Project Based Learning Reflection

Project Based Learning Reflection


What did you learn?


I learned about American History, English 3, and my personal project choices.


For American History, I learned about the Civil War and World War II in depth, and other significant events in our history. At the beginning of the year Kylie and I created a video with an "interview" of Abraham Lincoln. Through this project we learned a lot about what PBL means and how it works. Then later on in the year, Nathan and I collaborated and created a website about World War II. Through the second project process, I learned so much about that particular war and how to work with another student on a project. When everyone was finished, we all read and took tests about the other groups projects and that is how we learned about American History.


For English, we had to write many literary analysis' about books and projects that we had completed. With Ms. Sylvia's help, I gained a lot of skills in how to write proper papers and what grammar issues I have been struggling with.


Through my personal projects, I got to investigate topics that I was interested in. For my first project I chose to learn about Music Psychology. I feel like I learned so much about this project because I was actually interested in learning about it. My second project, that I have yet to finish, is about travel photography. I wanted to show what I have learned by traveling through photos.


Overall I learned a lot about the subjects that I studied, how to work with other people, how to work many new softwares, and more.


How do you know you learned it?


By feeling confident in the information that I learned.


I know that I learned the information because I feel confident in the information and I know that if I had to stand up in front of a group of people and talk about World War II, the Civil War, or any other topics that I created projects on, I would be able to present with ease and answer any questions.


I also feel like we delved farther into our topics than just brushed the surface like most learning is done today. We really studied what we were learning and tried to gain insight into each subject.

What got in the way of your learning?


Traveling, socializing, and other issues within the school.


Traveling was hard because even though we were gone for three months, I wanted to enjoy the place that I was in and I got conflicted between school and having fun.


Socializing was a huge thing this year. We spent a lot of time talking and just goofing off instead of doing school. Which is fine and fun, but it definitely contributed to me being behind.


What helped your learning?


Guidance.


Guidance really helped. Sometimes we struggled with what direction to take our projects in but once we recieved a little bit of guidance, it helped a lot.


How did you feel about project based learning this year?


I felt like I was really good and hopefully next year it will be even better!


This year, even though we struggled with time and deadlines, we learned a lot. Unlike our online classes, we actually get to go in the direction that we want with these projects. We aren't just reading lessons and taking tests, but we are thinking about what we are learning. We actually have to use our brains and figure things out and where to find certain information than just having it right there for us to read on a page. We took learning into our own hands with PBL this year.


What was your favorite project?


My favorite project was definitely the World War II project.


Why was it your favorite project?


World War II.


My partner and I worked really well together and this was the project that I felt I learned most about the topic. I really feel like I am prolific in the information that I now know about the Second World War. Nathan and I split up the work equally and we really brainstormed to come up with the best website that we could make. I delved deeper into my subjects than I normally would and even though I wasn't very interested in this war at the beginning, I knew so much about it by the time that we were done.


How will you use what you learned this year to help you with next year’s project work?


I learned a lot this year that I know I will keep for next year.


I really enjoyed how we split up the projects between personal and subjects that we had to know. I will also take the knowledge that I gained through presenting. I learned a lot about how to present myself and my information in the best way possible. Learning how to properly research was a huge accomplishment for me, I feel like now I can search any subject and find good and accurate information about it.


It was a great first year for PBL and I hope that it will only improve as time goes on.