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.
Hosted by Ryan Steuer, of Magnify Learning, we strive to empower school leaders and teachers with examples from Project Based Learning classrooms, leadership inspiration, and practical PBL resources.
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3rd Wednesday: PBL Leadership Episode
4th Wednesday: PBL Interview.
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PBL Simplified by Magnify Learning
Top 10 Strategies for School Administrators to Master Project Based Learning | E201
Ready to revolutionize your school's approach to learning? In our 200th episode celebration, we unveil the top 10 tips for administrators eager to embark on the Project Based Learning (PBL) journey. Learn how to build a dedicated learning team and gain invaluable insights from visits to successful PBL schools. Discover how to create a grassroots movement that transforms your school culture organically, starting with a strong foundation and a clear vision.
Transform your faculty meetings into powerhouses of collaboration and innovation with expert strategies. We'll discuss the significance of authentic PBL, emphasizing real-world tasks with meaningful outcomes. Understand the critical role of culture and trust in implementing PBL successfully, and how recognizing bright spots within your school can inspire widespread best practices. Join us for an engaging episode filled with practical advice to empower teachers, enrich student experiences, and achieve positive community recognition.
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Welcome to the PBL Simplified Podcast. I'm your host, ryan Stoyer, chief Inspiration Officer at Magnify Learning, and this is episode 201. We're actually celebrating episode 200, still right. So we've got confetti and fireworks. 200 episodes, that's a lot of time talking about project-based learning, and I still love it. We've had a lot of great guests. We've brought on teachers, we've brought on principals, and I still love it. We've had a lot of great guests. We've brought on teachers, we've brought on principals, we've brought on leadership experts, experts from the sports world, all kinds of guests.
Speaker 1:We're always talking project-based learning, and we're going to keep talking project-based learning for the next 200 episodes. So what are we talking about today? Today, we're going to talk about the top 10 tips and tricks for administrators when looking at project based learning. So the first idea was hey, it's episode 200. So let's do 200 tips and tricks, but, frankly, that's just too many. It's gonna take 20 episodes to do that. We took 10% of that, so that's still too many episodes. So last week we did the top 10 tips and tricks for teachers, and today we're talking to administrators. Before I get into that, though, I want to pitch our virtual workshop coming up on October 16. You attend the October 16, the virtual workshop. You get everything in that workshop all the different sessions, a keynote from author Andrew Larson Life's a Project, the six days of PBL. He's going to keynote it, which is awesome, and you also get a full year of access to courses, resources and the most active online community for project-based learning in the entire world. We have moderators in there that are putting content out or answering your questions or asking you questions to get you to think through different things you might not have thought of otherwise. So for the cost of a one day workshop, a one day conference, you actually get a full year of support. I don't think you can beat it. We don't want you to. We want you in the online community so that you can be a part of the PBL awesomeness. That's happening. It's a movement. Right, you're a movement maker, you get it. You need to be with other movement makers, asking the same questions, giving the same feedback, making the same comments. If you're stuck on something, you need to get in the community. That's what it is Part of. It is just just in time help Whenever you need it. You ask a question, we help you out. It's an awesome community. The virtual event is going to be an awesome event as well. It's kind of a kickstart for you. If you're thinking about getting in the online community, if you're on the fence, now is the time. Check the show notes for five reasons why your administrator should send you to the online community. Now, today we're talking 10 tips and tricks. It's a little bit more than that. Most of it's strategies and structures, but these are for administrators and they're going to be in order to a certain extent, but just like the teacher tips, sure, they're in order, but they're all super valuable, right? They're all pieces to the puzzle, so you really need all of them.
Speaker 1:So, number 10, where are you going to start? You're going to start with a learning team, right? A learning team. You're going to put together a team of some administrators. So your AP, your coaches, lead teachers as well. Get teachers onto this committee, this team, if you will, and it's called a learning team. It's not your PBL team just yet. You're going to learn about PBL and see if it works for your school or your district, and it's really important though the naming often is really important how you project this and how you project the vision, because even if you are a PBL lover, like I am, because you've seen the impact if you're coming to a new school or a new staff, they have not right. They still need all the experiences that we've been through. They need to go to a school visit, they need to feel it, they need to understand it, they need to read the books, they need to ask the questions, they need to have the mindset. So you need to take them through that process. So you're going to bring in a learning team and you're going to see if PBL will work at your school. I mean, it turns out it's going to right. It works in all types of different settings, right? So, whether it's CTE, k-12, post-secondary, elementary, k-1, sure, it looks different than it does for sophomores, but it still works there, right? So you need this learning team to go out and explore and bring back, get trained and then start doing PBL in your school. So now you have live examples of PBL working in your school.
Speaker 1:In second grade, mrs Smith is doing PBL. Everybody can come to the expo, everybody saw the article in the newspaper, everybody sees that. And now they're wondering when do my learners get to have community partners? When do my learners get to start solving these real-world problems? When do I get to have that kind of engagement in my classroom, and it starts with a learning team to go see will this work? And you want to be super transparent. You want to be people that are go-getters, that are going to put the time in to show that this works and are willing to share their processes. It doesn't have to be perfect, but you want to be willing to share. That way it can start to spread organically. And what you're doing is you're building a grassroots movement from this initial learning team.
Speaker 1:So number nine is going to be school visits. You're going to take your learning team on school visits. You want to go find places where PBL is happening at a very high level. You want to experience authentic PBL happening, and I'm sure you've got schools in your area that you've heard of project-based learning happening. Go visit, but go with a critical eye. Right. Go and talk to teachers, administrators. Talk to the students. Talk to the students that are not on the panel and see what they think. Right. If you can talk to some parents, right, get the real scoop of what's happening. And if you find a place that's next to you, that's awesome. Spend some time there, right, ask some questions. We've got a group actually that is visiting one of our model schools in Columbus, indiana, and they've had an admin team. They had the learning team that went and now they're actually coming back to do a retreat. They're like yes, we want to plan and we want to plan in this environment where we can ask questions, we can see things, we can talk to the administrator, the teachers, the coaches, the learners, and that's the environment they want to start planning in.
Speaker 1:So school visits are so powerful. They are, I just think, a necessity. It's a great first step. It does not take a whole lot of social equity for you to make that happen, and you could do it on a fall break. You do it on a spring break, right. Find those people that are curious enough, those innovators that will go with you, and if you need a place, let me know. We've got a lot of places we can send you.
Speaker 1:Number eight you're going to speak the vision. You're going to speak the vision as the visionary movement maker leader that you are. It is your job to have a vision for this right. So you need to sit down and see what this looks like. You need to go on some school visits. You need to bend the ear of some PBL administrators to say, hey, what can this look like for me? Or if you just want a thought partner like I'm happy to do that right.
Speaker 1:So if you just go to pblsharedcom, you can puta comment or a win in there, and actually you know what? Let's give away books this week too. Let's give away books this week too. So go to pblsharedcom, put in a win or a need to know. We'll pick some winners and send out some books for you, whether it's PBL, simplified Inquiry, mindset, life's a Project. We've got a ton of books for you to choose from. If you know which one, just put it in your comment. But you can also say hey, ryan, can I get a thought partner session with you? Can I get a thought partner session? Absolutely. I set aside Mondays, thursdays and Fridays for that exact reason, so that administrators in our network or outside of our network can schedule time with me and we can just have that thought partner session Some of my favorite favorite times. So find my calendar or put it on pblsharedcom and we'll connect. I'm happy to talk you through that.
Speaker 1:But you have to have a vision laid out and if you again, we've got resources for you to do this, but you want to have the vision laid out. And if you again, we've got resources for you to do this. But you want to have the vision laid out, it doesn't mean you cast it to your entire staff right. Start with an AP, start with some lead teachers say, hey, here's what I'm thinking, and see where you get some buy-in. And then you start with your learning team and now you can really start preaching that vision. Number seven you're going to change your faculty meetings. You're going to change your faculty meetings. We've got a full download on this. It's going to be on our homepage soon, if it's not yet, and it's how do you revamp your faculty meetings?
Speaker 1:If you want classrooms to be filled with voice and choice and empowerment, you cannot have sit and get faculty meetings. It does not work. It does not comprehend. People are watching you to see what you think is important, because you're driving the ship Like you're telling us where to go. So when you put me into a faculty meeting, that sit and get it tells me that you think sit and get is a great way to bring about information, change and get people excited. So if that's what you want in classrooms, that's fine. But if you're listening to this podcast, I assume it's not what you're looking for. So you have to change up your faculty meetings. What do you do? The same thing you'd have your teachers do At your next faculty meeting. Just do likes and wonders. At the end, ask them what they like about your faculty meetings, ask them what they'd like to change, ask them what they'd like to learn about, and then do some sessions on those, do some workshops.
Speaker 1:If you go into your faculty meeting and your first thing is to just do announcements that could all be in an email you're wasting time. Faculty meetings are precious time. You have all of your people in the same room. It is time for collaboration. It's time for inspiration. It's time for some vision casting right. So do not waste that time. Do not fall into this trap.
Speaker 1:This is when we just talked to a principal about on one of those Monday, thursday, friday times that you can schedule. We were talking about this and she gave her teachers, you know, instead of the faculty meeting, this. You know what? Just stay in your rooms. You've got a lot to do, get your work done. That sounds neat. That sounds like what a great servant leader would do. But she even realizes as we were talking about it out loud. It's like. That does not forward collaboration. That does not forward the vision. A half hour in your room doing work is not going to get your teachers out of fight or flight mode, if that's where they're at. They need to be with each other, they need to be collaborating, they need to be inspired, they need to know why they're doing this work, they need to be with you in an effective faculty meeting. So they've got to change.
Speaker 1:Number six you're going to enhance your bright spots. We've had this podcast season that we've been in around asset-based school development. There are great things happening in your school. I know there are. I know there are passionate people doing hard work in your school and sometimes you don't get to see it because you're putting out fires. I get it.
Speaker 1:You also need to take time to go, look for the bright spots and then focus on those, because what you focus on grows. So you're going to pick out a bright spot. You're going to find something that Mrs Smith did really, really well and you're going to talk about it in the newsletter. You're going to talk about it at the faculty meeting or, better yet, you're going to have her talk about it at the faculty meeting to show everybody else and Mrs, she'd be like, wow, that's great, I didn't even know she was doing that. And then they're going to be thinking internally even while they're watching. Mrs Smith, I wonder if my principal will notice when I'm doing something cool. And before that faculty meeting ends, you're going to say you know what, if you're doing something innovative like Mrs Smith is I want you to call me, shoot me an email. I'll try to get to your third period so that I can see it, so we can share it. And now everybody's looking and thinking huh, what's the coolest thing that I do? What's the most innovative engaged activity that I have with learners? I'm going to call a principal and we're going to spread that. And, as you do, you're spreading best practices. So enhance your bright spots. Don't continually chase those fires. Number five messages for all stakeholders.
Speaker 1:If you're embarking on a project-based learning movement, you need to understand a baseline that the majority of people that you are leading grew up, were involved in and may have been good at a traditional educational setting. Your teachers, for sure. Most are really good at it. Some of your parents just don't like school. I get it, but they also kind of know what school is supposed to be like and you're changing that. You're changing education so that you have better outcomes for your learners Great idea. But you have to let everybody know, because they don't understand. They're expecting status quo. You've got to let them know that you're doing something different. You are on the front lines, you're doing the work, you've done the research, you've got a learning team together. This is what you want from your school.
Speaker 1:As you're talking to parents, and then when you talk to the board right, different stakeholder, a little bit different message. Right, talking to community partners Again, different stakeholder, different message. Teachers different stakeholder, different message. Kids different stakeholder, different message. Now, if that sounded exhausting, it could be, except that the core of your message is going to be very, very similar. You're going to figure out the portions of project-based learning that you love, that you understand, that you've shown work in your school. You're going to continually use those examples. You're just going to tweak it for each of your stakeholders. But don't give the same message to all of those stakeholders, because they're different. They have different currency.
Speaker 1:So what do I mean by currency? Currency is what we exchange for goods or for services. So if I'm a parent, what's my currency? I want to know what works well for my kid. I have a very specific selfish currency and that's okay. As a parent, that's my job. As a community partner, or maybe an industry partner, my currency is I want graduates that are high-performing, that can collaborate, think critically, problem-solve, show up on time, work hard. That's the lens I'm coming in with as a community partner. As an industry partner, I don't know anything about standards and I probably don't care and I probably shouldn't. I'm trying to run a business, but I do care about my community. I do care about the kids that are graduating. I do care about our school system.
Speaker 1:So it's just a little bit of a different tweak of how you engage your stakeholders, and your language should change, but a lot of your messaging and stories doesn't have to, so don't get too exhausted. There's some copy paste involved, but you want to have some tweaks, especially at the beginning of your message. You know. Think through three questions that your stakeholders are going to most be engaged with. Are you having trouble hiring the right people with the right skills? Boom, that's your industry partner. So come up with three more for them. Think through your teachers. Are you experiencing the apathy that Mrs Smith is experiencing with some of her learners in third period yeah, I am and figure out how to get them engaged in it and then jump into your messaging for project-based learning.
Speaker 1:Number four empower your people. One of the great things that project-based learning does is it empowers adults, right. So you're empowering adults. You're not trying to micromanage them. You are going to give them a structure with project-based learning. You're going to give them training. They're going to have vocabulary. There's a process. It is not chaos. If you go into a classroom, it's chaos. It's not project-based learning, right, there's some learning that needs to happen. Even if they're trying, that's great. But there's some learning that needs to happen, right. If you walk into a classroom everybody's quiet it doesn't mean they're engaged. It might just mean they're compliant. That's not really the goal. So, same thing with your staff. You want to empower them, which is where we started with learning teams. You're empowering lead teachers, coaches, aps to be a part of the process of bringing this vision to fruition at your school. It's a big change. It's going to be a big deal for your learners in your community and you're empowering them to be a part of this process. You are not pulling everything, you're not holding all the weight, you're sharing the load, you're sharing the praise, you're sharing with autonomy and that gets people engaged.
Speaker 1:Number three we're going to overlap a little bit with the teacher one. This was number two actually for teachers, but it's authentic PBL. When you're bringing project-based learning to your school, you need to bring authentic PBL. Do not bring a set of scenario PBL units. Don't bring a project library and say, hey, pick one of these to get started. Don't give your teachers $500 to go to Teachers, pay Teachers and just pick a PBL unit and say, hey, we're doing PBL. It will not work, you're guaranteed to. Either PBL is going to fail or you're going to define PBL incorrectly and you will not get the outcomes that you want with your learners or with your staff, because the staff isn't going to see the engagement. They're going to say, well, I thought PBL was supposed to work, I thought it was supposed to be engaging, have voice and choice, and the authenticity of the PBL will make all of the difference, all of the difference.
Speaker 1:So it is the difference between studying genetics and studying the Punnett Square and coming up with the research poster that professors might do at a university setting and say, hey, people do this in the real world. Professors do this all the time. My professor did this. And then they're going to stand next to it and give the same canned presentation that they would otherwise if they'd just written an essay about it. Or you could have them study the Punnett Square and genetics. But in the frame of they're going to create PSAs and pamphlets for doctor's offices, because every day, a child finds out, or a parent finds out, that their child has a genetic disease. They immediately want to know two things Is my child going to be okay? And they want to know everything there is to know about that genetic disease. Hey, eighth graders, will you help us figure this out and make this happen? The first one is a poster that goes on a wall, eventually goes in a dumpster. The second one is a pamphlet goes into a doctor's office that helps real people in real situations. The difference is miles and miles apart.
Speaker 1:Authentic PBL is your goal. If you don't know what that is, that's okay. Maybe you didn't do authentic PBL in the classroom, that's fine. Be transparent with that. Take your learning team to a school and be transparent with that. Hey guys, we're all going to see what authentic PBL looks like let's take cameras, let's take pictures. Let's take pictures, let's take notes, let's ask good questions. I'm going to do the same thing as the leader. I'm looking for what authentic PBL is, because that's what I want us to have in our school. Do you guys want that in our school? Yeah, we do. And your staff is on board because you've empowered them. Number two, powered them. Number two culture over speed. So you get a t-shirt that says culture line speed.
Speaker 1:You want to work on culture over speed. You are likely a high flyer, you're type A. You want to make things happen. You realize that there's a problem in education. You want to fix it tomorrow so that you can benefit as many kids as possible. Thank you, I love you. You're perfect. But as many kids as possible. Thank you, I love you. You're perfect and you're leading people that don't move as fast as you. You have a bigger ship that you're leading.
Speaker 1:You need to attend to culture first, even if especially if you know all the answers with PBL, maybe you have done this before. Right, you know the steps that need to happen. Right, your staff does not. You need to empower them. You need to have a culture that is structured, innovative, trusting that is focusing on assets rather than deficiencies. As you build the culture with your staff, you're building trust, and trust brings speed. We say business moves at the speed of trust and the success at your school will as well. Your school will move at the speed of trust and the success at your school will as well. Your school will move at the speed of trust. Trust is developed through culture. So culture over speed, and the number one strategy for bringing project-based learning to your school, if you're an administrator, is to live your why. That's right. It's the same one as last week with the teachers. You've got to live your why. That's right. It's the same one as last week with the teachers. You've got to live your why.
Speaker 1:When you came into administration, why, why did you do that? Why did you do that? It's not because you wanted more meetings. It's not because you want more hours, more pressure, more people to lead. You wanted something different. You saw that there was a difference between what things could be and what they currently are and you said, hey, I think I could help with that, I think I could lead that. That's your why. Your why is to empower your staff so they can empower their learners so that those learners have different outcomes they would have had otherwise. They have more opportunities than they would have otherwise and you're going to have to shift a bit right, because if you listen last week and you're like, yeah, teachers, it's all about my student outcomes as an administrator, yes, you're still looking at student outcomes, but you need to focus on your staff. You do not get to go into third period and help Billy learn complete sentences and get empowered and inspired. You're going to help Billy's teacher become inspired, empowered and trained up with the skills that it takes to bring authentic PBL to the classroom.
Speaker 1:As you build the structures and the culture, your why will come to fruition. You will have a school that the community is proud of, that people talk about at the soccer game, that you've got learners in front of the school board continuously. You've got PBL unit end products that are in the paper, because your school's making a difference and that's why you became an administrator. So define that why and then live it out. Make sure you tell your staff it's part of that vision. Your personal why is a big deal and they need to hear it. They need to hear it because we're all busy and we just think about what's in front of us. We don't think about the passion, about those that are leading us. Everybody wants to be a part of something bigger than themselves. That includes your staff. So when you cast the vision, when you share your passion, you're allowing them to live out their why. They get to be a part of something bigger. And now you're empowering your staff, you're creating a culture, and now you're ready to move. That's when the movement starts. That's when things start to get really, really exciting.
Speaker 1:Wow, thanks for tuning in today. Again, this is episode 201. Thank you all for continuing to listen and download this podcast. It's in the top 5% of all podcasts worldwide because you're listening and we don't take that lightly. We appreciate it and we appreciate you. Thank you so much for listening, go out and lead inspired. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the pbl simplified podcast. I appreciate you. I'm honored 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 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.