Monday, September 21, 2015

PBL and Feeling Uncomfortable

At the start of this school year, I wrote this blog post about the necessity for educators to feel uncomfortable so that we are pushing ourselves and our students to be the best we can be. As I work with year two of Lights Academy, our accelerated, project-based, personalized learning academy at Lutheran High School, I become more convinced than ever that educators will always have this uncomfortable feeling if they are leading PBL initiatives.

The nature of project based learning is that there is always a level of uncertainty about where projects will lead students in their inquiry. In addition, because each student or group is headed a different direction, the questions of whether I am leading students in the best way I can will inevitably emerge.

There is no one standard answer to these questions in a project based classroom. Therefore, a level of discomfort will always be there. In addition, the questions and answers might change from one day to the next.

I am resigned to the fact that I will never feel fully settled in a PBL classroom, and I like it that way! EMBRACE THE DISCOMFORT, everyone!

1 comment:

  1. Uncomfortable but Guided I suspect and the results likely allow a certain kind of comfort in the discomfort. Thanks for the thoughts.

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