Welcome to the PBL Playbook, brought to you by Magnify Learning – where we put teachers back in their sweet spot. Make sure you follow us on Twitter: @magnifylearning, @askgiebs, @MissB103, #PBLPlaybook.
In this episode, Josh and Andrea continue their series focusing on administrators in PBL, addressing the question, “What does it look like for an administrator to be supportive in their role when they have teachers using PBL as their primary instructional practice?” This episode features three separate interviews with administrators through all levels of the Columbus Signature Academy pathway in Columbus, IN.
Their first interview is with Brett Findley (@FindleyBrett). Brett is the principal of CSA Lincoln (@CSALincoln), one of the two PBL elementary schools in the CSA pathway.. This interview focuses on how to implement PBL with consistency and fidelity, especially at the elementary level. Brett talks about how to keep things consistent with teachers of different levels of PBL backgrounds, different grade levels, etc. At the end of the conversation he shifts to academic rigor and keeping projects challenging for students.
Then they sit down with Blake Manuel (@blake_manuel), who is the assistant principal at Central Middle School, which houses two PBL “teams,” serving as the middle school component of the CSA pathway (@csantcentral). The interview starts by focusing on the unique situation of the PBL pathway as a “school within a school,” surrounded by teams of traditional learning, as well as a mix of students with and without PBL experience in their education. Blake discusses the approach that these teams take within the middle school to make sure there is consistent PBL implementation. The conversation moves to the support that the administration provides the PBL teams to help with consistency and fidelity across the board.
The final interview features Mike Reed (@mrreedcsanewtech), who is the principal of CSA New Tech (@CSANewTechHS), which is the high school in the CSA pathway. This conversation centers around teacher buy-in and training to keep consistency across grade levels, content areas, and PBL experience in a high school.
Stay tuned for the rest of the administrator series, coming to you soon!
Music from https://attaboyonline.com/home#music
"Waking Up" by Attaboy (https://attaboyonline.com/home#music)
*For more PBL Resources and PBL professional development opportunities check out the Magnify Learning Website: https://www.magnifylearningin.org/