Celebrations are underway for the third year of PBL (Project Based Learning) now being completed at Grass Lake School in Antioch. This major change in teaching instruction has encompassed myriad challenges to change the way teachers design and plan lessons that are aligned to standards. Other changes with PBL include shifts in culture, student driven and managed projects, as well as scaffolded student learning and assessment. In order to accomplish the maximum learning outcomes, one last layer for year four (next year) is the inclusion of the community as a partner/collaborator, affording students to work on real world issues opening the door to meaningful problem solving. Community is defined as 1) the classroom, 2) the school, 3) the community, and 4) beyond where we live.
Grass Lake School is stepping forward to bring the town/township of Antioch to partner with students more deeply. This year a group of students had folks from the community weigh in on health issues, building connections with the library by supporting the eclipse event with informational posters, and by hosting a variety of guest speakers to learn about healthy living. This led us to making connections to local business and community groups. Expanding out to our community experts allows us to widen the educational environment and add more meaning to instruction and learning.
Next year we want our teachers to have more opportunities for their students to be making connections between their school and their community. We are seeking community members that would be interested in sharing their passion for their profession/work and inspiring young people to engage in a meaningful manner, sharing on-site visits, demonstrations, learning about roles in the community, participating in projects that they could help with, mentoring, assisting service clubs with a project, hobbies etc.. We desire to have our students know they belong to a community, that their ideas can be meaningful and transformative and that learning happens in and out of the classroom. We are open to hearing from you. Please join us. Contact Principal Ryan Wollberg at: rwollberg@gls36.org or PBL Instructor Ann Livermore at: alivermore@gls36.org
