Transcendence Educational Partners

As cooler temperatures begin to fall upon us, those of us here in the South are preparing to dust off our famous "gumbo" recipes in an effort to soothe our souls with the magical elixir that only a good GUMBO can provide.

Much like the infamous southern dish, TEAM TEP's customized model is the perfect elixir for our partner schools' work towards sustainable student achievement outcomes. In this short video, Dr. Sheri describes the essence of a good gumbo and TEP's school improvement model.

Many educators have long thought that project-based learning (PBL) focused on the project. However, attention should be focused as much on the process, as the content-related products. From the beginning of PBL in a school, small steps should be encouraged for both teachers and students. Students must learn and practice the process as much as teachers.

Check out these 5 on getting started with PBL:

📓Choose One Product: In the beginning, assign all students one product and preferably the same product. This allows the teacher to practice PBL strategies in a much more controlled classroom. It will also allow the student to focus on one product and start to develop the skills necessary for authentic learning and the process of product development.

📓 Frequently Review Rubric: Students need to become accustomed to using the rubric to guide their work. Taking the time to review the rubric with the students is important, as is frequently reminding students of the rubric and its purpose to guide their work.

📓 Provide Structured Inquiry: Provide students with a structured process to follow. Over time this process can become more inquiry-based and less structured. We must remember that we need to learn how to do things before we can be expected to do them without direction.

📓 Provide Research Resources: Teaching students the research process is important for every school system. Depending on your role and your purpose it may be easier in the beginning to provide students with the research resources they may need. These may be in the form on online multimedia or articles, library-related resources, or from online platforms.

📓 Reflection: This should happen periodically through the PBL process. Encouraging peer feedback in a positive way during the process and as part of a product presentation is powerful. As students learn how to do this they can begin to grow and support each other in meaningful ways.

Starting small can lead to big wins over time. PBL is a very engaging practice but remember much of the process needs to be learned by both the teachers and the students.

Don't forget to like, share, and comment below!