Well, that was bracing!

Many of the sources that describe using Project Based Learning (PBL) also testify to the fact that implementing it (or any approach that is radically different from traditional methods) can take us out of our comfort zone.
Putting ourselves in uncomfortable positions is hard to do. I think it is even more challenging in the absence of a mentor who has traveled the path before you. Still, I believe our journey to blend PBL with the other approaches used in our program is well worthwhile.
We got our program underway last week and presented the concept of PBL to our students; however, we are just laying the groundwork. We have not actually engaged in PBL yet. Our first task is to create a foundation - to make sure students have basic skills needed to carry out projects of their own. Their first projects will be guided and supported. As students (and the teachers) progress, the students will initiate their own projects.
One "bump in the road" was the decision by the district to transfer our math/science teacher to the high school, leaving our program without a qualified math or science teacher. Ouch! It also left a program with a very small staff to begin with diminished by one third. Double ouch! Oh, yes, and this happened during the first week of school. Yikes! We knew our friend was going to be part-time at the high school, but having him totally gone was a shock.
I have no doubt we will still press forward and successfully implement PBL in our program. We have great leadership in a director and district superintendent who are vested in seeing our program succeed. It will be quite a challenge, though. I look forward to looking back at the end of the year with the satisfaction of those who have worked hard to overcome obstacles and achieved a worthwhile goal.

PBL Ground Zero

Be still my constructivist heart! Seriously, there is such cool stuff out there about project-based or expeditionary learning. I also discovered a company called Project Foundry, which offers an LMS that helps teachers take students through a project-based approach, tying the planned project to standards, and assisting teachers to manage the whole process, including the awarding of credit.

What I am doing now is looking for a way to present this to our "alternative" high school students. In one video, the classrooms were like offices, with low dividers and work stations for kids that looked an awful lot like an office. The adult leading the kids was called an "advisor" rather than a "teacher." This may seem like a petty shift in semantics, but when students have built up a paradigm for what they think a "teacher" is, they can be helpful in moving students away from that mold.

Our journey to being a truly project-based/problem-based school is just beginning. Our first steps might still be a little like a traditional classroom. As the year progresses, I expect our team to learn more about how to be advisors. We'll be shifting our paradigm right along with the students. Cool.