In this week’s episode of the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast, Steve is joined by instructional coach, Maria Neset, teacher, Renae Ely, and students, Brayden & Emree, from Bismark, North Dakota schools to discuss their experiences with project based learning.
Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes. Thanks for listening!
Podcast transcript:
[00:00:00.480] – Ad
Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud is brought to you by Academy for Educators – online professional development for teachers and leaders. Online courses, modules and micro credential programs for teachers to enhance their skill sets. Now featuring the Instructional Coaching Micro Credential including five online modules framed around the work of Steve Barkley. Learn, grow, inspire. Academyforeducators.org
[00:00:27.320] – Steve [Intro]
Hello and welcome to the steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast. For the last 35 years I’ve had had the opportunity to learn with educators at all levels, both nationally and internationally. In each of the coming episodes, I’ll explore my thoughts and my learning on a variety of topics connected to teaching, learning and leading. Thanks for listening in.
[00:00:49.980] – Steve
Engaging students in Project Based Learning. On today’s podcast, I’m excited to be joined by a instructional coach and teacher and students from Bismarck, North Dakota schools and we’re going to be exploring their experience with Project Based Learning. And first up is Maria Nesset who is the sustainability coach for Project Based Learning in Bismarck. Good morning, Maria.
[00:01:24.580] – Maria
Good morning.
[00:01:26.100] – Steve
I was wondering if you could give us a quick picture of why the Bismarck school district has made the commitment that they have to engage in Project Based Learning.
[00:01:44.000] – Maria
Absolutely. So really in doing some visioning work a few years ago, really thinking about that ideal graduate and how we help to build experiences that get us to achieve that student outcome for all of our students, we noticed a gap in, really in instructional approach and how we can best meet those needs. And so at that time, Project Based Learning was something that our central office leadership saw as a great instructional tool to help improve teaching and learning so that teachers are more as a facilitator and students are more empowered to really drive the learning process. And so from that point, that really was something that we saw to develop the four Cs and to really integrate content to really empower the student voice, and in many ways also to empower our teachers to have really some of that autonomy to drive high quality experiences for all kids and really go for deeper learning.
[00:02:51.510] – Steve
Thank you. We have with us Renée Eli who is currently an instructional coach in the district, but last year was a third grade teacher and we’re going to hear about a project that she implemented with her students and we’re going to hear about the students engagement in it. So Renée, welcome. And you want to give us just a little intro to kind of your overall experiences with Project Based Learning and then tell us about the project that you did last year with these students?
[00:03:28.150] – Renée
Sure. Well, I had a student teacher last year and our project started with, we wanted to come up with a way for our students to really learn at a deeper level, area and perimeter. That’s how it got started is because that’s always a really – those standards are really difficult in third grade for the children to grasp. And we just wanted to come up with something in a way that they would learn it deeper and really understand it. And so that’s how we kind of got started. And then we wanted to incorporate our science standards of Force in Motion. And so we thought, could we do a design project? And it just really started as a design project. And so the students were going to design a playground that would be accessible or inclusive for all. So that’s just how it got started. And it snowballed for us. It became a project that really empowered the students and they wanted to take it further and actually build this playground and raise money and do something for other students at our school.
[00:04:43.240] – Steve
I have to tell you how reminiscent your story is of those that I hear that when teachers did great projects with kids, it almost always turns out that they never started to do that project. But as the students got engaged, the teacher had the courage to go with the students. And the students ended up taking it further and deeper than the teacher had initially envisioned.
[00:05:16.260] – Renée
Absolutely. It started off to be like a four to six week project and it ended up to be a January through May project.
[00:05:26.890] – Steve
So I’m wondering, we have joining us two students, Emory and Braden. Emory, I’m wondering if you’d like to jump in first and just give me your experiences working on the project. What was it like as you got started? Did your thoughts change as you went further with it? Just go ahead and talk about it.
[00:05:53.850] – Emory
Well, I never actually thought that this project would go this far. I thought it would be like, like with Ms. Eli said, a four to six week project. But I just got kind of not like upset, but I felt bad for the kids who are in wheelchairs in our school because they had nothing to do. And all they had to do on our playground was just basically sit there. So we felt bad for them. So now we’re trying to come up with this playground that we’re trying to fundraise for it. And it has just been really exciting.
[00:06:29.440] – Steve
So let me check something. One of the things that the research tells us about Project Based is that often it engages students emotionally and that when your emotions get involved, you tend to get involved deeper and learn more. Would you say that kind of happened to you here?
[00:06:52.310] – Emory
Yes, I actually would.
[00:06:55.430] – Steve
And did that lead you to put a lot of effort into this project?
[00:07:01.030] – Emory
Yes.
[00:07:01.990] – Emory
So Me and my dad, we built this big lemonade stand. And mostly every day in the summer, me and a couple other kids from our class, we would fundraise for this project and we would make over $100 a day just by a lemonade stand.
[00:07:17.650] – Steve
Oh, my goodness. Am I hearing this straight? You were doing schoolwork during the summer? [laughter]
[00:07:22.850] – Maria
Yes. [laughter]
[00:07:25.730] – Steve
Okay, Braden, talk to. How about you tell us a little bit about your experience?
[00:07:30.770] – Braden
It was exciting for me because I got to learn new stuff, like in math, how to graph, how to do area and perimeter. It also helped me to think that people matter more than just you.
[00:07:46.280] – Steve
Wow. So let’s do the easier one first, the math. So was it a different way to learn the math than what you were historically used to in school?
[00:07:59.480] – Braden
Yeah, it was way different.
[00:08:01.480] – Steve
Can you talk about the difference a little?
[00:08:03.960] – Braden
Well, I actually, like Emory and Ms. Eli said, I thought it’d just be a four, two to six week project, but it turned out to be a long one. And it was different because usually we just have someone go up to the board, like, write down what they do what they like about or what they do to the show and solve a problem.
[00:08:33.060] – Steve
They just go to the board and solve the problem?
[00:08:35.740] – Braden
Yeah.
[00:08:36.140] – Steve
So how is this different?
[00:08:38.860] – Braden
Because we gotta come up with, like, our own playground. It was different when we got to write it down ourselves and we had to solve it ourselves. Like, we couldn’t just say, we put this here, we put this here, we put this here, and we’re done. Because we had Nicole come in, and she said that the swings had to be a certain length from the spiderweb, and if they were too close, they’d get hit.
[00:09:08.660] – Steve
So there were real problems that you were solving compared to problems out of a book.
[00:09:14.340] – Braden
Yeah.
[00:09:15.140] – Steve
And that caused you to work differently, would you say?
[00:09:19.060] – Braden
Yeah.
[00:09:20.580] – Steve
Then you said you’ve learned something about thinking of other people. Tell me a little bit more about that.
[00:09:28.420] – Braden
Most people on the playground usually think about themselves and don’t care if other people get hurt and stuff, while the other people just sit and watch people play. We wanted to make a new playground, a pathway of cement all the way around our building, and they could go play on that. And it’s only for people in wheelchairs.
[00:09:51.210] – Steve
And do you think that that learning is something that would stick with you for a long time?
[00:09:57.290] – Braden
Yeah.
[00:09:58.410] – Steve
Okay, Renee, I’d like to switch back over. And when a plan for a short project turns into something major and deep, how did that impact your teaching? I guess I want to ask how you dealt with it.
[00:10:14.400] – Renée
Well, what I decided to do then was I included it – you know, like, we did some closer reading and reading with it, and I just tried to integrate all our subjects a little bit more with it and make it a focus, you know, not our entire focus for the day, but we’d all, you know, make it a focus throughout the project. And there was basically phases to this project. You know, first, we called it Dream It, Build It. They first came up with their plans, and they learned about area and perimeter, and they learned about force of motion. They made maps. They built three day models. That was the first part of the project. And then they kind of went into the. Then they were going to present their project. And so they had to learn about oral presentations and writing about their project. And then they would get feedback from different people, like different students and from adults. And then, you know, they did these presentations, and then the last piece of it was their fundraising. And they came up, they brainstormed so many ideas of ways that they could raise money for this project.
[00:11:25.310] – Renée
And you know what I really noticed as a teacher? How this project empowered them. They just really believed, all of them, that they were making a difference. And it was very powerful to me as a teacher. It was probably the most powerful experience I’ve had in my career. Just to see my kids, you know, wanting to do something for other people. It was pretty amazing.
[00:11:52.590] – Steve
My history and background, working with folks would tell me that should you get invited to their 25th year high school reunion, they will tell you that they remember having had this experience with you.
[00:12:10.430] – Renée
Yeah, it was pretty magical, I have to say.
[00:12:14.910] – Steve
It’s really impactful.
[00:12:16.270] – Renée
Yes. And just for them to show empathy for others, you know, that was the big learning, too, that we had through this project. We had a little kindergarten girl across the hall from us that we would watch – she was in a wheelchair. And her mom came to speak to us, and she told us about how her wheelchair weighed 300 pounds and she would just sink in the wood chips out in the playground so she couldn’t go on the playground. And from that moment on, it just kicked in for my students and they wanted to do something for her.
[00:12:48.430] – Steve
It’s just circling around in my head, from a study of area and perimeter to that high level of emotion and learning empathy, which is a critical life skill.
[00:13:02.590] – Renée
Absolutely. And just all the other positives that came from the project, like their speaking ability and their writing improved so much. There was just so many positives that came from this project.
[00:13:16.280] – Steve
So it provided motivation that you could tie into many of the standards you were working on.
[00:13:21.400] – Renée
Absolutely. I could just see such growth in them.
[00:13:26.680] – Steve
Maria, I’m wondering if you’d like to make a comment or two on what you’ve heard here this morning in the teacher and student’s words that reinforces for you the decision and the direction that the district’s taken.
[00:13:44.960] – Maria
Yeah, I think this is exactly what we’re talking about. When we, you know, earlier when I said empowering student voice, I think that Renee was able to beautifully craft and facilitate this experience that still stayed true to content standards, but brought them to life. And as you had said earlier, kids had their own intrinsic motivation to do better because they had this real audience, they had this customer that they were in some ways trying to serve. And as Emory had said, I mean, there were walks that they went and advocated at the Capitol for the lemonade stand. Even this year, their PTO is willing to give a large chunk of money to support this work. And I think the hope is that it doesn’t stop here, that it continues. And I think that’s the beauty of learning, is that these kids have not only connected, I think, emotionally to what we want school to be for kids and what learning can be, but I feel like that they’ve also felt like what we want students to feel like when they come to school. I mean, they want to engage in deeper learning, they want to push each other’s thinking, they want to problem solve, and ultimately they want to do better for other people.
[00:15:08.780] – Maria
I mean, that’s the big picture. And I think it’s a beautiful thing that this experience was hopefully a launching point to have these students really be advocates for themselves and for others.
[00:15:20.140] – Steve
Well, I thank you all. I’d like to wrap up with Emory and Braden if I could, here – all over the country, and even I get a chance to work in schools and other parts of the the world, teachers are having to make a decision about how much time they should be investing in their classrooms in project based learning. And I wanted to give the two of you a chance to share with teachers who listen to this podcast your advice as to how much investment they might want to make in bringing projects like this to their students. Braden, you want to go first this time?
[00:16:07.060] – Braden
Sure.
[00:16:09.140] – Steve
So what would you say to teachers who are trying to decide about engaging their kids in project based learning? What advice would you give teachers?
[00:16:17.700] – Braden
Yeah, I tell them to, like, kind of help out, like, I just tell Ms. Reinhart how I like to learn and how it’s easiest for us.
[00:16:29.490] – Steve
And Emory, what’s your thoughts on teachers making more project based learning available for their students?
[00:16:38.850] – Emory
I feel that this is a really good project because it helps be a part of something in our school and it helps kids. So if another school has a kid in wheelchair and they have the same problem as we did and how they cannot go on the playground, I feel that this would be a great project for them.
[00:17:02.270] – Steve
So actually, the same project that you folks took on, you think could be done in other schools?
[00:17:09.070] – Emory
Yes.
[00:17:10.350] – Steve
Okay. Well, listen, thank you to everyone there. I’m anxious to be able to share this message with other teachers and hope that it gives more students like you more opportunities. It was really impressive to hear what you learned from getting engaged in this project. My congratulations to you.
[00:17:30.280] – Maria
Thank you.
[00:17:30.800] – Emory
Thank you.
[00:17:31.360] – Braden
Thank you.
[00:17:32.200] – Steve
Bye bye. T
[00:17:36.720] – Steve [Outro]
Thanks for listening, folks. I’d love to hear what you’re pondering. You can find me on Twitter tevebarkley or send me your questions and find my videos and blogs at barkleypd.com.
