Week One

I imagine that I should be posting everyday what our students are doing, but this week has been a long, adventurous one and I wanted to ponder the week before committing to ink.
We made it through our first shared teaching experience with PBL and sophomores. It reminds me a little of being at the plate and having to adjust to the pitches being thrown. There is a definite learning curve.
But, so far, I think we've already seen small tidbits of success. Remembering that our students direct the class and we have to give them an opportunity to question and follow seems to be the largest challenge at the moment.
I want this to be successful, but I've already seen a few roadblocks. Mostly from those who aren't necessarily against the process, but simply don't understand how this problem based learning approach can be successful.
I'm not a big fan of having new things thrown at me, but I'm willing to try what I know will, in the end, be the best things for our students.
I foresee a future where our students learn that their natural curiosity is not only what they need to embrace, but will be what ultimately leads them to a future filled with wonder and new experiences.
I read an article yesterday (http://neatoday.org/2011/05/17/here-come-the-common-core-standards/) where a classroom needed to determine the appropriate force, etc. that a bungee cord needs in order to keep a Barbie doll from hitting the floor from a great height. Of course, they were using rubber bands. Such a simple visual that should be considered standard. What I'm hearing rumblings of is... "these kids will then try to go do this." So, if that has become the fear in education... aren't we doomed? Don't we want our students to go do things? Try things? Test things? Imagine things? Do we want them to blow up buildings in their pursuit? NO. But when did we become so scared that our students would do the wrong thing?
And personally, if a 15 year old tries to jump off a building using only rubber bands to stop his/her progress, I need to resign tomorrow. I have a little more faith in their common sense.
Our sophomores had to go away this weekend and develop an experiment using the design cycle. It all begins with a question. Why? What happens if? To some it came easy and others needed a little more direction. But before they left class most had a great start. And they wanted to know if they could test their hypotheses and do the experiment. That seems like progress to me. Students wanting to do the work.
So... ends our first week. As for everybody else? I feel as if they are a little shortchanged because they aren't doing PBL... but that will change this week. It will become habitual.
Working on it.... M