Goodbye North Holland
By:  Marnie O'Connell

Project at a Glance :

​North Holland Elementary School transitioned to become Los Lagos Bilingual Academy. The students wanted to find some special ways and activities that would help with closure for themselves and other students at the school.
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Driving Question:

How to say goodbye to North Holland?

Team / Culture Building:

• Students identified their own feelings about saying goodbye to our school using the "Blob Tree".​
• The team took some time to discuss our Hopes and Fears for this project.

Entry Event:

• We watched a video of how to say goodbye in 46 different languages.

Stakeholders:

• Students and Teachers
• Community 

Empathy Building:

• Students took a memory walk through the school and grounds. They recorded different memories of their time spent at the school.​ ​

• Students interviewed others to find out what they thought was special about North Holland Elementary School. 

Inquiry / Need to Knows:

• Chalk Talk was used to compile information and ideas.

 

Incubation:

• Crazy Eights​​

• Word Association​

 Checking in:

• After our Gallery Walk, students were able to ask clarifying questions about each solution that was presented.

• An action plan was developed for the final pitch.

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Solution Building:

• Students created a poster using their 3 best ideas from Crazy Eights and Word Association. 
• Then they participated in a Gallery Walk to share them.​​

Critique and Revision: 

• Students narrowed down solution ideas with Dot Voting and finally the NUF Test. 

Authentic Audience:

• PTO ​
• Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Education
• District Superintendent​

Solution Examples:

• 3rd grade: Time Capsule
• 4th grade: Memory Lane and rock painting​
• ​​5th grade: Handprint Mural

Reflection and Feedback:

• The PTO decided to support three solutions.
• The Superintendents also gave good feedback on how to implement the students' solutions.

PTO letter of feedback

Click here for the teacher's Journey through PBL on Padlet . . .

Meet the Educator:

​Marnie O'Connell is a Core Support/SAIL teacher for West Ottawa Public Schools.


          "Having students participate in PBL increases student engagement, excitement for learning and empowers them.  It's the best!"