Washington Discovery Academy and Weidner School Of Inquiry hosted the New Tech Elementary Project Based Learning summit on Thursday. Sixty-five teachers and administrators from as far away as Texas spent the day exploring the concepts of teaching PBL.
The summit began with visitors walking through the kindergarten through fourth grade classrooms at their leisure. Students in each class room were selected to welcome the guests and talk about what was happening in the class. Visitors were able to speak with students and teachers while lessons were being taught.
After the walking tour of WDA guests were able to sit down with a couple of students and ask questions about project base learning finding out what the students like most and what things they don’t like. The visit at Washington Discovery Academy concluded with students and teachers presenting a showcase of projects from the various grades.
Late morning the New Tech Elementary Summit transitioned to the Weidner School of Inquire inside Plymouth High School. The visitors were able to attend a breakout session of their choice. Following a working lunch served in the WSOI with Co-director Jen Felke and a panel of students the guest teachers and administrators were able to experience problem based math learning first hand. Examples of projects and activities were discussed and the afternoon ended with a debriefing and discussions on helping the visitors consider the next step in elementary project based learning.
