Thank you Cheryl and Ryan! I specifically asked Ryan to comment since he comes from such a different place on education than us college graduates. Maybe the way to find out how to shape education is to speak to the people it didn't do justice for...whether they are now successful, like Ryan, or not! I am sure there are people studying this now, but since we only deal with the students who are filling the seats, maybe we should hold exit interviews for the students who do not finish school, and ask really indepth questions on how they could have succeeded.

What had an impact to me was the point that the students work differently when they know a project or task is part of a bigger picture that has some real purpose. They will put themselves into the project in a totally different way than if they think it is another assignment to be handed in to the teacher. Students seem to come alive when there is more purpose and meaning. I think the teacher does, too. There is a good and important reason for each student to put forth their best ideas and work. It is so much more exciting.

I agree with the value of hands on experience. I had "attended" college briefly, but technically don't have a high school diploma. My education has been largely fueled by self-education; a rogue academic. I had been told by my high school math teacher that I wasn't going to amount to anything. I'm now 26, manage and manage in excess of $750 million in discretionary capital on Wall Street. My previous position was as a quantitative analyst, which is the finance equivalent of a rocket-scientist... not bad for a failing math student. I'm usually very reserved regarding this subject, but had been asked to add commentary. My only suggestion is that teachers pay attention to the C students (D in my case) with A aptitudes, as they are the ones that will probabilistically run the world.

What better way to learn than through hands on experience! Teachers in college tried to tell us their experiences to help us decide what we would do in a specific situation. It doesn't work like that- you learn the most when you're out there creating your own experience and using what you've been taught as a guide.

One of the projects I am going to try next year is one that I learned about yesterday at the United Nations conference for Youth and Nonviolence. A gentleman came and spoke to me for some time about his organization and what they are all about. They invite schools to create murals and then they swap them throughout the world so that other students can relate to different areas of their planet. The website is: www.WherePeaceLives.org and although I have yet to really look into it, I think the concept is wonderful on so many different levels. Children are communicating on a level beyond words with children that they would never be able to communicate with other wise. It incorporates social studies, geography, language, and arts all in one great project that is outside of the school itself. It would also be a way to bring in the artists that we have in our community, as we know that we live in an arts enriched environment, and it would bring in the school community as a whole.

Again, I have yet to really research it, but these are my thoughts on the initial idea.

Heidi, that sounds like a great idea. Do you have a particular project in mind (just curious!)?

I love that the conversation has shifted slightly from the individual classroom to the school community and getting everyone involved. I am hoping that this coming year I can help Kiersten and the other teachers at her school start and maintain a school-wide, long-term community service project, (with community involvement) that will impact the school community as a whole. The individual teachers can have a profound effect on their students by modeling the group process and showing the effects of teamwork!

Hello everyone! My name is Kiersten and Heidi is my sister. I am also a first year teacher and have loved reading through this topic and Sarah's multiple intelligences topic as well. Above all else, during my college classes, when professors asked what they could do to improve the curriculum and experience during class time...the answer was always get in the classroom with children, so we can experience more and learn how to address the theorists, like Gardner, in the classroom, instead of memorizing the theory behind it all.
This year, being my first, I have found it especially trying to keep that balance of "the basics and curricula, with the hands-on, real life situations," that we all know stays with the children far longer than just "getting through" the info. I have to agree with Heidi, the hardest part is not only meeting the changing needs of each student throughout the year, but also then balancing that with the changing curricula, standards, testing, faculty...and trying to make it as engaging as possible! In "It Takes a Village," the idea of tackling our goals of learning through experience by starting SMALL, and including mentors and those faculty/community members with experience in the project areas---because so often people start off with good intentions and ideas of actions to take, but then the motivation fades when the task goals cannot be reached or time/money is just not in our favor. I would love to get my whole building involved in a community project together...so that each student can take part in the effort in some way, using their own talents, and the product is something that the students, faculty, and administrators can be proud of completing as a whole.

Curiosity and engagement are at the very heart of the educational journey. The kinds of projects described in "It Takes a Village" and "Start With a Pyramid" lay the foundation for life-long engagement in the learning process. Tackling 'big problems' stimulate children to want to know more and to feel like they can make a difference in the world. Learners who tackle the big problems begin to realize that there are a variety of disciplines that can shed light on complex issues. By working together with caring adults who scaffold learning alongside motivated peers, students are bolstered by a community of learners. Further, project based learning is a much closer approximation of the workplace than preparation for test taking. Thank you for focusing our attention on this very useful and hopeful educational strategy.

What great thoughts from such great people! I think the hardest part of changing education to meet the changing needs, is getting everyone from the administrators to the school board to the teachers to the janitors on the same page. Conversation is the key for change. Change does not come from one person's actions, they may act as the catalyst, but it takes minds that are thinking alike to create positive change.

Wow this so hits home for me as a Special Education Inclusion teacher who works with teachers who design incredible projects. This year my students and I got slammed with too many projects at one time. Some weeks we had three. My new title became project coordinator. This is why it is imperative that the curriculum be integrated first. I feel the stress that the students feel because I am in all subjects. Quality is compromised greatly when there is too much going on. In addition, we jam these projects in around the 5 week report and the end of the quarter which exacerbates the stress.

Multitasking is a thing of the past.( It is said that it causes early sinility but I cannot remember where I read that.) Time and quality are a must.

Debbie, I mentioned in Linda and my online discussion going right now, our conversation we had at class last week about the need for interdisciplinary project based assignments because the students get overwhelmed when they have more than one project based assingnment going at a time. Maybe if there could be more integration within the subjects it would cover the project based learning aspect while also freeing up some time for other types of learning which Evelyn is wishing for. Again, our topics collide. Our conversation on Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences is going on if anyone wants to check it out:
http://www.quicktopic.com/36/H/JWi4CkA76F3

Edited by author 04-23-2006 08:51 PM
Janie I agree with what you said here"The one word of caution I would put out is that we need to be careful not to throw out the baby with the bath water. To suggest that we do only projects and not include learning basic skills as part of the process is dangerous." Somewhere in the articles it advised caution. I believe it was "Start with a Pyramid". In any case it would be wise to incorporate many styles.

Unfortunately project based learning is considered hard work by some teachers. Changing the way we think. Changing the way our classroom management is handled. Some teachers do not believe in cooperative learning. To hard! Some blame it on the states curriculum demands. We have too much to cover! Some say that integrating curriculm is to difficult because of the lack of collaboration time. It is hard to have a "Shared Vision".

I do believe that assessment is valuable but how authentic are our assessments. I would like to see more authenticity.

Edited by author 04-23-2006 04:35 PM
What an interesting and thoughtful conversation. I am currently an English teacher at the 8th grade level and feel often caught in the juggernaut between state testing and this new field of project-based or experiential learning. I often feel as if there are two curriculums competing in my classroom because, in my experience, one is EITHER preparing for the state test OR having a project-based assessment. I have thought long and hard on it and -although I wish it were different - find that the state requirements are so exacting and so strict, one is often at a loss as to how to prepare students adequately AND have some creativity at the same time. Perhaps the state needs to back off a bit and release some control, or perhaps WE need to have seriously focused collaborative curriculum-writing time in order to figure out how to encompass the project into the test preparation. It does indeed "take a village" because no one teacher can turn the tide or figure this one out for herself (believe me, I'VE TRIED!), but I think if we're all committed enough, there is a way through dialogue or Quick Topics like this that we can approach our goal, using one another for sounding boards or support.

Hi..my name is Janie Peters, and though I currently live in the principal's office, I spent over 20 years teaching Pre-school and Art education. I was immediately attracted to the article on project-based learning, as it is the way I have always taught. In order for children to make sense of anything they do, there has to be meaning and purpose. Once there is a clear goal, then the steps toward achieving that goal create an entire process involving learning pieces. Every year in Nursery class (three year olds) we would construct a house using cereal boxes. The collection process was the initial piece, creating the occasion for comparative and descriptive vocabulary, and letter recognition.(nearly every child could read the word "free", found on most boxes) We would put them in size order, count them, and do simple addition and subtraction.
The project continued for several months, including visits from architects, builders, plumbers, etc, until we had built a playhouse tall enough for me to stand in the middle of. Even the demolition of the house became a recycling project that was filled with learning.
I would suggest this project even for a high school class, where the same elements could be used, with the concepts at a higher level.
I think that our minds naturally seek out patterns and purpose, making project learning important, and we are filled with satisfaction when the project is completed.
The one word of caution I would put out is that we need to be careful not to throw out the baby with the bath water. To suggest that we do only projects and not include learning basic skills as part of the process is dangerous. Children still need to memorize math facts, sequence the alphabet, and other basics. Even though there are calculators, and computers with spell check and the ability to create graphs, there is no substitution for being able to do it yourself. Aside from the obvious possibility of electronic malfunction, the mental pratise involved in learning basic skills enhances development and self-reliance.

I am a psychologist and former teacher who has enjoyed reading all of your comments. I would like to comment on It Takes A Village and to some of your responses. Though the article was very interesting I am always slightly cautious when rendering an opinion on an article that has not been deemed valid or reliable and shares only one point of view. Having said that, I do believe that experiential learning is important to the human conditioning and the learning process. Rather than reiterate all of the positive points of the article that many of you have made I do think we must take into consideration that the basics are important and that testing, to some degree, has its merits. It would be wonderful if all students could experience some of what Lucas has experienced. Unfortunately, that is simply not realistic. I understand that the article does not talk about traveling to different parts of the world as a way to learn however, if you take note of many of our school trips you will see that we are talking about Japan, England, Spain etc. Every community has its own wealth of untapped knowledge and I do think that we should offer it as an option or even mandate as a component of the educational process but it seems to me that our children have gotten from us (the adults in the community) that they must venture outside of their community to achieve such rich experiences. To some degree we do mandate experientail learning as I believe that is the purpose of the community service component to our education system. The problem with community service is the way in which it is presented to the students. The majority of students that I have had contact with see community service as a boring mundane thing that they have to do in order to graduate. The question becomes, from where did that attitude come? I think we must look at the individuality of students and help them focus on their strengths, dreams, and ambitions. If that means exploring other wonderful cultures etc then great but I also think that sometimes we have to understand that for some students it might not be what the doctored ordered. I have learned that great treasures can be found anywhere in the world if one is motivated enough and has the DESIRE to search for it and yet, sometimes the greatest treasures are found in ones own backyard.

Edited by author 04-22-2006 08:41 PM
Hi Everyone, I a a member of the W3 Team at Westbury HS.

Latisha, I really agree with what you are saying. Thankyou! Heidi, how you responded to it is interesting too. I want to ask my colleagues how they feel about it. I know I have strong opinions of which I will share after fully reading the GLEFF article.

Heidi, you bring up a very good question. If we can all see the benefits of hands-on learning, why is our educational system not doing more to incorporate it into the curriculum? Why instead, are more standardized tests being added that are taking up all of our class time? I think it is a matter of time, energy, drive, etc., and MONEY. Lucas is so fortunate to be a part of a school that allows for this wonderful way of learning. I worked at Ross for a year, and in that time I was one of two teachers who took three 11th and 12th graders around Great Britain for three weeks. It was such an amazing experience for all of us. I learned as much if not more as the students, and I know that as often as I remember that trip and think of what I learned, the students are doing the same. That experience was really life changing for them. Reading about Stonehenge in a textbook or going there to see it is quite a different thing.

I completely agree Melissa! Do we, as educators, appreciate our students enough? Is it shown in a way that they can acknowledge and internalize the satisfaction of a job well done? I know that there are times within the school year that I make myself stop everything I am doing in order to analyze the individual student and their growth throughout the weeks, months, or year, not only academically but socially and how well prepared they are to maintain their success in the future.

"It Takes a Village," raised some very interesting points about how we educate our children. I gave some thought tonight to the fact that our students seek our validation, approval, and warmth. They strive to please their teachers, at every level, and that motivation to succeed must be recognized in order to maintain a student's intrinsic motivation to learn. "Nothing matters more to kids than having people take them seriously -- and nothing achieves this better than work that really matters in their community." The quote above certainly makes a great deal of sense and we need to take the time to afford our students opportunities to have meaningful and relevant work in their classrooms. They need to feel important and needed and they must always know that their contributions to the classroom are essential to the dynamic of that learning environment. We, as educators, need to always be mindful of providing our students with those essential needs and then giving them meaningful activities that they can have stock in and keep with them forever.

Thanks Latisha!

Maybe the question for educators, and administrators even more so, is: Is there a way to make the state mandated skills into meaningful learning experiences for the students without compromising what the governing bodies have laid out for us?

Is it a matter of time? Energy? Drive? Administrative cooperation? Parent participation?

If we know, from our own experiences and those that the students tell us about, that children learn better in the "hands-on" environment, why isn't that what we are basing our curriculum around, fitting the mandated material in when possible?

Food for thoughts!

The article, "Start With the Pyramid" affirmed my philosophy about how students really learn. Project-based learning works for all children! By all children, I mean both general education and students with learning diffferences. Most public school sit with the "Old School" model of listening to learn. The sad part is that most if not all educators know that students learn through a variety of modalities. Like the young man from the Ross School so eloquently articulated, learning through real-life projects that hold meaning to the students teach lessons that will not be forgotten. Jumping to the second article, it is absolutely amazing with all of the technology we possess,there still inidividuals caught in the web of high-stakes testing. Great schools with really innovative ways of teaching are shackled by the fear of being labeled and low-achieving school or being taken over by the state. I am a firm believer in risk-taking. Some of the worlds greatest thinkers were looked down upon, only to rise and make a difference! Partnerships between the classroom and the community should be a part of the foundation of learning. Real-life experience and hands-on participation definitley is a spring board for life-long learning. As an educator, I have had the opportunity to teach is both, the innovative and the state mandated skills environment. The students in the innovative environment were motivated to learn and they loved to come to school-everyday.

Hi everyone! Welcome to our conversation! I have invited a number of people who I am hoping will stop in and voice their opinions. Thank you Lucas for your thoughts. I don't know if you will be able to get back into the conversation until Monday, but we look forward to hearing from you again.

Having been in a variety of schools throughout the past nine years, I find that each and every one has great ideas and visions that would incorporate the community and "real-life" teaching, but making that connection is the difficult part holding them back from achieving their goals. If there was a system in place, or reliable connections within the community that were ready and willing to participate, giving everything they have, that would make the transition outside of the classroom that much easier and more appealing.

Motivation is key! There is no doubt about that. How many times have we heard, "When are we going to use this in the real world?". Giving students experiences that are connected in an obvious matter not only helps the students stay involved and actively learning, but it also helps the teacher not have to defend what needs to be taught within the textbook.

Thank you for your Oprah reference Debbie! What an amazing series, although I only caught bits and pieces of it. (I am waiting for the transcripts.) I thought I would add the links to the Oprah website below to make it easy to access as there is a wealth of information and enlightening comments within.

Failing Grades
http://www.oprah.com/tows/slide/200604/200...60411_284_101.jhtml

School Solutions
http://www.oprah.com/tows/slide/200604/200...60412_284_101.jhtml

Edited by author 04-20-2006 09:46 PM
Lucas it is so wonderful that you are participating in our GLEF conversation. You are lucky to have a school that offers you such rich and rewarding experiences. Thank-you for sending the link to the article that describes your experience. Do you think project based learning keeps you more motivated as a student?

After I read the attached article I realized that I know quite a few people who joined you on that trip. I remember hearing a bit about it. Question, how was this trip incorporated into the learning after you returned (ie reflections, technology presentation)?

I can relate to the article "It Takes a Village" because of the way my school teaches us to do real tasks that may help us in the future. For example, we have a two week school project where we focus on one aspect of learning or we can travel to different parts of the world. I went to New Orleans for relief efforts and worked out there with people in soup kitchens and demolished houses to be rebuilt, so we had a real-life experience while helping the community. Although I still have time to consider my options, our senior project allows us to transition into college and the real world, similar as stated in the article. I am grateful to be at the school I am in because other children are not so lucky to go to a school that brings reality into learning.
This was the article in the local newspaper about our New Orleans trip.

http://www.indyeastend.com/1editorialbody....13117&-token.subpub=

Yes, Meg it is so important that we keep special education students motivated. This can happen when they connect with the purpose of the task. We can keep them motivated through project based learning that makes the connection between school and community. (Life Long Learners)

Edited by author 04-19-2006 08:07 AM
I have seen my students grow so much by participating in project based learning. Students are motivated to learn and help one another learn. I also think it is very important that students are connected to the outside world. As the "It Takes a Village" article states, "connecting students with meaningful out-of-school experiences can change the way kids use their minds." Sometimes teachers need to think outside the box. Taking students to read to senior citizens or to a pre-school class could provide an experience for our students that they may never forget!

Edited by author 04-18-2006 09:24 PM
I have invited some new participants to this conversation:

Ken Sisco- Teacher/Administrator
Ken Bud- Math Teacher
Kyle Pomerantz- Student 10th grade
Nancy Giglio- A and E Teacher and Social Studies

Edited by author 04-17-2006 01:55 PM
I do not know if anyone saw the two day series on the "Education Emergency" that was on Oprah this week but it addressed some of the things that the article "Start with a Pyramid" addresses.

Bill Gates and his wife have spoken about an "Education Emergency". Many issues were covered but it was clear that our Education System according to them was designed during the 1950's. I thought it was designed in the Idustrial Age. Ergo changes need to come. Drop out rates are increasing and student motivation is decreasing. A California Charter School,"High Tech High" has addressed the issues. http://www.hightechhigh.org.

This is the same school that is highlighted in the article "It Takes a Village". (I e mailed them with my interest in visiting and telling them about our GLEF conversation)


Papert according to the article "Starting with a Pyramid" says that "engaging students by starting with the concrete and solving hands-on, real-world problems is a great motivator".

In addition the article states that

1. Kids who are excited about what they learn tend to dig more deeply and to expand their interest in learning to a wide array of subjects.

2. They retain what they learn rather than forget it as soon as they disgorge it for a test.

3. They make connections and apply their learning to other problems.

4. They learn how to collaborate, and their social skills improve.

5. They are more confident talking to groups of people, including adults.

6. Research reports suggest, project-based learning correlates positively with improved test scores, reduced absenteeism, and fewer disciplinary problems.

I also feel that schools must integrate their curriculm which is an obvious first step to making this work.

Edited by author 04-17-2006 01:59 PM
Heidi Wilson and I, Deborah M. Kennedy, are hosting an online conversation. This conversation is based upon two articles published in Edutopia magazine. Edutopia magazine (www. Edutopia.org) is part of the George Lucas Foundation.

The first article is “It Takes a Village” by Kathleen Cushman.
 http://www.edutopia.org/magazine/ed1articl...t_1396&issue=nov_05

The second article is “Start with the Pyramid” by Diane Curtis.

http://www.edutopia.org/php/article.php?id=Art_884&key=037

Heidi and I are hoping that you will participate in our collaborative conversation by sharing your thoughts and reflections on our Quick Topic site. The conversation will open on April 20th and end on April 25th.

http://www.quicktopic.com/36/H/BkNUPVamtFK

Participants

Heidi Wilson-Teacher
Deborah M. Kennedy- Teacher
Melissa Mitchell- Teacher/Administrator
Julieanne Purcell- Teacher/Administrator
Latisha Ellis- Teacher/Administrator