Making the Investment in PBL

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the PBL Works PBL 101 institute in Palm Valley, California.  As part of our professional development journey the last two years, we have focused almost solely on Project Based Learning while we built and enacted Chickasaw Challenge, J-term and now are moving to PBL work in semester courses.

PBL is built on 8 Gold Standards as defined by the PBL Works company, previously the Buck Institute.  With a group of 6 other staff, I spent three days building a course to institute upon return to New Hampton.  I am so excited to see some of our staff begin on Monday as well as to share the information with the rest of our staff.

The main focus of our time at the PBL 101 training was using the framework of PBL to become better at building courses. At the left, you will see high school staff members and Mr. Jurrens, our superintendent, collaborating and communication (2 of the 4 Cs) to get better. It was interesting to see what other schools were doing as well as to share our own thoughts, questions, and insights.

I am excited to get started with my own course. We were very intentional in building courses that each of us can use, in every professional setting we represented.  Mrs. Anderson, Ms. Konecne, and Mrs. Manson will begin their PBLs this week and I plan on enacting mine as an extra-curricular opportunity.  In addition, two TLC staff were able to attend the three day coaching training for PBL in a neighboring building.  This will help them prepare staff and coach through the process of building PBLs with the 8 Gold Standards.

Of course, we were able to fly in and be here for the next round of winter weather. A big thanks to my fellow travelers for being patient with delays-- it was totally worth it!

From the Middle: Midmester is Underway

Midmester 2019: 

Midmester has begun, but it has had a bit of a rough start this year with the Iowa Winter.  Kids have been learning about many different topics this year that integrate collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and communication.  Our Presentation Night is in the Middle School Gym on February 28th from 5pm to 7pm.  Please come out and support all of the hard work these students and staff have done.  Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to see up to the date highlights of Midmester.  Below are some of the posts of students in class:

Project Based Learning in the Content Area:

Mrs. Reetz just finished her second-trimester middle school classes on February 6th.  She has set up her regular classes to mimic the classes of Midmester by putting them in a project (or problem) based learning format.

7th grade’s Driving Question: How can music enhance or affect a story?

The 7th-grade students focus on how “Music Speaks”, creating a motivational video about a topic of their choosing.  They plan, choreograph, direct, and video as well as compose their own music using digital loops. Some of these students created videos that reflect something they have personally been through and made it a motivational tool for others.  Mrs. Miller has the opportunity to use those videos so that students can help teach other students as well.

6th grade’s Driving Question: How can music tell a story?

The New Hampton 6th grade classes learn how to compose music on staff.  They start by reviewing the basics- note names, musical terms, etc- and end by creating a story through the sound of music.  Students break up into small groups and decide what their storyline is and experiment with dynamics, articulation, tempo and rhythms to reflect the story.  Each group adjudicates another and, with time, compositions are revised based on peer and teacher feedback.

5th grade’s Driving Question: What does it mean to be American?

The 5th grade New Hampton students take a trip “Around the World in Less Than 80 Days” exploring the singing and instrumental music as well as general culture of other countries.  Along the way, they compare and contrast what they know of the United States. You may find them dancing, singing, playing instruments or sometimes daydreaming about the ethnic food of different countries.  At the end of the unit, the students answer the driving question. The 2nd trimester’s students came to the understanding that the US is a melting pot of different cultures and that one aspect could not be pinned down.

You can find more pictures and videos of middle school and elementary student progress by finding “NHGenMusic” on acebook!

Back in the Swing of Semester 2

After J-term and some rocky weather, we are back into the swing of second semester. Please note that parent teacher conferences are upcoming on February 26 and 28 with a non-school day on March 1. 

Students in Mrs. Ohrt's physics class are putting knowledge into practice by using formulas regarding energy to solve real-life problems.  These students are discussing the energy output of a deadlift in the weightroom and working through whether the problem make sense in reality.

Painting students are getting a good start on working with individual projects by understanding the color wheel, shading, tints, and hues. As they each work through a series of individual color options, they also were able to work together on choice and how each palate looks different based on how you tint and shade the primary colors.

The senior class is preparing for their Adulting 101 day in April in which they spend an entire day working through the beginning issues of a life they choose through the year.  They are assigned their chosen job, family lifestyle and corresponding bills and must work through how to balance their budget.  This week students began by watching Broke, Busted and Disgusted about college debt, adult bills and be prepared for the next step.

There was a joint board work session between Turkey Valley and New Hampton this week.  We discussed how some of our sharing opportunities are going and what some of our future options might be.  We are stronger together and had good, open conversation. So fun to work with a neighboring district to continue to provide innovative opportunities to our kids!

With students being back in swing, staff cannot help but want to learn with them.  Mr. Schmitt waits for table tennis to start so he can show off some of his skills.  Or does he?  This may not have ended how he hoped....