Chapter 1

                Project-Based Learning is a new concept that I know little about.  This is a new idea for me to think about, especially while in the classroom, and is an idea that I believe more people should know about and be learning about.  My first experience with Project-Based Learning (PBL) was this past summer, while I was in school.  The summer class I took this summer explored many ways to teach lessons to children in a classroom, and PBL was one of them.  My professor had each of us create a unit that was built around a book that was PBL and had a project at the end of the unit for the students to complete.  This was a new way of writing a unit plan, for me, and I found it to be quite a challenge at first, but then began to love it.  I became invested in what I wanted these students to be able to show at the end of the unit, not write about in an essay form or test.

                This chapter really helped me gather a better understanding of what PBL is.  One thing that the chapter talked about that I thought was great insight for us was when the author said that teachers need to “teach less, learn more” in order for the students to gain the best experience and understanding of a lesson.  I think that this way of teaching is great because it involves the students so much. I enjoyed reading about the benefits that PBL has for the students and the one that really stuck out to me was that this allows the students to work collaboratively to solve problems that are important to them.  When in school, students need to feel as though what they are studying and doing are important and PBL can drive this in students and allow them to explore things that without Project-Based Learning they may not be able to learn and think about.