Twas the Night Before PBL Launch...

Plan. Double Check.  Question. Edit.  Ponder.  Analyze.  Dream.  Wonder.  Anticipate.  Worry.  

Off the top of my head, those are the adjectives and thoughts floating through my head as I sit here on September 19, 2012.  I am about to launch my first PBL (Project Based Learning) of the year with my sixth grade math class.  As I continue the ongoing process of globalizing my classroom, I decided that I would incorporate graphing and statistics into my eventual PBL about microfinancing.  In order to do so, I decided to use this unit to study the geographic regions that kiva is currently working with.  These commericals and print ads may also shape the decisions of students here at Town in the future.  

The boys have placed into working groups, assigned geographic areas from the Kiva website and are doing initial exploration of Kiva.org tonight for homework.  They are responding on our edmodo site to the questions, "what did you learn?" and "what do you want to know?"  

I know that even this small adventure they are on tonight will teach them something that 2 or 3 years ago I never would have dreamt of supporting, encouraging and leading my class through. Yet hearing the statements in the hall, "What countries are part of ____?"  and "I wonder about ____!" put a smile on my face.  They are about to learn a whole lot.  

Tomorrow we launch here in the Garage.  New Space.  New Kids. New Driving Question.  

Driving Question:  As Advertising Excecutives for Goggin Advertising, how can you create an advertisement that will persuade existing and potential lenders?  

Let's do it!