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By: Ryan Steuer, CEO
Magnify Learning
Dallas, TX
New initiatives in schools are exciting! We get energized about the possibilities: the ways that students will benefit and the ways your schools will improve, even thrive. Many flame out after a year or two. That’s wasted money, and more importantly, wasted time.
So, how does Project Based Learning last beyond a flash in the pan? How can we make the difficult work around PBL truly sustainable, so that it becomes a mindset? When done well, PBL becomes a cultural keystone that's driving everything else in your schools. Today we're talking about how every Project Based Learning leader should have a PBL learning team for three key reasons – factors that will impact its sustainability in your district.
The first key is that you shouldn’t launch Project Based Learning alone. If it's just you bringing in such a new top down approach, some people will ignore it, and some people will be compliant if it fits what they want to do anyway. But a top down approach will eventually fizzle, and if you leave that school your work goes with you.
So there's a lot of reasons you don't want to do this alone. Some of them are about self-care. Can you do this? Can you bring it, can you get everybody excited to do it? Yes. But if you're the lone cheerleader for Project Based Learning, you're going to be working like crazy to try and pull it off. And you will also be missing the grassroots possibilities, the ground swell, which you will want and need to build a new initiative like PBL.
More importantly, you want your work to be bigger than you. You want it to go beyond just you can do and envision. Naturally you need to know what PBL looks like in third grade, in sixth grade, or with freshmen or with seniors. Once you have that sense, identify the experts in your school that can help adapt things for their specific grade levels.
The next sustainability key is that people follow the first follower, not the leader. Derek Sivers has this great YouTube video on leadership called “The Shirtless Dancing Guy.” One of the key takeaways is that people follow the first follower, not the leader. When you're leading a staff of teachers and coaches, they want to know what it looks like for other teachers and coaches to do this work– not just the principal, or the assistant superintendent.
Share your ideas, of course! But at some point your staff wants to see what it looks like from their own peers. Is this really gonna work in third grade, kindergarten, middle school? (the answer is yes, by the way.) If you can get your teachers involved in this and they get excited about it, then that can start to grow a grassroots momentum. And now teachers are asking teachers, “Hey, how did you create this rubric? How did you get started? Can I come see your entry event?” If you can get those grassroots organic questions happening and get learning happening now, then it's not dependent on you as just one person. Now it's happening simultaneously, your learning and your staff’s learning, instead of simply funneling down through you.
Look at your staff and find your innovators. They're looking for something different. Say to them, “Hey, here's a direction we're thinking about moving towards with instruction. What do you think?” Maybe you give them the PBL Simplified book (shameless plug) or you take a group on a site visit to a PBL school. Pick your innovators, maybe add in some laggards, pick the outspoken leaders and you go and show them great things happening in a PBL school. They’ll come back fired up about it. But your first group, this PBL learning team, is a group that's fired up about Project Based Learning and they are going to want to share it.
That leads to our third sustainability key: you need local examples of Project Based Learning. On your PBL learning team, you need to have teachers that can start the process of PBL in their classrooms. Once they're fired up, get them trained. Go with a multi-day PBL training with coaching, because a short stint isn't going to produce the results that you want.
Once you get your learning team trained you’ll wonder, “How can we present this to the rest of the staff?” One of the best ways is to show that it works – well done is better than well said. Have them share their students’ work. Now they're showing that PBL works in a kindergarten classroom, or a third grade classroom. Consider sprinkling in people from different grade levels or different departments, or however your staff is grouped.
Once that is in place there will be proof that PBL can work in your school, not just in that other school two hours away, or on the West Coast or East Coast. Thanks to your PBL learning team, you’ll have local examples from which to draw. “Look at this culminating event that our learners did.” “How in the world did you get Bailey to do that kind of work? She won't do anything for me.” “How did you get Diego to speak like that out in front of the whole audience?” Once they have something to reference, you’ll get your next wave of teachers following your PBL learning team.
Now you've got one group that's out ahead of the rest of your staff, and that's okay. A lot of people want that. Some will want to catch up with that lead group and they will, but a good portion of your staff will want to see someone else go first. Then they'll jump in.
A lot of times we don’t really have teachers lining up for a three-day PD session. When the PBL learning team goes first though, and they see students having these great learning experiences with authentic problems and community partners, they want in. They’ll want to know, “How come my learners can't do that?”
Then you get to say, “Well, your learners can do that too! You just need to attend this PBL workshop and learn how.”
Watch those same teachers then say, “In fact, I demand that I take this PBL training! I want my learners to have the same experiences as these other learners. I want them to present their work to a chef. I want them to present to an engineer. I want them to have time with the DNA specialist, because that is awesome.”
Now you've got your staff moving, and you're not the one pushing them along. You get to actually lead because they've got movement. They're excited about Project Based Learning, they want to move forward. And if you remember the keys that we've outlined here, you’ll have a path forward.
Now you have a PBL learning team, with emphasis on learning. The wording is really important. They're learning about PBL to see if it's going to work at your school. It's not a PBL mandated team. You’ll wonder if this will work at your school – what we find is that it does. When PBL is done well, there's amazing results for all kids. And when you start with this smaller group of adopters, you can then build momentum instead of trying to push it through. Look at it as a movement, not just another initiative. That changes everything.
So follow these three sustainability keys: a) Don't do it alone, b) People are going to follow your first followers more than you and c) You need local examples of PBL. Build those first and then have your whole staff dive in eventually. As you put all of this together, you’ll find out that we can engage your learners, tackle boredom, and transform your classrooms!
I’m Ryan Steuer – author and thought leader who specializes in Project Based Learning training, coaching, community, and content to help educational leaders fulfill their vision of deeper learning in their schools. I’ve worked with leaders in school districts of all sizes, from 400 students to 100,000 students. These visionary leaders care about their students, but they are often stressed, overworked, and overwhelmed with the work ahead of them. That’s where I come in! I help leaders achieve their PBL vision, lead their staff, AND stop working weekends.
When I’m not guiding school leaders through Project Based Learning mindset shifts, I am outdoors with my wife and 5 kids - canoeing, hiking, biking, and traveling the US in our RV.
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