Reflections on My Third WALO

Name: Sarvashreshtha Patel The vision We as a team of Geography teachers have already committed ourselves to engage students of the next batch of 9th grade on to a documentary project. However, for students in the lower grades, we had not come up with any idea. Keeping in mind the present skill set of students, the academic time remaining in the year and the need to give to those students an experience of learning through projects, we brainstormed and came up with the idea of engaging those students in a poster making project. We then launched the project using a PowerPoint presentation which is as below. Critical Friend: David Stahnke

I wouldnt say that we inculcated all aspects of project based learning in this project, but considering the fact that we began thinking in this direction, an that we appreciated and emphasized the importance of a timeline, multiple drafts, public exhibition, collaboration, creativity, academic rigour and learning media skills, this was a significant step. The next step As with the documentary experience, we unanimously came to the conclusion that we had to do the project ourselves first in order to inspire, motivate and guide our students. So this time, three teachers, Vikas Patil, teaching 9th grade, Sanjay Nath, teaching 9th grade and Sujata Wadhwa, teaching 8th grade, decided to make a poster themselves. This was important, not just for gaining the trust of students, but also for empathizing with them when it comes to demanding quality work from them and also learning a few skills themselves. In order to put the best work forth to the students as a prototype, these teachers sought the help of other teachers geography teachers, ICT teachers, Art teachers, Language teachers and administrators in helping them critique their work.

The picture on the right is the first draft of Vikass poster.

This underwent a critique session using the Critical Friends protocol. This picture on the left is the second draft of Vikass poster.

The pictures below illustrate first drafts of Sanjays poster and Sujatas poster respectively. We have had a critique session for each of them. However, their second drafts are still due.

Students work Things havent gone exactly as planned with the project for the students. Their annual exams were approaching, and for that reason, we had to make adjustments with the timeline. They will be working on this project now after their annual exams are over, so that they dont work in haste and a lot of other botherations. However, their work is pouring in, and they seem to have been motivated to take on a different kind of challenge, particularly after having discovered that their teachers will be working along side them on the project. This poster below is special, not just because it is the first one to arrive at our desk, but also because, the students sought help from professionals for a critique.

My reflections on leading members of my community I now feel confident of taking PBL into our classrooms, post the experience of the documentary and the poster. In fact, I now find the following developments amongst the geography teachers. 1. Willing to collaborate and share ideas 2. Are able to offer critical feedback which is kind, helpful and specific 3. They have started demonstrating that they reflect deeply upon their practice. 4. They have started taking risks in the form of learning new skills. 5. They dont mind learning from their students.