Welcome, New Members

Welcome to all of you have just joined this great group. I'm guessing many of you heard about PBL~Better with Practice at ISTE, where we had terrific turnout for both sessions.
Feel free to start a new discussion or chime in on an ongoing conversation. You'll find this to be a wonderfully helpful group, eager to share wisdom and effective strategies for making PBL successful.
For starters, how about introducing yourselves (in the comments to this post)?
Look forward to the conversation.
Cheers,
Suzie

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by NELSON PINHEIRO COELHO DE SOUZA on July 26, 2010 at 6:51pm

FANTASTIC. THANK YOU, REALLY. sounds exciting to work with teachers. What about interactive tutorials or cognitive tutors ?
Do you know where to get it?

Permalink Reply by shahsultana Tahirali on July 28, 2010 at 2:52am

Hi Suzie
I am shahsultana and even I am working with teachers of primary levels. We have ICT integrated learning and teaching in our school.We use different educational softwares of "Tom Synder Production".I would love to learn more about Wallwisher for braining and Delicious and Dingo for sharing resources.
I would really love to learn more and share my experiences with all.

Permalink Reply by Jane Krauss on July 27, 2010 at 11:51am

I like "wall-to-wall" PBL, great way to refer to immersion in the method. You should meet Telannia Norfar, also a member of this group. Great Algebra teacher and technically savvy.

Permalink Reply by NELSON PINHEIRO COELHO DE SOUZA on July 28, 2010 at 8:49am

THANK YOU. I WILL DO THAT

Permalink Reply by Bill Kinziger on August 11, 2010 at 7:12am

Hello Suzie and everyone-

I am one of a a couple of teachers in Ripon, WI who are putting together a PBL Charter School at the high school level to begin during the 2011-2012 school year. I am looking to find and share as much information as I can while beginning this journey.

Bill

Permalink Reply by Jane Krauss on August 11, 2010 at 10:09am

Wow Bill, congratulations! There's a lot of chat about the conditions that need to be in place to make PBL go, check out that thread. Also look up Chris Lehmann, Science Leadership Academy, who with is staff created a high-functioning PBL school.

Permalink Reply by Bill Kinziger on August 11, 2010 at 10:25am

Thanks for the friendly invite. I will start to follow Chris on twitter and look around the site and threads. Who might be other people to follow on twitter as I develop my PLN?

Permalink Reply by Jane Krauss on August 11, 2010 at 11:42am

Chris Wejr @mrwejr and buddies at Connected Principals are cool too. http://www.connectedprincipals.com/archives/303 I'll keep thinking. Why don't you post a discussion describing your situation and ask others in the group who they'd suggest you connect with?

Permalink Reply by Linda Strickland Martin on August 11, 2010 at 7:26pm

Hello! I am an advanced academics resource teacher at the elementary level and teach mainly science. I've been using PBL for a few years with varying amounts of success. This year I felt I had more success for a number of reasons. For the first time, I felt the students were able to be more self-directed in creating their own inquiry question and they've gotten better at researching. But I am definitely on the look out for better ways to structure the process and how to integrate technology in creating and sharing products. We've been using the Jason Project quite a bit and doing more outdoor classroom activities. This year we had the opportunity to work with a professional marine biologist but that was face to face. I want to open up that opportunity to skype (have yet to do that, tho). I'm open to new ideas!

Permalink Reply by Jane Krauss on August 12, 2010 at 12:10pm

Linda it's great to have you join us. I understand your interest in bringing the world into your classroom via Skype, it's so great! Terry Smith, also a group member, uses Skype video and Skype chat, too, sometimes keeping a chat channel open between two classrooms throughout a work period.
Re: Your statement that students were more self-directed this year, more able to inquire... What do you attribute that to? What were their experiences before they met you? Maybe their previous teacher(s) got them going? I like to think kids come in with capabilities that transfer from past learning experiences...
Again, welcome!

Permalink Reply by Linda Strickland Martin on August 13, 2010 at 5:57am

I am fortunate enough to have the same students year after year from Kindergarten through 6th grade, so each year we do more inquiry (in primary grades, we call it I Search). At first when they are in 2 - 3rd grade, it's a pretty structured investigation and I guide them to selected resources, but all of them are in pursuit of their own question within a topic. This year with my 4th graders, it was much less structured as they came up with their own question, found their own research materials, and then created their own project. They had a number of ways to show what they had learned. They could make a model, create a power point, present a lab experiment, etc. They showed a great deal more confidence and independence and I think we were all proud when the day of presentations came. It was so exciting to see their enthusiasm and ownership of their work!! I can hardly wait to see what they'll do next year!

Permalink Reply by satya on August 12, 2010 at 12:57pm

Hello All,

I am Assistant Professor in Department of Information Science and Engineering at M S Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore , India. I use PBL for all the courses i deliver from undergrads to graduate students in the area of Information Science and Engineering.

s r chickerur