I’ve reached the end of Module three, and to be frank, I am so happy it’s over. Although only 4 weeks long, and those weeks absolutely zoomed by, the amount of work was exhausting. Each week had two big projects, an individual and a group collaboration. Balancing my assignments with being a mom all day felt impossible. Since I work after my kids go to bed, I find myself up till 1 am…then of course one or both of them wake up, so once they are back to sleep I go to sleep and SURPRISE they wake up at 5 am. Running as a stay-at-home mom on 4 hours of sleep is not good work getting school work done OR parenting.
What was the issue? Why were these projects taking so long? The subject matter was compelling enough; we covered student case studies for applying differentiation, explored tech for learning, created an educational game, and developed a project-based learning unit complete SMART educational objectives and comprehensive grading rubrics. I learned so much and I feel so excited and confident to start implementing what I’ve learned in a real classroom, so why did the assignments stress me out and take so long?
Instructions. Clear, concise instructions would have helped so much. There was an outline, and list of what needed to be submitted, as well as a grading rubric, but there were still so many hours of me reading and rereading the instructions, starting to research, getting confused, rereading instructions again, staring blankly at my screen for too long trying to fully comprehend what I needed to do to submit successfully.
I do well with examples and there were none. My cohort members were uncommonly quiet, maybe everyone was struggling. This last assignment I created half a project then started over because I was sure I was doing too much (and I was—I re-read the instructions, again, and there it was in the first paragraph, a PBL for the grade and subject I would like to teach. Fuuuuu) It felt like I was working half-blind, hoping for the best, preparing for the worst of each submission.
For this module that’s the second lesson I’ve taken away, be clear and detailed in your instructions! Provide examples, cover assignments and projects more extensively in class to make sure not only expectations but the content matter is clear! On top of teacher attitude affecting morale, a teacher’s ability to explain objectives, give an idea of what to produce for content, and create a whole picture idea for graded assignments is important for student success. Self-teaching on how to make a grading rubric is great, but winging it to fill in what the rubric is supposed to be grading not so much.
By this morning I was still working on my last module submission. At least our instructor made it clear that late submissions were just as welcome (without penalty!) I finally felt a bit of the flow I’d read so much about, but that may be because I was working in the morning with a cup of coffee (thank you foggy morning weather and Disney movies to distract the kids for a while). I don’t know the outcome of my project outline, but I do feel like I could create and implement PBL in my classroom now, so that’s pretty cool. Let us hope this next module and the new instructor is a breath of fresh air and keep on going!