Chapter One: Mapping the Journey. Reading Reflection 1

When you start your journey though PBL, you have to keep in mind that you are learning too. As teachers, we never stop learning. Some of the most important things we learn are through our students. When you begin using PBL, you may not see improvement right away or you may not think it is working, but you have to give it a few years and then looking back, you will be the improvement.

There are many benefits to PBL. Teachers rethink the way that they teach so that the students can benefit more from the lesson plan. The atmosphere of the classroom changes. Instead of the teacher always being in charge and taking the lead, PBL allows the students to be responsible and be the teachers for once.

Students benefit the most from PBL. Since they are the ones in charge, they gain so many life skills that they wouldn't be able to get any other way. The learn communication skills; being able to lead a group, communication within the group and working together to complete the project. Students learn responsibility; when working in groups they learn that they have to have their part of the project done on time and they have to have trust that the other students in their group will have their work done also. And most importantly, they learn that they can make a difference. Working on these projects, it opens students eyes to things that they may have never heard or seen before. It shows them the real world.

There are many issue that could come up when consider transitioning to PBL. One is yourself. You have to be willing to learn a new way of teaching. Yes, you could use some of your old teaching strategies but you are going to have to look at teaching in a completely new way. Students are also going to have to adjust. Students don't always like change, they want things to stay the same. They also might not see the benefit to PBL until after its done. They may just think that they have to do more work, but in the long run, they benefit from it the most. Another issue could be other colleagues. Where they think that the way the teach is the best and they don't want to change. They also may be scared of change, but like I've said, as teachers, we are always learning. Sometimes we need to get out of our comfort zone and take a risk.

New Technology High is a great example to the New Technology Model. The school is small so students get to know each other and working in groups/teams is easy. All of their projects are based on real world problems that the students may actually use out in the real world. They have so much technology that if a student needs an answer to anything, they can get it right there and then. The teachers always work together so that everyone is on the same playing field and all of the classes are structured relatively the same way. More online work and less textbook work.