Not blogging for the sake of blogging though, but blogging as portfolio. George made a strong case for a blog both as a learning portfolio and a showcase portfolio. He suggests students should be encouraged to blog about whatever interests them (within the bounds of good digital citizenship). Here is an example we looked at during the presentation.

One of the things that made this workshop so refreshing was the notion that personal and professional should be combined in the online world. I've wrestled with the balance this year as my professional digital footprint has increased due to my role in the Northern Learning Centre. The combination of these roles online just makes sense. After all, any interested student, parent, or employer could find both profiles if they were to go looking, so why have two!

So now its time to label some posts! For my own work I'll be labeling according to the Eight Standards for Educators in BC. My plan for students, however, is to have them label their work based on Cross-Curricular Competencies and also subject area (defined differently here). I also feel pushed to encourage students to blog about their own personal interests, after all we want those interests to weave into their learning!

Thanks George!