This is our first year of being 1:1 with Chromebooks in the 7th grade and going PBL (project based learning) at the same time.
The end goal is to be entirely 1:1 for the entire campus. We are having a new middle school built that we will move into next year. I am so excited about this- more on this later!
We plan for projects to be about 2 weeks in length. Spend the time before the due date researching and having mini-lessons, asking clarifying questions and so forth. We present our project and then we have a paper assessment on what we learned about our project. I am not by any means doing things "perfectly" in my class room and have honestly changed my teaching method completely. I am loving PBL. I love the accountability it has given the students. It is not just about grades!
I am still learning timelines and feel like I am falling behind. But, I see that the students are having the hardest time researching. Again, is it our network or the methods that we are using to research? I am not sure. I am going to have to adjust this due date for sure. I want them to have more time to create to make the project more their own instead of just throwing it together, which they would have to do if we didn't extend it.
Now for our new school! I came to Jarrell in 2005 and at the time our district was shared on 1 campus. K-12 all together. 197 kids. Now we have a new high school, new elementary and finally the new middle school! Our middle school has roughly 325 students in it. I have had to the pleasure of being on the same campus as my son since he was in K :). (He may not see it that way, but it sure has been fun for me.) I can not wait until we get into our new building. We will be connecting our field house to the school and the gyms to the school. Our campus has been open and I have never been a fan of that.
Change happens. It can be difficult. It can be fun. It can be time consuming. It is definitely needed. I believe that the changes being made in our district our going to benefit the students of Jarrell ISD. I am grateful for the vision of those making the changes and encouraging us along and allowing us to change with them. I am a better teacher for it and hopefully my students are better for it as well.