Project Based Learning at TGES
Project Based Learning system, a dynamic approach to teaching and leaning became integral part of TGES from the academic year 2012-13. An academic approach to teaching and learning in which students are not taught with textbooks alone, taking them away fro rote learning and exposing students to real world problems and challenges. The challenge in two folds, one wherein stakeholders feel that will this lead to success in world of college admissions, which are based on rote learning exam systems and another one is where TGES feels committed to students and their learning skills required for 21st century skills and type of active and engaged learning that inspires them for deeper learning, deeper knowledge of subjects that are interlinked and currently they study in isolation.
TGES initiated eight of its members to join Leading Schools Program offered by High Tech High Schools, San Diego. This changed the way teaching and learning was practiced for national and international curriculum at TGES. Soon, Protocols and Project fine tuning took over the traditional approaches and the word PBL, Authentic Learning, Real world connections, Authentic Assessment were part of normal communications for these 8 members.
As I reflect upon this yearlong journey (to be precise, journey of past 10 months) I see a snowball effect with the way now I think abut teaching and learning processes and Projects, about Protocols, about Peer Critiques, about Project fine tuning and other aspects of PBL.
Contact Details for these 8 members
Please follow the link below to explore more about High Tech High school and Leading School Programs.
.http://gse.hightechhigh.org/leading_schools.php
Some Details about LSP from HTH website:
The HTH GSE Leading Schools Program (LSP) emerged out of a desire to serve as a "change incubator" by working closely with teams of educators—around the country and the world—to transform schools. This one-year hybrid program blends residencies at High Tech High in San Diego, partnerships with HTH critical friends, and on-line participation in discussion forums and Seminar Groups. Participants design and execute a leadership project that addresses an authentic need or issue at their home schools, and present this work to colleagues and a broader audience at the High Tech High. Ultimately, participants emerge from the program equipped to take the lead in creating innovative, engaging learning environments for young people and adults.
The goals of the Leading Schools Program are to:
Duration: One year, part-time – October through June
Location: School site, online and 2 residencies at HTH in San Diego
Desired Applicants: Local and distance educators; teams are encouraged to apply
Critical Friends Each LSP participant is paired with a HTH Critical Friend—a current HTH teacher or director—who serves as a collaborator, consultant and sounding board throughout the year via e-mail, video conferencing, and face-to-face conversations.
Residencies LSP participants attend customised residencies in October and June. The October residency focuses heavily on immersive classroom observations and after school workshops. The June residency focuses on participants sharing their Leading Schools Project and attending the HTH GSE graduation. At least once between the two visits to HTH, a HTH staff member travels to the school site to conduct observations or workshops as well as to engage with school staff. During all of these residencies participants attend workshops, visit classrooms, meet with their critical friends, and engage in planning/tuning activities with their team members.
Personalization Participants develop a Personal Learning Plan (PLP) and engage in several “put it to practice” activities throughout the year. The PLP enables participants to tailor the program to their specific needs, interests, and professional goals.
Project Based Learning Through residencies, readings and conversations with Critical Friends and each other, participants explore and enact the essential elements of project based learning. They emerge from the program prepared to communicate and demonstrate these elements to colleagues.
Seminar Groups Participants engage in online forums and monthly online Seminar Groups focused on issues of teaching, learning and leading that emerge from their own practice. Groups are formed based on the issues individuals would like to explore such asTransparency: making learning public, Democratic classrooms: the use of student voice, critique and co-construction of learning orGlobal Citizenship: collaboration across the program participants and HTH. Discussions are structured to help educators inform and improve their own work, while introducing conversation protocols that can be utilized at their own schools.
Leadership With the support of their Critical Friend and their cohort, participants explore "fierce wonderings" from their practice to design and execute a Leading Schools project that addresses an authentic need or issue at their home school. They then present this work to colleagues and a broader audience at the High Tech High Summer Institute. Team projects are encouraged.
Program Benefits
We aim to create a learning partnership for all participants that is:
TGES initiated eight of its members to join Leading Schools Program offered by High Tech High Schools, San Diego. This changed the way teaching and learning was practiced for national and international curriculum at TGES. Soon, Protocols and Project fine tuning took over the traditional approaches and the word PBL, Authentic Learning, Real world connections, Authentic Assessment were part of normal communications for these 8 members.
As I reflect upon this yearlong journey (to be precise, journey of past 10 months) I see a snowball effect with the way now I think abut teaching and learning processes and Projects, about Protocols, about Peer Critiques, about Project fine tuning and other aspects of PBL.
Contact Details for these 8 members
- Ms. Beeta Moulik Sr Chemistry Resource [email protected] tgeschemistry.weebly.com
- Ms. Poorvi Doshi Sr Mathematics Resource [email protected] http://poorvidoshi.weebly.com
- Ms. Sakkina Bharmal Humanities Resource [email protected] http://sakinabharmaldp.weebly.com/index.html
- Ms. Neha Babi Language Resource [email protected] https://sites.google.com/site/nehababi/
- Mr. Sarvashreshtha Patel Physics Resource [email protected] http://spateldp.weebly.com/the-documentary-project.html
- Mr. Shridhar Jagtap Physics resource [email protected] http://shridharjagtap.weebly.com/about-me.html
- Mr. Siddharth Naidu Humanities Resource [email protected] http://businessmanagementtges.weebly.com/projects.html
- Mr. Shekhar Hardikar TOK resource [email protected] http://philosophyandknowledge.weebly.com
Please follow the link below to explore more about High Tech High school and Leading School Programs.
.http://gse.hightechhigh.org/leading_schools.php
Some Details about LSP from HTH website:
The HTH GSE Leading Schools Program (LSP) emerged out of a desire to serve as a "change incubator" by working closely with teams of educators—around the country and the world—to transform schools. This one-year hybrid program blends residencies at High Tech High in San Diego, partnerships with HTH critical friends, and on-line participation in discussion forums and Seminar Groups. Participants design and execute a leadership project that addresses an authentic need or issue at their home schools, and present this work to colleagues and a broader audience at the High Tech High. Ultimately, participants emerge from the program equipped to take the lead in creating innovative, engaging learning environments for young people and adults.
The goals of the Leading Schools Program are to:
- Explore and share collaborative, student-centered, project-based pedagogies
- Build strong collegial cultures through coaching and the use of protocols to engage in authentic, purposeful conversations about student work, curricula design, and shared purpose
- Establish a “community of practice”—a critical mass of educators around the country and the world working toward common goals, deepening their practice, and learning strategies for sharing their work with colleagues within and beyond their own schools
Duration: One year, part-time – October through June
Location: School site, online and 2 residencies at HTH in San Diego
Desired Applicants: Local and distance educators; teams are encouraged to apply
Critical Friends Each LSP participant is paired with a HTH Critical Friend—a current HTH teacher or director—who serves as a collaborator, consultant and sounding board throughout the year via e-mail, video conferencing, and face-to-face conversations.
Residencies LSP participants attend customised residencies in October and June. The October residency focuses heavily on immersive classroom observations and after school workshops. The June residency focuses on participants sharing their Leading Schools Project and attending the HTH GSE graduation. At least once between the two visits to HTH, a HTH staff member travels to the school site to conduct observations or workshops as well as to engage with school staff. During all of these residencies participants attend workshops, visit classrooms, meet with their critical friends, and engage in planning/tuning activities with their team members.
Personalization Participants develop a Personal Learning Plan (PLP) and engage in several “put it to practice” activities throughout the year. The PLP enables participants to tailor the program to their specific needs, interests, and professional goals.
Project Based Learning Through residencies, readings and conversations with Critical Friends and each other, participants explore and enact the essential elements of project based learning. They emerge from the program prepared to communicate and demonstrate these elements to colleagues.
Seminar Groups Participants engage in online forums and monthly online Seminar Groups focused on issues of teaching, learning and leading that emerge from their own practice. Groups are formed based on the issues individuals would like to explore such asTransparency: making learning public, Democratic classrooms: the use of student voice, critique and co-construction of learning orGlobal Citizenship: collaboration across the program participants and HTH. Discussions are structured to help educators inform and improve their own work, while introducing conversation protocols that can be utilized at their own schools.
Leadership With the support of their Critical Friend and their cohort, participants explore "fierce wonderings" from their practice to design and execute a Leading Schools project that addresses an authentic need or issue at their home school. They then present this work to colleagues and a broader audience at the High Tech High Summer Institute. Team projects are encouraged.
Program Benefits
We aim to create a learning partnership for all participants that is:
- Focused around a coherent set of goals and tailored to the needs of each team
- Applied in that participants engage in shared activities and reflect together
- Sustained through residencies, local support, and an on-line network that supports knowledge-sharing
- Collaborative in that participant teams will have opportunities to work together and with HTH mentors
PBL 101 From Buck Institute of Education
To take PBL forward and ensure that this is the way of teaching and learning in TGES, this February, 140 TGES team members took a deep dive into PBL 101 workshop offered by BIE. Two National Faculties, from Buck Institute of Education Napa- California, namely Andrew Miller and Charity Allen were facilitators for this 21 hour workshop which enthused all TGESians into PBL. TGES is committed to initiate 100 projects beginning next academic term keeping following aspects in mind about PBL!
For Details do visit following link
http://www.bie.org/
Project Based Learning at HTH- Video
http://www.bie.org/videos/video/project_based_learning_at_hth
Rigorous, meaningful and effective Project Based Learning:
For Details do visit following link
http://www.bie.org/
Project Based Learning at HTH- Video
http://www.bie.org/videos/video/project_based_learning_at_hth
Rigorous, meaningful and effective Project Based Learning:
- is intended to teach significant content. Goals for student learning are explicitly derived from content standards and key concepts at the heart of academic disciplines.
- requires critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and various forms of communication. To answer a Driving Question and create high-quality work, students need to do much more than remember information. They need to use higher-order thinking skills and learn to work as a team. They must listen to others and make their own ideas clear when speaking, be able to read a variety of material, write or otherwise express themselves in various modes, and make effective presentations. These skills, competencies and habits of mind are often known as “21st century skills,” because they are prerequisite for success in the 21st century workplace.
- requires inquiry as part of the process of learning and creating something new. Students ask questions, search for answers, and arrive at conclusions, leading them to construct something new: an idea, an interpretation, or a product.
- is organized around an open-ended Driving Question. This focuses students’ work and deepens their learning by framing important issues, debates, challenges or problems.
- creates a need to know essential content and skills.Project Based Learning reverses the order in which information and concepts are traditionally presented. A typical unit with a “project” add-on begins by presenting students with knowledge and concepts and then, once gained, giving students the opportunity to apply them. Project Based Learning begins with the vision of an end product or presentation. This creates a context and reason to learn and understand the information and concepts.
- allows some degree of student voice and choice. Students learn to work independently and take responsibility when they are asked to make choices. The opportunity to make choices, and to express their learning in their own voice, also helps to increase students’ educational engagement.
- includes processes for revision and reflection. Students learn to give and receive feedback in order to improve the quality of the products they create, and are asked to think about what and how they are learning.
- involves a public audience. Students present their work to other people, beyond their classmates and teacher – in person or online. This “ups the stakes,” increasing students’motivation to do high-quality work, and adds to the authenticity of the project.