Exploring Learning

For one of my Flat Classroom challenges, I must demonstrate ways I give learners a choice in outcomes or topics in projects. As part of my PBL teaching course , I wrote a couple of blog posts about choice, as this important element is one shared across the two courses but also, one that my school fosters as part of the learning culture. See Choice and Voice  and Myths of Learner-Centred Teaching and Learning . Here are some examples of the way I have incorporated choice this year. SNAPSHOTS A unit that introduced concepts of digital citizenship and the online personas, asking learners to think about how they want to present themselves to the world. Part of this, was writing a 'Me' poem expressing who they think they are in exploring autobiographical writing. Learners were given a choice of HOW to present their final products from the following, or one of their own choosing. - PowerPoint/Key Note ( 450 slide presentation-animation ) - Prezi - Animation ( Making Cla...

Choice as critical thinking I recently received this feedback from one of the course facilitators of my Flat Classroom project after she had read some of my Units and reflections on the teaching and learning going on in them. Reading about the rich learning environment you've created for your students was a big wow! for me because you actually use choice as a critical thinking activity and I had never thought of it in those terms. You require students to consider what choices they need to make in order to make the best possible outcome...brilliant! I have written before about the need for choice and voice in the classroom and I have really been experimenting with it this year. I have spoken to my PL director about it at school too and concluded that the reason many educators are reluctant to do so, is because it requires us to essentially 'give up' some control. I admit that I personally have only been ready for this recently - being strong in my teaching style and ab...

By Klevsand (Own work) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0 via Wikimedia Commons The Project Based Learning Certification course offered by PBLu through bie.org is a rigorous programme comprised of two phases. The first phase is concerned with learning the essentials of PBL; it requires reading, watching lectures, collaborating with other participants and the completion of relevant documentation that outlines the learning that happens in a PBL unit, along with the creation of sample project elements. In order to complete the teaching certification, the second phase has also to be taken, which involves the actual design and implementation of a PBL Unit, along with six assessed written assignments that outline, reflect on, and document the learning that happened in the Unit. In all, the course has taken me eight months to complete. It has been a great learning opportunity for both me and the learners who have been through the project. I feel pleased with the reflections I ...

For the final showcase of ‘ The Octopus’s Garden Project ’, learners created a group presentation as our final showcase - which brought together each of the five team’s research, as outlined in their team presentations. In addition, learners had to complete a final report individually outlined their research and learning. Final Showcase: Decision Learners decided on this final method following reflections they wrote about the learning done in the phase 3, the research and team presentations phase . We spent a great deal of time organising the presentation so that everyone contributed - for more details, see my blog posts ‘ Managing the Octopus ’ and ‘ Final Phase Begins ’. What was great about bringing all their learning together in one place as a group and by talking all the decisions through and evaluating each slide’s position, was the link they made between organising and linking ideas in this activity and how this might translate into good essay writing! This is an essential...

For one of my final assignments for my PBL training course, I had to reflect on the reflection opportunities I had provided my learners. I firmly believe that without reflection, there can be no real learning - and I am talking here about educators as well as the children before us. The Flat Classroom Teaching Certification course I am also currently working on, also advocates 'personal reflection and celebration [as] a vital habit of the successful 21st century person' (217) and as part of this, I may try to bring in a daily journal that records the little things I often miss in these 'bigger picture' blogs. In The Octopus's Garden Project, I tried to build in many opportunities for discussion and verbal reflection throughout and learners completed two main written reflections. The first one was after the first checkpoint, which was a practise presentation that was completed in teams. This was used to determine the progress of the next phase and inform our decisio...

Collaboration & Critical Thinking For the penultimate assignment of my PBLU Project-Based Learning Teaching Certification capstone project, The Octopus's Garden (see my Project Based Learning Journal for all posts relating to this course), I had to reflect on the collaboration and critical thinking that I had fostered and measured in the project. COLLABORATION In the first phase of the project, we spent a lot of time reworking the bie.org collaboration rubric so that it became our own as team work was identified in the Need to Know as something important that the learners wanted to work on.  Learners were given blown-up copies of the rubric and sent off in groups to rework it by adding or amending as they felt appropriate, with the intention of bringing all the suggestions together to create a new personalised and co-constructed rubric. Learners showed excellent critical thinking skills by indepently researching behaviours on the Internet for specific skills. For ex...