Kim Schildwaster

Return to: ETAP 623 Fall 2016 Taught by Byrne

About Me

This is my 5th year teaching, 3rd year full-time. I am currently a Family and Consumer Sciences Teacher for Kenmore-Tonawanda USFD. This year I will be teaching 7th Grade Home and Careers, 9-12 Parenting, Foods I, and Introduction to FACS in the first semester. I hold a BS Family and Consumer Sciences from Buffalo State. I live with my husband and three children in Western NY.

Together we like riding our ATV's, boating, camping, and swimming. We love cooking and my husband and I are constantly trying new things and competing against each other with the dishes we make. We have raised pigs, chickens, goats, and a sheep. I garden and enjoy bringing fresh vegetables into my class for students to eat. I always say I have the best job in the school because I can pursue the things I love and "play" at work. We make everything from scratch including cheese, breads, yogurt, pasta, and sausage. In a few weeks we will be butchering half a pig and making sausage and bacon!

My Topic/Purpose

This course will examine the interconnected learning stories that are Project Based Learning. It will focus on the challenges of designing a project that promotes interaction, meaningful engagement, collaboration, and analysis to activate learning. Project Based Learning is a strategy for implementing knowledge and skills through questions, problems, and challenge based inquiry where students learn throughout, not just at the end. It is a complex process that requires a tremendous amount of planning and scaffolding of information, but pays off for student learning across multiple subjects and transferable skills.

Through this course students will examine when to use PBL and its benefits in the classroom setting. Students will examine planning, creating, implementing, assessing students, and analyzing the results of PBL on learning.

Needs Assessment

Instructional Problem

Teachers fall into the trap of thinking that teaching always results in learning. They assign students the task of creating a poster at the end of a unit and presenting it to the class and believe this is project based learning. Without a definitive guideline, PBL covers a broad scope, it can be difficult to assess if you are designing your project to capture the critical thinking, collaboration, and communication you were aiming to achieve. There was a project, the students learned, or did they? What questions and strategies should teachers be using to ensure they are engaging their students in real-world problem solving? What roles should their students can take to solve the problem? If you do create an excellent activity, how do assess the students. A true PBL activity has many facets, can you use the same rubric or system to grade everyone?

What is to be Learned

This course will assist educators in organizing a PBL activity and give a basic understanding of what tools and strategies they can utilize to transform their instructional unit into a PBL activity. It will assist them in creating an assessment that provides meaningful information on what their students learned to further instructional practices.

Exploring the Instructional Problem and Solution

Through a series of modules, students will examine the essentials for PBL including creating questions, involving student choice, identifying required skills, and creating effective assessment through feedback and revision. Educators will adapt a current FACS topic into a PBL activity. Through developing a PBL activity, they will assist students in becoming critical thinkers, collaborators, foster communication skills, and promote self-directed learning. These are all skills named as essential for 21st century employers.

Goals for this Mini-Course

The primary goal for this course is for educators to increase the effectiveness of their classroom projects and as a result increase student performance. Through examining current projects, educators will be able to assess and create revisions to enhance learning outcomes. The second goal of this mini-course is to create an organized method for educators to follow, a checklist if you will of steps to assist them in achieving a project to suit their goals.

Analysis of the Learner and Context

The Learners

The learners will include current K-12 Family and Consumer Sciences educators wishing to increase student performance and interaction with course content.

Context for Instruction

This course will be delivered through online instruction through this mini-course. Students will require an internet connection, a Google account and knowledge of Google Drive, and access to a computing device.

Performance Objectives

This course will provide FACS teachers with the tools and strategies to utilize when creating engaging Project Based Learning Activities. Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:

1. Define project based learning
2. Describe how it is utilized in a classroom environment
3. Examine areas where PBL would be enriching to your curriculum
4. Evaluate materials and technology for use in PBL
5. Create assessments for PBL
6. Examine a variety of forms of PBL
7. Explore trends in PBL
8. Create a PBL activity for use in their classroom

Task Analysis

Course

Prerequisites · The learner will be a current and pre-service Family and Consumer Sciences teacher seeking to increase their use of Project Based Learning and Inquiry in their classroom. They will need a Google Account, access to a computer, and an internet connection.

They should be familiar with the NYS Home and Careers Curriculum and included units of study.

Performance Objectives:

Unit 1 Overall Objective:

· The learner will be able to provide an overall definition of PBL and the research supporting its increased usage in classrooms today.

Unit 1 Objectives:

·Through a discussion forum, the learner will provide information on projects they have completed with students and assess how the project meets or does not meet the overall definition of PBL.