Speaker 3 (00:00.098)
Welcome.
to the podcast for teachers. Magnified learning, your customized. When the trenches we are.
PBL Simpli- brought to you by PBL partner.
decade of experience with you.
bringing operated educational podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:15.042)
Designed for inspired classroom teachers seeking to transform their classrooms with project-based learning. Live your why. Classroom. Teach inspired. Here's your host, Ryan Stoyer.
learning.
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transform your class.
room.
Speaker 3 (00:29.87)
The day on the podcast, we've got a PBL showcase, which means we're going to bring you educators in the classroom doing PBL so you can hear about the PBL units. They're going to share their passion, their excitement for middle schoolers. And that takes a special person to be excited about middle schoolers. I personally love middle schoolers, but I know not everybody does. They can be apathetic. They can not care, but they can also be amazingly empowered and passionate. And sometimes the passion's a little misguided, but
you can get them going and it can really be a turnaround year for them before they get to high school because then you've got credits and it's really hard to help a junior with four credits, right? So I really think that eighth grade year middle school is so important to bring, the content knowledge, employability skills, and just some of that SEL, like they gotta figure out who they are. So I love talking to passionate middle school teachers and that's what we have on the podcast today. So stay tuned for that. If it's your first time here or maybe if it's your
80th time here. If you've never gone to whatispbl.com, whatispbl.com, you should. We've got some free resources there for you as a teacher in the classroom. You can immediately use those resources to be empowered, engaged, and inspired. That's our goal here. So we're going to jump into this conversation right away. We've got two rock stars. Joanna Clark is a seventh grade science teacher at Raymore Peculiar South Middle School. They're over by Kansas City, Zuri.
And she's taught fifth and seventh grade for almost 11 years. And they just got into PBL. You're to hear me asking a question kind of like, Hey, tell us about your storied long resume for PBL. And it's a little tongue in cheek because they've just started. But what we heard from you, the listener is that those are some of the stories you want to like, yes, you want to hear from our PBL veterans, but you also want to hear from people that just got started. And that's who we have on today. Joanna loves doing science experience with their middle school students and discussing what they've learned.
She has a PhD in chemistry and has done a ton of work identifying samples, but also teaching college chemistry. So she's in her sweet spot. And she's going to be with Angela, who's also been teaching for 10 years. And she's got experience in math. So we get a lot of questions about math and PBL, and you're going to hear a fired up educator. She's been for 25 years, she was an entrepreneur in the construction industry and then came to teaching. So her passion is learning experiences that are authentic.
Speaker 3 (02:54.326)
engaging and relevant to each learner. So you can tell exactly why they're on the podcast. It's gonna take you about three seconds to love these two. They are passionate, excited about getting their learners empowered around authentic problems. It's a great conversation. I hope you enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (03:14.432)
I'm Joanna Clark. I teach seventh grade science right now.
and I am Angela Stein and I teach math and algebra to our eighth graders.
All right, awesome. Thanks for being on the podcast again. Can you tell us your grandiose and long resume of PBL experience?
Okay. Well, it is not a long of resume. I have just started experiencing PBL in the fall. I launched my first unit right at the beginning of school. And so I'm getting ready to do a second unit that I think will be longer. But in the fall, I did a unit where kids designed a product and this spring I'm going to be doing a unit where they do some plant growth and do some experiments.
Super good. And if you, if you're not watching on YouTube, you're listening to the podcast. Like I'm smiling as I say that, cause we've got two teachers from Missouri that are pretty new to PBL and not necessarily new to teaching. Can you give us your teaching experience and your PBL experience?
Speaker 1 (04:26.45)
Yes. So you would like my teaching experience first. This is about my 11th year teaching students in middle school. I did not go to college to be a teacher, but after volunteering at schools with my children, I decided to become a teacher. And so I've taught math and mostly science for those 11 years. I've always taught it the traditional way, but now I'm learning about project-based learning. I attended a training over the summer.
And so I'm launching a second unit this spring and I tried my first unit in the fall.
Super good. I have a similar background. I came to education 10 years ago. So 10 years in the math classroom. My background that was in construction management and business management. So coming into PBL feels very natural to me. I want my students to engage with numbers in a way that is authentic to them and is real world and what they see around them.
The PBL for us is just getting started. We began conversations in our district last, I believe they started last fall and they just built, I toured a couple of schools and then we did a summer workshop together, a three day workshop. We got to practice, which was a wonderful experience. And then we came into the fall and I also worked through a very small PBL.
for fall and now we're ready for a much larger maybe scale of a project going into spring that we just launched this week.
Speaker 3 (06:11.534)
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And when we talk to our podcast audience, we were talking about this off air a little bit. Sometimes we've got folks that are listening that are just trying to figure out PBL or they just jumped in and they want to hear stories from the classroom, like those real world stories. And sometimes not from our 10 year veterans. They like those, but also folks that are just getting started. And so I think you're, that's why you're here.
We're here to tell your story. So we do start every interview with the first question, which is, what is your why for the work that you do?
Speaker 1 (06:47.692)
All right, the reason that I teach is because I really enjoy helping kids learn. And I learned that by volunteering at schools. And so I enjoy working with other teachers as well. So for me, it's really a double bonus. I love working with the students and helping them learn new things. I love discussing what they've learned with them. And I also enjoy learning from other teachers. I feel like it's a very collaborative profession.
And so that's why I teach. It's something that I enjoy and I feel like I can actually help kids learn and be successful in life using the knowledge that I've hopefully helped them gain.
Speaker 2 (07:30.284)
And I think I would add to that from my perspective, my why really centers around authenticity, personal experiences, lasting experiences for our students. I want them to feel as though they're empowered to learn. And by taking it away from maybe a traditional linear, there's a math word for you, linear path, and what we're used to for like a scope and sequence,
Mm.
Speaker 2 (07:58.624)
and thinking about it from a different perspective and opening our students' minds to see school or to see education as an individual quest, not as a teacher directed, but this is all about them and we want it to be all about them. And so I think that is truly my why. We're here for you. We're here to make every single day count for you and we'll figure out what that is together as we go.
That's so good. So good. Isn't it? talking about empowering kids, like moving them from passive to, to empowered. That's super good. I know why you're on the podcast. This is it. Like there's so, there's so many different rabbit trails I want to take, but we're going to stay close to our questions here. Maybe we'll see, but give us a little bit of background about your school. If you would just kind of where you're at, maybe the size of the school. I think you guys have two middle schools. So just a little bit of that so that we have some context.
for your PBL units we're about to talk about.
Okay, I would say that we're a combination of a rural and urban community. And would I be right in thinking about close to 900 students at South Middle School where we teach? Yeah. Yeah. And we have a slightly larger middle school at East. And so that's kind of we have a really interesting mix of students at our school.
And we were south of Kansas City. We are kind of a suburban school. We feed into one big high school. But for our PBL, we're really, our district is taking a path towards a school of choice. So when we look at a school of choice, students who may be in a traditional path, but those who really enjoy this project, inquiry-typed learning as well, which leads up into our high schools where we have multiple, I can't even.
Speaker 2 (09:51.65)
We add things all the time. So we have so many wonderful paths for them to take throughout their education. And where our PBL is coming in is at that middle school. So that's kind of been our missing block. And that's where we are. We're filling that missing block. So as they go into high school, they are, they're ready. Those communication skills, the soft skills, the ability to articulate their learning, what they need, advocate for themselves. We're starting that here in the seventh grade next year. That's our big.
big grade level next year. So that they're ready when they hit the freshman center and we have those career options ready for them and college ready, their preps and things like that.
That's super helpful. And we've got listeners that are going to be in similar schools and some that might not be, but I think you're still going to be able to hear in your PBL units, like things that can really transfer to any school. I already love that you're, your passion for learning and empowering kids. Like that's already come across. So now let's start to talk about one of your favorite PBLs. I don't know if you want to, if one wants to, if one of you wants to start and then jump into another, however you want to do it, it's fine with us. So, but go ahead and tell us a little bit about one of your
PBL units.
Okay, so in the fall, I did a PBL unit with a driving question of how can we use household ingredients to help design a product to help community members relax? We discussed how really right now in society we could use to teach people better ways to relax. Sometimes people do need to relax. And we wanted to use household materials because in seventh grade science, we do a lot to understand the properties of matter.
Speaker 1 (11:31.954)
and how different materials react. And so this was a really a good way for them to experience chemical reactions and chemical and physical properties. And so eventually we were driving towards them designing perhaps a bath bomb or a shower, fizzy or a scrub, something that would help them relax. And the community partner ended up being someone who in the past actually created things like bath bombs, shower, fizzies and lotions. And so
she actually came in, she did actually, she quit her job in the middle, but it was okay. I didn't panic. She still came in and she spoke to every one of my classes about the best way to make some of these products. And she gave us really useful insight into how to create things, how to get a better reaction, how to not ruin your product after you've created it. And students drafted questions and asked her questions and they,
really had a great experience being an audience. And then we would email her and ask her questions afterwards when we would have mishaps, like we created a bath bomb and it turned to foam instead. So she was a great community partner. And in the end, every group created something, whether it was a bath bomb or a shower fizzy, we may have had one.
a of foam that was created, but we still tried to learn from it. And they presented that to some community member, not just in the school, but even somebody outside in the community where they could actually have that product and take it and use it. And along the way, kids tested the product themselves and they really enjoyed that part of it.
Super good. Super good. So you've got standard space unit, right? You've got a community partner that's tied in. How did you find your community partner? Cause she sounds like she was awesome.
Speaker 1 (13:24.842)
Okay, so actually my community partner came because at meet the teacher night, I found a parent who literally worked for a company that created the products. And when she told me, was like, you gotta be kidding me. Hey, how would you be a community partner? And I had to go through the process here at our school where I had to make sure she could get approved and things like that. but
but she was wonderful and the kids really appreciated her.
So good. So always be on the lookout for a community partner you never know.
Yes. I'm going take a little bit different approach with my PBL and talk about the one that we just launched. OK, because I think this right now is the one that is just exciting. It's new. It's fresh. It's we just hit the ground running. But we are having our students were challenged to them to redesign a learning space. So our building here is set up around pods. I think that's pretty common for middle schools where you just got this big open space.
and it's dark and it's dreary and we're not using it to learn. We're using it as a great hallway. And their question for them was how can you as student designers use the elements of lighting, sound, color, and layout to create a lasting, inspiring learning space that will impact students for years to come here at SMS? And the reason we're giving this to them is we are actually in that process within our district. So it's
Speaker 2 (14:58.092)
The timing is spot on. And I tell my eighth graders, you are the expert. You've been in this building for three years. You know everything about this building. Now let's use your voice and take that and amplify that and let the community know this is what we need. This is what we want. And they're in. They're ready to go. We have built a team around them. So we have building administration. We have district administration. School grounds has been into the building.
I've talked with some interior designers. So it's big. And I think what's really cool is we're using other buildings. So high school students are coming in to tutor, to give advice, to lend an ear. We even have a team coming from our lead center who was working on a digital media project of their own. And so they're gonna come in and record and the kids are like, wow, all of these people are coming to see us.
And it just makes them feel, they feel very, not to use the word empowered, but just this, they're listening.
You're like, wait a minute, my middle schoolers are listening. What's happening?
And then with this project, it's a twofold. So math is kind of taking the lead on the geometry and the relationships between products and space. The ELA is taking this perspective of research and persuasiveness of this is why we need this. This is what would help us learn better. So they're doing a complete research project on the backside. So it's not, well, I just think lights would look pretty.
Speaker 2 (16:35.522)
But why would we want this type of light? Where is the sustainability? How does that help your brain? What is that focus piece? So has all these layers. And then our end product will be that project that comes back to administration from the students. So the students are bringing that into their community and saying, this is us.
Yeah, that's so good. That's so good. Like, again, we've got people listening and say, wait a minute, your middle schoolers are listening. Like I taught eighth grade middle school and I love eighth. I love eighth grade. I love middle schoolers and you can just tell the difference, right? When they're going through the motions and like you said, I don't know, they're just, they're doing it. It's so good. But I think when you take the leap, right, they'll go with you, right? They can feel the excitement. They can feel the authenticity.
of the work, like this is really something that's happening and they'll get into it. Can you maybe tell us a learner story? Let's get down into like, let's tell stories. We love stories in Magnify Learning. So can you give us a student story of, you one of those kids is like, suddenly they're listening, maybe they weren't before, but now suddenly they've kind of sat up and said, yeah, I'm gonna do this.
Yeah, I had a student who never really seemed very engaged and would kind of struggle with normal content in class. And when it came time to create her very own bath bomb, I was shocked because not only did she create a completely functional one that was wonderful, her slides were amazing. And I learned a lot more about her from looking at how she chose to present her product. And I felt like
I was really able to get to know my students better, watching them be creative, watching them make choices about their design. But I also had like a group of boys who would seem very off task. You can't imagine that, but in middle school kids can be off task. And so I let kids choose their groups a lot based on who they felt they wanted to be with. And I did survey them and ask them questions to see who would be a leader and who might necessarily follow.
Speaker 3 (18:28.904)
Casually,
Speaker 1 (18:43.566)
So I tried to make good groups, but I was concerned about this group. And so I was shocked because they were one of the first groups done. Everything worked well. They made a successful product. They couldn't wait to go and present it. And everything worked really well. were not many disagreements and they just kept going and they were on task because they were excited about it. And I really liked that.
So they were they were enjoying it because they were getting to be a part of a making it and creating it and this also involved time in the back of class mixing up a product and testing it and I think that was fun for them and they immediately got to evaluate it and say okay we had a too much liquid and nothing worked so we're gonna go back to the drawing board. What did we do wrong? Let's look at the original knowledge we have about this recipe. How can we change things?
So I was really shocked how much they worked and how hard they tried to actually create a very decent product. And they worked way more quickly than I would have expected.
Yeah, super good. Love it. Angela?
Yeah, I had a couple of boys in our little, we had that little short project at the end of the semester. And these two boys were in class together. They weren't really close, but their team worked out that they were going to be the in charge of the technology piece, the part where they needed to put together questions for their peers. So we're making sort of gaming platforms so that their peers could answer questions.
Speaker 2 (20:21.41)
along the way. I thought, okay, they're going to make a Google form. So they started with that and they're like, we don't like it. And I was like, okay, so what's next? And they're like, we can make a game. they all the gaming platforms out there, I thought they were going to come back with the traditional ones that we see in class. It's like, okay, so we're going to get, you know, those cahoots and quizzes and quizlets, the ones that are just kind of game kids, they're all kind of kind of running around with the kids. But now, these two boys sat down and they decided to write code for a Google site.
And they brought it to me and they were so excited. And I was like, that's really cool. remember that we needed that to be where the students could check their work. And they go, well, maybe it can. And I said, but can it? And the next day they came back, said, but it can. And it's like, how do know? And they go, look. And so every day these two boys were the first ones in, they had their computers set up and they were waiting for me. They were like, I'm going to show you what it can do now.
And they had colors embedded, they had different types of questions, but they could express why they picked the questions they wanted, why these were the best questions for the program and for what they were trying to do for the class. And it was so much fun for them. I came to class every day as excited as they were, because I wanted to know what they did next.
Yeah, that's so, it's so exciting. Cause there's a continuous improvement in there, right? There's just a growth mindset. Like they didn't shut down. You didn't lower standards, right? In fact, you kind of re-raised them. So like, that's great guys, but this is what it needs to do. This is the success criteria and they stepped up to the challenge. That was super cool. So I feel like this question is almost moot at this point because there's so many things optimistic about what we just talked about and heard, but I w I'd like you to
to kind of think through like when you look at education today, there are a lot of different variables out there. What are you most optimistic about when you look at education?
Speaker 1 (22:16.566)
I'm optimistic about the fact that students now seem like very powerful thinkers and we're trying to ways to help them think for themselves. And I think parents actually really do care deeply that their kids learn. They want them to know how to do a job, complete work, and they would love for them to know how to communicate with other people about it. So we have support and that makes me very optimistic. We also have really unimaginable tools.
We have so many tools we can use to help kids now. So I feel like if we push kids to their potential, we have some great leaders that are going to be coming before us.
Super good.
I really would say student voice. My students are communicating. They're articulating. They're asking good questions, not just is this right? Is this wrong? But I was working on this and I found I found that the same different. Did I do something so they're questioning to me has changed as I am thinking more in a PBL mindset. So they're picking up on how I ask questions and.
That's coming back to me. And I just think that that is the heart of learning when they take that control and they're like, okay, I own this and I'm going to fix this problem. Here's where I'm at. Can you help me get to the next step? And that's that voice piece that sometimes we, it's hard to facilitate when you have a room of 30, how do you give a voice to 30? But they have, they've really come out of their shells. And I think that that for me has been something that's new.
Speaker 2 (23:54.35)
Just in the last few years, I'm seeing more and more in different programs, in different classes, and I think it's especially true in the math classrooms.
Yeah, that's exciting. You give kids a voice and they can use it appropriately and it's engaging for them, right? They can really step up. Let's say that we've got some teachers listening, because we do, that are on the fence about jumping into PBL. Like some people tune into the podcast to learn about PBL, right? It's just one of the vehicles we have now to learn about things. What would you tell them if they're on the fence about jumping into PBL?
I would tell them why not try. It's a great way to help kids think for themselves. And I feel like we really need to have kids do that. Think for themselves, present what they know, and try to improve on what they've learned. And I think as teachers, we grow all the time and we try things. I feel like really good teachers like to try new things because they like to change things up. This is a big change up.
But I really feel like parents are gonna be very supportive of this. I think they wanna hear about kids getting experiences like that. They want kids to be creative, they want them to design, and they want their students to someday grow up and be successful in life. And I really feel like PBL gives kids the tools to be successful in life and be successfully employed someday. An employer is going to want someone who can
either create a product or create a design and defend and present it. So I think it would be a good thing to try. think that we're going to give students a really impactful hands-on experience. They're going to be able to be creative and it's really just more fun to grade things when they've created it. And you see the student and what they've created more.
Speaker 1 (25:50.626)
Like when you see the choices they make along the way, you get to know your students more. So I think in the end, it's way more fun than grading just a quiz, right? You get to see some very exciting projects that they've created and that's more fun. If you're going to grade at night, grade something fun.
There you go. That's it right there. That's the poll quote right there. Mine is, we'll grade something fun. Super good.
And they are fun to grade. You do see personality. Personality comes out when you're looking at projects. You see the student behind the project or behind the product or behind the design, behind whatever they're making for you or presenting to you. You kind of see some of that. Middle schoolers are kind of quirky. They just are. And you get that. It comes through in their presentations. yeah, you're going to laugh a few times when you're going through their projects.
Because just some of the things they say and where they put that is priceless, which I think keeps us going as educators. That's why we're here. We love students. We love children. We love to communicate with them. We love to connect with them. And that's just another way of us connecting with them in a way that is probably a little less intimidating for them. That's not always the thing they want to do.
Well, it's such great advice. And as you've been telling your stories about PBL, like you're just smiling, right? Like there's joy in the work that you're doing, you know, and you're doing it with, you know, you're doing it together, you're it with good people, but we all want to get to know our kids, right? All our students a little bit better. And sometimes it's hard to do that. And PBL kind of lets you do that while you're in the process of teaching, right? And we get to know our kids and inspire them. It's super cool.
Speaker 3 (27:37.76)
All right, so how about we'll give people, know, in the show notes, we'll put a link to your website. I'd love to get people out there to come visit. People need come out and see this work in action. Cause we've got middle schoolers that are excited to do work. And there are some people that don't believe that's possible, right? know someone's listening said, no, my middle schoolers. It's like, yes, your middle schoolers will come awake. So what, but before we do that, can you give our audience just one little like parting advice?
Actually, this question is for your learners. So if some of your learners are listening to this, they get a hold of this podcast episode, what would you want to tell your learners now that you're on the air?
Speaker 1 (28:19.502)
never stop learning how to give really constructive feedback. That was something that was a struggle. In fact, we had a tiny feedback crisis for our first. And so that really helped me realize how much we need to learn how to give each other feedback on our ideas. And when we give feedback, needs to be constructive, helpful, move things forward. And so parting advice for learners would be always
Find a way to give useful, constructive feedback as you're going through your design process because you have to work with others. And it doesn't do you any good to alienate yourself. So what you want to do is you want to learn how to work as a real team member and help move people forward.
Yeah. And I would say also to make sure that you take risk, you're going to step out of your comfort zone. You're not going to be able to hide behind your desk. You're going to have to jump out there, take those risks, embrace those challenges. I want you to know that your teachers got your back. We're going to help you along the way. Don't feel like you're out there alone, but we are going to let you take the lead. We're not going to pull you along. We're going to push you when you need a push, but I'm not going to reach down and grab you and pull you up.
So I want you to take the lead. want you to take those first steps and then just let me know when you need me to take you to the next place.
That's super good. empowering. Joanna, Angela, thank you for being on the podcast today. Thanks for sharing your work and your classrooms with us.
Speaker 2 (29:54.68)
Thank you.
Thank you.
All right, PBL simplified audience. You just heard a great example. It's a PBL showcase of two teachers that have been teaching for a decade and they just got into PBL and they smiled the entire podcast, right? As they got to tell about the engagement, the empowerment, the experiences that their learners are getting as they bring PBL to their middle school classrooms. Um, and this can happen for you. You know, one of our first suggestions is you go out and see a school that's doing this work.
So if you wanna come out around Kansas City, you can go and see these classrooms in action. We've got some other national PBL model sites that we can take you to as well. But if you're on the fence, it's time to jump in. I mean, why not? That's what you were given as far as advice and I love it. Why not jump in? So you can go out and teach inspired.
That's
Speaker 1 (30:47.7)
If episode, please consider rating and reviewing the show. It takes two minutes to scroll to the with five stars and select write a review. What was most helpful about that episode is it helps the next inspired teacher just
like to find their wa-
You. I and T. Inspired.
Speaker 3 (00:00.098)
Welcome.
to the podcast for teachers. Magnified learning, your customized. When the trenches we are.
PBL Simpli- brought to you by PBL partner.
decade of experience with you.
bringing operated educational podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:15.042)
Designed for inspired classroom teachers seeking to transform their classrooms with project-based learning. Live your why. Classroom. Teach inspired. Here's your host, Ryan Stoyer.
learning.
you
transform your class.
room.
Speaker 3 (00:29.87)
The day on the podcast, we've got a PBL showcase, which means we're going to bring you educators in the classroom doing PBL so you can hear about the PBL units. They're going to share their passion, their excitement for middle schoolers. And that takes a special person to be excited about middle schoolers. I personally love middle schoolers, but I know not everybody does. They can be apathetic. They can not care, but they can also be amazingly empowered and passionate. And sometimes the passion's a little misguided, but
you can get them going and it can really be a turnaround year for them before they get to high school because then you've got credits and it's really hard to help a junior with four credits, right? So I really think that eighth grade year middle school is so important to bring, the content knowledge, employability skills, and just some of that SEL, like they gotta figure out who they are. So I love talking to passionate middle school teachers and that's what we have on the podcast today. So stay tuned for that. If it's your first time here or maybe if it's your
80th time here. If you've never gone to whatispbl.com, whatispbl.com, you should. We've got some free resources there for you as a teacher in the classroom. You can immediately use those resources to be empowered, engaged, and inspired. That's our goal here. So we're going to jump into this conversation right away. We've got two rock stars. Joanna Clark is a seventh grade science teacher at Raymore Peculiar South Middle School. They're over by Kansas City, Zuri.
And she's taught fifth and seventh grade for almost 11 years. And they just got into PBL. You're to hear me asking a question kind of like, Hey, tell us about your storied long resume for PBL. And it's a little tongue in cheek because they've just started. But what we heard from you, the listener is that those are some of the stories you want to like, yes, you want to hear from our PBL veterans, but you also want to hear from people that just got started. And that's who we have on today. Joanna loves doing science experience with their middle school students and discussing what they've learned.
She has a PhD in chemistry and has done a ton of work identifying samples, but also teaching college chemistry. So she's in her sweet spot. And she's going to be with Angela, who's also been teaching for 10 years. And she's got experience in math. So we get a lot of questions about math and PBL, and you're going to hear a fired up educator. She's been for 25 years, she was an entrepreneur in the construction industry and then came to teaching. So her passion is learning experiences that are authentic.
Speaker 3 (02:54.326)
engaging and relevant to each learner. So you can tell exactly why they're on the podcast. It's gonna take you about three seconds to love these two. They are passionate, excited about getting their learners empowered around authentic problems. It's a great conversation. I hope you enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (03:14.432)
I'm Joanna Clark. I teach seventh grade science right now.
and I am Angela Stein and I teach math and algebra to our eighth graders.
All right, awesome. Thanks for being on the podcast again. Can you tell us your grandiose and long resume of PBL experience?
Okay. Well, it is not a long of resume. I have just started experiencing PBL in the fall. I launched my first unit right at the beginning of school. And so I'm getting ready to do a second unit that I think will be longer. But in the fall, I did a unit where kids designed a product and this spring I'm going to be doing a unit where they do some plant growth and do some experiments.
Super good. And if you, if you're not watching on YouTube, you're listening to the podcast. Like I'm smiling as I say that, cause we've got two teachers from Missouri that are pretty new to PBL and not necessarily new to teaching. Can you give us your teaching experience and your PBL experience?
Speaker 1 (04:26.45)
Yes. So you would like my teaching experience first. This is about my 11th year teaching students in middle school. I did not go to college to be a teacher, but after volunteering at schools with my children, I decided to become a teacher. And so I've taught math and mostly science for those 11 years. I've always taught it the traditional way, but now I'm learning about project-based learning. I attended a training over the summer.
And so I'm launching a second unit this spring and I tried my first unit in the fall.
Super good. I have a similar background. I came to education 10 years ago. So 10 years in the math classroom. My background that was in construction management and business management. So coming into PBL feels very natural to me. I want my students to engage with numbers in a way that is authentic to them and is real world and what they see around them.
The PBL for us is just getting started. We began conversations in our district last, I believe they started last fall and they just built, I toured a couple of schools and then we did a summer workshop together, a three day workshop. We got to practice, which was a wonderful experience. And then we came into the fall and I also worked through a very small PBL.
for fall and now we're ready for a much larger maybe scale of a project going into spring that we just launched this week.
Speaker 3 (06:11.534)
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And when we talk to our podcast audience, we were talking about this off air a little bit. Sometimes we've got folks that are listening that are just trying to figure out PBL or they just jumped in and they want to hear stories from the classroom, like those real world stories. And sometimes not from our 10 year veterans. They like those, but also folks that are just getting started. And so I think you're, that's why you're here.
We're here to tell your story. So we do start every interview with the first question, which is, what is your why for the work that you do?
Speaker 1 (06:47.692)
All right, the reason that I teach is because I really enjoy helping kids learn. And I learned that by volunteering at schools. And so I enjoy working with other teachers as well. So for me, it's really a double bonus. I love working with the students and helping them learn new things. I love discussing what they've learned with them. And I also enjoy learning from other teachers. I feel like it's a very collaborative profession.
And so that's why I teach. It's something that I enjoy and I feel like I can actually help kids learn and be successful in life using the knowledge that I've hopefully helped them gain.
Speaker 2 (07:30.284)
And I think I would add to that from my perspective, my why really centers around authenticity, personal experiences, lasting experiences for our students. I want them to feel as though they're empowered to learn. And by taking it away from maybe a traditional linear, there's a math word for you, linear path, and what we're used to for like a scope and sequence,
Mm.
Speaker 2 (07:58.624)
and thinking about it from a different perspective and opening our students' minds to see school or to see education as an individual quest, not as a teacher directed, but this is all about them and we want it to be all about them. And so I think that is truly my why. We're here for you. We're here to make every single day count for you and we'll figure out what that is together as we go.
That's so good. So good. Isn't it? talking about empowering kids, like moving them from passive to, to empowered. That's super good. I know why you're on the podcast. This is it. Like there's so, there's so many different rabbit trails I want to take, but we're going to stay close to our questions here. Maybe we'll see, but give us a little bit of background about your school. If you would just kind of where you're at, maybe the size of the school. I think you guys have two middle schools. So just a little bit of that so that we have some context.
for your PBL units we're about to talk about.
Okay, I would say that we're a combination of a rural and urban community. And would I be right in thinking about close to 900 students at South Middle School where we teach? Yeah. Yeah. And we have a slightly larger middle school at East. And so that's kind of we have a really interesting mix of students at our school.
And we were south of Kansas City. We are kind of a suburban school. We feed into one big high school. But for our PBL, we're really, our district is taking a path towards a school of choice. So when we look at a school of choice, students who may be in a traditional path, but those who really enjoy this project, inquiry-typed learning as well, which leads up into our high schools where we have multiple, I can't even.
Speaker 2 (09:51.65)
We add things all the time. So we have so many wonderful paths for them to take throughout their education. And where our PBL is coming in is at that middle school. So that's kind of been our missing block. And that's where we are. We're filling that missing block. So as they go into high school, they are, they're ready. Those communication skills, the soft skills, the ability to articulate their learning, what they need, advocate for themselves. We're starting that here in the seventh grade next year. That's our big.
big grade level next year. So that they're ready when they hit the freshman center and we have those career options ready for them and college ready, their preps and things like that.
That's super helpful. And we've got listeners that are going to be in similar schools and some that might not be, but I think you're still going to be able to hear in your PBL units, like things that can really transfer to any school. I already love that you're, your passion for learning and empowering kids. Like that's already come across. So now let's start to talk about one of your favorite PBLs. I don't know if you want to, if one wants to, if one of you wants to start and then jump into another, however you want to do it, it's fine with us. So, but go ahead and tell us a little bit about one of your
PBL units.
Okay, so in the fall, I did a PBL unit with a driving question of how can we use household ingredients to help design a product to help community members relax? We discussed how really right now in society we could use to teach people better ways to relax. Sometimes people do need to relax. And we wanted to use household materials because in seventh grade science, we do a lot to understand the properties of matter.
Speaker 1 (11:31.954)
and how different materials react. And so this was a really a good way for them to experience chemical reactions and chemical and physical properties. And so eventually we were driving towards them designing perhaps a bath bomb or a shower, fizzy or a scrub, something that would help them relax. And the community partner ended up being someone who in the past actually created things like bath bombs, shower, fizzies and lotions. And so
she actually came in, she did actually, she quit her job in the middle, but it was okay. I didn't panic. She still came in and she spoke to every one of my classes about the best way to make some of these products. And she gave us really useful insight into how to create things, how to get a better reaction, how to not ruin your product after you've created it. And students drafted questions and asked her questions and they,
really had a great experience being an audience. And then we would email her and ask her questions afterwards when we would have mishaps, like we created a bath bomb and it turned to foam instead. So she was a great community partner. And in the end, every group created something, whether it was a bath bomb or a shower fizzy, we may have had one.
a of foam that was created, but we still tried to learn from it. And they presented that to some community member, not just in the school, but even somebody outside in the community where they could actually have that product and take it and use it. And along the way, kids tested the product themselves and they really enjoyed that part of it.
Super good. Super good. So you've got standard space unit, right? You've got a community partner that's tied in. How did you find your community partner? Cause she sounds like she was awesome.
Speaker 1 (13:24.842)
Okay, so actually my community partner came because at meet the teacher night, I found a parent who literally worked for a company that created the products. And when she told me, was like, you gotta be kidding me. Hey, how would you be a community partner? And I had to go through the process here at our school where I had to make sure she could get approved and things like that. but
but she was wonderful and the kids really appreciated her.
So good. So always be on the lookout for a community partner you never know.
Yes. I'm going take a little bit different approach with my PBL and talk about the one that we just launched. OK, because I think this right now is the one that is just exciting. It's new. It's fresh. It's we just hit the ground running. But we are having our students were challenged to them to redesign a learning space. So our building here is set up around pods. I think that's pretty common for middle schools where you just got this big open space.
and it's dark and it's dreary and we're not using it to learn. We're using it as a great hallway. And their question for them was how can you as student designers use the elements of lighting, sound, color, and layout to create a lasting, inspiring learning space that will impact students for years to come here at SMS? And the reason we're giving this to them is we are actually in that process within our district. So it's
Speaker 2 (14:58.092)
The timing is spot on. And I tell my eighth graders, you are the expert. You've been in this building for three years. You know everything about this building. Now let's use your voice and take that and amplify that and let the community know this is what we need. This is what we want. And they're in. They're ready to go. We have built a team around them. So we have building administration. We have district administration. School grounds has been into the building.
I've talked with some interior designers. So it's big. And I think what's really cool is we're using other buildings. So high school students are coming in to tutor, to give advice, to lend an ear. We even have a team coming from our lead center who was working on a digital media project of their own. And so they're gonna come in and record and the kids are like, wow, all of these people are coming to see us.
And it just makes them feel, they feel very, not to use the word empowered, but just this, they're listening.
You're like, wait a minute, my middle schoolers are listening. What's happening?
And then with this project, it's a twofold. So math is kind of taking the lead on the geometry and the relationships between products and space. The ELA is taking this perspective of research and persuasiveness of this is why we need this. This is what would help us learn better. So they're doing a complete research project on the backside. So it's not, well, I just think lights would look pretty.
Speaker 2 (16:35.522)
But why would we want this type of light? Where is the sustainability? How does that help your brain? What is that focus piece? So has all these layers. And then our end product will be that project that comes back to administration from the students. So the students are bringing that into their community and saying, this is us.
Yeah, that's so good. That's so good. Like, again, we've got people listening and say, wait a minute, your middle schoolers are listening. Like I taught eighth grade middle school and I love eighth. I love eighth grade. I love middle schoolers and you can just tell the difference, right? When they're going through the motions and like you said, I don't know, they're just, they're doing it. It's so good. But I think when you take the leap, right, they'll go with you, right? They can feel the excitement. They can feel the authenticity.
of the work, like this is really something that's happening and they'll get into it. Can you maybe tell us a learner story? Let's get down into like, let's tell stories. We love stories in Magnify Learning. So can you give us a student story of, you one of those kids is like, suddenly they're listening, maybe they weren't before, but now suddenly they've kind of sat up and said, yeah, I'm gonna do this.
Yeah, I had a student who never really seemed very engaged and would kind of struggle with normal content in class. And when it came time to create her very own bath bomb, I was shocked because not only did she create a completely functional one that was wonderful, her slides were amazing. And I learned a lot more about her from looking at how she chose to present her product. And I felt like
I was really able to get to know my students better, watching them be creative, watching them make choices about their design. But I also had like a group of boys who would seem very off task. You can't imagine that, but in middle school kids can be off task. And so I let kids choose their groups a lot based on who they felt they wanted to be with. And I did survey them and ask them questions to see who would be a leader and who might necessarily follow.
Speaker 3 (18:28.904)
Casually,
Speaker 1 (18:43.566)
So I tried to make good groups, but I was concerned about this group. And so I was shocked because they were one of the first groups done. Everything worked well. They made a successful product. They couldn't wait to go and present it. And everything worked really well. were not many disagreements and they just kept going and they were on task because they were excited about it. And I really liked that.
So they were they were enjoying it because they were getting to be a part of a making it and creating it and this also involved time in the back of class mixing up a product and testing it and I think that was fun for them and they immediately got to evaluate it and say okay we had a too much liquid and nothing worked so we're gonna go back to the drawing board. What did we do wrong? Let's look at the original knowledge we have about this recipe. How can we change things?
So I was really shocked how much they worked and how hard they tried to actually create a very decent product. And they worked way more quickly than I would have expected.
Yeah, super good. Love it. Angela?
Yeah, I had a couple of boys in our little, we had that little short project at the end of the semester. And these two boys were in class together. They weren't really close, but their team worked out that they were going to be the in charge of the technology piece, the part where they needed to put together questions for their peers. So we're making sort of gaming platforms so that their peers could answer questions.
Speaker 2 (20:21.41)
along the way. I thought, okay, they're going to make a Google form. So they started with that and they're like, we don't like it. And I was like, okay, so what's next? And they're like, we can make a game. they all the gaming platforms out there, I thought they were going to come back with the traditional ones that we see in class. It's like, okay, so we're going to get, you know, those cahoots and quizzes and quizlets, the ones that are just kind of game kids, they're all kind of kind of running around with the kids. But now, these two boys sat down and they decided to write code for a Google site.
And they brought it to me and they were so excited. And I was like, that's really cool. remember that we needed that to be where the students could check their work. And they go, well, maybe it can. And I said, but can it? And the next day they came back, said, but it can. And it's like, how do know? And they go, look. And so every day these two boys were the first ones in, they had their computers set up and they were waiting for me. They were like, I'm going to show you what it can do now.
And they had colors embedded, they had different types of questions, but they could express why they picked the questions they wanted, why these were the best questions for the program and for what they were trying to do for the class. And it was so much fun for them. I came to class every day as excited as they were, because I wanted to know what they did next.
Yeah, that's so, it's so exciting. Cause there's a continuous improvement in there, right? There's just a growth mindset. Like they didn't shut down. You didn't lower standards, right? In fact, you kind of re-raised them. So like, that's great guys, but this is what it needs to do. This is the success criteria and they stepped up to the challenge. That was super cool. So I feel like this question is almost moot at this point because there's so many things optimistic about what we just talked about and heard, but I w I'd like you to
to kind of think through like when you look at education today, there are a lot of different variables out there. What are you most optimistic about when you look at education?
Speaker 1 (22:16.566)
I'm optimistic about the fact that students now seem like very powerful thinkers and we're trying to ways to help them think for themselves. And I think parents actually really do care deeply that their kids learn. They want them to know how to do a job, complete work, and they would love for them to know how to communicate with other people about it. So we have support and that makes me very optimistic. We also have really unimaginable tools.
We have so many tools we can use to help kids now. So I feel like if we push kids to their potential, we have some great leaders that are going to be coming before us.
Super good.
I really would say student voice. My students are communicating. They're articulating. They're asking good questions, not just is this right? Is this wrong? But I was working on this and I found I found that the same different. Did I do something so they're questioning to me has changed as I am thinking more in a PBL mindset. So they're picking up on how I ask questions and.
That's coming back to me. And I just think that that is the heart of learning when they take that control and they're like, okay, I own this and I'm going to fix this problem. Here's where I'm at. Can you help me get to the next step? And that's that voice piece that sometimes we, it's hard to facilitate when you have a room of 30, how do you give a voice to 30? But they have, they've really come out of their shells. And I think that that for me has been something that's new.
Speaker 2 (23:54.35)
Just in the last few years, I'm seeing more and more in different programs, in different classes, and I think it's especially true in the math classrooms.
Yeah, that's exciting. You give kids a voice and they can use it appropriately and it's engaging for them, right? They can really step up. Let's say that we've got some teachers listening, because we do, that are on the fence about jumping into PBL. Like some people tune into the podcast to learn about PBL, right? It's just one of the vehicles we have now to learn about things. What would you tell them if they're on the fence about jumping into PBL?
I would tell them why not try. It's a great way to help kids think for themselves. And I feel like we really need to have kids do that. Think for themselves, present what they know, and try to improve on what they've learned. And I think as teachers, we grow all the time and we try things. I feel like really good teachers like to try new things because they like to change things up. This is a big change up.
But I really feel like parents are gonna be very supportive of this. I think they wanna hear about kids getting experiences like that. They want kids to be creative, they want them to design, and they want their students to someday grow up and be successful in life. And I really feel like PBL gives kids the tools to be successful in life and be successfully employed someday. An employer is going to want someone who can
either create a product or create a design and defend and present it. So I think it would be a good thing to try. think that we're going to give students a really impactful hands-on experience. They're going to be able to be creative and it's really just more fun to grade things when they've created it. And you see the student and what they've created more.
Speaker 1 (25:50.626)
Like when you see the choices they make along the way, you get to know your students more. So I think in the end, it's way more fun than grading just a quiz, right? You get to see some very exciting projects that they've created and that's more fun. If you're going to grade at night, grade something fun.
There you go. That's it right there. That's the poll quote right there. Mine is, we'll grade something fun. Super good.
And they are fun to grade. You do see personality. Personality comes out when you're looking at projects. You see the student behind the project or behind the product or behind the design, behind whatever they're making for you or presenting to you. You kind of see some of that. Middle schoolers are kind of quirky. They just are. And you get that. It comes through in their presentations. yeah, you're going to laugh a few times when you're going through their projects.
Because just some of the things they say and where they put that is priceless, which I think keeps us going as educators. That's why we're here. We love students. We love children. We love to communicate with them. We love to connect with them. And that's just another way of us connecting with them in a way that is probably a little less intimidating for them. That's not always the thing they want to do.
Well, it's such great advice. And as you've been telling your stories about PBL, like you're just smiling, right? Like there's joy in the work that you're doing, you know, and you're doing it with, you know, you're doing it together, you're it with good people, but we all want to get to know our kids, right? All our students a little bit better. And sometimes it's hard to do that. And PBL kind of lets you do that while you're in the process of teaching, right? And we get to know our kids and inspire them. It's super cool.
Speaker 3 (27:37.76)
All right, so how about we'll give people, know, in the show notes, we'll put a link to your website. I'd love to get people out there to come visit. People need come out and see this work in action. Cause we've got middle schoolers that are excited to do work. And there are some people that don't believe that's possible, right? know someone's listening said, no, my middle schoolers. It's like, yes, your middle schoolers will come awake. So what, but before we do that, can you give our audience just one little like parting advice?
Actually, this question is for your learners. So if some of your learners are listening to this, they get a hold of this podcast episode, what would you want to tell your learners now that you're on the air?
Speaker 1 (28:19.502)
never stop learning how to give really constructive feedback. That was something that was a struggle. In fact, we had a tiny feedback crisis for our first. And so that really helped me realize how much we need to learn how to give each other feedback on our ideas. And when we give feedback, needs to be constructive, helpful, move things forward. And so parting advice for learners would be always
Find a way to give useful, constructive feedback as you're going through your design process because you have to work with others. And it doesn't do you any good to alienate yourself. So what you want to do is you want to learn how to work as a real team member and help move people forward.
Yeah. And I would say also to make sure that you take risk, you're going to step out of your comfort zone. You're not going to be able to hide behind your desk. You're going to have to jump out there, take those risks, embrace those challenges. I want you to know that your teachers got your back. We're going to help you along the way. Don't feel like you're out there alone, but we are going to let you take the lead. We're not going to pull you along. We're going to push you when you need a push, but I'm not going to reach down and grab you and pull you up.
So I want you to take the lead. want you to take those first steps and then just let me know when you need me to take you to the next place.
That's super good. empowering. Joanna, Angela, thank you for being on the podcast today. Thanks for sharing your work and your classrooms with us.
Speaker 2 (29:54.68)
Thank you.
Thank you.
All right, PBL simplified audience. You just heard a great example. It's a PBL showcase of two teachers that have been teaching for a decade and they just got into PBL and they smiled the entire podcast, right? As they got to tell about the engagement, the empowerment, the experiences that their learners are getting as they bring PBL to their middle school classrooms. Um, and this can happen for you. You know, one of our first suggestions is you go out and see a school that's doing this work.
So if you wanna come out around Kansas City, you can go and see these classrooms in action. We've got some other national PBL model sites that we can take you to as well. But if you're on the fence, it's time to jump in. I mean, why not? That's what you were given as far as advice and I love it. Why not jump in? So you can go out and teach inspired.
That's
Speaker 1 (30:47.7)
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