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Often, by digging deep, students can make connections to other standards or content that they may have not been taught yet.

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Adapt your problem based learning as you go - make changes - it is a learning process for the teacher as well. We learn from our failures.

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Backwards design works well! However, we can't be afraid to manipulate, change, and revise what we plan! No teacher is perfect either! Neither will every lesson!

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I like the idea of showing the kids the teachers working as a team to create a lesson for them. It is such a great way for them to see a soft skill being used in real time by adults.

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If you have problems with students and public speaking, have them practice on their own digitally with their webcam.  Screencastify and FlipGrid are awesome ways to assess students on their knowledge without stressing them out by making them speak publicly!

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Possibly!  One thing that I found out was...those students who were bored...oftentimes could not read, therefore they were embarassed, so they shaded it as boredom.

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I think the more we expose our students to early on, the more likely they will become the innovative thinkers utilizing the 5C's.

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Trying to teach a middle school student that perfection doesn't exist is nearly impossible. How can we encourage students and parents MORE that it's okay to fail, it's how resilient they are that matters.

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Give them accountability.

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Doing a room transformation will get you and your students out of that comfort zone. Try it once and you'll be hooked.

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Yeah!  Mindblowing!!!

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Measuring the 4Cs

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Could you imagine if our students had to write SLO goals like teachers??????

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Encouragement: Those of you who had 3 or more talking chips left when you left the fishbowl, please post a question here! :D

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How can we get teachers to "Buy In" to computational thinking in their individual classrooms?

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The immediate feedback from the teachers to the students was very constructive.  The kid Brian, who did not finish his project, was told by his teacher that they did not want to chnge who he was.  They were trying to show him that he needed to prioritize and persevere.

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Going back to students that don't want to work or may be afraid they can't do the work, sounds the the definition of boring for the middle school student. Maybe?

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I like that High Tech had projects that actually were meaningful and improved the school

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@Martire-Tell me more! (Helms)

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@Ashley agreed! I also think computational thinking and collaborative teams needs to explicitly modeled and scaffolded.

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Dating myself here, when I was in 9th grade our walls were not fixed. The walls were adjusted according to class size and the function of the class. This school in the 80's seemed to start a new track. Could this have been a start for change then?

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Many of our students come to us in the Middle Level with a growth mindset that they "Can't Do it" or "its too hard" and feel defeated.  Our constant one-on-one connection in small group instruction really helped with motivation in my class.  I plan to use Hour of Code as incentive in my class to motivate students in my class to try and MAKE time for their "FUN".

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I think this should also include breaking down classroom walls and teachers working in teams to facilitate learning

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This may differ for job positions, but the truth is that major corporations still have minimum requirements and those include college degrees

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Excellent use of students to allow them to coach others needing assistance.

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In looking at Google, it appears a bachelor's of engineering is required, PhD preferred

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Giving students jobs in the classroom and taking turns with those positions is a way to foster self-confidence and assertiveness they may not have at the beginning of the year.

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If we remember the student at High Tech who didn't finish on time bought into the process emotionally from the beginning.  He may have been a procrastinator or a person who struggles with time management. The most valuable lesson he learned was for himself in how to approach a project in the future. A valuable life lesson.

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@Alexandra I agree.  Collaboration doesn't always feel like Team Work on the teacher side

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@Sheryl Google hires outside the box, for sure. Obviously, they hire traditional computer programmers and such, but they have an innovative hiring process.

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We know hiring processes can seem overwhelming, but we don't want you to feel overwhelmed at Google. We want all candidates - from entry level to leadership - to have access to the same information and resources (after all, our mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful).

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Yesterday the lady from BoomTown said they have sprints - 3 days to plan and 12 days to GSD (Get Stuff Done).  Allowing students to design their own lessons plans is doing exactly what BoomTown does for their projects!! :)

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I LOVE how everyone is sharing what's worked in their classrooms! This is that incremental change we were talking about downstairs!

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Always good to see student growth from beginning to end of a project.  It's easy to try and assist students but getting them to think for themselves and think outside of the box is great.

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In my journalism class, I listed general categories and topics within those categories. They had requirements as to how many of each category they were required to do. They wrote over 15 articles, and completed another 7 or 8 assignments.  Choice works!

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https://careers.google.com/jobs

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LOVE the use of Screencastify and making your students TALK

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Students in the elementary years still need the fundamentals of learning, but the middle and high school years are excellent times to begin allowing students to use their minds in different ways to prepare them for college.

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I agree with the montessori method - proficiency and skills vary greatly in middle school!

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PBL = creativity which many students lack today due to their attachment to social media, and video games. We have to UNPLUGG them, teach digitial citizenship and how to use the technology tools so they can use their imaginations (something the computer doesn't have!)

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As long as everybody is judged by a test, the system will be difficult to change. Just have to incorporate a little at a time.

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We need to start early on working in teams, talking to each other, and assist each other to complete a task. Often you here one or two students did all or most of the work. I had to develop an exit slip for students to fill out to show what they did that day and at the end of the week.

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Developing relationships is key to any type of growth

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Instead of teaching 3 different texts, I grouped students based on text interest, and allowed them to dig into the texts, prepare a jigsaw in which they taught the other groups about the texts, and they created their own assessments before having to complete a TDA which showed their understanding of the connections between the texts.  It was wonderful to see them creating and learning for a purpose other than memorization. (Helms)

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Building relationships with students and finding what they are interested in to make connections to may help with students that are not motivated.

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We are motivators as much as "teachers" individuals are all motivated differently.

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I agree, it allows for individuality and learning tailored to students (and their soft skills) - this style of learn promotes a growth mindset

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start with the demo or lab first and have them define what they witnessed, or search what they learned....instead of telling them.....maybe

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With project-based learning, students would be able to demonstrate their learning and understanding in a method that would be best suited to their learning styles and creativity.

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That's a good idea about giving students options.  I tried that this semester with a project and the students enjoyed it the most.

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plays and drama projects are definitely underused

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In my Google Basics class, it's mostly project based.

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I've seen it done at Elizabeth Township (PA) - check it out - they are very innovative.

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In the movie, it was brought to our attention that our political leaders have said that students will learn more, not less...but did those same political leaders state WHAT "more" was to be taught? Why does it have to be more of a content...why not "more" PBL or soft skills?  I have always felt that we should use our Middle Level years as a way for students to explore skills, refine those skills in High school, and dig deeper in college.  I would like to see the Montessori way of learning spread across all grade levels.

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Definitely could incorporate project-based learning throughout the fine arts content areas.

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Including other curriculum into the arts can be done and enhance and reinforce the application of other content.

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Michelle, I think as long as a parent was able to see how the environment still relates to learning, many would be more willing to embrace it in today's society.

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What would you tell a parent that has concerns about a project based learning environment?

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I like the idea of bringing the art of teaching back a little, instead of the the science of teaching all of the time.

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Do companies like Google, who sing the praises of this creative thinking environment still stick to the norms of hiring students who fit the mold of the college educated student or do they "hire outside the box by including creative thinkers, whether or not they have the degrees"?

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So how would those students be served?

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All students are different. We must create an environment that allows them all to grow.

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I love the idea of acting out content as a review.  Maybe next time, you could make it a project in which they have to write the script instead of giving it to them.

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I was glad that each student at High Tech High had to reflect on their project with their teachers.  The growth of each student was awesome!

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Change is good!!

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Make a musical piece based of a historical time period or create a game that would integrate knowledge. Have art integrated with technology or bring in an esxpert on building things to teahc the students in art a skill they can apply

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Drill, baby, drill!!!

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If we implemented more cross-curriculum projects, we could meet more of those students that typically check-out or refuse to participate.

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I think some sort of blend of a "charter" type education and "public" education is the perfect recipe for success!! Also, I feel students should, in some cases, have a voice in what and how they learn.

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I like the idea of FREEDOM to teach your passion!

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I think fine arts would have an easier time, no MAP or district benchmarks!

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Why are we not identifying each students learning style at the grade school level? This can be an effective way of designing a classroom environment that highlights each students strengths.

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I like to focus on experimental design those three weeks after pass  paper rockets, balloon powered cars, building parachutes to throw eggs off the building and zipline cars. Anything to show the kids that the only way you can fail is if you stop trying!

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Have to learn to step out of the box and your comfort zone!! It's hard but really GOOD.