Project Based Learning

ALBA ROSARIO MARRON CANSECO. MEXICO. FULBRIGHT DAT.

One of the most revealing experiences during my time in Indiana, was visiting the Columbus Signature Academy FODREA Campus in the city of Columbus Indiana. It started early in the morning, driving the beautiful roads full with woods of multicolor leaves. It was an hour ride that we totally enjoyed. Sharing comments and stories during our road trips was the best opportunity to know about our 9 different cultures.

The city of Columbus has many beautiful buildings and a lot of little houses, Midwestern style.

My first impression was that the school did not have big windows to the outside, it was a big building but very secluded. At the moment we got into the building my opinion changed. There was this ultramodern concrete round staircase that remind me of a famous museum of New York and it contrasted with red and orange colors in the walls. I saw a crystal elevator that must cost a fortune, then I learned it was for the kids with special needs.

We were taken to a second floor to an office-workspace with a lot of windows which had different children handwriting in colors expressing about advantages or disadvantages of a certain project. I imagined kids arguing and setting the pros and contras of it.

The principal of the school Dr. Diane Clancy started the presentation by herself, in a very confident and warm style. She seemed so proud and happy about the outcomes, history and achievements of her school.

The indicators she presented showed how the school in four years has achieved top numbers in its district. Some of the figures were from the standard tests averages presented by the students and they were higher than 90 %.

She explained that Project Based Learning (PBL) is teaching the standards through authentic life experiences. Students identify a problem or concern and then work through the process of trying to find a solution or at the very least providing assistance of some kind to address the problem. An example is a project by their 3rd grade students that helped to raise money for a GPS collar for one of our community's police dogs.

After the presentation, a group of kids were introduced and assigned to 3 of us, our leader, a very 9 year confident girl, gave us a tour of every space of the school, all the information she described was very detailed. We went to each classroom and space, how they work, they explained to us, the use of the stations, how the activities are timed and how they changed working partners every 20 minutes. We visited the classrooms, the court, the art classroom, the library and the spaces they have to study in their free time.

Every classroom has small tables facing each other to work in groups of 4 people, they have computers, projector, laptops, and everyone was engaged resolving an exercise, doing interactive exercises in the laptop, wearing the headphones and doing their own learning. Each table had different activities, I could appreciate that some of the activities were made with materials in constructive paper and was done by hand by the teacher. That meant a lot of preparation and organization. I could observe the shifting of the teams among the tables because they have a chronometer that tells them when it is over and they have to move to the other station and activity.

After the tour, a teacher panel followed and they answered our questions like for 40 minutes. The teachers looked very satisfied with their job and explained with a high spirit commitment attitude about how they plan and work in a PBL classroom and also about the experiences in some of the projects that they have done with the students. Then, surprisingly the same kids (who were very easy spoken and with a very clear idea about their learning) answered some of our questions we had in a second round of questions.

Listening to them I realized that one of our biggest problems in my country is that we do not learn in our early childhood how to work with others. This lack of team culture, trust in others and negotiating skills permeate in every level of our life as a country.

I told them I was amazed how they are learning to work as a team and also to work in the need of homeless people and other groups with needs. They are learning how to become a better citizen and how to contribute to have a better community. The webpage of the Columbus Signature Academy states its mission as:

Columbus Signature Academy Mission:

Our mission is to prepare socially engaged citizens who excel in an information and technology rich society.

When I asked about how they deal with the new students that do not speak English, the leader teacher in the language department expressed they have a consultant or a coach that works specifically with the students that do not speak English.

The principal expressed that in order to integrate non English speakers into a PBL classroom, sometimes they have high school students teach their students the basics of another language, usually French or Spanish. It is usually only for a short period of time.

The Principal Diane Clancy explained later that their English Language Learners (ELL) receive all instruction in the classroom. When students are grouped homogeneously to learn, they receive additional assistance or they are enriched in a specific skill, The ELL will be placed in a group according to their specific skill level on that standard. They also have an ELL teaching assistant who travels from classroom to classroom providing assistance where needed.

Also she added that to become a teacher in PBL approach, there is an organization called Magnify Learning that provided the initial training. The CSA teachers have become trainers and they train their new teachers and teachers from other school corporations who are interested in teaching through this approach. The principal also identifies areas of the PBL process that they need to continue to improve and provides training during their staff meetings.

The overall experience for me was revealing because of:

1.- Students choose the project. They have a voice and the planning goes around it.

2.- They work together all the time. They adjust their personalities in order to get things done.

3.- They negotiate their decisions, needs and opinions in order to stablish a common goal.

4.- They work all the time and the teachers work much more than them. The teachers are always collaborating to get the planning, the core standards and the project goals done at the same time.

5.- It was very clear for me that the leadership of the principal, makes an enthusiastic and powerful working environment.

This visit was a powerful way to change my attitude and beliefs about doing projects with my students, but they have to be decided by them, chosing a meaningful goal that solves a real problem in our context.