Reflecting on this past year I know that my students had very little agency in their education. Our days and content were very structured. There were often open ended questions but not questions that pushed my students beyond a brief answer. I don’t find it suprising that engagement was often a struggle, particularly in the low parts of the year. Even before I joined EdTechTeam’s Teacher Leader Certificate program I knew that I needed something different to take into next year. Something that would push me and my students further, require all of the 21st Century Skills to accomplish, and engage my students more.
In April I went to the Google Apps for Educatin Sonoma Summit put on by EdTechTeam. While there I was really introduced to Project Based Learning (PBL) for the first time through Kevin Brookhouser’s keynote and sessions. There I started to learn about 20% Time and the impact it can have on student learning.
Next year I will be a TOSA and I will not have my own group of students so I focused my research on Genius Hour and how to encourage the rest of my staff to implement PBL in their classrooms. For my PBL research, I researched Genius Hour because it can be implemented on a smaller scale than 20time which should make it more attractive to teachers with impacted schedules. I believe with encouragement and support the teachers at my site will be able to move away from “unit projects” towards Project Based Learning and have a positive impact on the learning outcomes of our students.
With a little luck and a lot of hard work our students will go from having very little agency to having Genius Hour where they can reach for the stars!
Here is my Final Project for Unit 2: Project Based Learning.
EdTechTeam Teacher Leader Certificate Portfolio 