Last year we had a meeting with Rebecca Dow from Innovative Education Consultants about the Project Based Curriculum. Our principal had visited South Auckland Middle School and observed how project based learning was implemented at this school, she was very impressed and asked Rebecca if she could meet with Mrs Raj and I as we will be co-teaching in Room 7 this year.
Our own visit to South Auckland Middle School was yesterday. Mrs Raj and I observed how the students were engaged, self managing, focussed (well most of them). I was quite impressed with the vast variety of topics the students were learning about in their projects. The villas in South Auckland Middle School classes were from Years 7-10. In every villa (hub) we visited, we saw students in these year levels working on their projects. Some were on independent activities and some were with their teachers in class discussions. The maximum students in each class is 15. We were told there is also a big waiting list of students wanting to attend South Auckland Middle School.
What is Project Based Learning?
Here is the Innovative Education Consultants - Project Based Curriculum website for more information. From my understanding, the projects curriculum is already planned and there are project for each year level. There are eight projects for the year in each year level. The projects are linked to the New Zealand Curriculum and are very much inquiry focussed encompassing core subjects in the New Zealand Curriculum. From what I saw, there is definitely a lot of room for our students to Learn, Create and Share. South Auckland Middle School do not have blogs or use the apps which we use in the Manaiakalani Cluster so my students will have many more avenues for exploration and creation for their projects. My students will also be able to constantly share their learning progress with their project through blogging.
From Term 2, we are planning to start Project Based learning in my classroom. In discussions with my principal and Mrs Raj yesterday, I shared for my teaching as inquiry this year, I will be looking at how project based learning will change the way my students learn and if that change in learning style will accelerate their achievement Writing, Maths and especially Reading which is our area of focus this year.
Project based learning is definitely a change in the way my students will be learning. They will be given projects to complete in five weeks and they will have self guided learning time to work on their projects during the week and also collaboration time with the teacher. At the moment, I am questioning how my role as the teacher will change too because the projects and the curriculum are already written. I am thinking of how my autonomy as the teacher will be affected in the classroom learning for my students. There is a primary school implementing the Project Based Curriculum in their school. I have asked to visit this school to see how project based learning is happening in a primary school setting.
My inquiry question is yet to be finalised but this is where I am at with my inquiry focus for this year. I would welcome any questions and suggestions regarding this blog post. It will help with giving me ideas and more direction regarding my teaching as inquiry for 2021.
Talofa lava Amy,
ReplyDeleteWow what an awesome opportunity to visit South Auckland Middle School and their project based curriculum. How important was small class size in enabling the teachers to conduct this approach? What did you notice of the year 7/8 students that was different at a middle school to a full primary?
This sounds like a fascinating inquiry focus - what a shift in pedagogy!
Hello Mrs Stone-Slater. Smaller class sizes definitely enables the teacher to have a lot of one to one time with each student on their project. What I have been thinking about is how I will rotate my groups because my students really like the smaller group discussions especially. my darlings who need that extra Mrs Tofa push/inspiration to get on with their task :). The year 7/8 students were just like our year 7/8 that excitement of being in a middle school certainly shone through. Some said the work was manageable some said it was a challenge but all excited about their learning. It. is going to be quite a learning journey for me this year along with my tamariki. Watch this space :). Thanks for the blog comment. See you Thursday.
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