I sincerely apologize for such a late post. Due to class being cancelled last week and the fact that a Week 6 list of instructions has never surfaced on the EDIT 7500 site I didn't even know what to blog about. I did look at all the others in the class and saw that people blogged about their project, cool tools, and the readings. So I've decided to throw in a few opinions about the readings, more specifically the articles on PBL. I have enjoyed the short articles by Diane McGrath. She offers a very detailed overview for getting started and then working your way into a routine of using PBL in the classroom. It is true that many teachers are extremely hesitant at first to begin such a radical change due to a fear that there won't be enough time to get in all the rigorous state standards, and that tests scores will drop, if they don't personally hit everything while standing up in front of the class.
The teacher standing in front of the class is quickly becoming a thing of the past, however. It worked in the last century, but the students of today as a whole prefer doing over watching. It should be the teachers goal to find meaningful centers and projects that get students talking, finding, writing, designing, and developing on their own. McGrath mentions that when given such empowerment, the students will take that work with them and do it a great deal outside of the classroom because it's theirs. I found that pretty fascinating as I pictured the student half asleep waiting for the bell to ring while the teacher is explaining the homework assignment they'll forget to do versus the student in a group of four that's collectively coming up with a list of things that they need to get from home so they can work on their project together tomorrow.
About what you said: yeah, teacher in front of the classroom is a little last-century. It is kinda hard to completely agree with her though, for me. I think a good mix of teacher-in-front-of-the-classroom and hands-on activitis is a decent enough idea. The reality is: there ARE test scores and while PBL is meaningful and they learn a lot, there's still those standardized tests which require students to have extensive knowledge of a broad range of topics rather than intensive knowledge of a particular topic, which is what I see PBL as being. Therefore, my thought is that it's good to incorporate some PBL but also do some "old school" teaching, too, just to make the administration (whose heads depend on those test scores) happy. You know what I mean?
ReplyDeleteClayton, this is to your note to Marianne about blogging, I have quite a few blogs( not my choice) and there is no cost.. It is through my Mac account or Wordpress. I can create how it looks with no advertisements. The wordpress blog doesn't have advertisements and I use that one for my homework site,, here it is if you want to view how the page is designed. http://chrissimacgregor.wordpress.com/2009/09/02/
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