I had always wondered if PBL was a better way to catch students who felt like a square peg in a round hole. The current popular structure of school (industrial model) works so beautifully for some and so terribly for others. Today as I observed a grade 2/3 class, a little grade 2 boy caught my eye. He wiggled at the back. He wouldn’t participate. He wandered. He distracted others. He was rarely on task. He couldn’t stay still. He lost interest in minutes. In short, he was yet another example of that student I continue to see in nearly every class, with most classes containing several. They just don’t seem to settle into school.
My heart always aches for these ones. It’s much easier to sit and the back and observe, with the luxury of focusing on that one student, my head filling with ideas of how to engage them. But the reality is that one teacher in front of 20 or 25 or 30 students cannot give that kind of attention to our little square pegs. Here’s what fills my mind when I watch them: What are their hooks? What are they bucking against? If they could design their learning day, what would it look like? When are they most engaged? What role does social interaction play in a child’s day? How can I increase their attention? How can I effectively plan their 6 hours? What walls do I have to break down to make school better for them? Sometimes creativity is just a little tweak here or there. Sometimes it’s pulling in research and expertise from a completely unrelated field. Sometimes it’s reaching outside the box and pulling something in. Sometimes it’s breaking out of the box completely. And sometimes it’s realizing that there never was a box in the first place. I’m not afraid of change, of being different. What I am afraid of is getting into a groove, being influenced by my surroundings, and forgetting the wonderful point of view I have now while I’m outside looking in. I hope that as I teacher I find ways to preserve this gift.
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Terri-AnnPersonal reflections on project-based learning. Archives
April 2021
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