PBL+FOLLOW+UP

February 27, 2012 -- This is a follow up to the first two-hour session, Project-based Learning. Participants will continue to develop and collaborate standards based projects, share ideas with others, and ask Academic Integration Coaches specific technology questions related to their projects. Monday, February 27th, 4 - 6 p.m., NPHS room K-024
 * Flex Session - K-12 Staff - Project-based Learning FOLLOW UP**

=** Agenda **=


 * 1) Review the agenda from session 1 **


 * 2) Ask any questions about PBL, Big Ideas, Essential Questions **


 * 3) Share ideas for PBL projects/activities/lessons/units. What have you seen? What do you want to try? **
 * ** Blogging / Journal writing **
 * ** Creating an online portfolio using Google Docs **
 * ** Collaboration (Wikispaces?) to complete a project **
 * ** Write the textbook yourselves (or make a video, etc.) - recreation/transformation **
 * **The Flipped Classroom**
 * **Others**?


 * 4) Work session - create or continue working on your project-based learning lesson. Instructor is available to help with any technology needs.**


 * FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY...**

Tune in next week, Friday, March 2nd to **Tech Forum Live Online **, //Tech & Learning //'s live broadcast stream direct from Tech Forum Atlanta. Join this preeminent group of education leaders as they tackle some of the most pressing, and promising, issues for today's schools. Watch up to three sessions as they happen and even participate with a live chat session. The schedule includes: >  **Presenters: **Connie White, Julia Osteen, and Max Monroe > Got Google Apps for Education? Google Tools? Having trouble keeping up with what's new and how to use the many free options available to you? Three Google-using educators will share their favorite apps and tools, along with student project ideas, teacher and administrator productivity tips, and thoughts about adopting Google Apps school- or district-wide. >  Join //T&L // editorial director, Kevin Hogan, and a team of innovative educators for a discussion on the potential role of social media in education. Does it have a place in the classroom? >  **Presenters: **Bailey Mitchell and Lissa Pijanowski; Wendy Grey, Donita Hinckley, and Renee Padgett > Are print textbooks a thing of the past? Will they be replaced by eTextbooks or digital content of a totally different nature? You will hear about a state-funded eTextbook initiative, a partnership with a textbook company, and several trailblazing districts' efforts to move beyond traditional textbooks and embrace 21st century learning tools. Simply visit **this link ** during those times, tune in and participate. You can submit questions to the presenters using the Livestream chat feature or by tweeting: **#TLTF12 **. It's the next best thing to being there!
 * **Going Google - 9:45-11:00 am **
 * **Social Media (roundtable discussion) - 1:20-2:10 pm **
 * **Moving Beyond Textbooks - 2:15-3:30 pm **

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; font-size: 18px;">FROM THE STATE...

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">A message from Ralph Maltese, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Ed Consultant and PDE Mentor with "21st Century Teaching and Learning," Adjunct Professor, Temple University, 2002 PA Teacher of the Year

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">One of the keys to successful PBL is to find a workable problem, one that is engaging—neither too easy or too difficult. Break the class into groups and present either a real problem, (environmental ones are good), such as available drinking water for a community. How much does it cost to furnish the community with fresh water, what other alternatives are there, etc. This works in a science angle as well, demanding working with tables like CFS and other statistics (see for water [] ). <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Have groups of students prepare a national campaign to address some environmental issue (logging, fisheries, etc) and develop tables to address costs for promoting one side. For example, promoting a campaign to curtail strip mining would involve what costs and what other means to extract the ore? <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Or, go fantasy. What if each group was developing a presidential campaign for an imaginary candidate? What media would they employ in what regions of the nation, (there are sections of our nation in which the people get most of their information via radio rather than print media). <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Want to go large with numbers? Plan a trip for a space probe (or human being) to visit the solar system of Alpha Centuri, the nearest one to us. What numbers both in terms of speed and distance are involved? Navigation? Cost? <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Or think small….imagine a device small enough to explore the inside of an atom. Fuel for this device is limited, of course, and what fuel consumption would be necessary to take a tour of an oxygen atom, its protons, neutrons and electrons? <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">For any of these projects you can set up the teacher as the bank, but I prefer to use another group that must consider the profitability of loaning money for these enterprises. More tables and numbers. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Family finances? Each group moves into a different section of the nation---Washington, Alabama, Rhode Island, Arizona, Iowa, and starts anew---must buy a home, car, (see online tables for salaries for same job in different states---I know these exist, but I could not find them on short notice), local, state, national taxes. Construct as a class a comparison table. What would it take for each “family” (define the family in terms of how many members) to survive in each area? I did this once, and the kids who were thinking of dropping out of school, in many cases, rethought that plan. Or, set up a competition among groups to discover the best area/state to live in based on a fixed salary, assuming the buying of a house, car, etc. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">As you can see, I love cross disciplinary projects. It gives the math a framework or raison d’etre. Hope this helps.