My final project is officially complete! And it feels great! Looking back to myself at the beginning of the summer, I remember thinking, "Wow, this is going to be a lot of work to create a legitimate PBL lesson." And, while it certainly was a lot of work, I believe I did a solid job with my project and I'm incredibly happy with the results. Plus, I can't wait to try the lesson out in class this year.
Overall, it's been an excellent semester and I've learned so much about on the best practices for designing and structuring a PBL lesson. I enjoyed our professor's (Dr. Baek) setup to the class, always providing us with a collection of resources to use if we need them, but not assigning extra reading that didn't really apply to anything.
And, the PBL lesson for this week was all about reflecting. Much like it's my turn to reflect over the class and the project, students need a chance to reflect at the end of their PBL lesson. Oftentimes when a lesson ends, the teacher is in such a hurry to get to the next project, that they don't leave time to reflect. This can be incredibly detrimental to learning. Reflection gives us the time we need to make connections, to remember all the steps and lessons we completed along the way, and to get some closure, which is especially important in a big project like a PBL lesson.
So, with that being said, it has been a wonderful semester! On a personal side note, this is my last class in earning my tech integration certification and it's been my pleasure to have many of you in my 3 classes here at Boise State. I've enjoyed this online learning environment quite a bit, and it's been great getting to know many of you over the past year and half. I hope everyone has a great end to their summer! And if anyone ends up traveling to Colombia for some reason this year, let me know and I'd be happy to hook you up with a place to stay or some travel ideas!
-Mike
Overall, it's been an excellent semester and I've learned so much about on the best practices for designing and structuring a PBL lesson. I enjoyed our professor's (Dr. Baek) setup to the class, always providing us with a collection of resources to use if we need them, but not assigning extra reading that didn't really apply to anything.
And, the PBL lesson for this week was all about reflecting. Much like it's my turn to reflect over the class and the project, students need a chance to reflect at the end of their PBL lesson. Oftentimes when a lesson ends, the teacher is in such a hurry to get to the next project, that they don't leave time to reflect. This can be incredibly detrimental to learning. Reflection gives us the time we need to make connections, to remember all the steps and lessons we completed along the way, and to get some closure, which is especially important in a big project like a PBL lesson.
So, with that being said, it has been a wonderful semester! On a personal side note, this is my last class in earning my tech integration certification and it's been my pleasure to have many of you in my 3 classes here at Boise State. I've enjoyed this online learning environment quite a bit, and it's been great getting to know many of you over the past year and half. I hope everyone has a great end to their summer! And if anyone ends up traveling to Colombia for some reason this year, let me know and I'd be happy to hook you up with a place to stay or some travel ideas!
-Mike