PBL Based Learning Initiative Proposal---Group D Discussion Page

created by R. Cooper
Week of: Nov. 7-13
Members: Patsy Kraj, Josh Dempsey, Keri Driver, and Ruth Cooper
Narrative- need will be supported by this imitative during a 2-
5month period
*****Consensus is for us to build this workshop
around
6th grade Science standards which are linked to
other curriculum areas*********
*Group What will be our teacher audience? Create workshop for only grade or
Decision entire faculty?
Grade Level- Keri, which grade level, shows the greatest need for improvement? (-
6?
th
does not have to be your grade level.) Please give us your feedback
Workshop for on this decision.
teachers Ruth- I think limiting it to a specific grade will be helpful as we plan PBL
from only one activities and will help resource needs and budget demands.
special grade Keri--I think grade level would best; the smaller the scope the easier it
level will be to locate specific resources/information.
or entire Patsy - I think grade level would be best. Keri teaches 6th.
Josh
school??

Need Indentify a problem or need in improving student achievement at

Carrollton Junior High School—Carrollton, GA.
Idea---: Teacher Workshop need could be substantiated on the
necessity for continual Professional Development (? Use statements
made during prior class discussions)
Also the critical problem for funding professional development training
due to the current budget crisis.
Third possibility could be the new state mandated decision that science
scores will become the new alternate element for AYP calculations in
CRCT testing starting next year. (I think)-

Fourth basis--Need for technology skills to prepare students for the state
mandated 8th grade technology test.--Ruth

Patsy - Keri needs to give this because she would be able to provide the
documentation i.e. last year's test scores. She said there is a problem
with math and technology development being focused on math and
language arts.
 Our math scores are a concern; but most of our professional
development over the past few years has targeted math and LA. There
is very little attention given to social studies and science; so do we want
to focus on these areas--or focus on math?

Keri Base student need on School improvement plan, CRCT or other test
Check out this scores; school-wide remedial initiatives; ongoing grant programs….etc.
topic and give I am gathering information about the grant we received to fund our afterschool
us any remediation program as well as information about the STEM grant we recently
information received.
you can supply
for the needs
in your school

Demographics
Of school
Keri, Facts listed on GDOE website: Carrollton Jr. High School-Ruth

I got this info Number of Students in 2009: 946

from the GDOE Economically Disadvantaged: 47.00%
website...IF your Students with Disabilities: 7.00%
demographic English Language Learners: 5.00%
information has Did this School make Adequate Yearly Progress in 2009? Yes
changed greatly, It also noted that your school made AYP in all criteria areas.
please correct.
Here is the link to your school's report card from 2008-2009
IF you have http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/ReportingFW.aspx?
specific PageReq=102&SchoolId=6483&T=1&FY=2009
information for
6th grade -we Looks like the 6th grade lowest overall scores were in Science and then Math.
could use that
instead-Ruth
Patsy –We Ruth Idea- Let’s begin by establishing positive results in how Problem
probably need Based Learning units have proven to produce student improvement,
you to take generate a higher level of student involvement., help meet the needs of
ownership of different types of learners, .etc.
writing this Patsy - I will begin working on this but would really like to have the
need section content areas ASAP. I agree I should write this part.
since you are Patsy, how about looking up some general research data about how
our main PBL instructional units have been shown to improve student
 researcher. achievement. It would not have to be to a particular content
area....maybe data from a middle school level?-It could be highlighted
This section is on the home page of the wiki to promote reasoning for the need of the
where we have PBL training-Ruth OK-Patsy
to connect the The articles have been posted to the folder. A file with abstracts is also
10 peer review posted so that you can see the article number that goes with it.
articles
Patsy, I just saw that you had uploaded several articles. I am adding
PBL NARRATIVE DRAFT to the Google folder. Would you please add
your narrative section to that document. I am adding an intro, but feel
free to change it if it is not a good lead into your narrative

Descripti Answer these questions: Who, What, When, Where and Why?
on:
Vision, Keri—Please provide this info:
Mission, and
values of
Carrollton
Junior High This is the link to our website with the vision and mission statement of our
School school/system

http://www.carrolltoncityschools.net/?
DivisionID=5057&ToggleSideNav=ShowAll

Georgia Ruth-I’ll write this section from information on the GDOE website.
Department of
Education
Vision Mission

Audience??Unsure if this means teachers participating in workshop or students

participating in the PBL instructional lessons we create?? Which do you
: think is implied here?
Who will participate? How will they be recruited? What are the plans to
prepare them prior to key instructional activities?
Patsy I think it means the teachers. I like Ruth's idea. I do believe it should be
mandatory. It could be prepared a few months before by showcasing 1 lesson at
each faculty meeting leading up to the workshop.
I don't know if we could purpose it for faculty meetings since that is probably
for the entire faculty--Keri, Do you have scheduled grade level planning
times???
 Keri I assume we are targeting teachers.
Josh
Ruth If we are talking about teacher recruitment and only one grade level, I
think offering this workshop during the school day would be appropriate
—which will require budgeting for subs. If not, maybe we could offer
early release day(after their last class) for those teachers who attend.

Goals: • What will be the outcome of this Project? (knowledge, skills,

disposition of GPS
• Plans to evaluate its success.
?? Is this talking about evaluating the instructional student lessons OR
the teacher workshop?
Patsy I think we should include the teacher outcomes from the workshop and then
student outcomes from the implementations of pbl.
Keri I am not sure about what we are to access. If we are looking at the success of
teachers implementing the ideas that we present, then CRCT scores for the next
year after teachers have time to integrate changes in their lessons would be the
only true measure of success (that school's would really look at, anyway).
Student CRCT scores would also have to be examined to gauge success. The
problem is the time frame of receiving that data.
Josh
Ruth • Showing growth of student achievement—would have to
show some positive growth research data with other PBL
successes.Patsy, have you found any data that would support
this with your research? Have not pulled research yet other than
pbl lessons because I an waiting for the content areas.
OR come up with some purposed objectives that would show
growth
• Making teachers evaluate workshop by responding to a post
assessment survey
Josh, do you know anything about Google forms and setting up a link to
them on our wiki page?
Maybe, we could use this tool for a teacher survey. (I’ll write the
questions.) I think the survey is a good idea--that can be used for
immediate feedback from teachers.
Patsy
Keri
Josh
Ruth

Timeline Include planning phases, actual instructional events, and

evaluation and follow up.
 Patsy I like Ruth's timeline.
Keri Ruth's plan looks good. My only concern is when the workshops would be
conducted. Because of the budget situation we do not have teacher workdays
scheduled this year (furlough days) We can use our planning time which is 100
minutes--this is the time we use for meetings when necessary to avoid
afterschool activities and make sure that everyone attends.
Josh
Ruth I’m assuming this is for the teacher workshop; Possible time
frames could be:
• Initial planning with facilitators- 2 weeks of collaborative
planning and development of workshop outline with
examples of instructional activities
• Presentation to administration for consideration and
approval---2-4 weeks
• Confirmation of facilitators schedule and purchasing of
needed equipment/software- 4weeks
• Scheduling and advertisement of workshop-2 weeks
(concurrent with above step)
• Actual presentation-half day during school hours or 2
two hour sessions during teacher planning days or after
school
• Follow up or evaluation—immediate upon conclusion of
workshop

Links **All the links for our instructional activities will be embedded into
our wiki space** Josh, is this possible?
Each student instructional activity must contain 1 web 2.0 tool and
Please list
1 Microsoft Office product and align with the goals of the overall
below a brief
project based learning initiative and PBL concepts/principals
description of
PBL
Each member is expected to contribute a written narrative for a
instructional
PBL instructional activity which will include: narrative, handouts of
activity you are
instructions, handout of rubric for assessing student outcomes,
creating:
and samples of outcomes if possible.
(??Since our workshop will be purposed as a future workshop…we
will probably not have student examples) If any of us have actually
taught the PBL activity your are submitting...and have student
produced projects then submitting a sample would be GREAT!)
Patsy In our folder I posted the pertinent ones from our class discussion.
Here is another one: http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?
title=Inquiring_Minds_Want_To_Know&video_id=1101

Keri I will search for some video links to add

Josh
Ruth Let's look for some TeacherTube videos on Project Based Learning and embed
them into our wiki space...we could also do this for any web tool that we are
 including in our project.

Biograph ****Please submit a biographical summary here as soon as

possible******
ies
*All group
members*
Patsy I have a Bachelor of Science from Northeastern Illinois University. Major
biology and minor sociology. I have a Masters of Education in secondary
education from the University of Phoenix. I working on an Ed.S in Instructional
Technology at the University of West Georgia.
I am certified in Science 6-12, Math6-8, and am adding on Business and
Technology. My interest areas include integrating technology into the
curriculum and distance education. I am currently not working in the education
sector and own a counter top fabrication company with my husband.
Keri I have a B..S. in Political Science from the University of West Georgia as well
as a Master's in Public Administration, also from the University of West
Georgia. After completing my master's degree I received by teacher
certification in secondary social studies (grades 6-12). I have taught sixth grade
social studies for the past 4 years. I am currently working on my Ed.S in
Instructional Technology. I chose to pursue this degree in order to become
more effective with integrating technology into my curriculum in order to
provide my students the most update resources available. I am also very
interested in the decision making process that schools and school systems
engage in when making decisions regarding the level of use of technology and
technology purchases.
Josh
Ruth I received a Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood Education from the
University of West Georgia and I’m nearing completion of my Masters of
Education in Instructional Technology from the same institution. I have
taught various grade levels within different private and public schools
systems. Currently, I am a Title 1 Support Teacher working with
students from Kindergarten through fifth grade in a computer lab setting.
I have held this position for the last thirteen years. My continually
interest in integrating technology into all curriculum areas within the
elementary classroom is the basis for my participation in this
professional learning opportunity. My experience in designing
technology based lesson plans which directly link to Georgia
Performance Standards and National Educational Standards give me an
insight which I hope to share with other faculty members as we build a
quality resource for effective instructional activities.

Budget
and
Resourc
 es
**Keri, we Include materials, equipment, software applications, services from
need you input school personnel, other needed resources
here as to
what resources
will be
available within
your school

**All group Next list of all resources that will be needed for your part within in this
members** initiative. List specific items which will have to be purchased and give
approximate cost.
Patsy
Keri Very few items would need to be purchased. CJHS underwent a major
technology upgrade over teh summer. All classrooms have projectors; most
have Promethean boards; the other classrooms have netbooks. We all also have
Activslates.

If the workshop is provided during planning time, then the need for substitute
teachers will not be an issue. Also, we have two technology specialists in my
system, so they can administer the workshop which should eliminate the need to
hire facillitators.

Not sure if this is the direction we want to go in...let me know and I can look in
to some other items if necessary.

Th
Josh
Ruth I’ve sent a request to our district office for a quote of the average salary
paid for workshop facilitators and costs for hiring substitute teachers for
classroom coverage if the workshop is held during the school day.