Educators who are doing something different than what parents or colleagues are used to are often called to the mat to explain themselves, especially when the students start struggling with the work. “Why are you doing this? How do you know it’ll be good for kids? How will this affect their college applications? I did traditional school and it was good enough for me? Are you calling the rest of the teachers in the building “bad?” Get ready. Depending upon your climate and culture of your community, you could be in for a bumpy ride. So why ARE you doing this? Can you tell your philosophy and rationale in a 1 minute, succinct, eloquent elevator pitch? Because you will need to get good at it. Start here at the beginning and when you finish the course, circle back around and revise this if needed. So what’s your pitch?

Bonus, share a video of you giving your pitch in our Practicing PBL Facebook group.

How to ensure you successfully complete this course:

1. tell people you're taking this course.
2. take notes and write questions that you have as you go along.
3. consume everything. notes, videos, and the extra resources.
4. go out and find even more resources to help you. There are so many out there and search engines are our friends!
5. try out some of the strategies on your students.
6. build your PBL unit as you go through the course; don't wait until the end.
7. slow down on the parts you're struggling with.
8. speed up on the things you're already doing.
9. celebrate little ah-ha moments with a colleague or on our Practicing PBL Facebook group.