TaNuj^’s Weblog

Hope you all have had mind-blowing holidays, well I certainly did. I thought I would take time off and recap over past years and in doing so try to figure where I went wrong and try to set goals for 2010 schooling year. I enjoy recapping over past experiences, because from them I am able to pick up my weakness and strengths.

It was my second (final) year of Project Based Learning. Project Based Learning these three words have changed not only how I think, but the way I act, live and communicate. The only reason why I ‘am blogging today is because of Project Based Learning, for I didn’t even know a term such as blog existed. This journey, my journey, my peers journey, my teachers journey started two years ago in year nine, my grade was the first in Australia to undertake PBL.

Two years ago, 2008. Coming off brilliant holidays (holidays are always so brilliant) I was much too relaxed entering the school grounds. There was chatter all around me, everyone was extremely excited looking at new classrooms, built just for year 9’s. Little did we know about the change that was going to enter our lives…

Chapter 1: THE SHOCK

We were handed out our timetables, and then told to move of to our homerooms (morning roll call). Everyone was gazing around a massive class(old study Hall) trying to pick up various details of the room.  First it was 10 students who entered the room then 30 , 40 , 50 ,60…What? 60 students in a class with 2 teachers. Bunch of 60 kids meeting after holidays, oh boy the conversations were taking place all over the class. I smiled to myself, on the thought of poor teachers and the nightmare they would have to bare. This was the first shock to all of us including teachers. 

Within a few days we were hit with another shock, the very first project. It was a mess I tell you, the project made many of us (students) go crazy, there was so much confusion. From using books and pen, now it was laptop and computers. Rather than learning, understanding  and doing work all by yourself now it was group that you had to be a part of. Teachers struggled to teach, they were confused themselves.

Chapter 2: DON’T CARE

“I’ll just copy and paste things, as if  teachers will know.” “Have you heard Jay Sean’s new single? hang on I will play it with low sound, teachers wouldn’t know.” “Can’t be stuffed doing any work  it’s all about having fun dude, we can do what ever we want on these computer, hey – let’s go on Facebook I’ll show you my pic.” ” Whenever teachers come around just change the window or the tab.” “I love this PBL thingo it’s like a blugger’s heaven.” “I’ll just let all my other group members do all the work.”

Many students including me lost our focus we were sucked into a habit of wasting our time in class. I for one couldn’t care less about the things that teachers were saying standing in front, for me it was recounting things I did yesterday after school with my mates. On computers it was just copy&paste, alongside music and games (in a classroom).

My first few blogs show you the phase that I was going through…

Now that I think about it, the reason behind  my attitude was mainly due to the lack of attention that teachers were giving me. Even though I was doing the wrong thing my teachers didn’t say anything to me, considering they to were aware of it- my low in class marks must have meant something. For teachers I just didn’t exist, it was as though I was an invisible ghost. I wasn’t provided with any words of encouragement. Yet I don’t blame teachers, it was entirely my fault.

Chapter 3: ANOTHER CHANGE…no not again

The whole grade was jumbled up again,  many were put into different classes. My attitude remained same, it wasn’t just one subject it was all the subjects. My lack of enthusiasm brought along many failures but I would  just close my eyes and refuse to see them. First time I was approached by a teacher, he/she wanted to see me because I wasn’t contributing to my group, I was given a warning, that really didn’t make  a major difference to me or my attitude. Then came the real hiccup- Half yearly exams, report, parent teacher meeting. I don’t think I need write about the nightmare that I lived. My marks were VERY poor, it didn’t really  matter to me, but it was the disappointment in the eyes of my loved ones and those around me. It was as though they were ashamed of me, ashamed of my marks, so they should be especially after all the bad things teachers had to say about me, funny they didn’t say anything to me in the class, but sitting there they were highlighting everything.

Chapter 4: HELPING HAND

The term holidays had passed there was a slight difference in my attitude I was at least starting to try and put a bit of effort in. We had project based on Shakespeare we had to act out one of his plays. I have always enjoyed acting , this project got my engine started. Next came the project so called Greenup 2145, meanwhile a group of teachers had visited Michigan,  America and got training for PBL, so now they to were getting a hang of it. But what was going to happen next I couldn’t even dream of. Greenup 2145 this project was based on Ning  this is where I got into blogging. I was still a bit down on enthusiasm, we were told to log on to the site and start contributing  to it, as well as start blogging, I really didn’t think to big of it then. It was just another project after all.  

Just for the sake of it I to wrote a blog. To my great surprise someone had commented on it, it read …

This is an extremely thorough and detailed response Tanuj! It is really wonderful to see you reflecting on your learning and breaking the project down into what is expected of you. I can certainly see you setting goals for yourself and for your group which absolutely allowing your self to be open to a great learning experience!

It was from my teacher, that very comment ignited my engine… I knew that this was my only chance to make everyone around me proud of myself…soon I was starting to gain comments such as…

I really like this post. It is easy to see what you are doing and that you are identifying clear issues to focus on. I wonder if you might put your conclusion at the end next time? I look forward to starting seeing you deliver on these elements, and I’d suggest that you keep using interesting post tiles (like you have here) to clearly identify what you are writing about. Don’t forget – you can do more than one post a day and this is turning into a great read already.

A great post Tanuj. One of the best I have read so far! Keep up the good work.

I can see your dedication and commitment to achieving great results for this project for both yourself AND your group. The information you have gathered is excellent and the way you are sharing your resources as well is a huge credit to you. Well done.

I just wish I was Tanuj. You keep raising the bar

This was my starting point to aim and reach for my various goals, that very year I was awarded PBL student of the year award. I will never be able to thank my teachers enough for all that they did for me, keeping in mind this encouragement further helped me to strive for excellence in other subjects as well.

Chapter 5 : UNDERSTANDING THE SYSTEM

Next step in my journey was to understand the reason behind all the hype surrounding the educational reform- Project Based Learning. Many visitors were coming to my school, all wanting to explore PBL. What was so great about this system? To figure out I started to analyse it.

-Entry document: problem is highlighted, students are given a particular situation that they would have to work upon. Whilst working upon problem, students would be gaining the content they need to understand and learn as per the syllabus.

-Rubric: Marking Criteria. Its concise and out lines each and everything that will marked, moreover how will it be marked.

-Know&Need To Know: From the information given about the project what do you know and what you would need to know in order to complete the given task . Highlight skills and knowledge that you would need learn.

-Group Task: Group component, student had to work together amongst other group members and complete the task. Gather all the information together, in doing so teach and learn from other students  in the group.  

-Individual Task: Individual component of the project, to make sure every student is up to date, and has gained necessary information. It could be as simple as an individual test.

-Presentation: Showcasing the work conducted over the period of project. Final end-product, solution to the problem.

-Feedback: areas done well (what was good?, why was it good?) areas that need improvement (work upon weakness). Marks given.

Chapter 6: Entry into 2-digit – ( yr. 10) 2009

To be quite frank year 10 wasn’t as fun, I always thought that something was missing or something was wrong/different.  Firstly going into Year 10 my mindset wasn’t right, I was expecting a lot more.  Hands of to the CST/IST (Catholic Studies and Information Software technology) department, the project they created were just brilliant, there were just so engaging, every time it was something new, something exciting. Students always looked forward to the lauch of another project in CST/IST. I was more than happy with the way things were happening in CST/IST… an example

As far as Social studies (English, History, Geography) was concerned things weren’t quite the same, I completely understand that there was a lot more content to get through considering we had school certificate exams at the end of the year, yet some improvement could have been made. The projects that were rolled out didn’t have direct linkage with content and the end product. The main idea of PBL was apply the given knowledge into real life scenarios, with social studies it just didn’t work in my class. We weren’t meant to be doing end product just for sake of it. To be quite honest I really didn’t find Social Studies as interesting or as engaging, it lacked creativity.     

Chapter 7: TOOLS THAT I PICKED UP

In last 2 years I have picked up many vital skills that bound to help in future….some of them include

- Use of technology

- How to apply technology to gain most out of it

-Learn to work amongst friends and foes

-Strive for the best 

- Think outside the square 

- Look at the bigger picture

- Conduct research tasks

- Self Confidence

-Will to learn more

- Self motivation

More than anything Project Based Learning as taught me to have a laugh while working: enjoy studying or doing whatever that best interest me. It has taught never to give up and seek more answers. My best learning would have to be – There are two doors to get inside the house if the front door doesn’t work then try the back door.

2010: I will be entering yr.11 another educational reform is going to take place so called 151, stay tuned…  

After an intense period of major exams I finally decided to get back and start blogging. However as soon as I logged in, I realised that many individuals had been viewing my blogs, most of the viewers were coming through http://edublogawards.com/2009/best-student-edublog-2009/ website, so I set out to explore. Grasped by absolute fascination I virtually had no words at that very moment - My weblog had been nominated for the best student edublog 2009. This itself is a massive achievement for me and a BIG THANKYOU goes out to all of my teachers (including ex. teacher without whom I would be no near this nomination- Dean Groom), but also many of my blog readers who have supported me over the past years and made me realise that my words are appreciated.

So once again I would like to thank everyone for giving up their own precious time and money ( because time is money)  and reading my blogs but also providing feedback. Its been a pleasure sharing my thoughts and feelings about various aspects associated with schooling life.

Just finally I would like to thank edublogawards for not only recognising my talent and skill, but the talents and skills of many other  individuals.

PBL (project based learning) was a massive hit, but you just wait and watch next year as my school /grade takes a leap into 151 project…its gonna be bigger and better

Would greatly appreciate your vote, they spelled my name wrong – TanNuj’s Weblog  http://edublogawards.com/2009/best-student-edublog-2009/

Just 16 years old I can’t really say I have faced hardship to max, but yes what I’m liable to say is I have faced many problems (hey, I’m human to). If asked to sum up Tanuj in one word I guess that word would be risk. Yeah that’s right I’m quite a ‘risk-taker’, thats just who I’ am. After all what’s life without risk. At times things go well, but other times not so well. ‘Not So Well’…ummm put this into the context of school? – Perhaps not getting good marks, or struggling to cope up with amount of workload, and ohhh… Finding it hard to understand the content being discussed. School can really become a nightmare, uhh?

Well I just want to drift off in another direction (it will make sense). I play a lot of sport, but its cricket that I eat, drink and breath. I have been playing this game ever since I was born, I have played it at many different levels. You know what, I was never really gifted at this sport, in fact I was hopeless at it, yet I loved playing it, sounds weird doesn’t it? As they say if you set out to seek, you can even find god, so with a clear mindset, I set out. I practised day and night, having my family looking over me, and showing me a path to success. So from being that guy who would bat at number 9-10 and hardly ever bowl (part-time). I eventually became known as a batsman who could literally bat anywhere, and a bowler known for slowing things down. Many coaches, from many different teams, knew me and every now and then I would be asked to play for so and so teams. But still I would get these butterflies in my stomach when ever I would be facing my first ball, and I couldn’t help wonder why do I have this fear of failure in me?

Few weekends ago we had a game against a team who had been winning the comp from last 3 years (geez isn’t that burning). We were 2 players down, our original opening batsmen was injured, so someone had to open the batting, remind you that we were chasing 260 runs. No one was hoping that we would make more than 140 runs, considering they had very strong bowling line up. Straight away I had all the fingers being pointed at me, with nothing to loose I stared to pad-up. Walking out to the pitch, I knew I would have to face the first ball of the innings. Slowly but steadily my heart beat was increasing, but at that very moment a voice called out me, it was from inside me, it said, “Tanuj why are scared, nothings gonna happen even if get out first ball, but just think what will happen if you get going, you can give your team a chance to win.” Yes I know, it was my self-conscience, you will probably think I’am crazy but I consider it to be my sixth sense, and my god, because it tells me whether I’ am doing the right thing or the wrong thing and it’s always there, no matter what I’am going through. All I know is that my self-conscience (my god) is always right. Anyways in that game I ended making 76 runs, as a result of an astonishing decision, I had to walk. I was a part of 2 major partnerships one lasting 51 runs and the other one 81 runs. We lost that game by ten runs, yes that’s right we made 250, even though we were 2 players down.

That failure was a success. That very day I figured out the reason behind my fear – self-confidence, a virtue that I was missing. That very day I figured out the person who whore the nametag Tanuj. I understood myself. The very day I built a relationship with my conscience.

Through my story there were a few things that imply to my school life as well. Just like in cricket, even in school life you will face many problems, but you know it comes down to you, you can’t point fingers at others and say I’m not able to reach my goal because of him, or her or because of this and that…it’s what cowards do. Nothing is gonna hit you as hard as life, it will kick you and keep to its knees, until you find the will to rise above all. It’s not about hard you can hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward…even in cricket I have been restricted from reach great heights because of favouritism, its like a glass ceiling, but that doesn’t stop me from trying.

I bet you would have heard the saying practise make you prefect, I say this saying is wrong, only correct practise makes you perfect. You gotta keep your head up and keep trying, let nothing stop. Have self-confidence, take a risk, but prepare for the worst. In cricket my family looked over me and showed me a path for success in school it’s the teacher who have to look over and lead the students on.

A life is not lost even though a man is pronounced 99.9% dead; you can’t give up without a fight. For you have gotta understand, to gain a diamond, your self-conscience must call out to you “belief in yourself”, you need to have faith, imagination- a foresight, dedication, determination and the most important building block- hard work.

 This is how winnin’ is done…go get ‘em tiger

Hi all,

For my new project- alongside my mates I will be presenting a forum based upon Building Peace In Pursuit Of Justice  bellow is a synopsis of what you can expect in the forum. It will be held at Parramatta Marist High on Friday 25th September.

Martin Luther King, Jr. once recalled these famous words-”Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.” In relation to the saying, the very goal we seek is justice. This forum focuses on finding peace within individuals, communities, organizations and in broader prospect- countries. In doing so, the aim of this forum evolves around implanting a change to individual’s thought process based upon various activities that would help build peace in pursuit for justice. The forum concentrates on illuminating the struggles and injustices that the world faces and the reason’s behind the act of making our heavenly Earth look like hell. Presented by Tanuj kakkar, Gaby Elsusu, Nathan Haddad, Peter Diana and Jonathan Haddad the forum recaps the values of human beings and what God expected from his creatures when he created the Earth. We further aspire ordinary individuals like you and me to come together and create harmony, because in doing so we will attain our goal for having justice.

The forum relates to the importance of role models and their significance to teaching and sculpturing our world into civilized land of rainbows and sunshine. In the space of 30 minutes you will be surprised with the realization of change that we are all capable of and the impacts each change has, not just on us but others around us. Through the course of this forum we will put our best foot forward to get you as an individual to change, for the future well being of our world. Learn from past and change the future.

If you are interested in attending this forum, then please do leave a comment bellow and I will soon be in contact with you…

Im sorry I do realise I haven’t been blogging for quite a while now, exam were on my head, so had to study and try to keep up with other work. Anyways another school term has ended and like many terms this one brought along something new and something exciting. So many things have happened in so limited time, it was as though I would blink and a day would finish- I guess this is what winter brings along. Through this blog I want to highlight a very special thing that happened to me in the period of 3 months…

Face Of Education

Two months ago at school I was asked to meet and give an interview to a couple people from the Catholic Education Office. The main theme of this interview evolved around the aspect of CHANGE IN EDUCATION. I spoke greatly of our school and the educational reform that has been put into practise- PBL (Project Based Learning). The first point that I talked about was the perspective of teamwork put into a classroom scenario, I gave this a great deal of importance as this has a enormous effect in a workplace. Its a topic around which all the project and content learning evolves.

Picture above – http://www.nrp.org.uk/cms_images/PBL%20LOGO%20300%20dpi.jpg

Next point that I choose to explore was based upon engagement/ motivation of a student in his/her learning. In the section I provided with my own story, my journey of becoming and enthusiastic learner- a lazy student who always sat at the end of the classroom, always chatting with mates and giving education hardly any importance, EVOLVES into a self motivated and an ‘information hungry’ learner. Its something I’m embarrassed/proud off…embarrassed because I was that blind not to see the hidden potential within me and proud because I managed to open my eyes in the nick of time and realise the person I am and the abilities that I consist. Another branch of engagement looked upon the use of technology, softwares and various websites which of course provided teachers with a foundation to create appealing activities, which lead to the bigger picture, compelling through a project. I also mentioned about the student-teacher relationship, which obviously played an important role in carving up my own success and the success of many individual like me. For me teacher-student relationship lurks upon the basics of providing feedback, it’s a simple fundamental more feedback  = better the results… either provide encouraging words to push a student forward, or hit him/her hard with truth, letting them know the negatives and showing a path to improve.

Other points that ware talked about were collaboration and self-reflection. The example that I provided was based around…a student goes home and rights a blog or a journal describing information that he/she has gained. From that writing material, students develop a curiosity to explore and in doing so quite often they ask question and provide/share new information- this process offcourse is given the name, ‘collaboration’…Self-reflection provides a lot more, it helps a student to become more organised, it tells him/her how they know? Where do they stand? Where to improve? How to improve? This interview made me backtrack, and all the memories came back…

Fast-forwarding…One random morning, one the teachers, who is much a part of PBL- Mr. Bruce Carr came up to me to deliver a message, a message that totally shocked me. I was told that in a week’s time I would be needing to go to CEO (catholic education office) alongside him. I was told that I had impressed the interviewees so much that they had chosen me become the poster boy for the ‘modernised’ education.

At the CEO (filming room) Mr.Carr and I were filmed for about two hours or so, they asked me questions (based on my interview) and I replied to them. It was quite hard as I had no script and more difficult when I was told to repeat the lines that I had made from top of my head. PHEW some how I managed to pull it off! I must say I was quite impressed and couldn’t help feel a bit intimidated, as Mr. Carr just stole show, wow he was amazing. We were given a super-star’s treatment, the make up artist even put make-up on my face (geez it was hard to take it off…hey im not a girl so im not used to it) But all in all it was a wonderful day, and I’am truly thankful to all for giving me such an opportunity…it really made me realise how far I had come!

Picture above- http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/w-w/local-resources/images/filming.jpg

This studio filming was nothing but a massive reflection for me and an experience that I will never forget…looking forward to the dvd…and once again thankyou to all

Amendments have to be made for the sake of excelling. Project Based Learning has changed my life, my vision, and my thinking towards education, many students and teachers still argue whether this has been a good step in order to attain success. From my observation there are powerful arguments from both sides of the table, my personal believe is that no system is bad, it depends upon which better suits the student, each individual has different capabilities, different strengths/ weakness, different mindsets, and a different thought process. However the aspect that differentiates between an outstanding student and a good student is ability to cope and adapt to different scenarios, they may also include different methods of teaching. I have now experienced one and half years of PBL, it has become a part of my life, I have witnessed education revolutionize, yet there are many aspects that need to be improved. Many people that I have encountered say there isn’t such a word as ‘perfect’, I say the opposite, things could be perfected only if the correct practise has been put into place.

From a student’s viewpoint, many changes have to be made to the PBL system at my school in order to grasp the title of ‘perfection’. First thing on my hit list is that aspect of equity across the grade, this leads onto marks /ranking (teacher play an important role in this), expectations and content learning.

Marks, Ranking and Expectation

This is one topic that I reckon I have been harshly done by, not saying that I deserve more marks or a higher ranking, it’s just that others deserved less. Marks are something that tend to set a standard not only in class but grades. At the end of each exam or presentation students often wait eagerly to receive their marks, to see whether they have done themselves proud. Excelling ones own expectation tends to bring along a smile that lasts forever, similarly on the other hand by failing students are liable to be clocked by sheer embarrassment.

Different teachers have different mindsets, for example if the rubric states,” effectively analyse”, these two words might mean something totally different to you, as what it means to me. As a result one teacher might think the student has answered a question reasonably well and give him/her 100%, whilst the other teacher may think that the same student hasn’t answered the question well, and much rather issue him/her with only 60%. This inequality causes a lot of variation, slowly this builds up frustration within a student, until all the patience is lost.

This may also result in a greater scattering of student’s ranking across the subject. Let me take myself as an example, I’ am currently ranked 1st in my class for social studies, however I’am ranked 8th across the grade. I have seen the final end product that was produced by those students that are beating me in terms of ranking, not being biased my work was far more advanced , its  much more sophisticated and more complex, yet I sit on 8th position. WHY?… I’ am just one of the students, I feel sorry for all the other students who suffer from this sort of frustration, no matter how high I tend to jump, I’am still not able to reach the goal.

Content Learning

Whole purpose of school is to gain knowledge, information, and experience. Each and every teacher has a different method of teaching, some are more effective than others, the tools and resources hold a great meaning to this aspect. At times I seem to fall in the trap of insecurity about the content being passed onto me, it makes me wonder, am I learning the exact same thing in the same manner as other students in my grade are? Are all the students being provided the equal platform no matter which teacher they have? Have I been given as good understanding of a topic as other students from different classes?

How to get a student back on track?

Currently I have been lacking motivation and enthusiasm in my PBL classes (excluding CST/IST). Lately I have doing work from out of fear, not enjoyment. For many weeks now I have tried to figure out where might that spark come from, a spark that will ignite my engine, so I have found these solutions…

- Set bench mark/goal/expectation

- Create a feel of competition within classes

- Provide with better guidelines/pathway

- Build a healthy relationship between teacher and student

- Provide with more feedback

- Collaborate as a grade

- Try something new (computer software/ Internet websites)

I haven’t been enjoying my projects as such, they do not attract me, not even one bit. To be honest I don’t how or what will motivate me, I just have my finger crossed and search for answers, answer that will get me back on track. Who knows what might happen tomorrow, will I get motivated? Stay tuned for the answer…

Wondering what I have been upto?

Another kick-off start to a year of social studies in PBL. The old year 9’s have aged into yr 10’s. Whereas the hustling, and anxious yr 8’s have matured into yr 9’s. Welcome to another year at Marist. Another year which is bound to overflow with rigorous learning and ample laughter.

Learning, educating and development of year 9 and 10 students, has taken a leap into what we call PBL (Project/Problem Based Learning). Its system, which raising various questions upon the aspect of education. PBL is a step forward in the era of technology, and social studies is one the branches that includes the subjects- English, History and Geography. Many developed and developing countries are slowly but steadily adopting this system. Numerous schools are looking ahead, in educating their learners through this process of PBL, in order for their pupils to compete globally.

Teachers at our school are really starting to blossom as 21st century tutors. A major part of being a group of talented teachers, undertaking PBL( problem/project based learning) for first time in Australia, is that they are learning alongside students. But they realise, and look at the projects from the perspective of students. Projects that are designed in Social studies are well beyond our lavishing dreams. They are not only aimed to be informative and contentful, but alongside fun and enjoyable.

While the duration of various projects that are conducted in social studies, students are given a entry document, which underlines what needs to be done in a particular project. Students are also shown the process of organisation, as they are asked to use various types of planners, but also they need to write meeting minutes to keep track of the work conducted. Whilst the project is being undertaken, teachers often set out few smaller activities which then leads onto the final product (the bigger picture). In these smaller activities if a student has any problems, then teacher would simply show him the direction or the pathway he can take in order to complete the given task. Students are pushed to use there own creative minds, with the aspect of self-initiative kept underneath the microscope.

So lets see what an accomplished and a successful PBL teacher has to say, upon social studies…

-Miss. Lucy Gresser (assistant PBL co-ordinator, and a leading Social studies teacher)

“Social Studies is an integrated course that combines English, History and Geography across Year 9 and 10 PBL classes at Parramatta Marist. The subject was designed this way in order to create multi-layered projects that are designed to engage our students on a number of levels through varying teaching and learning strategies that addresses compulsory content set by the BOS (Board Of Studies) yet allowing students to be critical thinkers and essentially activemembers of the learning process in a positive learning environment.

A project consists of both individual and group work tasks that are originally revealed in the entry document of the project. In Social Studies we haveadopted a system whereby the entry document should incorporate some element of what we expect our students to be able to achieve, for example the program we would like them to use this links strongly to my belief of modelling our expectations to our students as an essential component of PBL. Each project we design also includes links to necessary skills of preparing our students for the real world by relying heavily on communication and collaboration.

The focus in Social Studies is primarily on the content yet in order to effectively connect with our tech-savvy students we incorporate the use of web 2.0 tools as a component of the task. We have to recognise that our students are growing up in a world where skills associated with technology are crucial to any employment outside of school. It just needs to be the right tool so students to demonstrate their learning effectively to their teachers and their fellow students.

I think it’s important to note that there are so many possibilities for our 21stCentury learner. Education is not merely the passing on of knowledge from teacher to student, like in a transmission-style learning environment. Education is far more than that. It is the way in which we allow our students to immerse themselves in a culture of learning that moves beyond content. It is extremely rewarding to see our students actively engaged in their studies working within an environment that involves collaboration and certainly a healthy environment of competition.

So far this year, our new Year 9 students have undertaken a number of rigorous projects that have included “Shake Things Up”, “Scorched” and most recently “An Inconvenient Reply”. These have involved our students in a number of tasks included creating a trailer for a modernised version of a Shakespearean play, a news broadcast on some of aspects of the harsh Australian environment and now engaging in sophisticated dialogue through social networking discussion forums and composing thoughtful and well researched blogs. Our students are feeling connected.

Our second year PBLers(Yr 10 2009) are continuing their learning through projects “Voices of the Others” where they traced the experience of a chosen migrant group to Australia and submitted their work through creating an E-archive. Students also studied the art of advertising through exploring our global links through our “Globalisation” project and we have just recently released “Famous Dismissals” where students will explore the Whitlam years in government and create a newspaper supplement.

So it has certainly been a busy year so far, with many more exciting experiences to reflect on!”

As highlight above by Lucy; so far yr. 9’s have conducted 3 projects – Scorched, Shake Things Up and An Inconvenient Reply. So lets hear it from few of the year 9 students, as they provide an insightful evaluation upon their chosen social studies project-

Benjamin Khabib- yr. 9- “Scorched”

 “Scorched” was one of the most enjoyable projects in PBL. It provided a challenge for students & concentrated on investigating real-life issues like bushfires & droughts. “Scorched” was a project that was geography-based. I enjoyed the project because, firstly: It taught me a lot & secondly: It was more organized then other projects. In “Scorched” I learnt about real-life issues, which made the project even more exciting & educational, since a lot of the information that I took in from this project, will come useful to me in the future. I was lucky to get a good group of students, who were all outstanding during the project. The task required all groups to create a news broadcast that concentrates on defining bushfires & droughts (Australia’s main natural hazards) & assessing, how does the government, groups & individuals handle these natural hazards. Another important part of the task was designing a solution to manage these natural hazards.

The fact that we had to create a video broadcast excited me all the way through the project & gave me & my team motivation to put all of our efforts into creating not just an educational & correctly structured news report, but also engaging & high quality video that would use its appeal to attract many viewers & address the issues. All around the class, I saw people, including me & my group coming up with fantastic ideas for their videos. Through this I saw the way how PBLwas effective: It drove everyone to come up with fantastic ideas independently & share them around, rather then having just one idea being taught to a whole cohort for many years without change. “Scorched” changed the whole light, in which I saw PBL. At first, I saw PBL as an enemy to peaceful learning as I was never happy with sharing my ideas with others, but everything changed. After “Scorched” I got into the vibe of PBLbecause this time I learnt a lot from my peers & instead of just sharing my ideas like in other projects, I received ideas & information from other people when they were presenting their news reports. The reliability of the information presented in other people’s news broadcasts amazed me. My group & me also produced a decent news report. I took the initiative of using the green screen technology & my group stood out as the only ones that used the green screen. Through this, we were able to create exciting backgrounds behind our “presenter” (Me) & our “reporters” & “victims” as well learn new technology for future projects. My group unfortunately received 30/50. I did not create perfect news broadcast, but I am ready to take teachers’ feedback into consideration & do better next time. “Scorched” was a pleasurable project, despite people saying that we didn’t learn enough, but it is probably the fact that they didn’t try hard enough to learn everything that was on offer. Many people expected PBL to be easy, but it isn’t, because even in PBL you haveto work hard & put effort to achieve good results, as to the project itself, it was very organized & educational.

Next in line was a project that looked upon Shakespearean re-make…

Balkaran Mann- yr. 9- “Shake Things Up”

“Shake things up was our first project and we were excited to get a taste of the PBL version of English. Before we started the project we knew it was about Shakespeare and had done some work on Shakespeare. There were mixed reactions before the project started with some people ready to divulge into learning the works of man of the millennium – William Shakespeare whilst others were not sure after their bad experience with Shakespeare in year 7.

But now comes PBL after being bored by studying Shakespeare in 2007 and finding it hard to understand, project based learning should change that. In short PBLwill allow us to learn Shakespeare through a creative medium (which was the mainly the trailer) that would make the process enjoyable and stick in our heads.

Since this project required us to make a movie trailer of a Shakespeare play it instantly received a great reaction since the filming and editing of the trailer was going to be very a very enjoyable and creative task that would allow us to film, learn, expand on software skills and socialize with friends. Talking about friends I think that we should be able to pick our own groups now and then to have fun and be in comfort.

I’ll expand on the tasks in the project:

1) Story board: it was a great way to organise and plan out our trailer so the trailer could go according to plan and we knew what we had to instead of making scenes on the spot.

2) Translated scene: it was a good test of our Shakespearean skills.

3) Trailer: as we filmed the trailer we expanded our knowledge on Shakespeare and learnt so it would stay in our minds. The trailer also allowed us to learn other skills as well.”

Global-Warming seems to a topic that has everyone wondering, lets see what the third project was about…

Ashish Sood – year 9- “An Inconvenient Reply”

“One of the project that I have carried out for Social Studies is ‘An Inconvenient Truth’. We were told that we have to come up with blueprints and maps for an environmentally friendly city that would help defeat global warming. But before all of this, we saw the film (An Inconvenient Truth), which was made by AL Gore, it was a documentary on Global Warming and its effects on the world. It made us think for the first time about our effects on Earth, while AL Gore provided evidence, facts and statistics for the happenings of it.

After watching the movie, we signed up for Ning (a social networking site, used for collaborating information) and started blogging, which is a process of reflecting and recounting. We got assigned homework that was based on adding information and thoughts on forums discussions or composing blog posts. All the work carried out looked upon creating more sustainable solutions for various things that are having a huge effect on our beautiful planet.

I found this topic very interesting as it gave PBLa new meaning. It evolved education in such a manner that it made us think, and make good use our creative mind, but offcourse main thing was that is was FUN! Ning presents education in a much more radical way – a way that I think should be the concept of the whole PBL system.”

It’s evident that year 9 students much love social studies, not only because they are learning various amount things, but also they are enjoying working with fellow peers and technology.

Year 10 is a step up in terms of PBL and social studies; we are now expected to not only exceed our own expectations but the teacher’s as well. Year 10’s have nicely settled into this new system, and are looking forward to new challenges. The first project that year 10 had lined up for them was called, “Voices Of The Other”.

First project looked upon students examining the aspect of Vietnam War and the role Australia played in it. The entry document was designed using Zoho Notebook which modelled for the students the expectations of teachers, ZohoNotebook was the tool that was used through the duration of this project. So through the study of Vietnam War it tied in nicely with looking at the overall migrant experience of different groups to Australia. The final product of the project involved the students collaborating within their groups in order to create an e-archive, a collection of resources that needed to be located or created. This collaboration of resources included letters, interviews, newspaper, poems and photos.

“…For this project, you are required to construct an e-archive using ZOHONotebook that highlights the impact of international events on the migrant experience in Australia. Your product must be based on the stories and experiences of one particular migrant group to Australia. Individually, you must create a montage which includes a collection of images with an accompanying audio that portrays the migrant experience of the Vietnamese and this is to be included in your overall e-archive….”- portion of the entry document.

Example of writing that was carried out in this project…

“I’m scared. I’ve been scared for a while. Death is now the only thing i think about. Being blown into pieces because I took a bad step or was at the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s been getting to me and this book is the only book I have left. My house, my clothes, my friends, MY RIGHTS gone! They were taken away from me today!!

It all happened so fast. All I remember is entering my house with dad, mum, and my younger brother. We had all gone out because dad had finished his time in the army even though the war is still going on. I can still hear the echoes of bombs and gunfire as I sit in a tent made out of newspaper and the rubble of blown up buildings. We came back all tired and happy about the night. Dad had been awarded medals while me and my brother ate the left over oregano pizza we were able to take home. I didn’t even enter our house before dad was yelling to get out. I was right at the door and that’s when the smell hit me.

The smell of gas from the stove hit me filling my nostrils and taking over my lungs. My sudden reflex was drop to the ground. While mum jumped to cover the “habibi” of the family, Jean-Paul. Dad being the fit, army experienced, old man he shut the door and jumped to cover me. I closed my eyes and covered my ears as we waited for the bang. It took a few seconds for the bang to happen. When it did i felt all the wind be sucked inwards towards the house before the heat and the debris hit me. The noise lasted for a second but the damage that it did to my ears is still taking its time. As soon as all the debris had rested I pulled myself out. Dad was still alivebut needed a rest. Mum summoned the energy to climb off Jean-Paul. He was fifteen but now he wasn’t recognisable, neither was mum or dad. Their clothes were burnt, their skin covered in ash and cuts, I’m guessing by the looks of shock on their faces we all looked the same. We walked around for a while looking for anything that survived. The only things were a picture of mum and dad’s wedding, my journal and Jean-Paul’s half burnt slingshot. Now I’m here, homeless, bruised and sick and tired of fearing for my life. So far dad has decided that were going to travel to my aunties how were we will live until were back on our feet. Until then, I will be wondering through cities picking up any pens I find on the street and get down when people tell me to. No one deserves this life.”

Reflection upon the Vietnam War…

Next project was called Globalisation, this looked upon learning the aspect of advertisement (English content), and Australia as a whole (Geography content), trough the progression of this project students also covered a great deal of information upon Australia’s global and region links…So How do we sell Australia?

“So you think you can make an ad? You’ve spent plenty of time on the couch thinking you could do the job better than the professionals? Well, here’s your shot. We want you to make an ad for us. And not just for us, but for Australia. For your country. In fact, it’s your patriotic duty to do it. It would be un-Australian not to.

This year’s Consumer’s Revenge challenge asks you to BEAT THE BAZ, to come up with a tourism ad that will sell this wide brown land of ours to the rest of the world.

Here’s how it all works.

Don’t worry that you’re not a filmmaker. We’ve built an online tool to make the whole thing easy for you. We call it the Gruen Admixer. It’s so simple even that gorilla in the chocolate ad could crank out an award winner. Here’s how to use it:

1. Check out our extensive library of video clips. It’s in a pull-down menu marked “Categories”. We’ve loaded more than 100 short clips of Australian scenes and icons: our beaches, our wildlife, our rainforests and much more. You can preview any of the clips by clicking on them.

2. Make your ad by dragging the clips you want to the “Video” timeline bar at the bottom of the Admixer. You can change the order or edit each clip to make it shorter.

3. Click on the “Text” tab up the top. Now you can weave a script around those images. The pictures alone are never going to be enough. We want you to come up with a proper ad, with an unforgettable slogan at the end. That means writing good ad copy. (Hint: think of it as an old-fashioned silent movie – write words that add meaning to the pictures you’ve chosen.) Here’s an example of a slogan: “Australia. Less prone to recession than almost anywhere”.

4. Click on the “Audio” tab and add a soundtrack to your ad. A soundtrack is what stirs our emotions, so it’s pretty important.

5. Consider whether you need to add visual and sound effects. These can be found under the “Effects” tab.

Look, we don’t mind if you want to make a serious tourism ad or a sarcastic one. We don’t care if your ad would lure millions or drive them away. What we want to see is inspiration. We want to see your creativity on display, your understanding of emotions, your ability to tell a story.

To give you an idea of what we’re expecting, the staff at Gruen HQ have had a couple of goes at the Admixer ourselves. Have a look at what we’ve come up with here and here. We think you’ll agree that they’re better than Baz’s (well, cheaper anyway), but still, there’s a lot of room for improvement. Your improvement.

Click through to the Admixer and have a go. Do it for the economy and do it for Australia, and go, you good thing, go!!!”- Entry Document

Example of work which was done…

Last but not least was the project so called, “famous dismissals”, with the driving (theme) question: How do individuals and groups wield power over people and politics? In this project we looked upon famous Australian dismissals that included- Jack Lang, Sir. Donald Bradman and Gough Whitlam. This the course of this project, year 10 students undertook a massive research task based on those famous figures…

TASK-

“Newspaper Supplement on the Whitlam Years in Government. In your group of 5 each group member is to take responsibility for an issue relating to the Whitlam years in Government.

- Finance

- Foreign Relations and Immigration

- Aboriginal Affairs, gender and race relations

- Corruption and Scandal

- Impact and Legacy

Over the period of the project each group member is to research and write 3 newspaper articles on your chosen topic. (one per week) which will be submitted via pmonline at weeks end. At projects completion your group will have produced a newspaper supplement, using all the articles previously submitted, documenting the Whitlam Government from election to Dismissal. Your groups supplement should also contain other items that you would commonly find in a newspaper, feature article, advertisements, political cartoons, editorials and letters to the editor.”

This term I was introduced to the term kaleidoscope…few weeks ago, I was forced by few of mates to try out  for public speaking (fortunatelly I didn’t make it in…phew), however in the trails I was asked to make speech based upon Kaleidoscope. Today after so many weeks this term flashed back in my mind and the curiosity to further explore this term arouse.

Initially this word only meant an instrument which changed patterns, and was created by the Greeks. But of course my curious mind wouldn’t let me be in piece, so I started to form few thoughts based upon Kaleidoscope. Seeing that its holidays and I’am getting bored , so I thought I should start to compile my thoughts together and form a blog, dedicated to hidden meaning of life represented by a kaleidoscope.

Kaleidoscope is an instrument, which aims to represent countless lessons, which have to be learnt during lifetime. For some it may highlight the aspect of variation in life. We so often refer to the rotational motion of the tube, as it emphasizes on the perspective of a turning point, process of growing up when the inner core of strength is discovered, and just like the changing in patterns, a leap is taken into new experiences. It varies from an unripe child, to an elderly person, each individual embarks on this journey some point in life, and use their own unique methods to adopt the new lifestyle.

Suddenly when individuals are placed in situation, where it’s challenging to relate upon an older experience, many are greeted with shock. It’s a human- nature to act in such a manner, however by obtaining a mindset to take upon such scenarios, makes the new experience much more pleasurable and relaxing. At the beginning it’s likely to feel as though it’s a bumpy ride through another stage in life, but after a few repeat experiences, we tend become more tranquil, as we become accustomed such situations.

This process of understanding new experiences could be shortened if we are lucky enough to possess a guide (Its meant to be a joke!). If not, then I guess process is time-consuming. This longer period time is acceptable if the experience is a positive one, but is very displeasing if it is negative. “Life can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forward.”

At the opportunity to glance at the dazzling shapes, created within a kaleidoscope, does our creativity take over the mind and produce beautiful imagery. Creating real life objects suppressed within shapes and patterns. For many a peek in kaleidoscope is entering a virtual world, place where individuals are grasped by the fascination. It’s a mean to explore and witness objects well beyond the lavishing dreams. An additional learning that we are taught by the theme of a kaleidoscope is- identifying values, facts and feelings, which are concealed within real stories. This aspect looks at upon the saying, “not to judge a book by its cover.” You can’t make a judgment about something based upon its looks; it’s a sin to make a conclusion on someone by the clothes that they wear, the car they drive, or the way that they walk. Repeatedly we are reminded not to trust our eyes, much rather dig deep and investigate until unless each and every question is answered. As a philosopher once said,” everybody has a world, and that world is completely hidden until we begin to inquire. As soon as we do so, that entire world opens to us and yields itself. And then we see how full and complex it is. “

Another aspect that we are informed of is ‘reflection’, where the theme of self-observation is kept underneath the microscope. Just as colourful beads reflect upon mirrors within a kaleidoscope, similarly actions, behaviour and academic knowledge reflect from individuals. This is a process of reporting inner thoughts, desires and feelings. It is a procedure based upon developing the skill for an individual’s intelligence, it is based on thinking, reasoning, and examining one’s own thoughts, and feelings. In more spiritual cases, one’s soul. Qualities such as meta-reasoning and meta-cognition are closely connected with the introspective experiences. It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done.

As stated earlier reflection is ‘looking within’, but of course we do not visually inspect the interiors of our brain. With use of the term introspection we claim that we can recognize our own mental states through some sort of non-visual attention, whose immediate objects are thoughts or sensations within the individual himself. Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.

Pure experience is the name given to the immediate flux of life, which furnishes the material to our later reflection with its conceptual categories. By the combination of the three methods we are able to learn wisdom- First, by reflection, which is the noblest; second, by Identifying, which is the toughest; and third by experience, which is by far the bitterest.

First and foremost, I would like to apologize for my absence on wordpress ever since last few months. Being in year 10 certainly isn’t easy; especially when you are expected to exceed teacher’s own expectations. For me, year 10 is a step-up in terms of PBL (Project Based Learning), we are now treated as young and mature men, workload put upon us is immense, considering that I’ m accelerating in maths as well. However teachers do realise the importance of school-certificate and in order to compel us through this task successfully, we are being pushed to our absolute limits, as they say, “a good beginning makes a good end.”

However over last few lessons I have witnessed few students becoming surface learners and at this point I ‘am reminded of a conversation with Dean Groom, and the questions that he poses…

“I wonder, from your perspective, how your teachers go about trying to find out what motivates you? – Other than yelling, nagging and putting pressure on you through rules? – What do you think teachers need to learn about motivating ’surface’ learners – to become – not a nerd, but lifelong, successful, deep learner?”-Dean Groom

Well I must say, on the aspect of motivation and teachers, lately I have been on a roller-coaster ride; I have had my ups and downs…

For those inquisitive, ever wondered what exactly is motivation?

I remember not long ago, I was reading an article written by Remez Sasson, where he stated- “Motivation is the inner power or energy that pushes one towards performing a certain action. Motivation has much to do with desire and ambition, and if they are absent, motivation is absent too. Motivation strengthens the ambition, increases initiative and gives direction, courage, energy and the persistence to follow one’s goals. A motivated person takes action and does whatever it needs to achieve his/her goals.”

Being a student undertaking PBL (Project Based Learning), I have been privileged enough to be taught by some of the best that teaching industry has to offer. My philosophy is that all teachers are intellectual, but the thing that sets apart the good ones from not so good ones, is the ability for finding numerous solutions to one multifaceted problem, this links into the perspective of creativity alongside pride and passion for teaching. At my current high-school, teachers reach great heights in order to motivate pupils, they use various means, such as…

· Showing care and appreciation for the work conducted (including rewards)
· Involvement -have students participate
· Making learning more interactive and visual (eg. images and videos)
· Using positive emotions
· On constant bases applying new methods (eg. teamwork activities)
· Capitalizing on needs of a student
· Providing with help to set achievable goals along the year
· Showcasing students inner ability and potential
· Creating competitions and setting benchmarks
· Emphasizing on mastery and learning rather than grades

As Lucy Gresser states, “…when the entry document is ‘unveiled’ the students must find within them, a natural desire to set to work in order to reach or rather ‘create’ the final product….”

Let us now hear from few of my teachers, see what they have to say upon this topic…

Gavin Hays-

 Lucy Gresser-

In my opinion it is important for a teacher to study various characteristic based upon a student before constructing a judgement about him/her. These characteristics may include things like…

· Behaviour
· Work ethic
· Hidden potential
· Passion for learning

Once the tutor has constructed an effective analysis upon a student then its important for the teacher to highlight strengths and weaknesses. Afterwards, its all in the creativity of the educator; he/ she (teacher) has to be clever enough to be able to relate and build upon those weaknesses by putting them into scenarios or sets of activities, which is enjoyed by a particular student. So indirectly with all the fun and enjoyment content is learnt, that too in such a manner that it’s not realized.

Word of advice from chef:

Ingredients for mouth-watering enthusiasm require excitement, slowly stirred with inspiration, and motivation, accompanied with a pinch of creativity.

I’ am not that bad for a 16-year-old cook, ah ! …bahahahah