Blog Post 9

Seven Essentials for Project Based Learning 1. A Need to know: Teachers can teach us that PBL Learning should be about an “entry event”. The “entry event” should be able to get students engaged and motivated to ask questions. As a teacher, I would use just about anything to create an entry event such as having a professional career person come and speak to the class, show the class an video, or by taking the students on a field trip. Students are not interested in traditional school work because it is boring. They believe it is meaningless. The students think that there is not a need to know the material that they are taught by their teachers. As a teacher, I would find a way to motivate the students in learning the material by not only telling students that they need to study or learn the material for a test, but by challenging the students to want to know the material to do their projects

. 2. A Driving Questions: Is a good way to get students to think about the project with a sense of purpose, to challenge students and to be more understanding of the project. By giving students an open ended driving question, they are able to understand the core of what they should be learning. If students are told to do a project without a driving question, students are confused, and may not understand what to do for their project.

3. Student voice and choice: By allowing students to make some decisions on their projects will encourage them to do better and the project becomes more meaningful to therm. When teachers decide what project they would have the students to do, it should be done by letting the students have a choice and their own style. One way to give students a voice is to give them permissions to pick a topic form a list of projects. Another way is to give students a limit of resources they can use to keep them from becoming overwhelmed.

4. 21st Century Skills: Collaboration is a very important part of a project skill that students should learn in the 21st century. What students get from 21st century skill is a real life learning that can be found in the workplaces and schools. It helps students to become better at communication, using technology and problem solving.

5. Inquiry and Innovation: Students find project not as exciting when they have to sit down and flip pages in a book, print, and paste off of a website. Students enjoy projects that are related to real life. This will motivates them to become better learners. A classroom experience such as this will have them to think of their own conclusion, new question, and solutions to problems.

6. Feedback and Revision: Many students do not like to give feedback on their classmate’s project- good or bad, because students are afraid of hurting their classmates’ feelings or saying the wrong thing. Feedback may seem harsh but at the same time it is helpful to their peer to do a more meaningful and better job on their work.

7. A Publicly Presented Product: Students need the opportunity to share their work with others in the community and school. I believe this will help students to build their confidence and become better students.

In the “Project Based Learning for Teachers” video, I learned that teachers should want their students to be able to take advantage of what technology has to offer. It can be of assistance in a teacher classrooms to be more student centered and to make learning more meaningful. Project Based Learning helps teachers to reach their students potential and look for ways of questioning. Project Based Learning has students working an unlimited amount of time and answering driving question. The question is profound and demands students to finalize an end product to reveal their learning with others.

The common core state standards are supported with college and work anticipation, is clear, understandable, an application of knowledge, and is evidence based. Teachers can use Project Based Learning to demonstrate the how to do inquiry based and ask open ended question, problem solving, and personalized projects. While Teachers must follow and meet the standards, it could be used in creating an authentic product. Students can learn collaboration skill, communication, critical thing skills, and career and life skills. Another way for teachers to think of Project Based Learning is as a way of questioning, investigating, sharing and reflecting. Educators can use technology to be a part of project based learning by using it in power point, globster, recordmp3, popplet, google docs and movie maker just to name a few.



In a Project Based Learning classroom, teachers are taught how to allow students to take charge of their learning. Project Based Learning has a purpose, such as addressing an audience, crafting a driving question, grouping students and creating a rubric, all while students have a voice and choice in their learning.

In the “Ten Sites Supporting Digital Classroom Collaboration in Project Based Learning” article, I learn that these are sites that are helpful in a digital classroom to collaborate in PBL. The first one is Titan Pad. It allows students to collaborate and share documents. The Titan Pad is similar to a google doc. Wall Wisher can be used by collaborating with virtual post it notes on a virtual wall. Corkboardme is a program that supports group activities. The Google Doc is the most popular online collaboration tool, and it is free to schools. It can be used to aid in live and real time.

Microsoft Word is another online collaboration tool, and is used by schools. Today’s Meet is a back channel in the classroom. This tool can be used by teachers and students in a room where you can see only what is needed. Will You Type With Me this site allows you to import files from a word and other sites such as PDF and HTML. Linoit is a useful site to teachers and students. It is an online tool that can be displayed on any computer screen anywhere. Skype in Educations provides the ability to work together collaboratively by bringing in experts from around the world. Quick Screen is a screen capture tool that can be shared with anybody.

In the “What Motivates Students” video, students were asked what motivates them. Some of the students think that having a good job in the future motivates them. One student said getting rewards helps him stay motivated. Students were given rewards to motivate them for good behavior. Compliments from a teacher help students to be motivated to do well on a test and in class.