Notes from Boss and Krauss

I am currently reading Reinventing project-based learning: Your field guide to real-world projects in the digital age by Suzie Boss and Jane Krauss.  What's really cool is that I'm going to a professional development through my school's CDAT program that is being led by Suzie Boss herself.   So I'm being a total nerd and reading her book before I actually meet Boss.


Chapter 1: Mapping the Journey--Seeing the Big Picture


It's clear that PBL takes much more work on the front end because knowing the end point is essential in starting a unit.  (That's true for the regular classroom too, but in the traditional classroom, I think you can fake-it-til-you-make-it easier.) 


Hallmarks of PBL:

• Projects are the heart of the curriculum--they are the real work, not an activity or add-on
• Learning is centered in the real world and authentic work
• Students work in teams and collaborate with each other, the teacher, and the community
• Technology is a tool integrated in the classroom 
• Projects works to cross boundaries within the school and the community (p. 12)

 The Ministry of Education in Singapore: Teach less, learn more (p. 13)


Teachers must be learners too-- model life-long learning for our students.   Teachers should expect their classroom and teaching style to change-- including the teachers' learning goals, they way they interact with students, their classroom management style, the physical arrangement of the classroom, the way they assess learning, the artifacts of learning they collect, and how they communicate with parents and colleagues (p. 18-19). 


PBL allows students to learn real-work "soft skills" rather than just the academic content.  They practice and develop communication, flexibility with time and people,  and inquiry skills.  They "achieve a fuller understanding of how the world works" and the "feeling that, through communication with and understanding of other people, individuals can do something about changing the world" (p. 20).


Ways to get started generating ideas-- start a furl or del.ici.ous to bookmark sites.  Begin reading blogs and sites--> Eduopia, the Buck Institute, NETS*S, edublogs.com, EduBlog Insights, Cool Cat Teacher (the latter two are teachers from Georgia).