Projects, projects projects

Dear Reader,
If you're a student then projects are a way of life. Whether your teacher asks for something on poster board, or a term paper, or a podcast, you are well aware of the time and intellect it takes to do a superb job.

If you are a parent, well, when your son or daughter is working on a project you see the hours in front of a computer or bent over a joint effort with other students at your kitchen table. Perhaps pizza is ordered. Carpools are arranged.

As a previous student, and a current parent and teacher, I am very familiar with projects from various sides. Rest assure, however, that as a teacher I will only assign a project if it makes absolute sense to do so. I usually assign 2 per year per course and spend hours thinking through the expectations and rubrics.

Most recently, several of my Geometry classes completed a project on triangle altitudes, medians, perpendicular bisectors, midsegments, and points of concurrency. The students used MS Powerpoint and MS Paint to create tutorials for future Geometry students. I wanted my students to have an authentic audience for their work and to answer some essential questions, all part of Project Based Learning. They did a great job! I am very proud of the students and their end products. In my next post, I will include links to several projects (with my students' permission, of course). For now, here is a link to explain more about the Project-Based Learning and why it's so much more than you think:

http://www.edutopia.org/project-learning

Best wishes at this time of year to all of you and your families. We have so much to be grateful for, especially our health and our minds with which to learn and make a difference in this world. Peace to all.