Student Learning Through Projects

Student Learning Through Projects
“My favorite part about doing this project was that while doing math I also got to learn more about the universe…” Miriam Cabanillas, 8th grader “My favorite part was working with someone and asking them something if I ever got stuck.” Getzemany Herrera, 8th grader “It helped me to speak louder and look at the audience.” Edgar Gonzalez, 7th grader “Doing the math was slightly hard mostly because of the real life situations and creating them.” Victor Chavez, 7th grader
Project Based Learning (PBL) is a method of learning where students acquire knowledge through real-life challenges and inquiry based learning.  A PBL project encompasses all 8 essential components that you see above to drive student learning. As I go through this year I will share resources that I use in my classroom, projects I use with my students, and other valuable resources that I tried in my classroom.  I will share what I believed was successful, the mistakes I made, and changes I would make for the future.  You will learn that every project is not perfect as I try and make real life connections with my students. You will find a link each month to the project that we are working on along with sample products from our previous unit’s project.  The projects are embedded into a shared folder in Google Drive. Each month I will focus on one of these essential elements - explaining what it means, how I struggle with it, and how I am using the key element in the current project.
	I can remember just a few years ago where I was exclusively using direct instruction, thought of my subject area as independent of others, and struggled to make real life connections with my students. Now, I have students working in groups, I find myself constantly having conversations with other teachers on campus, and I have students making connections to the real world and other subject areas. What has changed? - I am teaching the state standards while using the Eureka base program through Project Based Learning!  I find the students more engaged and I they are asking questions that are relevant to them as they solve the challenging problem. It was such a struggle the first couple years with PBL.  I did not know how I was going to create projects that had the state standards embedded in them.  How was I going to know for sure that the students were learning the necessary mathematics to do well on the CAASPP?  I stumbled through projects the first couple years wondering what the heck I was doing.  And I wondered,  “How am I going to get all level of students in my class, from SPED to GATE, to be successful in answering the project’s challenging problem as well as meeting the expectations for CAASPP?” But, the thrill of teaching has never been higher for me - I am constantly asking what project can I create collaboratively with my colleagues to make an impact on my students.  Last year it was the “Pokemon Go” project to teach system of equations - this year we used the historic solar eclipse to kick off our “Journey to Space” project for scientific notation.  I am excited to be teaching new projects and how each period I teach is different from to the next.
“For so many students, it’s difficult to make a real-life connection between math and their everyday lives.” – Janet Pinto
Think about your coming units of study, what the major standards that need to be taught in those units are, and ask yourself, “How can I create a unit project that will allow students to make a connection between your subject and their lives?” Here are the first projects for the year: Math 7 - “All Things Rational” and Math 8 - “Journey to Space” https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B9YdPkReVuJybWFGdWJoOExaTTQ?usp=sharing Next month, I will share the projects “What is in my bag?” and “#MathinmyLIFE”.
	Be willing to take a chance by connecting learning to the real world for your students and do it with your own style.                                                             Still learning and loving it,                             Kevin
Click here to schedule a visit