Katerina Kostaki's Learning Diary for the Project-Based Learning in your Classroom by katkos

Hi, my name is Katerina

katkos2003 — 2015-04-14 15:04:17 UTC

My name is Katerina Kostaki. I work as an English teacher in the 2nd Junior High school of Nikea, a city 10 km away from Athens, Greece. I have been teaching English for 17 years. The last two years I have been involved in e-twinning projects. I love my job and I like improving and learning new things especially related to technology. I also like travelling, taking photos and communicating with people!

1.3 Reflections on our current teaching practice

katkos2003 — 2015-04-14 15:05:29 UTC

My students are 12-15 years old. They speak English, French and German. Their level of English is pretty good and they are quite experienced in using ICT tools. They are interested in exchanging experiences and thoughts with other teenagers in Europe. My school is also involved in environmental, artistic, sports and technological activities. Our headmistress is open to any innovation we propose. We are very lucky. We use computers and interactive whiteboards. My classroom is not a single one since I teach half of the school students. So, I have lots of lesons in different classrooms every week. However, my favourite room is the library where I can have access to an interactive whiteboard and it is next to the computers lab.
I usually teach using traditional and modern methods depending on the situation. In other words, I give lectures in the question and answer mode; I make discussions; I put the students in pairs or in groups and assign them tasks; I assign them more extensive projects (PBL method) that they have to produce something, a presentation or a poster, etc. When I am making use of projects in my classes, I usually focus on the product at the end of the curriculum and not on the process. I feel that the PBL seminar will help me to improve my teaching methods for the benefit of my students. However, e-twinning projects helped me to reverse this situation. In other words, I pay more attention to the process and develop the 21st skills of my students as mentioned in the video. Yet, e-twinning projects are not part of the Greek regular school curriculum and the ideas, techniques and processes that I have learned can not be transferred as a whole to the other subjects. I only try to take bits and pieces of them and adjust them in the regular subjects. S3V8kDM=

1.1What is PBL - Our questions

katkos2003 — 2016-06-09 19:44:00 UTC

I feel that PBL is a powerful tool that offers the students real-life skills and experiences. I would like to know more about its methodology, its organisation and its incorporation into the school curriculum. Another challenging area is the assessment part so that everyone has the feeling of justice and satisfaction.

1.2 PBL and problems

katkos2003 — 2016-06-09 19:55:33 UTC

I think that most teachers are afraid of projects since they involve a more demanding preparation on their part. Moreover, the school curriculum does not accept its process as a separate subject but as the final product of a school period.

1.4. Components of Good PBL

katkos2003 — 2016-06-10 10:48:02 UTC

I think all 5 components are challenging but, in my teaching context, the most challenging ones are passitivity of some students that discourages the rest of them and assessment so that all students have the feeling of justice and satisfaction.

1.5 Your PBL Design: Formulating your driving question

katkos2003 — 2016-06-10 10:53:14 UTC

My target students are 15 years old. They speak English fluently. They are also quite experienced in using ICT tools. They are interested in exchanging experiences and thoughts with other teenagers in Europe. My school is also involved in environmental, artistic, sports and technological activities. The topic I am interested for the following year is the creation of a collaborative newspaper-magazine as an e-twinning (European) project. I believe that this project will make my students acquire the important 21st skills of creativity, innovation, communication, collaboration, information and media literacy, self-direction and intercultural spirit. For achieving these learning goals my driving question will be: "You are asked to be repoters of a European magazine for teenagers, what would you include in it that would attract the interest and how would you present it?"

2.2 What is effective collaboration?

katkos2003 — 2016-06-14 12:30:41 UTC

Collaboration is an essential part of PBL lessons. I try to incorporate it in my lessons as much as possible following the curriculum at the same time. Unfortunately this is not feasible at all times, especially because it is time consuming and the curriculum pressure is sometimes intense. However, in my etwinning projects collaboration is prominent. Students share responsibilities and understanding, negotiate, depend on each other and produce lovely results. I wish I could apply these elements in all my lessons but this is not always feasible

2.3 Effective Collaboration for PBL inside the Classroom

katkos2003 — 2016-06-15 14:02:36 UTC

Split the students into pairs. Each pair will have 30 seconds to find 5 things they have in common. At the end of the 30 seconds, put two pairs together and give the four some a minute to find something all 4 students have in common. Finally, each group can present the list of things they have in common. You can use this activity to encourage group coherence.

2.4 Finding collaboration partners outside the classroom

katkos2003 — 2016-06-15 14:16:26 UTC

I think that the real world connection facilitates students with an audience that they need in order to present, evaluate, elaborate their work. In my school we always have this in mind and we try to invite real world professionals in all subject areas. For instance, this year we invited a director for the drama club, an author for the library club, a musician for the choir, a graffiti artist for the etwinning project, an engineer for the technology class, etc. When it is not possible these professionals to come to our school, we visit them in their workplaces.

2.5 Collabotration Tools

katkos2003 — 2016-06-15 14:23:41 UTC

A useful tool to build on line communities is the Google+. Personally, I prefer that instead of Facebook since it is safe; you do not use your personal Facebook account; parents accept it more easily compared to Facebook; you take advantage of the google drive and the all the other google services.

3.1 Scaffolding for Student Ownership and Independence

katkos2003 — 2016-06-23 14:23:34 UTC

I think it depends on the age and previous training of the students on how to be autonomous. The help of the teacher depends on these two parametres. Failure requires mature and trained learners otherwise may have unpredicted results andi n learning planning is important.

3.2 Developing Student Resilience

katkos2003 — 2016-06-23 14:39:02 UTC

In order to weaken my student's confidence and independence, I could critisize them all the time using negative and dicouraging (maybe insulting sometimes) comments; be indifferent to their work; underestimate them praising the work of their best friends (!); put them bad marks despite their effort.

4. Assessing PBL

katkos2003 — 2016-06-28 14:10:40 UTC

I work in a junior high school. In my teaching context, there are some obligatory exams during the two first terms and at the end of the school year. I do not usually collaborate with colleagues when it comes to assessment. However, I have the freedom to use more tests throughout the school year. However, I avoid many formal tests and prefer self and peer assessment during project work. I feel that this kind of assessment works better with the students and helps them to improve.

4.2 Embedding Assessment into PBL

katkos2003 — 2016-06-28 14:12:42 UTC

I usually use the formative assessment during project work. Students assess themselves and their peers using:

- diaries

- checklists with rubrics

- group discussions

- teacher-groups reports

- voting systems

4.3 Peer Assessment for PBL

katkos2003 — 2016-06-28 14:17:16 UTC

I usually use peer assessment in my group projects in the form of a list of criteria that I have formerly agreed with my students. The students give a mark from 1-4 to each criterion. the marks refer to the group work and not to individual partners.The teacher announces the results and then a class discussion follows. Then, the groups improve their work, if needed.