For five years I lived on the Big Island of Hawaii and taught at a very unique Public Charter Middle School in Kailua-Kona. The school was science-based and outdoors. The school classrooms were on concrete slabs, and taught under shade cloth tents. Behind my student's backs I could see lava rock fields, the ocean and an occasional breaching whale. I arrived in Hawaii with one year of mainland California teaching experience under my belt and boy was I in for a change. My first year in Hawaii I tried to use my prior Education training and experiences to guide my teaching but these practices did not seem relate able in my new environment. It wasn't until a few veteran teachers came to me at the beginning of year 2, they wanted to discuss a new style of teaching called "project-based learning", (this type of teaching was common at the school). The two teachers became my mentors and walked me through project ideas and helped me write-up formal assignments. At the conclusion of the assignments, we would discuss success and failures to be used as ammunition for the next project idea. The projects were innovative and out of the box, they included state standards but gave room for student creativity and choice. As my projects improved, my teaching because better and my students were more engaged. I would even regularly see students working on my projects on their lunch break because they were enjoying them so much. That was the moment I knew that I was on to something with project-based learning. I am passionate about giving my students similar types of experiences in my current classroom. I continue to try to evolve as a teacher while not forgetting my past.
4 Comments
Evrim Cakir
9/10/2019 12:40:06 pm
I love PBL, as an art teacher I find that all my projects are automatically PBL.
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Joel Kriner
9/17/2019 07:40:54 am
Thank you. I once worked with an History teacher who had an Art background. She blended History using Art and the students absolutely love the projects and learned a ton and were super excited to come to class every day.
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Jeremy Smith
9/16/2019 07:29:33 pm
Wow that sounds like an amazing school, Joel. It can't be as easy to do pbl in Calistoga, except in science and social studies. Right? Or, have you been able to fit it in during our traditional math and language arts blocks?
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Joel Kriner
9/17/2019 07:38:55 am
Thanks Jeremy. Yes, PBL can be done in all subjects. I have actually found the PBL can actually be easiest in ELA and Math. We are currently doing a class Fantasy Football League using math stats. In ELA my goal is to get student work outside of the classroom for example sending off personal letters, creating school flyers, etc.
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AuthorJoel Kriner of the Touro Innovative Learning Masters Program. Archives
June 2020
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