PBL News @SDUSD

As educators head into a well deserved and much needed Winter Break, I want to share that I have talked with administrators, teachers, classified staff, students, and community members who have all expressed frustration and are struggling under our environment. We need to remember that no one signed up to participate in the craziness of 2020. It just happened.

So, how do we maintain optimism when educators, due to high expectations, sometimes default to what hasn't gone right and what they haven't done for students rather than considering all that has gone well and the successes students have had.

Idea - As you reflect, focus on celebrating the #EduWins. #EduWin is a social media hashtag that was created to highlight the positives happening in schools across the world. An #EduWin is a small or big educational victory. It could be a lesson that went well, how a student(s) improved, what you saw or heard a colleague do, school-wide event, etc.

As the PBL Resource Teacher for SDUSD an #EduWin that I want to celebrate is that PBL teams have remained committed to finding ways to continue implementing projects with their students. PBL teachers have had to adapt, be flexible, scale back, learn new tools, the list goes on. Real world, hands-on, minds-on learning is still happening with their students. It is amazing!

As you reflect, what are your #EduWins?

“Challenging, awesome, amazing, and fun experience!” “Great opportunity to learn design thinking!” “Enjoyed meeting and working with new people”. “Excited to use this knowledge!” These were some of the words San Diego Unified High School students used to describe their experience as participants in Entrepreneurship Week. The event was designed in partnership by SDUSD College & Career Technical Education and Intuit, designers of Turbotax, Quickbooks, and Mint. Over three days 500+ SDUSD students participated in a Social Entrepreneurship Challenge and a Career Readiness Conference.

The Social Entrepreneurship Challenge on November 17th and 18th connected students across all of the SDUSD high schools. During the two-day challenge, students selected a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) to focus on, learned Intuit's own design thinking process, and worked together with a team to think of possible solutions to global and local needs.

Through this real-world experience students' use of the skills companies believe are essential were on full display. Students were assigned to random breakout rooms. They had to communicate and get their team organized. Using Intuit’s Design for Delight design thinking process, and Mural, the application they would collaborate in, was all new to the students. They adapted to using this new process and tool quickly which allowed them to dive into researching their SDG and use critical thinking skills to identify the global and local needs. Students then brainstormed potential solutions, narrowed their focus and moved to consensus on a specific idea for which they created a solution. They then designed a plan and test. The last step was presenting their idea and plan. Students were asked to submit a video in which they pitched their solution. In the end, all 81 teams made the submission deadline.

The Career Readiness Conference hosted by Intuit on November 19th was the culminating event. The conference began with the announcement of the teams recognized by the Intuit Innovation Catalysts as the top three finalists (see below) from the Social Entrepreneurship Challenge. The audience watched each of their videos and was asked to vote for their top design solution. This event featured keynote speaker, Daymond John, the Star of ABC’s Shark Tank. He spoke honestly and shared stories of success and failure as he discussed his SHARK Points, Set a Goal, Homework - do yours, Amor (love) what you do, Remember, you are the brand, and Keep swimming. Sessions gave the students an opportunity to learn about finding their why and they had an opportunity to choose career sessions and meet Intuit young professionals in the career. After the keynote, students attended a session on “Find My Why”. The Intuit Innovation Catalyst guided students through questions to help them land on a career to explore. During the last segment of the conference, students chose to learn more about marketing/web design/social media, project management, product design, software engineer/programming, business/finance analyst, or sales. After the career focused sessions, all participants were invited for the closing announcements and to learn which student team would be recognized as the winner of the Social Entrepreneurship Challenge. And the winner was … Team 5 from SDG 3 Good Health and Well Being, whose solution was to address the need of youth and family undernourishment. Their plan was to work with farms to acquire food that might go unused due to grocery stores not accepting it due to appearance, not quality of taste. In addition they created a system to distribute the food to youth and families in need.

This was definitely an experience students, educators, and Intuit team members will remember. For students it was resume worthy, offered an opportunity to gain essential skills, and something they may want to share on future college applications or job interviews. For educators, it was reenergizing to see students voluntarily participating in a real world experience. For the Intuit team, it was a large scale experiment that was a success and impacted 500+ students.

Due to the limitations of Covid 19, the AOIT teacher team decided the best way to communicate the activities happening in the academy was through a newsletter. It is called "The Byte". Nov Edition & Dec Edition

This is a great example of how schools and educators are innovating how around how they are communicating with their stakeholders. While the target audience is their advisory board, the newsletter can also be shared with students, parents, and other community members.

Sign-up to participate in the Jacobs Institute Changemaker Challenge, a worldwide challenge event for teachers and teenagers (13+) who want to develop an innovator's mindset and change the world.

Students use Pactful, a design thinking application and curriculum, ideal for distance learning, developed by The Jacob's Institute for Innovation in Education to create innovative solutions to local and global problems aligned to the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals. In the end, teens will submit video pitches to win prizes!

Last year Mt Everest Academy 9th graders were recognized with 1st and 4th place and Kearny BST 9th graders took 5th place.

There's no cost to participate and the Jacobs Institute will provide scheduled webinars to support educators and help you connect with each other. The kickoff webinar on December 3rd will feature guest speaker, Dr. Jennifer Williams, author of Teach Boldly: Using Edtech for Social Good.

Priority applications are accepted until November 20. Sign up today.

If you would like support with implementing design thinking, using the Pactful curriculum, or signing up for the Changemaker Challenge, email rhoffman@sandi.net

Biocom has launched a new effort, the STEAM Team, to connect K12 classrooms with professionals from their member companies in the fields of science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (e.g. Thermo Fisher Scientific). Employers will virtually present to students about their careers, companies, and education. Here’s how the process works…

• Visit the speaker scheduling platform at https://www.lovestemsd.org/user/register to create your classroom account (“STEAM Educator” account).

• Select a STEAM professional to spend 30 minutes with your students virtually – 15 minutes to talk about their companies and jobs, and 15 minutes for Q&A – and schedule a classroom visit.

• STEAM professionals will follow a standard presentation template, but can adjust their talking points to fit your curriculum if you wish. You and your students will also receive questions and a worksheet to facilitate conversation and ensure students get the most out of the presentation.

• Presenters are flexible with virtual meeting platforms and will adapt to whatever you’re using in your classroom.

Please find the flyer and additional instructions attached!

Headspace is offering educators free access to their mindfulness app and resources. This includes all K-12 teachers, school administrators, and supporting staff in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.

"Helping you be kind to yourself and your health, and guide your students and their parents through this difficult time."

The Deeper Learning Hub has created a set of 1-2 week project based learning courses designed for distance learning. The projects range from grades 4-12 and were designed by expert educators who care deeply about student engagement and authentic learning experiences. Each course culminates in an exhibition of learning with an authentic audience, and includes key elements of effective PBL. Teachers can make a copy of any of the courses, tweak or add elements, and then invite their students to take the course. Currently, all courses are available for free. See course catalog.

Interested in getting started with or going deeper with Project-Based Learning or Design Thinking? Let's customize an experience for your site or team. Contact Reuben Hoffman at rhoffman@sandi.net.

High Tech High Graduate School of Education is moving their Ed Leadership M.Ed program online permanently, inspired in part by COVID and in part to connect edcuators from across the world. To learn more go to Ed Leadership Website and their informational document.

* This program not sponsored by SDUSD. It has been included in the newsletter for awareness of high education programs that pertain to PBL / Linked Learning / CCTE / Pathways.

Great option for all types of funding related to student learning. Create an account at www.donorschoose.org

* The events listed below are paid events not sponsored by SDUSD. They have been included in the newsletter for awareness of events that pertain to PBL / Linked Learning / CCTE / Pathways. You can follow these events for free virtually on many social media platforms, especially Twitter.

• Educating for Careers Conference (Virtual) - February 28 - March 2, 2021
  The Educating for Careers Conference is an annual three-day professional development event surrounding career technical education (CTE). Call for Presenters
  

For more information regarding PBL at SDUSD, please contact Reuben Hoffman at rhoffman@sandi.net, visit the SDUSD PBL Website, follow #sdusdpbl & @reubenhoffman on Twitter.

Please invite me to see your students in action, so I can share more of the great things happening in SD Unified.

If you would like to submit something for a future newsletter, please contact Reuben Hoffman at rhoffman@sandi.net.

Email: rhoffman@sandi.net
Website: https://sites.google.com/sandi.net/pbl/home
Phone: 8584142557

Follow @sdschools on Twitter for daily highlights from schools throughout SDUSD.