EPISODE 1: Don’t Send a Professional to Do An 8th Grader’s Job, with Ron Berger

Joining The Project in this episode is Rob Berger, the Chief Academic Officer for EL Education.   EL Education guides a network of over 150 public schools in more than 30 states. It’s an organization that partners with districts and charter boards to found public schools in low-income communities in order to send all graduates to college.   Ron works closely with the Harvard Graduate School of Education (where he did his graduate work) and teaches a course that uses exemplary student project work to illuminate standards. He is also the author of six books including, An Ethic of Excellence: Building a Culture of Craftsmanship with Students and A Culture of Quality: A Reflection on Practice.   In this episode, Ron speaks about powerful PBL projects he has worked on with students and their communities, including an 8th grade science project that prompted a town to invest $156K in energy renovations of its schools. He details what made them so impactful and how these projects helped prepare students for their real lives. Ron also shares some practical steps that new PBL teachers can take towards creating authentic learning experiences, the importance of building strong student/adult relationships, and his response to those that say PBL is not for everyone.   Key Takeaways: [:32] About today’s featured guest, Ron Berger! [1:36] A clip from Ron’s keynote from last year’s PBL World Conference, where he describes a project in which students worked with a community to complete energy audits of their schools. [4:16] Ron Berger is welcomed to The Project. [4:53] Ron further elaborates on the project to show the power of what kids can do. [7:07] Ron speaks about how, during the project, he worked with the experts and the community, bringing them together to create something truly powerful. [9:22] Ron outlines some practical steps that new PBL teachers can take towards creating authentic learning experiences. [12:25] Ron emphasizes the importance of building strong student/adult relationships for project-based learning. [14:47] PBL prepares students for their real lives. [16:44] “What I value most in teaching is the opportunity to support students in doing beautiful work.” How does Ron define ‘beautiful work’? And why is it important? [18:59] How can we support all learners in getting to the place where they can create beautiful work? [23:06] Ron responds to those who say that PBL is not for everyone. [26:15] Ron speaks about some of the areas of PBL that he is currently exploring.   Mentioned in This Episode: PBLWorks Ron Berger | EL Education EL Education PBL World 2019 Keynote | Ron Berger An Ethic of Excellence: Building a Culture of Craftsmanship with Students, by Ron Berger A Culture of Quality: A Reflection on Practice, by Ron Berger Models of Excellence | The Center for High-Quality Student Work Harvard Graduate School of Education   Twitter Quotes (for Social Media Use):   “I think one of the most important steps [in creating authentic learning experiences as a PBL teacher] is to not make assumptions about what your community could need but to go out and talk to people in the community about what … the genuine needs [are].” — Ron Berger   “The most powerful projects… happen not because the kids or the teacher made an assumption about the environmental, … social, or the financial needs of the community but [instead] went out and found out what would be useful in [their] community.” — Ron Berger   “That sense of doing high-quality work … [and] craftsmanship … is one of the most important things about school but [it is] one of the things that we … least focus on because … many schools have to spend their time on test preparation [rather than] … standards.” — Ron Berger   “You have to give yourself as a teacher … the time to create something valuable.” — Ron Berger   “I think the biggest problem in project-based learning is typically the need to rush … so the ability to create things of quality isn’t there … [when] we’re just rushed to cover things [as teachers] … kids don’t have time to really draft [their work] well.” — Ron Berger