Irini's padlet for Introducing Project-Based Learning in your Classroom by Ειρήνη Σακελλαράκη

Some questions to consider for your diary entry (you do not need to answer all of these):What teaching strategy do you use most commonly? What do YOU do most of the time in the classroom? What do the students do most of the time? Do you feel your current approach could be easily complemented with a PBL approach? Do you sometimes have the problem that students don't remember what they "learned" the day before? How do you address this? Do you already use some of the PBL approaches mentioned in the video? What works, doesn't work? Why? How do you find out about your student needs and how do you incorporate this knowledge in your teaching? Finish your reflection by identifying a class and a subject topic that you teach which you can use to experiment with PBL.
I have been working as an English teacher at Greek States schools for the past 17 years.Before that I worked at private language centers for four years and/or delivered private lessons. Summative assessment has always been the major driving force of the Greek students' performance.Earning prestigious language certificates and entering a University has always been the cornerstone of what was considered good quality education. Many of our students are eager to compete for the highest grades while others have actually abandoned their effort and simply want to graduate with a passing grade. When the Greek government introduced PBL as part of the curriculum ,about 5 years ago , both teachers and students were surprised. PBL was actually presented as a remedy for many "ilnesses" that our education system experiences. We attended seminars in order to comprehend how this new system would develop and tried to implement the given directions as faithfully as possible.Time allocated to projects has recently decreased,however, while rumour has it that it might be abolished as an independent subject ,because it will be incorporated to all other subjects. Regretfully, children tend to underestimate it and consider it as that part of the school curriculun which is meant for their relaxation.They focus more on their end of year exams , or their University Entrance exams. As a result,motivating my students and uprooting long established prejudice is the most important challenge I will have to face.It goes without saying that my crisis stricken country has little to offer in terms of ICT facilities or teachers' in service training!