Over the past 2 months I have been working hard to regroup mentally and physically from a grueling year in building a project-based learning classroom on the fly. I was officially hired a day before the school year to co-teach a combined class with a pure focus on a student-centered project-based classroom. I am not complaining…only warning that you should avoid teaching in this situation unless you have ample time to prepare. And to me that would require *at least* a whole summer. So here I am, a whole summer now to prepare…how’s it going?:

-Flipped videos are 1/3 of the way prepare (not actually recorded, just prepared to be recorded, so I am really only 1/6 of the way done)

-Curriculum has been reworked with the curriculum specialist and co-workers. This is a critical victory as without this, there would be no plan for the school year, and PBL requires a plan. This is good.

-No hand-on activities have been explored, tried, or picked. This is a big problem.

-Just got back from an excellent New Tech Network conference where I finally learned the basics of PBL the New Tech way from trainers. I walked away with the year’s first project 90% set up (still need scaffolding activities for it). This is good.

-Big heap of grant money is sitting around collecting dust. This is a problem.

-Microscope and microscope camera that I was going to explore all summer long is sitting on the dining room table collecting dust. Not a huge problem, but microscopes are a huge hands-on tool in a biology class.

Good thing I still have a month to go until back to school. Why do I feel that time is going to disappear reeeeeaaallly fast…

Back to work! I am in Chicago at the convening of the Woodrow Wilson National Teaching Fellowship Conference. Looking forward to learning more for my future students!