General PBL Resource: HTH PBL Resources

When it comes to big names in the Project-Based Learning world, one school is always at the top of the list: High Tech High. They've been working on developing their Project-Based Learning schools (yes, plural! Check out just how many schools they have!) for over a decade and have even developed their own graduate school to train teachers in the methods of their madness! So it just makes sense that when you run out of Google-able options for PBL Resources, you turn to others who have spent years finding the best of the best... enter: HTH PBL Resources.

This site, developed by some of HTH's finest is home to many things you wouldn't even think you needed to know about in Project-Based Learning until you needed to know.

Things I love about HTH's PBL Resources:

• Their focus on product
• Sure, anyone can create a poster, but what makes a final product special? How do you even know if it is "good"?
• Their focus on student-staff culture development.
• Everyone know's the first few days matter most. Find out how they create a positive vibe on their campuses!
• Their Project-Development freebies
• They've been working on development for years... their freebies are a gold-mine!
• Their focus on Project Tuning... it can always improve!

High Tech High was a big inspiration for those who wrote my charter and is still a big inspiration for those of us living out that charter day-in and day-out. There are a lot of great Project-Based Learning schools' out there, who have a lot to share with the world. HTH just happens to be my current favorite. Check them out, I'm sure you'll see why!

General PBL Resource: Intel Education

When you are starting out in the PBL world, nothing is more daunting than thinking about trying to design your own project. Sure, you are probably psyched to be doing PBL, because you have awesome ideas that are sure to engage the students. So you start planning out your project and realize it is missing pieces. Frustrated, you search the internet for similar projects to see if you can beef yours up, or adjust an already designed project. Enter an organization-lovers PBL Project Resource: Intel Education.

Intel Education has a lot to offer the educational world and is worth exploring as a resource in and of itself. However, I'm going to focus on the Project-Based aspects it addresses in their Designing Effective Projects section. In addition to giving an overview of Project Based Learning, Intel Education Project Design and Thinking Skills--those skills that are critical to success in PBL.

Reasons I Love Intel Education:

• Intel Education takes project planning to an entire different level with their focus on questioning and it's importance. For PBL in particular, you can focus on the curriculum framing questions, originally brought up by Wiggins-McTighe. 
• Units/Projects broken up into smaller increments (9-10, 11-12, instead of 9-12 and using your best judgement). You can also select by subject, as with most PBL project warehouses. 
• The organization and freebies associated with their projects!
• As an incredibly organized person, I can't stress how nice it is to have such a clean template to be looking at for the project overview!
• As an incredibly frugal person, I am in love with having free resources like rubrics, assessment ideas and examples at my disposal!
• The Differentiation suggestions
• Many projects lack explicit differentiation, however at the bottom of each unit's main page, I've been able to find prerequisite skills, and differentiation for resource, gifted and ELL students. Quite the find!

PBL General Resource: The Project Approach

The Project Approach website is one that is new to me this year in terms of project planning, but it comes from a name I've seen a multitude of times in connection with successful PBL: Sylvia Chard. The website covers a specific aspect of Project-Based Learning and is more focused on integrating a project approach with systematic instruction. This idea was new to me, as I was more focused on the idea of PBL as a whole-school curriculum. It was fascinating to me that many of the examples found at this website were conducted at one of the biggest names in Project-Based Learning: High Tech High!

Things I love about The Project Approach:

• The Project Approach considers the social and emotional well-being of a child and related theories to support PBL
• The Project Approach offers Planning Resources
• Planning Resource overviews (free and online) and Print Resources (paid and digital or print copies available), along with a study guide to understand The Project Approach!
• The Project Approach offers a limited project archive to exemplify their unique perspective on PBL. Here is one of my HTH favorites:
• This New House

PBL General Resource: edutopia

Let me begin this by saying that edutopia is by no means limited to being a resource on only Project-Based Learning. In fact, edutopia has so many unbelievable resources for a variety of education related topics, that I have been known to spend hours there reading and researching or watching videos and filling up my colleagues' inboxes with great ideas for us to implement. So, while I adore going to edutopia and receiving edutopia emails for various reasons, it is sometimes important to go to the site with a specific purpose, or else you will find yourself off on a tangent. My primary purpose in going to edutopia this week was to help you all see how to use edutopia as a resource for Project Based Learning.

Things I LOVE about edutopia for PBL:

• edutopia keeps you up to date on research and practices
• You can search out research or articles at any time via their website or sign up for their newsletter.
• edutopia shows you ways to make it work via Schools that Work
• I often spend time comparing other schools' strategies to my own to see why something is is or isn't working in my classroom. 
• edutopia keeps you connected
• There are always blogs being featured and posted to keep you updated and connected with others in the PBL world!) I've got quite a few of these authors bookmarked in my daily-read list!

Now that you know why I love it and recommend it, why don't you go check it out for yourself and see if you don't spend hours on this site!

PBL General Resource: Buck Institute for Education (BIE)

As a beginning Project-Based Learning teacher, the Buck Institute for Education's website bie.org was my go-to site for training on what Project-Based Learning was and resources I would need to begin becoming an effective Project-Based Learning teacher. In my three years as a PBL teacher, I have found that BIE is continually adding new content and features to help novice and experienced PBL-ers alike.

Features I just LOVE about BIE Online:

• BIE offers a complete overview of PBL. What is it and why do we should we do it?
• BIE offers an insane amount of resources for teachers, here are a few I have used:
• Planning Resources
• Rubrics
• Student Forms
• BIE hosts all kinds of projects for you to browse through!
• Visit the Project Archive, where you can search by grade level, content, and even CCSS alignment!
• BIE is interactive!
• There are constantly Webinars, Hangouts, Twitter chats to constantly engage with other PBL teachers just like you!
• BIE wants YOU to succeed!
• BIE has put together their own Project-Based Learning University (PBLU), of which I am a proud graduate of both course types that they offer--learning how to teach in a PBL atmosphere and learning how to author your own PBL projects and curriculum. 

Once you've spent a few hours on the bie.org website like I have, you may just be craving more from them. Never fear, BIE offers print products (PBL books!) for those times when you aren't with internet access, and they offer services and trainings in various formats, like the online PBLU listed above!