From Comfort to Chaos
The following press release was written by Charles City public relations officer Justin DeVore (@justindevore). On Monday, January 19th Clear, Lake Middle School teachers shared their early learning and experiences of implementing project-based learning this year. All of us would like to thank high school principal Josh Johnson (@JJohnson) and middle school principal Rick Gabel (@5rfgabel) for their hospitality and pushing our learning.
(CHARLES CITY) Students had the day off from class on Monday, but for teachers the tables were turned as they became the students to learn how to reinvent their classroom into a 21st century learning environment with the help of Project-Based Learning (PBL). Teachers and the principal from Clear Lake Middle School presented to Charles City MS & HS teachers on the successes and challenges they have experienced implementing PBL in their school.
In a PBL classroom, learning takes place through projects rather than as a culminating activity. Students gain knowledge and skills by working to investigate and respond to complex questions, problems, or challenges on self-driven projects. Clear Lake shared their model for PBL implementation during the all-day inservice. Charles City teachers and administration are collaborating with Clear Lake to learn more about their model and other facets to bring PBL to Charles City.
At the base of the change is a shift in the way everyone thinks about education and schools. “Schools need to be much more fluid on how they handle time and student learning,” says Steve Kwikkel, Clear Lake Middle School Principal. “In a lot of ways, PBL is creating an atmosphere where you teach students to be responsible for their own learning and generating their own questions, and not relying on the teacher for everything.”
Kwikkel points to his mobile phone and says there is a wealth of information at his fingertips and that same information is at the fingertips of students as well. Teachers are no longer the content providers and schools can no longer see themselves as the information hub for their community for student learning. Now, it takes the skill of teachers to be the ‘guide on the side’ to help students answer questions on their own. In taking this approach, students learn to become life-long learners.
The question teachers need to ask is how can they facilitate the right environment to let students succeed as a group with a common goal in mind. Teachers who have implemented project-based learning note there is a plethora of learning that happens for students in the mistakes.
Kwikkel says, “If teachers can be patient and let the ugliness and struggles happen, students will get to the desired end result 9 times outof 10.”
Clear Lake teachers highlighted how their students have had fewer constraints in a PBL classroom during the last year, but have had incredibly high expectations. In a project-based learning class, students are expected to develop an individual or group idea for a project. Students have a choice and a voice in the projects and through running the project, students comprehend the concepts being taught. Clear Lake administrators note during PBL time there are smiles, organization, and creativity. There is also chaos, mistakes, and failure, but students are engaged, and there is work and learning happening.
The PBL concept mirrors what employers are looking for in their future workforce. A mantra used during the presentation to Charles City teachers was, “if you have to be managed, you are no longer employable.”
In highlighted successful projects students worked with their peers on projects like robotics, musicals, and upcycling furniture. Experienced Clear Lake teachers often remarked about the need for teachers to have high expectations and then step back and let students fail or succeed along the way. It’s a dramatic change in the way classrooms have been structured in the past. Gone are the sit-and-get traditional teacher up front, student in rows lecture format. PBL spans multiple curricula, breaking down content silos, and includes multiple subject areas like language arts, math, science, technology, music, and history. PBLs in Clear Lake are graded pass/fail.
Charles City teachers and administrators say they are ready to implement more project-based learning in their classrooms.
Trudy McKeag, Charles City High School English teacher says, “Seniors write so many papers, they are really good at that, but they are ‘papered’ out. Now I have students pick really cool projects. I have a student now who wants to leave their mark on the school and the community. So they are working with teachers and the high school principal to find a project that will do just that.
McKeag has been involved with project-based learning projects for the past couple of years. Two of her seniors students worked on projects they picked individually. Two of her students worked as a team because they each have an interest in BMX bike racing. They worked together on this project building dirt bike tracks for a semester. The entered a night race and wore a GoPro camera. McKeag said the amount of learning they had cross-curriculum was incredible, and looking back at the project and comparing it to the Iowa Core standards they were able to acknowledge several areas where they can specifically tie what they learned into the Iowa benchmarks.
High School principal Josh Johnson says the goal is to phase in PBL in the high school by third trimester with teachers working on at least one PBL experience in one of their classrooms. How it will look for Charles City Schools in the future is still to be determined. Issues with schedules, class offerings, and other complexities will continue to be discussed with staff as they look to continue to establish PBL as an important instructional strategy in the district.
The long-term realization is that an increase in student creativity, innovation, and personal responsibility in their learning will lead to student growth. Presenters said, “It’s not middle school teachers’ job to prepare students for high school. It’s not a high school teachers’ sole purpose to prepare students for college. It’s our job to prepare students for life.”
