We came back together understanding the process of project meetings a little better. I gave some reminders like, “Everyone’s ideas are equally valid. Instead of saying, ‘I don’t think that will work’, offer an alternative solution”, and “think big”. We refreshed on the big problem, being largely based on emotion it would never be a sanctioned Gold Standard PBL project but it is Gold for the homeschool family classroom. Also because it was based on emotion, surprise, surprise; we felt a little differently about our problem. Summer had arrived and with that a change in the routine. This caused some initial confusion about what to do with the project. I went back up to the problem board and pointed to each item asking, “how long will it take this problem to come back, once the routine of summer has set in?” We very quickly realized that our change in emotion was temporary and that the challenge was very much alive.

We had so many wonderful solutions up on the board. A lot of great discussion went back and forth while I hung back. It became clear that the group needed help organizing these solutions. I stood next to the solutions and went through each one, “How long do you expect this will work for,” I asked and “will you look forward to doing it after the first two times?” We quickly divided the possible solutions into columns based on their output’s sustainability. The Solutions tag is up but not an actual column right now.

I had modeled running a vote during the organization of our brainstormed ideas so it was time for Astro (10) to step in and run the final vote. This time they didn’t need any reminders on etiquette, no new ideas needed to be generated. They debated and asked questions of me about what was possible. They chose their summer project: to make YouTube channels. Flower’s will be a cooking channel, Astro’s will be a Minecraft builds channel. I asked permission and received the okay to move the items that made it to the next-to-last round of votes back into brainstorming so we could keep them in our toolbox for the future.

The end of the project meeting was design and doodle time. I told the kids to draw or jot down some ideas for their channel.

In the next post I’ll talk about looking to PBL standards, providing scaffolding and making sure these projects will be academically rigorous.