Reaching a Breaking Point

The day I quit teaching and threw in the towel will forever be etched into my mind. I looked out at my students and my heart was broken. Not a single student was listening to anything I had to say. Some had their heads down, some were engaged in private conversations, while others were staring out the windows. I felt in my heart that I was officially done. I had used every tool I had ever acquired over my 8 years of teaching. I knew that emotionally, mentally, and physically, I couldn’t do this anymore. I went to my administrators and told them that this would be my last year in the classroom. 

Thankfully, I was working with administrators that knew something I did not. My superintendent looked at me and smiled. She said, “Dan, I am not going to let you quit. You ARE a teacher!” I explained that I could no longer do what I was doing, and the odd thing is, she agreed. She said, “You’re right. You cannot continue to teach the way you have. You need to find a different way to teach.” At that moment, I had to make a choice–walk away from the classroom or seek a new way to reach my students. I decided to search for a new way, even though my heart was not in it. 

A New Perspective: The Search for a Better Way

As I searched, I discovered that it was that I didn’t have the right tools, I was just using them incorrectly. I spent my time with my students by talking at them, telling them everything they needed to know, when I should have been working with them, helping them to apply what they knew. My classroom had been all about me, and the moment I made it all about my students, my bitterness, anger, frustration, and sense of helplessness was replaced with excitement, passion, and purpose. Without realizing it, I began my PBL journey. I was looking at the problem and it was important to me to understand what the desired outcome was. Now I just needed to figure out how to get my students there. 

My growth as an educator came out of pain and necessity. My options were either grow or leave. This was a scary moment in my career. If I chose to stay and nothing changed, if I found that I was just a bad teacher because these strategies should have worked, if I had invested all those years into being my best and I found that my best just wasn’t good enough, what then? I had to take that chance to venture into the unknown. If I had let my past and even my present define my future, I would never have become the teacher my students and future students so desperately needed and wanted. 

The truth is, if I wasn’t open to finding something new, open to the idea that I may be missing the mark somehow, open to what could be, I never would have found it. Growth happens only when we are prepared to grow. Reading a book, doing research, or talking with other teachers will not cause you to grow. Growth happens when you surrender your understanding of what is to what could be. I had to answer the question, “What did I want my classroom to be?” My answer came in the form of Project-based Learning.

I started with a question, and then I sought solutions. I had to surrender that I didn’t have all of the answers and that it was okay to not know exactly where I was headed. I have said this before, but PBL is not a destination. Rather, it is a journey with uncharted paths. It is incredible if you can navigate that journey with an experienced traveler, but sometimes we have to blaze new, uncharted trails learning from those who have gone before us.

The Power of Student Voice and Choice

My professional crisis was truly steeped in real-world problem-solving. I read as much as I could about project-based learning. I became a student of Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins’ Universal Design for Learning and Backwards Design. I looked at the Buck Institute and tried to understand what a project was. One thing became clear, I didn’t know what I was doing, but I was determined to try to work it all together. I decided to put my own twist on what I had read to see if it would click with my students. After learning about Design Learning at a conference, I wanted to give my students the voice that they lacked in the classroom. I wanted them to tell me how they would like to represent their mastery of the content. Their interests and passions drove their application of content. Implementing student voice and choice became a cornerstone to my PBL structure. I let my students’ interests guide their work. This not only led to increased engagement, but it also allowed them to take ownership of their learning in ways that were meaningful to them. My students began to see that they were not just learning about the past, but they were applying the past to THEIR present, and they were seeing history come to life in meaningful ways. This cause their motivation to reach new heights.

Feedback: A Tool for Growth

As I pushed through the wilderness that had now become my classroom, I developed a very tight knit circle of educators that I felt comfortable being vulnerable with. I asked for feedback constantly. I invited my administrators into my room, and I learned that feedback and suggestions did not mean that I was a terrible teacher, it was someone speaking into my life with a different perspective, different experience, and different approach so that I could continue to grow. This feedback loop was mirrored in my classroom. My student learned that vulnerability was an asset to their projects and their understanding. Regular discussion led to non-threatening feedback. I and my students learned that the truth of what we needed to hear would have fallen on deaf ears if we were not willing to hear them and mentally prepared for where it would take us. Wanting to grow enables us to grow.

The changes that I saw happen before my eyes in my classroom showed me that PBL spoke to the hearts of my students. For the first time, they were taking an active role in their learning. They were walking into their classroom. They were working on their projects. Passion drove their experiences, and passion drove mine. 

Personalizing PBL for Your Classroom

My administrators gave me a gift: grow and become who you were always meant to be. By giving that same gift to my students, I was able to see first hand the role PBL would play, could play, and should play in the classroom. The idea that we can each come to a problem and approach it uniquely, means that PBL in your classroom will look different than it does in my classroom or classrooms down the hall. This doesn’t mean that PBL is whatever you want it to be, but it does mean that it can look different for your students. We will not all complete a project in the way. We can have varied approaches to it, and as you grow in your application, you will find what works with your students. Some classes need more guidance, where others may have much more freedom. Your resources may be very different from mine. Our outcomes may look different as well.  Reflecting on how we approach pbl in our classrooms enables us to see what is working and to know how to try, try, try again. Modeling this in our own lives sets us up for helping our students do the same in the classroom. It isn’t about getting it right. It is about getting better and growing in understanding through our experiences.

Preparing to Grow: Your Next Steps

If you are willing to let go of the traditional strategies, and ask yourself “Am I prepared to grow,” then you will take your first step toward becoming what you have always wanted to be… “Something better than you are today.” Where will you place your first step? Who will guide you on your way? Who will you surround yourself with to navigate obstacles?

I am excited to see how your growth will unlock new levels of motivation and curiosity, as well as rekindle the joy of teaching.