L is the Goal

I was involved in a brief conversation on Twitter today about something else, but it led to this thought which I wanted to record here.

PBL is not the goal. (Problem-Based or Passion-Based Learning, depending on your take.) Now, don't get me wrong, I think Problem/Passion-Based Learning is mostly a good thing, and something I think we should do more of, but it's not the goal. It's the means.

L is the goal.

Learning.

We would do well to remember that.

The Independent Project

This story and video has been making the rounds on Twitter and I finally got a chance to watch it and then explore further. Each video is about 15 minutes, but I think they're worth your time. Here's the video that accompanied the Washington Post story:




Then visit the Independent Project website where you'll find this video:



The White Paper.

The Blog.

The Map.

What's stopping you?

Videos I'd Like My Future Principal to Watch: PBL at HTH

Let me start by freely admitting I don't know how to do this. Let me also admit that at the high school I think I'd like to create I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't hire myself as a teacher. Nevertheless, I'd like my future principal to watch the following video (yes, it's 15 minutes, but it's important to watch all of it).

I'd like my future principal to consider the ideas contained in this video and compare them to the more traditional view of what high school looks like that many of us have. I'd like them to lead a discussion around these two quotes from the video:

12:14 - We need to be evocative, we need to be midwives with teachers and find out how they learned in high school, what was their most memorable learning experiences. Draw that out of them and ask them to write it down on a piece of paper. It was a project, it had a mentor, it involved community, there was risk of failure, there was recognition of success, there was a public exhibition.

13:25 - I would argue that rigor is being in the company of a passionate adult who is rigorously pursuing inquiry in the area of their subject matter and is inviting students along as peers in that adult discourse. That's rigor.