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.