PBL Simplified by Magnify Learning
PBL Simplified Podcast helps innovative principals and teachers like you bring Project Based Learning to your classrooms. PBL Simplified is in the top 5% of over 2 million global podcasts.
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PBL Simplified by Magnify Learning
How Do You Get PBL Started in a Small District? | E193
What if you could revolutionize your entire school district with innovative teaching methods? Join us for a journey through the world of Project Based Learning (PBL) as we uncover the secrets to success in small districts. This episode is a treasure trove of insights and strategies, starting with the importance of visiting successful PBL schools to understand their vision and methodologies. Over the next two months, we will bring you stories from model schools and interviews with the Movement Makers who have sparked the PBL movement in their areas. Discover our free resource at pblculture.com, where you can access a needs assessment tool to evaluate your school's culture and climate before setting off on your PBL journey.
In this episode, we delve into the comprehensive implementation of PBL at Neosho, Missouri Schools, highlighting the creation of RISE Elementary, a dedicated PBL STEAM school. Learn about the meticulous planning, community engagement, and the importance of having PBL Certified teachers and supportive administrators. Their story is a testament to the power of strategic leadership in creating sustainable educational systems that resonate with teachers, parents, and students alike. This episode is brimming with valuable insights on how to build a high-quality educational environment that can elevate every student's learning experience.
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How do you get PBL started in a small district? We're continuing our series on asset-based school development. We're going to spend about the next two months showcasing PBL model schools or districts and the movement maker that helped get things started in those schools. So I'm constantly advocating that you go and see schools using PBL. That way you can see their vision and you can think you know what did they do? You want to ask those questions. Who got this thing started? What happened at the beginning? You always have all these questions and I want you to go out and see it and you still should. But then I also thought well, what if we bring the model schools to you? So we're going to do that over the next two months of the podcast, we're going to take one episode and I'm going to kind of explain kind of the big picture of the school or the district implementation, and then the next episode we're going to interview that movement maker. That really was the spark that got things going and it's been that through line. So you're going to get both sides of them. So it's just like it's not just like going. I cannot say that in any way, shape or form. You still need to go, but I want you to. There's so many places you could go right, like, how do you decide, like, should you travel six hours? Should you get on a plane? It's like sometimes the answer is yes, but you definitely want to be worth. You know the time and the money and the effort that's going to take to get you and your team there. So hopefully this is kind of like a little introduction. At the end of every interview you and a lot of times I can already tell you, having done some of these interviews in advance already they're going to be too humble about this whole situation. So I'm probably going to jump in and give you a few pointers as to why I think you should go see these model schools. So as we start this process, we're going to start at a smaller district and that might mean different things for different people. In this case we're talking about 5,000 students in a district. I know we've worked with school districts that have 100,000, the largest district in Kentucky, or some of the smallest. You have a couple hundred kids in their district. So I'm going to try to give you enough details that you know kind of what we're looking at.
Speaker 1:I think that you can learn from every one of these model schools, every one of these implementations, because they're all in different places. They all started in different places as well, with different people. Some started with the principal, some started with the coach, some started with teachers and now some of these folks are assistant superintendents. So, wherever you're at on the spectrum, I think you can learn something from each of these case studies. And again, that movement maker that got things started. And because if you're listening, you are a movement maker you see education as a beautiful thing that can change the world, and you also see that there are some things where we need to make some shifts to help best equip our teachers and best equip our learners. And as you listen to these movement makers, you are going to find out they're just like you, they're innovative, they're thinkers, they're movers, they're collaborators, they're encouragers, and there's just a little stitch of crazy mixed in. So I think you're going to love this series.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the PBL Simplified Podcast, where we add value to PBL movement makers so they can lead inspired, because everyone wins when leaders are inspired. So, whether you're leading a classroom, a school or a district, your leadership matters. Here at Magnify Learning, we are obsessed with helping you transform your school. I'm your host, ryan Stoyer, chief Inspiration Officer at Magnify Learning, and I am fired up to get this series started.
Speaker 1:Before we do, though, I want to give you a freebie. I want to give you a freebie right off the bat. If you haven't done this yet, you need to go to this URL. You need to download the resources, because you need to figure out where you're at Before you start your movement. You need to know where your movement is starting from, so if you go to pblculturecom that's pblculturecom you can get all the resources that you need for a needs assessment, and I give you a video that walks you through each one of the resources that we give you. You've got Google Forms that you can send out to stakeholders. You could start this small, you could start this big. However, you want to do it.
Speaker 1:It's a resource that we've used for years to figure out where schools are at, with their culture, their climate and kind of where they want to go, because I always claim that maps are really really neat. Compasses are fantastic, but if you don't know where you're at on the map, you're really in big trouble. So before you start moving your movement, movement Maker I want you to know where you're at. So it's completely free. Pblculturecom it's a ton of value. We're never going to charge you anything for these services. If you want us to come out and do it like we come into your school, we're happy to do that. There is a fee for that, obviously, but we're giving you all the tools that we use for free. So if you go to PBL culture comm, you get all those resources you down right into your Google Drive and then you're gonna get an email or a web page that you've got a video for me, literally walking you through how we use each one of those resources. It's a fantastic, fantastic resource, super excited. Thank you for those. Have downloaded, gotten great feedback.
Speaker 1:I will tell you that you might be ahead of me on this, but there's a video I need to add from chat GPT and it's not there yet. I don't. We're working on it. Chat GPT can take all of your Google Form results and summarize them for you and give you the high points to kind of low points of your surveys in like the blink of an eye. So we need to make that into a video to add to that pack of free resources. It's not there yet, if you're, and kind of the low points of your surveys in like the blink of an eye. So we need to make that into a video to add to that pack of free resources. It's not there yet. If you're ahead of the game and you're ahead of me on this, then you absolutely love these resources because you can get them out there and you get it turned over really quickly. But we'll get there. So if you need any help, you can always send me an email. I'd be happy to help you as well. So that's your free resource for the day.
Speaker 1:Have we talked about design days? We're going to talk about Neosho schools today and it's going to be a case study. It's going to start at a school and it's grown to a district and if you love this case study, like I think you're going to, you're going to want to visit and then you're going to ask how did they get started? Well, they got started with design days. Everything that you're going to hear today started with two days of a principal and other administrators coming to Columbus, indiana. They hopped in a van a rented minivan, I think even and they drove six and a half hours to go and see what really could be, to really see the vision and live it out. And when they returned, they were all in Technically. They were all in before they left.
Speaker 1:And we'll interview next week, we'll interview Nathan Manley, who's kind of the movement maker that stirred the pot and got things moving out there. But he said on day one he said, ryan, nice to meet you, glad you're having this, glad we could be here. By the way, if this isn't good, I'm taking my team and we're leaving tonight. Okay, great, remember that little stitch of crazy I said that you all have. You know that You've got that. I was like you know what? I think that's fantastic. I think that's exactly what you should do. If this doesn't meet your needs, if this doesn't get your team fired up, then go and leave. But I think I think we're going to do it and we've got a great testimonial from Nathan. We said this really changed his career and because he saw the vision and he went back with it and he was so fired up that others got fired up with him and really, truly started a movement.
Speaker 1:So that's kind of the internal ad there for design days is that everything that you're going to hear today was sparked during those design days. It's a time to dream. It's a time to vision with your team, to get a grassroots movement going along with an administrative school or district plan that supports the grassroots movement, and I can't tell you how important that is. I've seen so many grassroots movements and been a part of them myself. They're doing amazing work, but when it's not supported at the administrative level there's not any kind of a three-year plan, a succession plan for administration then things fall apart and things fade away and amazing systems are suddenly no more. So that's why I'm so passionate about these design days. We've built them into actually every year of our three-year year plan. There's design days that go along with jumpstart and year one. There's deeper practice that go with PBL advanced in year two, and there's sustainability days that go with that year of certification for your teachers.
Speaker 1:And so passionate about it? Because we see so many systems that are doing amazing work and there's a blip and or an administrative change or a lead teacher change or a coach change and suddenly the whole system goes awry. We don't want that to happen for you, movement maker, when you get your movement up and running. We want you to have momentum, we want you to have the big mo on your side and we want you to be sustainable for years and decades to come, because it's super good work. So, with that being said, let's jump into this first case study of Neosho Schools District out in Neosho, missouri, on the west side of Missouri Again, a great place for you to go visit if you can get close.
Speaker 1:We're going to interview Nathan Manley next week on the podcast and when he came, like I said, for the design days and when he kind of first started PBL, he was at the intermediate building and his team came and then he was moved to assistant superintendent and this is actually a different district that he was in, but he caught fire of what PBL could do for kids and he tells some really great stories when he goes to conferences to present. He's got one story that he tells about his own, his own son going through the process, which I love because it means you're so embedded in this idea of the way education should look like that you want your children in this. I think there's a portion of that that's super passionate that comes through. The other thing that Nathan does really well is when you go and do a tour. There's a student panel. That's super raw. It's like adults. You ask whatever you want to the kids and they're going to answer they're going to do a great job. It happens every time. And then the kids and they're going to answer they're going to do a great job. It happens every time. And then the kids leave the room and the adults are all talking and Nathan brings this question. He says, okay, out of the five kids on the panel, which one of those learners you know was high ability? Which one of those learners had an IEP? Which one of those learners? And he kind of brings out some of these labels that we have for kids, right, and people get it wrong every single time. They can't tell that kid that has an IEP. They can't tell the kid that is getting pulled out in classes. Before PBL was happening, before there were workshops, before they had some confidence to present. Now they can't tell when the kid's on a panel. And it's a really powerful moment that visitors have to say, wow, this really levels the playing field.
Speaker 1:We talk about equity, we talk about, you know, serving every child and we get to see the result of that when you're going to visit. And Nathan does a great job of that, both having the passion to serve every child and this is actually something I've noticed between movement makers and maybe I should try to work this into my post questions is they typically have some kind of a mantra that is every child every day, whatever it takes. I think that's Nathan's, and other times it's like we grow all kids. There's some portion that's like we're not trying to get a little bit better, we're not trying to serve most kids, we're not trying to serve more kids than last year. We want something that's going to serve all kids and that's our goal and we're going to create systems that allow us to do that. So just trying to build out this case study for you so Nathan's assistant superintendent in a different district. He transfers to Neosho where he has a superintendent that is very supportive of the work They'd worked together in the previous district, and so now you have the leaders at the top in central office that believe this thing right, like they believe that education can and should look differently.
Speaker 1:So what do you do, right? What happens next? Is it big mandate from the top? Everybody does project-based learning? No, just, let's just jump to the end of that story. The answer is no. It was much more aligned to. Hey, let's start conversations around, this looks like the best way to teach our kids, to serve our kids here in our town. How do we start moving in that direction? And you find some of the first followers that want to move and you start providing training for those first followers and then you record the results and you're very public in praising those things that happen. And as you go farther down the line, you can build more and more systems that are moving people towards these different outcomes for learners that are not just GPA-based or standardized test-based. They're based on problem-solving and critical thinking and public presentations and these workforce development skills that are so important.
Speaker 1:So at Neosho you've got PBL certified teachers that are there supporting the work. You've got PBL certified teachers in coaching roles. You've got administrators that have been through PBL training. So it's this district-wide training that starts to seep into every part of the classroom wide training that starts to seep into every part of the classroom. And one part that I've also noticed with movement makers is I've lined them up for you all to have them on the podcast is there is just an element of patience that comes along with this work when we do see a mandate of everybody's going to do PBL every day, starting tomorrow.
Speaker 1:It just doesn't last long, right, you start to get bad PBL because everybody says, well'm doing pbl. I did a driving question. You know, I did an expo but it wasn't really pbl right, it was. Maybe it was a project or it was just out of compliance. It wasn't somebody that was trained well to do the work and really get the mindset. And mindset and culture take time and I think we see that in neosho. I think it's one of the reasons that I'm highlighting on the podcast as one of our model districts, because the mindset is what's important and the mindset's at the top.
Speaker 1:We see some systems where PBL is tolerated or STEM is tolerated in the district by the superintendent or central office folks and that's very different than supported by right or believed in. Tolerated doesn't last that long because eventually something else comes along and they say, well, this was neat, but it didn't work, so let's move on Instead of the patient, sustainable approach of building systems around high quality teaching and high quality learning. So the current model that they have is, I would say, a district model and you've got different schools at different levels of implementation. But one thing that I think is really important and some of you are really going to gravitate towards is they opened up RISE Elementary, which is a PBL STEM elementary school, and it's very specifically it's been built for that. It's a really neat building that they bought downtown and they renovated to be a school, right. So they've got glass walls in here when you walk downtown. It's got this cool kind of old town feel to it. It's got several levels to it and when I toured, there's just a buzz about the school and one of the things I love about this implementation is they started probably two years before they opened the doors.
Speaker 1:They started talking to the community about it. They started talking to teachers about it. They started talking to parents and kids about this. So when Rise opened up, if you were a teacher at RISE Elementary, you knew that PBL was going to be your instructional model. You were going to be using STEM on a daily basis, right, it's a STEM PBL school. And when they opened up the doors and this is where it's going to perk some of your ears if you're in a district and you want to open up a STEM elementary school specifically like this, is exactly how you do it.
Speaker 1:So they started the community meetings, started letting people know. So then when they actually launched, people knew what was happening. So it was a stratified lottery, so it wasn't just geographic Anybody could. Anybody could apply and they made it look like the rest of the district, the rest of the schools could apply and they made it look like the rest of the district, the rest of the schools, as far as IEPs and honors, kids, those types of things, and they had more applicants than they had spaces for, more applicants than they had spaces for. So they weren't pulling teeth, they weren't trying to get people in.
Speaker 1:What that tells me is they did a great job of communicating what was going to be happening at Rise Elementary. If parents don't understand it, they're not going to send their kid there. But if you do a great job of having a lot of open community meetings, taking questions, being willing to, you know, take those questions, the hard questions, and and answer those. Well, what's pbl? What's stem? Okay, great, like, let's talk about that, and I think it's just amazing. I'm not sure that I've seen another model where you have more applicants than spots. I have seen a couple, but it doesn't happen often, right? So they did a great job of giving themselves enough runway to explain everything that's going to happen and to take questions from people. So then the teachers that are going, they know this is the expectation. So you're drawing teachers that have been trained, you're drawing teachers that are going to be team oriented, collaborative, and you can start to build that culture.
Speaker 1:And we went to go visit and we're interviewing kids and cute little girl in kindergarten compares. She says you know what? Rise Elementary it's not Disney World, but it's probably second. Like it's real close and it's like what, like, what. Like you just compared your elementary school to Disney World and you had them very, very close, like something amazing is happening, like the teachers love their school, the kids love their school. It was super cool. So while you're doing this, you should also have some questions of when you're creating a school that looks a certain way and maybe the other schools don't look that way. How are you communicating? You know where the direction of the district and they did a very nice job of that.
Speaker 1:So they're always talking to the staff at Rise Elementary saying, hey, you know what, you're going to be doing things differently and I need you to do amazing things with humility. You should do amazing things with humility and you're a teacher in the district and we're just going to keep doing what we're doing, because you know this Movement Makers, You're doing something different. Somewhere in your career you've done something different. Or Somewhere in your career you've done something different. Or you're probably not listening to this podcast and it's not always looked on positively, even if you're doing amazing things. I remember being in eighth grade classroom using PBL and we have community partners in and they're like this is the best thing I've seen in education. Is the whole school going to do this now? No, no, they don't. They don't really understand it yet Is a nice, politically correct way to say that, and I think Neosho schools is another great example of being cognizant of the fact that you've got something different within the district and you need to have good conversations around that.
Speaker 1:You cannot create an us versus them. It starts to get caustic and they did a great job of making sure that the teachers at Rise are cognizant of that and that the teachers that are not at Rise are cognizant of that, because some people are not going to like what's happening there. Right, as you're doing something different, like, there are people that don't like it and the humble response is okay, I understand that. Why don't you come and watch my kids? I'd love to have you come and watch, come and see, come experience, invite people in. Don't make it a private club. Don't make it secret. Make it super transparent. Come on in, watch an expo, watch an entry event, and then, if you're the administrator or you're in central office, you need to get people coverage so that they can come and see some of those things. If they have questions, right, let's nip those things in the bud. Let's have the hard conversations, because there's going to be conflict and that's okay. We just need how you deal with it is really, really important.
Speaker 1:So you're going to hear this next week when we talk with Nathan. I'm going to ask him how teachers feel about PBL and he tells this great story and I don't want to ruin it for you, but I do want to tease it because it's so important. He talks about how these teachers are just happier teaching in this environment. It's a whole different experience for him as a teacher. Now. That's a big deal. That should perk some ears as well, because now you've got a teaching culture where they're super excited Monday morning and they're super excited monday morning and they're super excited friday afternoon, right to to be there and to be doing this work. So that's a little bit about what you might see if you go and visit neosho schools in neosho, missouri.
Speaker 1:I highly recommend it for small to mid-sized districts. If you're looking at a school and or a district implementation, if you're a district that's and or a district implementation, if you're a district that's going to start a STEM or PBL like elementary school, hands down, it's the place to go because you've got central office support, you've got the administrators, you've got teachers and you've got a process and system that worked right. There are so many things that you could replicate, no matter what size district you are. So highly recommend, if you that you should, should go visit that and some things I'm also going to give you. In each case study I want to tell you size. One of their big wins is rise elementary.
Speaker 1:As they're moving forward, what are their next steps? Because what you'll hear next week when we talk to nathan one one of neo shows movement makers is that they're in process. Right, all the movement makers that you're going to hear they're not like oh, we got it figured out, here it is. They're always in process. It's always growth mindset. So I want to tell you what their next steps are. So their next steps are to look at profile of a graduate, profile of a teacher, profile of a leader. They're going to look at their profiles now and some schools will start with that right that some schools. That's the reason to change is this profile work that they've done in the community and with the industry partners. That's where you're going to change and it's a really interesting way that Neosho has done it and I think I like it is that they've done a lot of the innovation and mindset work beforehand. So now, when they start to define this profile of a graduate, everybody's in a little different place to have that conversation. They've seen critical thinking in the classroom, they've seen problem solving in the classroom, so now they're going to, as they come to the table with profiles, they're going to have a really in-depth conversation. They're going to have more people leaning in than will be leaning out and I think it's going to be a really powerful process for them. So super excited for them in that process and what it looks like for their next steps.
Speaker 1:So I highly suggest that you head out there for a visit if you're a small, medium-sized school or district and again, we're going to be talking to Nathan next week and I think you're going to love that. So what do I want you to do next? Your call to action. Don't forget about the pblculturecom. I know we just talked about some really cool model school stuff, but don't forget about the pblculturecom. I know we just talked about some really cool model school stuff, but don't forget about pblculturecom to help you figure out where you're at. That needs assessment is super important to figure out where your culture's at in your classroom or your building. Obviously, I'd love for you to go out to Neosho. You might want to listen to a few other case studies too, but if that fits you to a tee right, just reach out pblsharecom. Pblsharecom is the easiest. Or you can always email me, of course, at ryan at magnifypblcom.
Speaker 1:Then you can schedule some design days and get that work happening for you, because we schedule our design days at these model schools that we're going to be talking about over the next couple weeks, so you could actually have your design days with your leadership team in Neosho schools. So here you are. You're planning a new rot. You know a rise elementary, essentially right, this, this stem steam pbl elementary school. It's going to rock and you're like, well, how do we get started? Why don't we plan it in neosho, right with the assistant superintendent, with the principal, with the teachers that I've already lived this out and you can ask all these questions like, wouldn't that be amazing? I'd be so amazing, right? I'm so excited for you to do that. So reach out, as you can do that. Thank you for tuning in. I think you're gonna love this series because we're talking about the model schools and then the movement makers. Because you are a movement maker, you are a leader wherever you're at and as a leader, you are the lid, and what we're trying to do here every week is we're trying to raise the lid so you can go lead inspired.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the PBL Simplified Podcast. I appreciate you and honor that you tune in each week. Would you please take two minutes to leave a rating and a review? When you leave a review, it lets the next person know that this is a podcast worth listening to. When they go into their player and search project-based learning, and PBL Simplified popped up. When they see those reviews, they know that high quality, visionary leaders are listening, so they tune in too and they can find their way into the PBL journey. Thank you so much for leaving a review. Thank you so much for listening. I appreciate you.
