Steve Martinez
We’ve been asking kids the wrong question for years. Like we always asked kids like, what do you want to be when you grow up? But what I asked my students is like, you know, what do you want to solve when you grow up? Because that That, to me makes the whole purpose their whole why difference. And they start to experience like, Well, I’m not here just to get a grade. I’m here to learn the skills that it takes to not only support my passions, but support the problems that they’re passionate about.
Chelsea Metreyeon
Today we’re chatting with Steve Martinez, on this episode of Teacher Teacher.
Marcus Stein
Hey, friends, and welcome to Teacher Teacher, a podcast for teachers by teachers. I’m Marcus Stein, and I used to teach
Chelsea Metreyeon
and I’m Chelsea Metreyeon. And I also used to teach every episode we’ll be bringing you insights and inspo from educators and experts all around the world,
Marcus Stein
helping you unwind, unpack or simply understand what’s going on out there.
Chelsea Metreyeon
Well, I don’t know about you, Marcus, but I’m excited.
Marcus Stein
Yeah, I’m excited too let’s do it.
Alright, Chels I have a confession. I love a project. I love a project. Personally, I try to find like a project a day, like I’m rearranging something, I’m painting something, I’m redoing something. And I did it a lot in the classroom too. I just was terrible at grading everything like those poor kids. They would do projects in like August and I wouldn’t give them their grades to like October because I’m so slow. But I love projects. What about you? Are you a project fiend like I am,
Chelsea Metreyeon
I am when it comes to solo projects, but I do have to be honest, in college, I hated me a group project. So I’m hoping that Steve kind of gears me to loving it because having group project within your classroom is a great way for students to interact and learn. So hoping this episode kind of shifts my gears on that.
Marcus Stein
Maybe Steve will turn that around. Because today, we are talking all about that project based learning. Before we jump in, I just want to shout out to Kami for producing this podcast, just like you Kami wants to empower students to love learning in or out of the classroom. Kami can level up the way you teach your feedback and assess hits kamiapp.com To find out more. All right, let’s start the show.
Chelsea Metreyeon
Today, we’re catching up with the wonderful Steve Martinez. Steve is a longtime social science teacher with a passion for all things EdTech. With a master’s in Curriculum and Instruction focusing on educational technology, Steve loves to leverage technology in the classroom to transform the way his students learn and engage. Steve, we had the pleasure of catching up with you at the last Kami Connect, which is our virtual conference on YouTube. little hint it’s coming up soon. But for our listeners out there who don’t know you can you please tell us a little bit about yourself.
Steve Martinez
Yeah, so Steve Martinez here. I’m a social science teacher from California, United States. I teach government economics at the senior level. And then sophomore level, I have World History. Before I started teaching, like in the traditional sense, like in the classroom, I worked with high school and junior high marching bands and was really involved in the arts, writing, designing stuff. So when I came into the classroom, I came in with like a different lens in terms of like creativity and really how to scaffold different things like the scaffold things for and I was a percussionist and I and I taught drumline so like scaffolding at that level with drummers like what could that look like in a classroom with like different subject matter? So I came into it very, you know, like I said, different lands different perspective. And love the loved what I did before, but I knew that I didn’t want to be a band director, any band directors that are listening like that, that is I respect what you do, but I wasn’t willing to put in that kind of time.
Marcus Stein
There’s still time. Steve, there’s still time. I can see you out there getting it.
Steve Martinez
I don’t know, I don’t know, I… Especially like, you know, knowing that I wanted a family down the road, right like that, that that life’s a little different. But, you know, in college, like, you know, the, the social sciences really appealed to me in terms of like, you know, politics history, and the skills it took to obtain that subject matter. And as a kid, I wasn’t the most academic kid and I didn’t really become really that academic until I was an adult. So I was kind of like late in the game in terms of college In terms of like growing up a little bit, but that also changed how I or that motivated how I handle the classroom now, helping those kids that are not very academic, but I know they can do it right. And, and for me, I wish I had that as a kid and I did a little bit. But I wish someone would have like sat me down be like, No, you can do this, right? Like you can, you can do these rigorous, really academic things at a much younger age. So when I enter the classroom, I have that perspective. I really love technology already coming into it, because of what I consider my previous profession, writing music, like there’s a lot of software involved stuff of that nature. So I really grabbed into the technology stuff right away, really explored with blended learning, project based learning, and even to an extent gamification, and how do we reach students in meaningful ways. Without, you know, putting the strain of what the world is now, right. And because there’s a there’s a lot of stress, there’s a lot of anxieties like what’s going on right now, both locally and globally, And how do we do that in a way that is A: rigorous but B: supports the our students on various different levels?
Steve, I need to be your neighbor, teacher. I need to listen you and last little rant you just did. I was like, yes, yes, I do want to do, yeah,
Chelsea Metreyeon
I was still stuck on the drums thing. I like really want to play the drums. I just Well, I guess with drumline, it’s a little bit different. But like a regular drum set, it just amazes me that people can have each of their four limbs doing something different at each time. And I really want to learn how to do that. So if we’re forever, at some kind of conference. Sort of drum cuz I want to learn.
Marcus Stein
Yeah, we can do that note it.
Steve Martinez
Yeah, I’ll put that in my calendar. I mean,
Marcus Stein
I feel like I learned so much about you now that I know you got this like band perspective. Okay. Okay.
Chelsea Metreyeon
Yeah.
Marcus Stein
Okay, I’m inspired. So today, we’re talking about the power of project based learning something you definitely incorporate a lot. Can you tell us? What is project based learning, first of all, and how did you originally start getting into it?
Steve Martinez
So my journey with project based learning was kind of a bumpy road, because I thought I knew what it was going into it. And the more I read on it, like from people that were smarter than I, I was like, Wait a second, I don’t know what this is. And I’m using this term without understanding it. And as far as, as far as I’m concerned, there’s no real way to define project based learning, but you certainly talk about like the the ingredients that maybe most people would consider PBL. So students PBL is where students take or you give students like a big problem, like a wicked problem, or like the super complex question that they have to solve. And the question, though, has to be authentic, right? Like, it can’t just be a question that you would see like, on a test or like a study guide, what I try to do is try to present a question that really pertains to their community, and the problems they face as students as people like, what problems do their parents face? Right? What problems do do they see, like in their neighborhoods? And so by by taking that problem, they have to solve that problem. And, for me, it’s all about having the students explore their own passions, not just from a skillset standpoint, but also from like, you know, like, for me, like, we’ve been asking kids the wrong question for years. Like, we always ask kids, like, what do you want to be when you grow up? But what I asked my students is, like, you know, what do you want to solve when you grow up? Because that to me makes like, the whole purpose, their whole why difference, and they start to experience like, Well, I’m not here just to get a grade, I’m here to learn the skills that it takes to not only support my passions, but support the problems that they’re passionate about. And so they use the inquiry, you know, we it’s not just research, just like sometimes it’s going and talking with people, interviewing someone, you know, collecting all this data, and then also the actual instruction they’re getting in my classroom, to bring everything together to solve that one big problem that we have for the semester or for the unit. And in terms of the project itself, and again, this is how I define it. This is how I do it. You might see you know, someone else say something a little different, but I have my students, they can create whatever they want, right? Like if they want to create a video, they can go create a video, if it’s a documentary, a podcast, if they want to learn how to code if they want to build a website, and then the conversation becomes like what skills are important to you with respect to what profession you want to answer. Because I can have a kid like, you know, they want to go to vocational school, like, okay, let’s work on those skills that you need for that and have another kid like, hey, I want to, you know, I’m going to go into computer science, I’m like, Okay, let’s work on those skills then. So that way, the whole experience, you know, it really, it’s all about customizing and personalizing that instruction. And for me…
Marcus Stein
I was literally just about to say that I’m like, well, it’s like, Wait, project based, it is a really good way to personalize instruction. Yeah,
Steve Martinez
100% 100%
Marcus Stein
If they let me go, if they let me go wild, I mean, everything would have been about fashion, just so you know, just so you know, that I love fashion. But like, what I love is this idea that the project is not just something that the teacher comes up with. It’s like a concept, right? It’s like a mood of vibe. Um, I like that. I like your attitude about PBL.
Steve Martinez
Well, and that’s where that’s where, like, when I first started doing it, I was like, oh, it’s all about the project. It’s all about the project. And then I later realize it’s not about the project, it’s about the experience. It’s about going through the rigor of problem solving all these things, trying to solve this big thing that’s bigger than themselves. And to me, that’s, that’s more than just the classroom like, that’s life, right? And because what kind of problems are going to be presented to this current young generation in the next 20-30 years? If you look at what’s happening right now, and where we’re headed, regardless of where you are, like politically, or what have you, there are going to be serious problems to solve, and I think PBL prepares them for that.
Marcus Stein
Ooh, preach. This is like been the year of problems. So, you know, if I would have had more PBL back in the day, maybe I will be coping better. I don’t know.
Chelsea Metreyeon
I like if I, if I would have had that. It opens the students up more to figure out like what you said, what do they want to accomplish throughout the rest of their life outside of that normal K-12 public education? Because when I was in high school, I just knew Okay, I have to go to college. What the heck am I going for? I don’t know what I want to do. I had no idea because…
Marcus Stein
And you better get a scholarship. Yeah, you better get a scholarship because we got no money.
Chelsea Metreyeon
Okay, but I didn’t have a teacher like Steve, like, kind of pushing me in to see what it is that I care about. Like, what? Yeah, what further? So I just love that. Um, what is it about PBL that you love with your students or with your classroom or anything about it that you love?
Steve Martinez
When I first started teaching is like I would I would do that initial direct instruction. We would do formative assessment, like the whole thing, right? Like, and, you know, the test at the end, whatever. And I just realized that, like, you know, all we’re really doing is just having kids move words from one place, normally a textbook to somewhere else, normally like a study guide, or even an essay or, like, a written response, right? That’s, that’s all we’re doing. And that deeper learning wasn’t taking place. And I was getting frustrated that I wasn’t able to facilitate that for my students with the setup I had. So the more I learned about PBL, and, again, to answer your question is, is it allows them to think deeper about the content, and therefore they learn deeper about the content. So when they are, when they’re trying to solve something using, I don’t know, the concepts of the United States Congress. It’s not just memorizing a bunch of stuff that they’ll eventually forget, possibly, hopefully, they don’t. But let’s be realistic. But it’s more about thinking deeply about those concepts. And in real time, while we’re all working on the project, project together, whether it’s in groups or individual, individually, seen those big light bulbs go off in real time, we’re like, Oh, I get the importance here. Or oh, this is why the Constitution is written this way to make sure that X, Y or Z doesn’t happen, right. And they start making connections not only within a unit, but across the entire curriculum. And sometimes they make connections even from to like previous classes or other classes, to where things are sometimes even cross curricular, depending on the nature of the project and what we’re doing. So again, to answer your question, I think it’s, it’s those big light bulbs that go off, that would not happen if I were to just lecture at them and have them take a test.
Chelsea Metreyeon
And you got me thinking kind of because you said you were kind of stuck in taking that words from a textbook, and then words to a study guide. So it might be a little bit daunting for teachers to shift from that if they’ve been doing that for years. So what kind of tips do you have for teachers who might be new to the PBL framework strategy, and where do they begin to even start.
Steve Martinez
That can be a hard question. For sure. So I think, though, that I took baby steps with it, right? Like, I think one of the first things I did was, gave him a hard question. And let’s just brainstorm on that question. And that’s all we did. The first time was like, here’s this hard thing. And what we did is I, you know, do like a digital whiteboard. We’d like let’s just get ideas out there. Because that’s, that’s really where kids struggle, or where they can struggle in PBL, is they just want to be told what to do. They don’t want to all the time, think, right. And because thinking is hard, and thinking hard for me, and fostering that culture of like, Hey, it’s okay to stumble through this. And so that’s where I started was like, Okay, let’s take these hard, hard questions. These hard problems. And just let’s think about what we know about the content. And let’s just brainstorm on possible solutions. So doing little things like that, and be like, Hey, let’s just start with the brainstorm part. Let’s start maybe just with the getting kids in groups, and talking about, you know, what they’re passionate about, not just within the content, but also like personally, and maybe what problems could be could be solved that that they see on on a regular basis. So I think like starting small, when you know, the first time you go through an entire PBL process, the big thing is taking like a concept, tying it to a question. And being very purposeful, at least at first with like, here’s one, two standards that we are going to use to fix this problem. And then letting kids explore a little bit. And when they explore though, be very, like keep it very teacher controlled, because like my kids get to the point where it’s very student centered, very student controlled, but at the beginning of the year, I’m like, Hey, your two standards, and you are using my highest, the high school library database, you’re just in the space, or you are just in this folder that I created with sources for you. Because they’re not ready to just wild wild west of the internet and the world. But you certainly can scaffold it and making sure that it’s very teacher control the first time they do it, and don’t go full on PBL. The first time, I certainly didn’t do that, I was like, hey, just start one step at a time. And every chapter or rather every unit. You can, you can explore a little bit a little bit more. And and I think the other thing is just reading on it. That’s that’s where I learned the most was just reading and learning from experts out there.
Marcus Stein
This is the first time anybody’s ever synthesized, like, the starting steps. Like I really do feel like it’s doable, like, everybody should be having brainstorm sessions with your students, whatever you teach that you should be having conversations about just big problems, big questions, big issues, even if you’re just using that to get to know the kids, everybody should be doing that. Right. So I feel like it’s a right there step. I also liked how you mentioned, it’s good to find out what the students are into what problems they notice. I don’t think we do that enough. I don’t even do that enough as an adult asking my friends and family, you know, like, what problems do you see? Oh, I love that step. Thank you. Thanks, Steve.
Steve Martinez
You’re Welcome! I think the only other thing that I left out to answer that question is feedback and reflection. And asking…
Marcus Stein
Okay
Steve Martinez
Okay, I’m just I’m just saying that like, I only pieces, like, if I could have added one more thing would have been that.
Marcus Stein
All right, friends, I have a treat. I have a treat. I have a surprise. It is the first ever project that I’ve ever done with a group of students ever. So I was student teaching in 2008 By the way, my mama laminated this. I don’t know why isn’t like a sheet cover. You’ll see it. It’s a sheet cover. Um, but I’m gonna show you all this because you’re gonna love the nostalgia of it. But we made I know you see it? Do you see it? Do you see what that says? Can you read that? Definitely says MySpace. Yeah, we made MySpace…
Steve Martinez
Oh
Marcus Stein
pages on on paper. Oh my gosh, yes, we did.
Steve Martinez
That’s a throwback.
Marcus Stein
And then they made a top eight. And they they they shared comments and they had to staple them, staple the comments. And I had a great time with this. I taught The Crucible and the kids had to be characters from the play. Our big problem is what if somebody cried witch today? So like, the story is about crying witch and so we We decided to play that on paper, MySpace pages. But, you know, to cycle things back, this was my rubric. It’s long, I have to go through each of these components, when I was giving feedback to these kids. So the project is cute, is cute, colored, and everything was beautiful. This was the pits. So my question for you, Steve, is how do you manage all of the feedback you have to give when you’re doing PBL? Because oof…
Steve Martinez
So yeah, that can be daunting. I think I eventually just came to terms with that, the the feedback, and also the reflection doesn’t have to be just me. And so when the students are working on a project, it’s okay, that feedback is peer to peer. Because here’s the thing, I tried to make it to where, you know, hopefully, how would be like in the workforce, right? How many times like, how many times at Kami, are co-workers giving each other feedback. And the thing is, is we need to build a culture of being able to give and receive feedback. So I tried to be purposeful in terms of like, the skills that are needed in the workforce. So that’s the first thing. The second thing is that I try to create a digital space, where we have different channels, where I go in and give them feedback, and I conference with each group in in the class. And remember, I flipped my classroom. So I don’t spend any time lecturing whatsoever. So now all this open space, this class space, is really designed for the PBL. And I’m a big believer, and I’ve not I’ve only said this, like to other people, I’m a big believer that like PBL belongs alongside flipped classroom for that reason. And so, so they, they get the feedback from me, they get the feedback from from each other, we do automated feedback, like, you know, so you know, using technology, but the big thing is normally at the end of a PBL at the end of a project. They’re not giving it to me, they’re giving it to some intended audience. Normally in the community. Sometimes it’s, it’s bigger than that. I’ve had my students present to individuals that have worked on campaigns in DC. So like, sometimes the audience is huge. And sometimes the audience is like, you know, stakeholders, professionals in our community. So they’re, they’re they’re getting, they’re getting feedback from, you know, local CEOs, journalists, college professors. And so you have to bring everyone involved into your classroom, I feel to help with the feedback because that feedback is better than just me. Like that. I’m, I don’t consider myself to be that smart. Right? So it’s all about bringing people in, that are better than me, that are more specialized to give that that feedback, and then teaching kids how to reflect on it.
Marcus Stein
Steve, wait a minute, I hope every teacher out there caught that hack. Number one, why are you giving all of the feedback? Why are you the sole provider of the feedback, I was making it harder for myself by being this like Soul-holder, beholder of knowledge and I have to hand review everybody’s project. That’s that’s a shift. You know, that’s, that’s a shift. But but one that I think would really make classrooms much more efficient. So tip number one, let the kids peer review. Tip number two, if you flip even some of your lessons, let’s not say you do the whole thing. Let’s say you do some of your lessons where the kids participate in the lecture at home, and they come and discuss at school. Even if you do that maybe once a week, you are now embedding your conference time your feedback time during the day, so you’re not doing it at home. Hmm. So you can actually like have a life. Oh, oh,
Steve Martinez
And I will say that I have read that there’s plenty of teachers that don’t flip that still make it work. I think their direct instruction might look different. I’m just assuming. But it is possible to not flip and still do PBL I know there’s plenty of them out there.
Chelsea Metreyeon
And I’m glad you mentioned I’m glad you mentioned that because I thought that right from the get go I wonder if he flipped his whole classroom or if he like includes this into like your actually everyday classroom. And then I shameless plug to Marcus but he just made kind of like a goal sheet that to be used in Kami. I was thinking of that for your students because they could set their goals and then we have like a little reflection spots. We’ll have to send that your way. And maybe you’ll try it out for that student self led reflection. And when you’re doing…
Marcus Stein
We’re not.. Wait.
Chelsea Metreyeon
Oh, sorry. Go ahead.
Marcus Stein
We’re not. We’re not gonna talk about the MySpace, we’re just gonna let that pass?
Chelsea Metreyeon
Well, I wanted to know if you made your students like sing a song that went along with their project, because you know, MySpace, you could set like your page song.
Marcus Stein
Correct! Correct. So this is what we did. This is what we did. So they had to put the song so she was Abigail. If you read the crucible, Abigail, she gets she get accused baby poor thing. And her song is: Bad. By Michael Jackson. Yes. Her MySpace URL is myspace.com/bewitched. You kids, these kids, I kid not. My favorite is her blog to herself. John Proctor is you know, the love interest of hers. And she’s just like blogging about he’s playing with her heart. She wants to go back to Massachusetts. This this. This was the time of my life. I just wish I had a Steve Martinez. Because the project was more about me than it was about them, because I love MySpace. So I think I think another thing to learn from is true. Another thing to learn from Steve is like, honestly, PBL is not about us. It is not about a creative project that I came up, we had a great time, we had a great time synthesizing The Crucible in that way. I’m not saying it’s a bad project. We had a great time. I got a good review on that. But what I am saying is, how much more effective would that have been? If I gave more freedom of choice? You know, like if I really opened up that problem about being a witch in modern day and really let them create whatever to solve the I don’t know. Oh, you got my wheels turning Steve. Thank you.
Chelsea Metreyeon
And so while you’re walking around in your classroom, seeing your kids working on their projects, what are some look-fors for teachers to indicate that PBL is working while you’re seeing them. I know, you meant earlier, you mentioned the light bulb moments where they’re kind of connecting to different classes or different ideas. But what are some things for you?
Steve Martinez
I think the moment that your classroom really feels like a community, I think when when my kids first started with PBL, they’re very, they were just in their own little box. Sweating, feeling scared, he’s like this is because kids can… kids do look at my projects. And like, wow, this is really hard. But it’s all about helping each other though. And that’s where going back to the digital whiteboarding, the brainstorming the conferencing, like if somebody in the room has a good idea, blast that out to the entire class, blast that out to all of my classes. Because like that one idea that can inspire another idea that can spark can inspire another one, right. And so with that, when it feels like we’re all in it together, even if we’re building individual projects, it’s not cheating if the idea is good, and it’s solving your problem in your own way. And so, to me, I think as a teacher, if you can see that community build and supporting each other, and still see those light bulbs go off in real time as they’re… Because I think that’s a different level of collaboration. Because it’s not like collaborating like, Hey, we’re all on the same Google Doc. And we’re typing into it. It’s more of like, and not to say that that’s not, that’s not good. That’s I think it’s a good skill to have. But that collaboration of like, Hey, we’re working together to solve something that’s pretty complex. And when they walk away from that, with that level of collaboration, they feel empowered to like, we did something crazy. We did something big, and we did something good.
Marcus Stein
What a goal, like what a goal, like I’d never, I never went into the class with the intention of creating community like I would never think, like, make sure it’s looking like a community, make sure it’s looking respectful and collaborative. Like I never went into it with that goal for me. I was like they better pass that test. Pass that… Because it was so much pressure. But honestly, when they behave like a community, it makes sense. The rest of the stuff kind of falls into place. They can trust each other. You can experiment with new instructional ideas, because they behave like a community. Huh. Yeah.
Steve Martinez
And the the formative assessment. Just to be clear, the formative assessment is more just natural, right? Like, yeah, the conferencing all that helps. But a lot of my formative is just walking around and hearing the conversations, and hearing conversations that are meaningful, authentic, like levels of, you know that level of application that I don’t think would exist in my class? If I didn’t have PBL?
Marcus Stein
Did y’all catch that? It’s the Steve, you drop in nuggets friend, and I want people to catch it. A conversation is a formative assessment.
Steve Martinez
Correct. And, and sometimes I’m not even involved in the conversation. I’m just listening me like, Wow, that’s crazy smart. I would not have thought of that. But two 15 year olds are having more meaningful conversations than what I would have with, you know, someone else like down the road, right?
Marcus Stein
I’d never I just never thought to pay 1: to pay attention, because I was so overwhelmed. But 2: to like, almost like document and track that as like, Good job. Good job on your little clipboard, or, you know, your little digital checklist, whatever, like running record you have. That’s such a good idea. Oh, okay. Sorry. Speaking of like the kids, were on a rant about the kids love the kids. I want to talk a little bit more about the kids. Can you tell me about a class or a specific student that really evolved or changed? Because of PBL?
Steve Martinez
Hmm, um, yeah, I can talk that. Well, no. So I had this had been last year. So this is last year. So this is in the middle of like remote learning in the transition into like, kind of hybrid. But I’m a senior at a senior and so he not the most academic kid, right. And nice kid was not interested. He’s not interested in college. Right. He was interested in like, I think maybe law enforcement or vocational I forgot. Forgot what exactly. But we we didn’t, we did, okay, first semester, but I have a big PBL that’s about semester long. Second semesters, we get into economics. And he, he, we, that’s when we transitioned into hybrid learning. So he was, I got to actually meet him face to face, like normal humans, instead of being over the computer, right? So when we we started going into economics and working through the PBL process. His motivation in my class changed him, his willingness to have conversations about the content changed. It’s almost like, oh, I care about this thing. And I asked him towards the end of the year, because he ended up finishing this project. And, and he, what he did is he, he attempted to tackle the issue of crime in a particular neighborhood. By trying he he basically framed an idea of like, you know, we have, we have homeless shelters in our area. But a lot of times, like, you know, they, they bring them in, and then they can only stay there for some amount of time. And then they have to leave because that, you know, supply demand, like there’s there were a lot of them, and still are. So his idea was like, Look, why aren’t we doing more when they’re in the facility than just sheltering them and feeding them? Why can’t we institute like, like nuggets of like, maybe like, volunteer teachers, incorporating maybe like education for them to get back in the workforce, and that, in turn, could address the issue of crime. And so I asked him towards the end, I’m like, so what was the shift? And I was speaking just academically, or maybe just his motivation. And he was like, because I was being asked to solve something I really care about. Like, it wasn’t just learning out of a textbook. It was you put us out in our community, and addressing something that I wanted to address, not that you wanted Martinez, he’s like, had nothing to do with you. Like, it wasn’t like I was telling him what to learn. He was deciding what to learn,
Marcus Stein
and learning all the additional life skills and social skills. You know, just learning everything just from the one project. Hmm, I want to go do a project. Now I want to go like paint a wall or something. I want to solve world hunger.
Chelsea Metreyeon
Okay, so Steve, last question. We’re going to be diving in deeper into project based learning at the next Kami Connect in February. Can you give us a taster of what you’ll be talking about in that session?
Steve Martinez
Yeah, so I’m going to be my goal for that session is to help teachers help people consider how they could get started, and how they could scaffold the process for them as teachers and for their students. Because that’s kind of different. Though, if you really rely on the resources and the ideas I’m giving out my hope, my hope is that it will help for people that want to get started with it. As well as giving them some additional resources, terms of like inspiration ideas, whether it’s within their their own domain, or for our elementary folks like maybe something that’s cross curricular as well. So my goal is to really like, Hey, here’s how we can get started with PBL. And hopefully, that conversation can continue even beyond my session.
Chelsea Metreyeon
And I love…
Marcus Stein
Well I’m thankful
Chelsea Metreyeon
…the elementary folks, I’m a former kindergarten teacher. [inaudible]… except kindergarten. So thank you for including the element you guys.
Marcus Stein
Also, I do want to say that, like, I have a ton of questions about PBL. Now, like, I want to dive down the rabbit hole, but we ain’t got time for all of that. So just Just a heads up. Steve is gonna give you more details about how he does this thing. It’s February 26. You can check the Kami website for details on all of that. But I feel like that’s gonna be your part two. And I’m looking forward to it. Yeah, yeah,
Steve Martinez
I am, too. I am too. I love talking about PBL. Like at work, sometimes, like, you know, I get caught up in the conversation with my colleagues. But it’s, it’s great. Thanks for Thanks for having me. And I appreciate being allowed to, to speak on it, because I just love it. And I love helping people.
Marcus Stein
Y’all, this was a good time, this was a really, really, really, really, really good time. I think, for me, the most exciting part about this is I feel like PBL is so doable. You know, some of those first steps that Steve dropped, like, just ask them to brainstorm. That I can do so. Yeah. Thanks.
Chelsea Metreyeon
And for me that the feedback point that you made, the feedback is ongoing during the whole project, and delegate some of that feedback to the people or things that your students are learning about. So I love that that’s saving teachers some time, some stress, and then getting the students involved in that self reflection as well.
Steve Martinez
Yeah, no, Thanks for having me. I love talking about not just teaching, but also project-based learning and, you know, really tapping into education in authentic ways. Because for me, that’s what best supports my students. So again, super, super, thank you. And, you know, hopefully, everybody, everybody listening is doing their best right now in these difficult times. So thanks again.
Marcus Stein
Friends, it’s time for us to go. Womp womp!. But we’ll be back.
Chelsea Metreyeon
Thanks to our fabulous guest. It’s been awesome chatting with you today.
Marcus Stein
Everybody out there. Listen, we want to hear your thoughts on this episode. You can catch us on the social medias, as @kamiapp,
Chelsea Metreyeon
and make sure you use the #TeacherTeacher
Marcus Stein
And if you need the show notes, the transcript or other resources we got you head over to our website kamiapp.com/podcast for all of the podcast goodness.
Chelsea Metreyeon
Teacher Teacher was brought to you by Kami and interactive learning platform with intuitive tools to not only help you reimagine lessons, assignments and feedback, but to help your students love learning.
Marcus Stein
This episode was hosted by my girl Chelsea Metreyeon and yours truly, Marcus Stein.
Chelsea Metreyeon
Catch you next time.
Marcus Stein
See ya friends.
