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PBL Simplified by Magnify Learning
PBL Model District - K-12 PBL Pathway in a Larger District Case Study | E197
Can you imagine a school where students collaborate to solve real-world problems, build community projects, and are constantly pushed beyond their comfort zones? Today, we're exploring the dynamic world of Project Based Learning (PBL) through the success stories of CSA New Tech in Columbus, Indiana. Discover how innovative physical environments and a collaborative staff culture are key drivers of student success. Principal Josh Giebel will join us in the next episode to share his insights on creating a PBL-friendly culture. Plus, don't forget to share your own PBL triumphs on pblshare.com to inspire fellow educators!
Join us as we dive into the empowering senior projects at CSA New Tech, where partnerships with Community Partners lead to transformative learning experiences. From organizing STEM conferences to enhancing local parks, students are making a real impact. Learn how the school's intentional design and strong community ties create an unparalleled Project Based Learning culture. If you're looking to create a similar environment in your school, we highly recommend a visit to CSA New Tech. Schedule your Design Days today to get your PBL Movement started!
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K-12 PBL pathway in a larger district. We're continuing our case study series on asset-based school development. You, as the movement maker, are trying to figure out where do you get started, and has anybody done this before before you really launch in your PBL movement? At least that's what you tell me and I typically tell you hey, why don't you go to one of our PBL model schools and go see great work in action, which is a great idea? But you say, well, where do I go? Well, why don't I bring them to you in the podcast? Then you can decide which one you want to go to. So we've already talked about Neosho, missouri, which is a smaller school district. Now they've implemented across the district. We've talked about a larger school district like Calvert County in maryland. That started in a subject area. We're also going to bring you a charter school. We're going to bring you a larger district. We're going to bring you in a title one elementary school in a larger district and today we've got a high school that's a part of a pbl pathway k-12 in a larger district. So the district is about 11 000 students or so and then this is a K-12 pathway that learners can choose. So we're trying to bring you a bunch of different models, because often people say, well, where do I start? It's like there's so many places you can start. I love it when you start with a school visit and say, wow, I'm inspired by that, I'd like to do more of that. And we develop some design days where you can go to that school, you talk to the principal, the teachers and the learners and start to develop your three-year plan and then you jump in because we know that this movement making this transforming of schools it's not easy work. You don't just read a book and flip a switch. There's a lot to it. It's complicated plan, but it's a doable plan. We've got the best practices, we've got the right leaders around the table and we we're going to bring them to you. So today you'll get a case study from CSA New Tech and then next week you will get to talk to Josh Giebel, who's the principal of that school. So you get the case study and then the movement maker. Thanks for joining me today.
Speaker 1:This is the PBL Simplified Podcast, where we add value to PBL movement makers like you so 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. We are obsessed with helping you transform your school. I'm your host, ryan Stoyer, the Chief Inspiration Officer at Magnify Learning. Again, thanks for joining me today.
Speaker 1:So today, before we jump in, I want you to go to pblsharecom. I do Selfishly. I'd like to know the really cool things that you're doing and then, unselfishly, I'd like to share them with our audience so people can learn from it. That's the same reason you're tuning in today. You want to hear the case study of these different schools and how they implement, so that you can figure out what your next moves are going to be. Well, sometimes you need to share, maybe a small win. Maybe you went through the PBL simplified book study with your staff, or maybe you had somebody had a great expo. Whatever it is, why don't you go to pblsharedcom and share that win, and then we'll share it on the podcast?
Speaker 1:Today we're going to be talking to CSA New Tech, which is a high school in Columbus, indiana, and the building was literally built for PBL. So at the very beginning, there were teachers, principals, assistant superintendents sitting around a table figuring out what would be the best environment for project-based learning. They had architects there as well, and the teachers literally picked the tile in the bathroom, so everything. So you've got a super collaborative space. You've got glass walls, you've got collaborators kind of these restaurant-style booths where learners can collaborate, you've got places to present. It's a fantastic building just to walk through but it's backed up then, or I guess it's the foundation for the curricular work that happens with the intercurriculated lessons that they have and courses. You've got an adult culture that absolutely soars. Their planning room is one giant room and they've got these tables in the middle where they can all collaborate. Or you've got your own individual space, kind of on the outside. So it's a very, very collaborative environment. You're definitely going to want to tune in next week when I talk to the principal of CSA New Tech, josh Giebel, because he's going to reiterate this fact around the importance of staff culture and then how it trickles down to your student culture. He would not have. You can't have one without the other, right and Josh really breaks that down in a super relatable way. So make sure you tune in next week.
Speaker 1:One other connection I want to make is that if you tuned in in episode 193, we talked to Neosho Schools in 193, 194, and it's a smaller district doing project-based learning and they drove like eight hours in a rented van to come to CSA, new Tech, the school we're talking about today, and from that visit they went back and started their PBL movement, right. So it's like this kind of flame, it's like a torch, right, you go somewhere, you light it and you bring it back with you, right. So that's a super powerful experience of being able to go and visit and CSI New Tech again, the school we're talking about today. High school does project-based learning. The mindset is pervasive through the learners, through the adults. Everybody's thinking with a growth mindset and it starts with that culture. And as soon as you step in just like Neosho did you notice something's different.
Speaker 1:And I want to pitch design days again here because it literally started this movement in Neosho from the school that we're talking to you about today. So you go to these design days, you go to CSA, new Tech and then you plan out what you're going to do when you go back and as you come up with ideas, you can run them by the teachers that are there, you can run them by the principal that's there. You can ask students, is this even a good idea? And they'll tell you. They start giving you advice when you leave. You have this plan that gives feedback from learners, from teachers, from principals. It's fantastic. I think it's just the best possible scenario. So that's why we have design days. We still have open slots this fall. That's why we have design days. We still have open slots this fall.
Speaker 1:Get a hold of me. We can get you set up at one of our PBL model schools. Let's jump into CSA, newtek Again a high school in a PBL track. So in Columbus, indiana, you have the option, as a learner, to have project-based learning be a part of your education, from kindergarten through your senior year. And the senior projects are also another phenomenal piece. So at the end, I'm going to tell you, like why you should go see csa, but I'm kind of telling you at the beginning too, because their senior projects are phenomenal. I think I get into that, though I'm getting ahead of myself. So let's get back to my notes so we can do this in order.
Speaker 1:But they've been doing this work for over a decade, right? So it has proven. It's been through the founding. Teachers started this and they've had turnover, right. Teachers don't stay in one place for 10 years. We all have different goals and different places we might want to work and different seasons of life All kinds of things happen. So we know turnover is part of the world that we live in. But the new teachers that have come on board through a hiring process that might have an administrator, a teacher, a parent, a community partner and a learner on it. That's pretty innovative. You're selecting teachers that want to be in a really innovative environment and then you're not just letting them stay there and figure it out. You've got mentors set up. You've got a culture that brings people into the fold right. So that's one of the reasons I think it's such a powerful example is you have a decade of PBL happening here.
Speaker 1:We just had a transition of the principal, so we talked to Josh next week. He is now the new principal. So the founding principal, mike Reed, has been there for a decade and now it's time for him to go do more kayaking, so he's going to step aside and now Josh gets to come in and lead this fantastic environment. So next week again, we're going to be talking with Josh Gable, principal. He was a teacher at CSA New Tech. He's been a coach and he's been a principal in another part of their district and he just came back to be principal at CSA New Tech. It seems like he's coming back home. We're organizationally like we're just excited for him to be back because we love this school.
Speaker 1:If you notice a little nostalgia in my voice, like when I was a teacher in eighth grade classroom in Indianapolis, I remember sitting at CSA New Tech, really at probably the same room and the same table that you'll be sitting in when you do design days. I was sitting there and we were talking about what could PBL look like across the state of Indiana and I was trying to figure out what was best for my classroom and the school within the school that we start at the middle school level. At CSA, they were trying to figure out what was best for their learners. It was just a super collaborative environment and that spirit just seems like it's still there. So, again, super exciting place to be.
Speaker 1:Let me give you a couple other stats, though. So they started and when they're brand new, they start with the freshman class. So they started with 100 students and the next year they added on sophomores, added on 100 students, then juniors and then seniors. They had about 400 students or so, and that's how they started. So, as you're looking to start your PBL movement.
Speaker 1:I think this information is important because you've got to think through how do we start, what's our first class look like? We've got several model schools that started in a similar manner and I think when you know that going in, you can ask some of these questions like what did the first class look like? How do you grow. These questions are important and you really want to talk through them, I think I guess before you start. I mean, I don't want you to have analysis paralysis, but I think it's silly to just Start a whole new, brand new trail when we have people that have been down a trail pretty similar to yours. You're going to start. We've got people that have started and done this for a decade and I'm a trailblazer, I love blazing a new trail. I get that. But I think if you start on maybe someone else's trail, you learn from that. You can get a little farther, you can get to where you really want to be. So I think it's worth, you know, kind of putting some of these ideas in here for you so you can ask the right questions when you get there.
Speaker 1:So they're a larger district again, about 11,000 students. That's pretty large for most people. You know we're not talking 40,000 students, but it is 11,000 students. And again you have this K-12 pathway that's made it for over a decade, which means you've got central office support, you've got community support of this. There's a lot that goes into keeping a pathway like this moving and we've seen pathways like this before that haven't made it. That's okay, we want you to make it so. That's why we're sharing stories like this. No-transcript.
Speaker 1:I've really been super curious about succession planning for the last two or three years. It's humble enough and had the foresight to see when the principal moves on to the next position, which again happens. That's a research data point that we have. You're going to be in a position to retire next year. Let's figure out who should be next and most of the time, the majority of the time, this is year after year, a decade, figuring out what are the systems and the foundations that need to be replaced, which work to continue long-term. How do we figure out the succession plan?
Speaker 1:We talk about this a little bit next week's episode with Josh, the principal, because I ask him to really walk us down this path. What are their next steps? But a lot of it is the culture that the founding principal brought With humility and consistency. So Josh understood that. He went and did some other work in the district and now he's come back and he understands the mission, the vision, the values of the school because they're so pronounced. So some of the work that they do, because in some ways they're counterculture to some schools and one of their themes is that they want to be revolutionary in the education space. So they want to be creating a revolution for a full decade. You don't just solve that. They're continually mixing it up and it's part of their culture Because the adults are collaborative. The learners are learning how to collaborate by watching their teachers. I think this is going to be a true win for CSA New Tech. 100% Ask each other questions and then you also want to think about ideas and the learners themselves are thinking oh, that's what we're supposed to do. We're supposed to bounce off of each other. We're supposed to ask good questions. We're supposed to respect each other and by walking out what they believe the facilitators, it's being passed down to their learners in a very authentic way.
Speaker 1:Senior projects are huge at CSA New Tech. At the very beginning of the year they have community partners come in and the seniors are going to pitch their senior project idea to a panel and I've been on a couple of these panels and we kind of poke some holes in things, typically pretty gently, to say, hey, have you thought about the costs of holding a 5k? I don't know, I didn't really think about that, right, and we start to give some advice and try to help them narrow down successfully what their senior project could be and how they can have the most impact. So out of these senior projects, I've seen a STEM conference come out of them, locally where the seniors actually organized that STEM conference. I've seen 5K races for a cause. I've seen a disc golf course come up in a local park which you think well, that's kind of neat, ryan, and I mean I think it's neat because I love disc golf, but it's also neat because you can't just go in the middle of the night and put up disc golf baskets right. It's not something that happens Like you have to go through a whole chain of command and a bunch of red tape to have something like that actually get implemented and still be there today. It's really a pretty big deal when you think about it.
Speaker 1:One of the interesting senior projects that came out was two guys that were putting picnic tables into local parks and they were building them and putting them into local parks and these were some of my favorite guys. I used to wear cowboy boots all the time, like even when I was presenting, so I like the guys that have dirty boots and are working with their hands, and that was these two guys. Right, you could tell that that was kind of their MO and they just wanted to build some stuff. But you can't just build some stuff right and put it in a park and you can't just dump it in the middle of the night into a park and have it work. So they were kind of forced to go a little bit beyond their comfort zone, but were also in an area where they were using their gifts and talents. Right, they saw the need and they looked at their own gifts and talents and said this is something we could do in our community. And that's what I think it's all about. It's super empowering and super impressive.
Speaker 1:The other thing they do really well is community partners. If you go down to Columbus, indiana, everybody knows that if you have some kind of a problem that you need solved, you can involve CSA, new Tech, you can involve the schools. So there's a theater that's across the street from the school and the owner will coach the kids and they will actually perform some of their work as an end product and they're on a real stage. Right, it's not something they built with, you know, chart paper, it's in the background, it's, it's the real deal. They've worked with city council, which is one of my favorites, because city council is going to come and say, hey, we need insight from younger people on this topic. And the school tackles that together. Right, there's a class that says, yep, I could use that with my standards, I'm going to tackle that one. And they're solving real world problems in their city. Right, local law enforcement. There's all kinds of amazing partnerships that they have and that are established and people keep coming back again and again.
Speaker 1:The environment's project rich, they have a garden that they've put in, they've got a water capture system. If you go into the book by Andrew Larson called Life's a Project Life's a Project by Andrew Larson and you can, he kind of walks through that project. Actually, he also goes through a planting trees project, the theater project. They had another class that would go down to New Orleans and they would do some electrical work that was part of their curriculum and they would actually take the work that they're learning in the classroom and they would actually take the work that they're learning in the classroom, go down to New Orleans and work in the Ninth Ward. So you've got a project-rich environment that's been built intentionally. You've got curriculum, assessment, adult culture. That's all been built super intentionally to create a place that is super fantastic. There's a secret sauce in CSNU Tech. Again, I highly recommend that you schedule some design days this fall to go experience it and then build yours.
Speaker 1:You've got a dream. You've got a vision of what your school could look like, and it's probably not traditional rows where somebody talks for 48 minutes and there's a test. It might be a brick-and-mortar building. That's okay. That's where I started my school within a school at the middle school level. It was a brick-and-mortar building. We actually tore down one of the walls, but other than that, it was a lot of creativity and community partners. So it doesn't matter what your building looks like.
Speaker 1:I would still recommend CSA because it gets your creative juices flowing. How can we have a collaborative space like that and you start to figure it out. But sometimes you need that inspiration, so you should visit. If you're getting ready to play in an innovative environment, whether it's spaces, curriculum people, if you're a charter school and you're getting ready to build a building, I would highly recommend that you go. Again, this space alone is worth it, but spaces while important right, the third educator in the room, I get that you also need to wrap it around a culture that is innovative and collaborative. So if you're looking for inspiration for your team, or maybe you just want to spice up senior projects, there are so many reasons to go. I actually have a hard time figuring out why you shouldn't go. There are other places that are more specific I'm happy to send you. We're going through a lot of great case studies of amazing places. This is one again where, in some ways, I started, and I think you could start too. Every time we send somebody, the feedback's ridiculously positive, so I think you'll love it.
Speaker 1:And next week we are going to spotlight Josh Giebel, the principal of CSA New Tech. He is in the heart of this work right now and respects the work and the legacy that's there and is excited and empowered to move it forward. So tune in to hear directly from Josh on how he does that work, how he builds a strong staff culture and how that makes its way down to each and every classroom. It's a super good conversation. So what's your call to action? You should schedule some design days. You should come down to CSA New Tech this fall.
Speaker 1:Do wild schools in action, because here's what you should do. This is what I did. I found the learner that I thought was not paying attention, that was off task, that wasn't doing what he was supposed to be doing, because sometimes it's like surely not all these kids are engaged like this. I mean, I see all the post notes, I see the glass walls, but that kid has earbuds in and is reading a book and surely he's not paying attention. So I tapped him on the shoulder and just said hey, can you tell me what PBL unit you're working on? Oh, and to my delight and dismay, he crushed it. He told me who the community partner was, told me why he was reading that novel and how he planned to collaborate with his group and how he was going to pull things out of there, for his presentation Absolutely crushed it. You need to go someplace and see this work and then it just grows and it's undeniable Bring a leadership team right. So you've got momentum.
Speaker 1:But then it's like how can you do school the way it's always been done? And it's impossible. You won't be able to sleep at night because you're like I don't want my school to be regular when there's something out there like this, I want that You're a movement maker, right. That's why you're dreaming about this. Go, step into somebody else's dream and develop your dream and let's bring it to life. So tune in next week as we talk to Josh. He's going to make this come to life even more than I possibly can. It's a great conversation. Remember you as the leader. You are the lid. So raise your leadership lid and 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.
