Guest Post
Earlier this year, the district hired Mr. Kyle Hennessy to work a few hours each day to work with our social media sites, website, downtown sign, and other community relations task for the district. I've asked Mr. Hennessy to share a few things about himself for this post:
I am Kyle Hennessy, the community relations representative for the New Hampton Community School District. My job is to manage the sign that is located at the MS/ES, update the Facebook page and manage the school’s websites. I grew up in New Hampton and attended this school and graduated in 2007. For fun, I like to help coach fifth and sixth grade football for New Hampton Parks and Rec. I earned a black belt in Tae Kwon-do. I like to watch football games on TV and am a Minnesota Vikings fan. I like to track storms. I worked for Comprehensive System’s Treasure Chest for 10 years. I came to work at the school because I wanted to work with the students, teachers and other staff. I love the challenge of learning new things.
Mr. Hennessy shares office space at the high school with Mr. Cantu. If you have any questions about the district's website, social media accounts, or the downtown sign, please feel free to email Kyle directly at: ky_hennessy@new-hampton.k12.ia.us
Project Based Learning
Thanks to all the teachers, students and especially to those of you who came to the J-Term Showcase at the high school. It was a great experience for our students to have the opportunity to dig deeper into an area of interest to them.
This was the first time the high school staff had done this with the students. We had some challenges getting started, but in the end it came out great!
When I was a teacher, I did a lot of projects in my classroom, but never really understood what project based learning was. My projects were more of a demonstration of the things they had learned. Most can relate to it as a hands-on test. The Buck Institute defines Project Based Learning as:
Project Based Learning is a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging and complex question, problem, or challenge. In Gold Standard PBL, projects are focused on student learning goals and include Essential Project Design Elements:
- Key Knowledge, Understanding, and Success Skills
- Challenging Problem or Question
- Sustained Inquiry
- Authenticity
- Student Voice & Choice
- Reflection
- Critique & Revision
- Public Product
In other words, the learning comes from the completion of the project. The students become more responsible for their own learning and learn and use real world skills in solving problems, knowing what questions to ask, collaborating with others and many more. In addition, these projects require them to use and often expand their knowledge of academic skills to be successful. There is extensive research out there and being done that shows this is an effective way to learn and also the students like this a lot more.
It is quite a transition for our teachers as they are used to being in charge of most learning and this changes their role to being more a guide for the students who helps point them in directions as they work through their projects. Do we have all of the Essential Project Design Elements in place? Definitely not, but this is the first try at this. We will get better each time. If you have children, grandchildren, or neighbors in school. Ask them how it went. If you would like to find out more, here's a couple of resources for you to check out:
High Tech High Projects A school devoted to PBL
It's an exciting time to be in education and as we get better the excitement will grow. Be on the lookout for Midmester Academy coming up at the middle school later this spring. If you have any questions, comments, or would like to know more, please feel free to contact me directly.
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