Welcome to a new episode of Teacher Insights at Tech Talk for Teachers, where we celebrate teachers and the important role you play in our lives and community. We learn about what is happening in classrooms across the country—what is working and what’s challenging.
This week, we meet with Annie Tremonte, a digital learning coach and ELA/social studies facilitator in the Renton School District in Washington, who shares her experiences with project-based learning. Learn how she has embraced the complexity, the messiness of the creation process, and the ambiguity of the end result to create relevant learning experiences where her students get to see how their learning can impact the world around them.
Join our Digital Learning Specialists as they talk with Annie about how to bring PBL into the classroom without having to rehaul the entire curriculum. They share easy starting points and implementation tips to provide students voice and choice throughout the PBL process.
If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.
John Dewey, philosopher
Teachers Need Teachers
Inspiration comes in many forms. For teachers, we often look to one another for support, empathy, validation, and understanding. This week, with Annie Tremonte, we’ll talk about how to turn up the volume on key skills that teachers have already introduced in their classroom—from the inquiry process to student voice—to amplify opportunities for students to drive their learning process. Tune in to learn more about PBL, and we’ll help you prepare to be vulnerable and fail forward, prepare for the mess, and prepare for the unexpected.
Teacher Insights
From investigating the best and worst lessons that have been taught to discussion about pedagogy and techniques, we talk with teachers to learn how their practice has changed during pandemic teaching—their challenges, their successes, and their wonderings for the future. Tune in to hear more about one teacher’s response to the important questions below:
- How would you describe PBL to someone who has never heard of it?
- How is PBL different from a project?
- Why can PBL be so powerful during distance learning?
- For a teacher that would like to get started with PBL right now, what are some tips you have for them?
- What types of projects have you observed or supported during remote learning?
- If you were going to give some advice to a teacher new to PBL, what would it be?