Out Of The Gate
The fall of 2017 and the winter of 2018 were a very transformative time for me in my journey to become a teacher. This year also provided a new experience for GVSU students. Twenty five of the roughly two hundred and fifty student teachers were selected through an application process to be given unique placements and extra training paired with the Buck Institute in a Project Based Learning program; I was one of these students. The first semester I spent at University Preparatory Academy downtown Grand Rapids in a more traditional teaching setting followed by a semester at Kent Innovation High, a school devoted to PBL practices. All of this extra exposure has uniquely equipped me to make lessons more tangible and applicable to students as well as engaging and enjoyable than the traditional textbook and worksheet. I want to help set students on a collision course with success as the real world and history collide in my classroom.
Fall Semester UPREP
In this urban school I was tasked with teaching in a middle school classroom of 7th graders. Armed with my new PBL training I took up the task of giving the kids a chance to lead their own learning as we explored ancient Egypt. I was given a text book, the standards, test and pretest. I took all of that and what I had just learned to give the kids a totally new experience in the classroom. The first day students walked in we watched the Assassin's Creed Origins trailer for the launch event. As students watched they used sticky notes to write down questions they had about the images they saw.
When the video was done we discussed what we saw and students were asked to record any final thoughts. Once all the questions were down students took their notes and stuck them to a board under the topic for their question. For example if a student asked "Who was the man being carried in a chair?" If student's didn't know that was a priest I would help them figure out it should go in the Social Structure area. I also put my own questions in each area on pink sticky notes that pulled at the specific details students need to learn in order to hit the standards. Students were then sorted into their new groups with a new seating chart. Before we started this I had the students take a survey with the test for their last unit about which area they would be most interested in learning about. As everyone found their seats I began pulling the sticky notes down for each group and setting the pile on the tables.
Students then took the pile of questions and using a project task sheet recorded and divided responsibility the questions among the group. The questions were to be spread out equally with no one student answering more than one of the pink (state standard) questions. All of this was done in the first two days of class.
The second day we developed group contracts which were based on a model used by the Buck Institute. The purpose of the contract is to give the students a chance to take ownership of their part of the project and give them the power to encourage or hold their group mates accountable.
The rest of the project was a mix of free work time where students were given the time to search for the resources they would need to answer the questions set before them and some brief full class instruction on my part when a broad topic that would apply to multiple groups needed to be addressed.
The second day we developed group contracts which were based on a model used by the Buck Institute. The purpose of the contract is to give the students a chance to take ownership of their part of the project and give them the power to encourage or hold their group mates accountable.
The rest of the project was a mix of free work time where students were given the time to search for the resources they would need to answer the questions set before them and some brief full class instruction on my part when a broad topic that would apply to multiple groups needed to be addressed.
Winter Semester KIH
My project cycle planning window
Kent Innovation High is very unique compared to any other school I have visited. All subjects are taught paired together and the learning is focused on a project instead of a textbook. The project I was tasked to lead 10th graders through was World War Two paired with an English teacher who was working with the kids to write an expository essay.
I was given the month of March to cover three standards which looked at the course of WWII, Homefront, and the Holocaust. After talking with the students and giving them a few options they agreed that they would like to approach this material from the angle of a film study.
I was given the month of March to cover three standards which looked at the course of WWII, Homefront, and the Holocaust. After talking with the students and giving them a few options they agreed that they would like to approach this material from the angle of a film study.
GVSU, KIH, and BIE Video
Having five student teachers in one school at the same time wasn't really a first for GVSU but having five student teachers working in a PBL environment was a first. My learning experience at KIH has forever changed the way I will teach. The Buck Institute of Education tasked me with making a video to give a brief overview of each of our experiences and some student reactions. If you'd like to check out what some students thought of our projects feel free to click the link below!
