Teaching Today: Projects Made Practical

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In this episode
​Project-based learning embraces the belief that students must cultivate their own knowledge, and helps make learning sticky through real-world experiences, personal reflection, and peer-to-peer collaboration. We're joined by New York City teachers — from the Charter High School for Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Industries and the Urban Assembly School for Collaborative Healthcare — who share their expertise and experience with making projects practical in classrooms. 

Final thoughts
What is one bit of advice we can offer to educators who might be implementing this work for the first time?

Kate Sanford
​Charter High School for Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Industries

Take some time to understand what problems feel pressing or present for your students. What are the things they can explore, latch onto, and find a personal connection with?



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Dr. Roberta Lenger Kang
Center for Professional Education of Teachers

One small thing we can do when beginning a project is explore the types of real-world genres that are in our field. No matter what type of class we're teaching, we can connect the real world work of people in our related field to the project our students will engage with. 


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Ryan Russo
Urban Assembly School for Collaborative Healthcare 

​Use your students as a resource. If you're struggling to come up with the next great idea for a project, send students a poll, ask them about their areas of interest, and see how they respond.  You can do this as a way to gauge interest and potential engagement before a project begins. 

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Dr. Sherrish Holloman
Center for Professional Education of Teachers

The best advice I can offer is to start small. Experiment with a 1-day or 2-day project — when you're just getting started, don't feel like you have to tackle a monumental project in your classroom. 

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INTERDISCIPLINARY PROJECTS

PBL IN THE WRITING CLASSROOM

PAIRING PBL & PACKAGED CURRICULA

TAGS: PROJECT-BASED LEARNING, TEACHING TODAY