“We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.” Albus Dumbledore The staff at Grass Lake School had a unique professional development day to be united together while working on their Project Based Learning ( a student- centered approach to teaching skills and strategies ) with the help of consultant Becky Sawle, an employee of AbbVie and the Spark program. She facilitated the event with the application of the “real life” strategies used at work in the corporate world that correlated with PBL for students. Coincidentally, they are identical. The event was designed to have the teachers experience PBL from the student perspective and implement student driven ideas for the development of their PBL project for this session.
Collaboration was at the core of the day along with the help of a special guest, Ryan Dumbleberg, AKA Principal Ryan Wollberg. Staff spent the Harry Potter themed day designing and developing a plan for a class project for each grade level. These projects will then become integrated into their lessons and evolve into an all school Showcase event. This event is the culmination of weeks of work resulting in an event that all the students in the PreK-8 building will attend and see/experience what the other students have prepared, created or performed.
The day was full and engaging as teachers worked across grade levels to lay down the foundation of their future PBL project that was student generated. We will continue to model, practice and refine our PBL skills at GLS while remembering the wise words of Albus Dumbledore. “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” At Grass Lake School we will strive to give our students choices to explore, experiment, fail and revise to build resilience and surprising outcomes and abilities for the future.
