Transitioning to a Project-Based Learning strategy

As my educational vision states, “my goal is to provide my staff and students with an encouraging, innovative, and challenging environment”, which in helping students engage in learning is through Project-Based Learning. There is a great deal of books and articles written on this topic and it is a well known strategy for student engagement and learning within educational circles.

I have been focused on encouraging my staff to engage in Project-Based Learning (PBL) since the fall of 2019, but this year I have increased my focus on this with a goal of increasing PBL projects in classrooms in order to see PBL taking place without my initiative.

My strategy right from the beginning was not just to educate my staff, but to be “in the trenches” with them as this strategy was implemented. I wanted to work with my staff through team-teaching, joint planning, and group learning. This was (and is) an ongoing and regular topic and aspect of our monthly staff meetings. I am also continuing to target a class at a time to work with a teacher to implement a project. So far this year, I have worked with a teacher developing and implementing a makerspace program (which was for multiple classrooms) and a Grade 4 class who had to design, budget for, purchase, build, and test toy trains constructed out of graham crackers, plastic wheels, elastic bands, and a variety of other items.

Both projects have gone very well. The makerspace project is ongoing, but continues to be a success. The Grade 4 train project was a hit and students couldn’t wait to show off their creations to anyone who would listen or watch! You can see some pictures below. As well, check out some of the pictures from our Makerspace program!

This year has seen some excellent success from this work. Teachers are in the process of planning future projects and I will be working with some of them to help the projects happen! But most of all, I am hearing excitement from my teachers as they talk about what they want to do. They do not see attempting PBL as an extra item they have to do, but rather they see the validity in it and they recognize how student engagement and success can be achieved through it.

As I move through the remainder of the school year, I will continue to monitor (and be a part of ) the projects going on in various classrooms. As well, once projects are complete, I’m excited and curious to talk to a number of students to get a sense of what their feelings and attitudes are towards this style of learning. I look forward to the time when teachers are actively using the PBL model with no push from me.