Week Five: Reflection #4: Don't Be Afraid of PBL

“When teachers align PBL to standards, they ensure that the learning experience is going to be worth the investment of time.”-Suzie Boss and John Larmer, Project Based Teaching(2018)

Last week, we learned that it’s important to foster creativity in our students’ learning environments. One of the best ways to do that, as Boss and Larmer (2008) establish throughout their text, is to introduce creative and project based learning into the students’ environments. Chapters Three and Four of Project Based Teaching establish how we can still implement these new strategies while keeping in line with curriculum goals. 

The biggest take away that I got from these two chapters is how to better build a project to meet curriculum goals. I found it interesting that just because we have certain goals we need to meet and attain throughout the year does not mean that we have to meet those goals in traditional and often boring ways. We can achieve the curriculum goals creatively, all the while introducing creative projects that make these goals visible to the students we teach, and I think that is quite important going forward.