Planning and Learning

As I sit here eating the most beautiful Fritos pie I've ever seen and scroll through my Twitter feed to see what gems EduDemic has posted lately, I find myself thinking again about how I teach and how I learn.

We are three weeks into the summer break in west Texas and I've been planning for next year and in my own classes since before graduation. Perhaps that makes me a crazy person...more likely it makes me a teacher who wants to be well prepared as well as create as much challenge and authenticity for my students as possible. I sent books home with almost all of my students and am working to figure out the best way to delve into those books when we return. I want the books to be not only a discussion between us but also something to help my students realize the power of words.

Edudemic posted a link to an article examining the difference between projects and project based learning. Education is always full of trends and I feel like project based learning (PBL) has been one of those for a few years now. I am a fan of projects because I feel they can actually push students to guide their own learning. The article however disagrees, it's author seems to believe that projects are a waste of time and the end result is useless and unauthentic. The author also seems to believe that PBL is the only way to get authenticity from students. I can see where they come from, many teachers assign projects for no real reason. As I read through their list comparing the two I found myself identifying aspects in each column that I use when I assign projects to my students.

I hope that is a good thing. I never want to give my kids something that is worthless.