When it comes to planning an authentic Project Based Learning Unit, I find it’s helpful to follow a process that ensures students are doing real work for real people and purposes. When my students know their work matters, they are engaged. When they see the impact of their work in the world, they feel valued.

When I left my job of 11 years in May of 2023 for a position at a new school, I knew my world was changing. The school year that followed pleasantly affirmed my choice to switch districts over and over again, with one exception: I was not teaching PBL.

Do you need a new End Product for every PBL unit?

Are you tired of having an expo after every PBL unit?

Have you ever felt your End Product didn't fit your standards well?

End Products are wonderfully crafted creations that showcase the learning you have done over the time of your PBL.

How do you know if professional development is going to be awesome?

How do you pick between all the Project Based Learning options?

How do you know you'll be able to use this work in your classroom next year?

When I worked for Mission Indy, a small local missionary organization in Indianapolis, we would do an Asset Based Community Development protocol with non-profit leaders from around the country. We would draw a map of their city on a large dry-erase board and then ask them to talk about the needs of their community.

“In PLCs, principals are called upon to regard themselves as leaders of leaders rather than leaders of followers.”

Dr. Chad Dumas is the author of Let’s Put the C in PLC: A Practical Guide for School Leaders.

• How do you foster authentic PBL Projects if you don’t have Community Partners?

• Do you have enough of a network to find Community Partners?

• How do you create a pipeline of new Community Partners?

Magnify Learning will proudly publish a new Project Based Learning book through PBL Press. Life’s A Project: 6A’s of Project Based Learning by Andrew Larson will be published in Spring 2024. 

What is the most important task you can do next?

Where should you focus your time and energy?

Do you have any worries before you go to sleep?

Life and Leadership Coaching has helped me answer these questions well. In this blog, we're coaching you for free. You're going to love it.

In some high schools, people complain about not having friends. People complain about having too much stuff to do, or not enough stuff to do. People complain about their work being meaningless, and therefore school seeming like a waste of time.

At The John Boner Neighborhood Centers, we have five afterschool programs, which are funded through the Department of Education’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC) program.

The disciplines known as Design Thinking and Human Centered Design have become buzzwords in the world of progressive thought around learning for the last ten years.

We face a big challenge in the fall as we return to the classroom squarely in the middle of a pandemic. Project Based Learning environments have extra challenges. As more teachers group students in pods to promote collaboration and grow culture, rows of desks spaced six feet apart, while not ideal, may still be doable for a traditional classroom forced to do social distancing.

The good news for 2020 is that we made it through the school year. I say that at the risk of sounding flippant because the reality is that some of us didn’t make it. The COVID- 19 Pandemic of 2020 will surely become the launchpad for educational innovation simply because during March, April and May we had to, as they say, build a plane whilst flying that very same plane.

We spend so much time at the beginning of the year developing a positive classroom and school culture that supports our students and supports the work of Project Based Learning. We spend the year developing relationships with our students to help them feel supported and to push them to feel encouraged to take risks and engage with the content.

My grandfather was a very strong willed, driven man who fought for what was right even when it was not easy. During this unique time in our history I’m forced to reflect upon the many stories I grew up listening to him tell; I did not realize it then, but now I know that these stories have an underlying theme that he was instilling upon me.

As we attempt to manage our classes from home, it may seem daunting to launch a project from afar, but I think you will be surprised at what you can achieve with some ingenuity, shared documents and patience. For many students the lack of vocal interruptions and peer distractions makes learning from home easier.

"It's just one dam project after another."
-The Busy Little PBL Beaver

Let me explain…

Answer this multiple choice question:

The end of the May means…

a. The end of a school year that raised questions about my assessment practices

How do you get to the end of a project and know confidently that your students will do a great job presenting their final products to your community partners? How can you hold students accountable to meet benchmarks throughout the course of a project?

In the world of educational reform, the term authenticity seems to be finding its moment in the sun. When students ask, “Why do we need to learn this,” it behooves us to be able to answer them.

My PBL journey began many years ago and has been very difficult but totally worth it....17 years ago, I read an article about Project Based Learning (PBL) that peaked my interest and then spent nine more trying to find anything I could about this practice but without much luck.

Columbus Signature Academy New Tech High School is one of a kind. The nearly 400- strong student body has a wide range of different backgrounds, experiences, and frames of thought.

I used to think that being a teacher meant having all the answers and being ready to bestow them upon my students, who would undoubtedly be ready and willing to receive my brilliance and love of learning. As you probably already guessed, that belief didn’t last long.

In a 2018 survey of business executives and hiring managers conducted by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, researchers identified the skills they most looked for when vetting potential employees.

What does educational reform look like? Maybe a lot like a happy marriage. Over the years I’ve (almost always) enjoyed learning new teaching approaches. Some have stuck.

I don’t know how many times I’ve left a conference or workshop session so excited I couldn’t wait to get back to my class or building to implement the strategy that had me all fired up.

Project Based Learning can be pragmatic to a fault. Sometimes, students (especially those that have been in an immersed PBL environment for a number of years) begin to question any classroom process that they perceive as unrelated to project work.

Already, the school year is several weeks old. For many of us, we’re in the second cycle of projects, which means that we have experienced what I think is the hardest aspect of PBL: the changeover.

At the end of this school year I will have finished my twentieth year in education and my tenth as a facilitator of Project Based Learning. Practicing PBL as my “day job” has changed me in many ways that I absolutely did not expect.