PBL Simplified by Magnify Learning

Transforming Schools Through Asset-Based School Development and PBL | E187

June 19, 2024 Magnify Learning
Transforming Schools Through Asset-Based School Development and PBL | E187
PBL Simplified by Magnify Learning
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PBL Simplified by Magnify Learning
Transforming Schools Through Asset-Based School Development and PBL | E187
Jun 19, 2024
Magnify Learning

Imagine transforming your school's culture by focusing on what you do best. In this episode of the PBL Simplified Podcast, we embark on an inspiring journey through asset-based school development. We kick things off with a leadership lesson from John Maxwell, exploring how tackling hard problems can prepare educators to solve even more challenging issues. You'll hear about a listener's success story, where structured Project Based Learning (PBL) turned chaotic teaching methods into well-organized, effective strategies.

Travel with us to a school in New York, where an asset assessment revitalized a student-centered vision through PBL. Using growth mindset sessions, classroom observations, and Google Form assessments, we discovered insights that transformed faculty meetings from dreaded obligations into dynamic, collaborative experiences. Learn how forming a student voice team can provide invaluable perspectives and help magnify positive aspects within your school. Plus, don't miss out on our free downloadable resources designed to help you collect and utilize these bright spots effectively.

Finally, we delve into the practical steps of forming a student voice group to elevate school culture and relationships. Simple actions, like inviting students to share their feedback, can foster a positive shift in perspective, encouraging more enriching experiences. We discuss the importance of capturing authentic testimonials from students, parents, and community members to support educational initiatives like PBL. Your engagement is key—leave a rating and review to help spread our mission of visionary leadership in education. Join us in creating a supportive school environment, one bright spot at a time.

JOIN THE ONLINE PBL COMMUNITY

https://resources.magnifylearningin.org/join-today


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https://www.magnifylearningin.org/newsletter-sign-up


SHARE A PBL WIN!

www.pblshare.com 


ORDER THE BOOK PBL SIMPLIFIED (affiliate link)

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SCHEDULE A PBL TRAINING WITH MAGNIFY LEARNING

https://resources.magnifylearningin.org/onsite-workshops


CHECK OUT RESOURCES MENTIONED ON THE PODCAST

PBL Simplified Podcast Links


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Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Imagine transforming your school's culture by focusing on what you do best. In this episode of the PBL Simplified Podcast, we embark on an inspiring journey through asset-based school development. We kick things off with a leadership lesson from John Maxwell, exploring how tackling hard problems can prepare educators to solve even more challenging issues. You'll hear about a listener's success story, where structured Project Based Learning (PBL) turned chaotic teaching methods into well-organized, effective strategies.

Travel with us to a school in New York, where an asset assessment revitalized a student-centered vision through PBL. Using growth mindset sessions, classroom observations, and Google Form assessments, we discovered insights that transformed faculty meetings from dreaded obligations into dynamic, collaborative experiences. Learn how forming a student voice team can provide invaluable perspectives and help magnify positive aspects within your school. Plus, don't miss out on our free downloadable resources designed to help you collect and utilize these bright spots effectively.

Finally, we delve into the practical steps of forming a student voice group to elevate school culture and relationships. Simple actions, like inviting students to share their feedback, can foster a positive shift in perspective, encouraging more enriching experiences. We discuss the importance of capturing authentic testimonials from students, parents, and community members to support educational initiatives like PBL. Your engagement is key—leave a rating and review to help spread our mission of visionary leadership in education. Join us in creating a supportive school environment, one bright spot at a time.

JOIN THE ONLINE PBL COMMUNITY

https://resources.magnifylearningin.org/join-today


SIGN UP FOR THE MAGNIFY LEARNING NEWSLETTER

https://www.magnifylearningin.org/newsletter-sign-up


SHARE A PBL WIN!

www.pblshare.com 


ORDER THE BOOK PBL SIMPLIFIED (affiliate link)

https://amzn.to/3VLsBtG


SCHEDULE A PBL TRAINING WITH MAGNIFY LEARNING

https://resources.magnifylearningin.org/onsite-workshops


CHECK OUT RESOURCES MENTIONED ON THE PODCAST

PBL Simplified Podcast Links


ASK RYAN A QUESTION FOR THE PODCAST

https://www.pblshare.com


FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Ryan’s Twitter (X)

Ryan’s LinkedIn

Ryan’s Instagram


Magnify Learning Twitter (X)

Magnify Learning Facebook

Magnify Learning LinkedIn

Magnify Learning Instagram


BOOK A MAGNIFY LEARNING DESIGN DAYS WORKSHOP

https://www.magnifylearningin.org/design-days-sign-up


Some of the links above are affiliate links which means we get a small commission on anything you purchase using that link (at no more cost to you). As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Speaker 1:

Every educator should collect their bright spots by using these three resources. We're continuing a series on how to co-create your dream school or classroom with asset-based school development. If you're new to asset-based school development, you're not alone. We looked at research in the last leadership episode about why it's so important to look at the assets of your school, because we're building on the assets and not continually focusing on the deficits. We do this because we looked at the research in the last episode about how, when you're focusing on these bright spots, that's when actual change happens. If you need to go fix one small thing, like the sign outside of your building is broken, then you just call somebody and fix it. That's different. We're talking about change process. We're talking about starting a movement and at that point you need to start looking at bright spots. So that means you have to be collecting bright spots, which is why I say that every educator should collect the bright spots by using these three resources we talk about in this episode. Welcome to the PBL Simplified Podcast, where we add value to PBL movement makers so they can lead inspired, because everyone wins when leaders are inspired. So, whether you're leading a classroom, a school or a district, just know your leadership matters.

Speaker 1:

I'm your host, ryan Stoyer. I'm the Chief Inspiration Officer at Magnify Learning and right now I'm recording this podcast episode outside of Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado and it's epic. You should make it out here. I highly encourage if you can do it right at the beginning of your summer. There's actually this snow melt that flows in front of the dunes. That is super cold Obviously it was snow 24 hours ago but it adds this kind of strange dynamic of you have this really hot sand that's here that you can climb, but you're also in this cold stream. It's really really cool. But I love the epicness of it because you have this river going through, you've got sand dunes and you have towering mountains above it that still have snow on them and it just gets you inspired and fired up.

Speaker 1:

And here's what I want to give you a quick leadership tip that I learned from John Maxwell and I got to live it because my two oldest boys and I walked up. You know the big dune and it's obvious it's a huge dune if you've ever seen it and you go up I don't know. I think 700 feet or so and we use the 20 mile march theory from Jim Collins book. You can YouTube that and so we'd go 20 steps One, two, three, 19, 20, stop. Then we go another 20, then another 20, and another 20, and we're sweating and it's hot, but we're getting there. And then we get there Like we're almost there, like we're to the top, and you know what happens. When you get to the top, you realize that there's more dunes on the other side and you get to climb more dunes. If you want to climb more dunes, and you know what happens you now know what's on the other side of those dunes it's more sand dunes.

Speaker 1:

And John Maxwell taught me this. He says that you know, as leaders, we're doing hard things, we're trying to solve difficult, complex problems, and it's hard, and we think that at some point, once we're done with the hard, it's going to get easy. And what John says is that that's not the case and you shouldn't expect that. But because you've done hard things, you've now earned the right to do the next hard thing and then the next hard thing. So, yeah, we're doing hard things, but not to get to easy. We're doing hard things so we can solve even more difficult problems, which is awesome.

Speaker 1:

By the way, there's a couple of huge takeaways. Number one this is not a sprint. You are not going to sprint past the hard to get to the easy. That doesn't happen, leader, so I want you to know that right off the bat. But what an honor to be able to solve some of these hard epic problems in education. I'm so excited to get to do it together. Just know, when you get to the top of your dune, there's more dunes and you should be fired up about that. All right, so before we jump into our main episode about the three resources that you need to collect bright spots, I want to share a win and not my win, because you can go to pblsharecom and you can share your win Isn't that awesome? So you can ask a question or you can share a win and then we'll share it on the podcast. So go to pblsharecom and you can share your win. Here's the win from today.

Speaker 1:

And this educator in the classroom says I planned and followed the structures of project-based learning, like project calendars, entry events and need to knows in workshops and a final expo to celebrate the learning. This is so different from my first PBL unit where I didn't plan with a project calendar, I didn't match each step with a learning standard and it caused my PBL unit to go loose and prolonged. That's their words. Loose and prolonged. They said actually for a year. I don't know if it was a full year or not, but that is what I call a Godzilla project and it's out of control, right, but that happens. So the win is that I used to have a PBL unit that was unstructured and I couldn't figure out how to end it.

Speaker 1:

But with the structures of project-based learning, the steps that we know work, it now fits right. It fits into a curriculum map. I can see how it's going to fit next year. My learners know that there's a start, there's a middle, there's an end to every PBL unit. So the structure matters and I think it's one of the unique things in project-based learning. It's one of the reasons I love it so much and well, I've devoted my life to it is that there's a lot of neat instructional models out there that are inquiry-based, that are engaging, that can be real world.

Speaker 1:

I used to do a lot of work with service learning. We've done a lot of work with STEM, and I think they're both really, really important and I love them and I'm not trying to throw any shade their way. But what I find in project-based learning is an instructional model that teachers and students can follow. I see an entry event that marks the beginning and creates inquiry and engagement and excitement, and I see deep content work happening throughout and then at the end I see a public presentation and there's this cycle that I can picture for you know two to four to six weeks, whatever your unit follows, and then I can see how I can do that again. And as you grow in your, your PBL skill level, you can now see that your year could be eight to 10 PBL units.

Speaker 1:

And you can see that once you can see the structure and you don't get stuck into these random pieces of inquiry or random acts of STEM right, where you have this cool thing that happens. And, yes, your learners are engaged and, yes, they learn right, they even learn deeply. But how do you replicate that? It becomes really difficult to find that right. As you maybe you get new standards, you're like, ah, what do I do now? But with PBL we've got this pretty, not a set structure but a helpful structure, and sometimes it's helpful that you can be creative within the box. Right, like an artist needs a canvas that has edges and a soccer player has. You know there's out of bounds lines, because otherwise you would just go for miles dribbling, try to get around somebody. So we need some of these structures to help us be creative.

Speaker 1:

So thanks for sending in that P, that win, pblsharecom. You can send in your win anytime. I'd love to put it on the podcast. Hey, did you know that we still have room in virtual PBL workshops? Our PBL workshops that are virtual are they're fantastic, they're super engaging, they're super collaborative. It's not somebody going through a PowerPoint just talking at you for six hours. It's you actually building a PBL unit from your standards and your content, your grade level, and then you're going to interact and collaborate with PBL certified facilitators, with other facilitators from around the country, and you're going to get feedback. You're going to tune that PBL unit. So then when you're done, whether you're doing a jumpstart or an advanced, you have a PBL unit that's not just you. You've collaborated, you've got the best possible PBL unit that you could have right now. So when this comes out, you know it's going to be the end of June, so you might've missed the June virtual, but you can hit the July one. So jump in. You can do it from anywhere, no travel costs. You'll love it.

Speaker 1:

Every educator should collect their bright spots by using these three resources, and we're going to go through these three resources. You've got amazing things happening in your classroom and nobody knows about them. They're not sharing them and people don't expect you to be doing amazing things and in fact, they're assuming that you're probably doing regular things. We've got to let them know about the awesomeness that's happening, not to toot your own horn, not to get prideful, but because it helps start a movement. A movement can't happen with one person, doesn't even happen with one classroom. It happens with a community that believes in the work that's happening in a school, and to do that you have to share the vision. So you have to be able to collect bright spots. I've got three ways for you to do that.

Speaker 1:

So the first resource to help you collect bright spots is a collection of free resources that you can find at pblculturecom. If you go to pblculturecom, you can download every Google form that we at Magnified Learning would use if we came to your school to perform an asset assessment. So in the past, you would only get access to these resources and the results of them if you had set up a contract with us to come to your school, perform an asset assessment and we would run through all the results with you, and obviously we still will. But what we found is that sometimes people weren't reaching out, we weren't doing the asset assessment, they just wanted to jump into the work. And stopping to pause to figure out where you're at is really into the work. And stopping to pause to figure out where you're at is really, really important when you're looking at asset-based school development. So we're just giving you the resources for free, so you can go to pblculturecom and you can download those resources and then you actually get a video for me with every one of those resources. So if we're going to pull students or teachers or community partners, you're going to get a video where I can give you some examples and walk you through that and you can find out which ones would work for you. And you can start in one spot or do them all. It's completely up to you. So of course, we're happy to partner with you to do an asset assessment, but we find that partners who could really use the service don't always invest in it. So we're going to give it to you. So maybe after this podcast series, more people will jump into the asset assessment. I'm hoping that as we talk more about asset-based school development, that people will jump into this first step, because if I give you a map and a compass but you don't know where you are, it's just not helpful. So where do we want to start? I want to walk you through the pblculturecom resources just a little bit and I want to give you an example of how they've been used.

Speaker 1:

So my favorite asset assessment story is from a school in New York. We heard their vision for a relaunch of a student-centered vision. So it was like, hey, that's us, that's project-based learning, let's jump in. So they brought us in for the asset assessment and here's how we did it. This is when we actually went to the school. So we did a half day on growth mindset and then the other half we walked the halls, we went into classrooms, we took notes, did some look fors and then we administered the Google form assessments that, again, you can get free, and all of this gave us a ton of data. So once we got it all and I love data we sifted through the data to find trends that we could build off of. Remember, we're building off of bright spots. That's the whole point.

Speaker 1:

So here are some of the key takeaways from their asset assessment. Number one teachers enjoyed teaching at their school. Number two Teachers are proud to teach there. Three the school had a strong reputation in the community per parents and community partners that were polled. Number four the teachers hated the faculty meetings. And bing, bing, bing, bing, bing. So what just happened? So, again, I'm giving you a summary of a whole bunch of data, but here's how we use that. And I went bing, bing, bing when the teachers hated the faculty meetings and you might say, wait, ryan, I thought we were looking for bright spots and we are, and we found several in this example.

Speaker 1:

When you couple the bright spots with an area of improvement, it becomes a very powerful combination. In this real life example, we know that the teachers love their school. In fact, they're proud of it, which is just awesome. Things are working right. Those are two really big hurdles. So these remarks were repeated over and over again in multiple choice questions that we had, and then also some open ended responses. We had multiple teachers, so this isn't just one cherry picked data point. So if this is true and the faculty meetings aren't awesome, what do we do If you have teachers that love their school, they're proud of it, but they're also saying, hey, faculty meetings are not awesome.

Speaker 1:

What do you do? Because it would be different if the teachers were apathetic, cranky, just didn't like the way things were at. But people love the culture, except for this one piece. So we've got this bright spot that we're building off of to now fix some piece that doesn't quite jive. So what do we do? We put together a teacher team to figure out the best way to run an engaging faculty meeting. So, boom, we looked at bright spots, built off that, and now we're able to solve a problem.

Speaker 1:

By the way it worked, the teachers wanted to get together and they wanted to make the school awesome. So the principal took the advice from the teacher team and created these collaborative opportunities that could happen during faculty meetings and save the announcements for emails and that might seem like you might be listening to be like, well, yeah, of course, but it wasn't. It's not obvious when you're in the moment, right, you're trying to get this information out to people and you know you believe in collaboration in the classroom, so why wouldn't you do it with your faculty? But it's not obvious. But once you pull your people and you have this local data, it's so, it's a. It becomes a win-win, right? Because you're building off of this positive uh, bright spot that your teachers are proud of, your school, and now you're going to get them together. So we use the bright spots to solve a problem. And now faculty meetings are bright spot there, right? So we actually added a bright spot. So I love that story because without the asset assessment, I don't think we find that out right, because the administrators are top notch, they're high flyers, but they didn't realize that the faculty meetings were such a draw on people's energy. So I want you to have these resources. I want you to have all the Google Forms Again, they're completely free so you can download all the free resources at pblculturecom and then you can gather your own mountain of bright spots using this one resource.

Speaker 1:

How about the second resource? The second resource to collect bright spots is to create a student voice team. A student voice team. Once a month, you bring in 10 learners from different circles in your building or your classroom. You can buy them lunch, or maybe you don't, maybe just give them some kind of a snack or a treat, or maybe they get to listen to some music, some piece that adds a little extra value for them. And then you ask them what they like about the way things are going and you might also ask them what they think might make a good change. So we're looking for bright spots, but we're not going to. If there's something that might need might need to be changed, let's put that in a parking lot and see if we can use some bright spots to fix it.

Speaker 1:

So once you have these kids together, you're going to create some icebreakers, maybe some protocols, and then this voice team is just going to start talking and as you start to hear the bright spots, you're going to record them. But you're also going to get the learners talking about each of them some more. So you're going to say you like the idea that we don't have bells during passing period, which, by the way, is a real thing. So how do we build off of that? Why does that work? And as you start asking these questions, to magnify the bright spots is what you're trying to do. You take a bright spot and you're going to magnify it, because what you focus on grows. So you're going to focus on bright spots and they're going to grow.

Speaker 1:

When the learners are on the student voice team say they really like public presentations. Ask them why? Start pulling the details out of that bright spot and you'll find out that. Say, maybe they like the community partners, they like the celebration of learning or the opportunity to solve a real world problem. They like that. But why? Why is that so? As you do that, again, you're magnifying the bright spots, which is exactly what we want to do.

Speaker 1:

So you may be wondering about the logistics of a student voice group, and because I get that question all the time. Whenever I talk about them, people always ask. But the answer is don't overthink it. Do you have to have 10? Could you have 12? Like, I totally made that number up right. So, whether you're a teacher or principal, just ask 10 kids into your room each month and ask them some questions. You can rotate the group of learners if you want, or so that you get voice from more learners throughout the year, or not, but the key is to listen.

Speaker 1:

Learners love to be heard, people love to be heard. So the simple act of asking them questions is a win for culture and for relationships. So the key is to just get started and then you'll figure it out right, don't again, don't overthink it. Just bring them in and start asking what are some things that you like about the way things are going? There's, they're going to be there, right, and as you start to record those. How you record those is up to you.

Speaker 1:

It's also part of number three, the third reason, the third resource. But you want to bring these bright spots up again and again so people get used to talking about them. As people, as humans, we seem to be hardwired to talk about the things that don't work, the problems. So we have to rework some of our brain programming to start looking for bright spots. And if you start asking, then people will start telling right, so it's really exciting. So the second resource would be a student voice team, by the way, principals, a teacher voice team, right, absolutely All the same rules apply. Don't overthink it. Bring some people in. You know, buy them lunch, rotate who goes through there, ask about bright spots, and then here's the crazy thing that happens. I need to get to the third resource, but here's, the crazy thing that happens is that once you start asking about bright spots, a few days later somebody that was in that voice team whether it's students or teachers is going to come to you and say, hey, you know, I thought of another bright spot. I didn't think about it when we were having lunch, but I thought of it. Is it okay if we talk about it? Uh, yeah, cause usually people just bring me problems. So I would love if we just talked about bright spots, right? So get a voice team. Don't overthink it. Trust me, it'll be great.

Speaker 1:

The third resource to collect bright spots is to record impromptu comments. When the parent at a parent-teacher night stops you and offers the rare and random compliment, don't just smile and say thank you. You should probably smile and say thank you, but don't just do that. When a learner from a student voice team says something brilliant in a conversation over lunch, don't just let it go by and say, wow, that was neat. When a community partner is leaving an event and remarks how amazing your learners are, don't thank them for their time and just lead them on their way.

Speaker 1:

You need to record these comments. So, yes, you still thank someone, right, you're still going to have gratitude, but now you're going to record them. You're going to be super geeky about writing them down. You might carry a little notebook in your pocket. You might have a place on your phone. You might say wow, thank you for that comment. Do you mind if I write that down and use it in my newsletter? Do you know what people say to that? They say yes, they're honored, in fact, and they know that you're looking for bright spots. So often they give you more. So these are testimonials for the educational change that you are working so hard for.

Speaker 1:

It can't just always be you talking about this, so you need to bring in comments from wherever you can get them. Later, somebody is going to ask you how do you know that PBL works? How do you know that PBL is happening in your classroom, in your school, and that positive change is happening? And you might fumble around and give some answer from a book you read and you know if it was my book, pbl Simplified like. I appreciate that. But most parents with learners headed into your school don't really care about my book. You can give it to them, like some principals do that. But the point is is they don't want to hear from an educational expert. That's somewhere, not where they are. They want to hear from other parents in their district, in their school, somebody who had a kid in your program two years ago and when you quote them or you tell a story from them, it goes a long, long way. But if you don't remember any of those oh man, I could have said this, but you forgot right.

Speaker 1:

So you need to have these on the tip of your tongue. You need to have them physically recorded somewhere. This needs to be something that you intentionally do in creating your bright spots. You need to record impromptu comments because your parents that are up and coming, they want to know if your new style of education is going to work for their child, and some of the best evidence for them could be a student story. People want to hear stories and the thing is, project-based learning probably wasn't what some of your parents went through in school, right, there was probably a very traditional environment. So you're going to have to explain how it's different. And again, if you start quoting PBL simplified like again I appreciate it, but that's not really what they're looking for. They want to know is it going to work for my child? And you say, well, that's selfish, true, but that's what they care about, like they're. They're there to take care of their child. So we have to answer that question.

Speaker 1:

So here's my claim. I think you should have five student stories in your back pocket that you can retell at any point in time. You should have the story of a struggling learner, of a learner who's a point getter for the hesitant learner who said I don't know about PBL, but then in the end they loved it. You should have the student with special education services and you should have the later in life win right, where you tracked one of your learners who's doing amazing things and they record it back to project-based learning in your school. Now, it doesn't have to be these five stories, but you should be able to tell a student's story for almost any situation. So I do like those five. You can change the name of the learner if you want to, or you can ask the student for permission to share the story, which can be really powerful. Again, you just go ask the student like, hey, here's how I kind of see that your story panned out. Does that sound right? And almost every time they're like, yeah, like you nailed it. That's exactly what my home life used to be and still is, but I felt like I overcame it because of the work that we've been doing, and that story can become really powerful. When parents are asking, they're really looking for stories most of the time. So the same goes for a parent or a community partner story. You shouldn't be collecting all these stories on your phone or in a Google Drive folder somewhere, but you should have a repository of success stories and testimonials because testimonies are powerful, I mean. But you should have a repository of success stories and testimonials because testimonies are powerful, I mean.

Speaker 1:

If you think about it, when you buy something on Amazon, you read the reviews. Now, you don't even know these people, but you still want to hear the reviews. Right, when people send me a comment about PBL simplified and how it helped them in their classroom and their school, of course I thank them. I show gratitude because it's amazing that you read these books and that it changes work. But I often answer any question they might have, because usually it comes with a need to know hey, I loved your book and can you help me with this? And I always answer those. But then I also kindly ask them for a review, because the reviews on Amazon for an author are like gold. Every time you leave a review, it lets the next person say yes, this is the book I'm going to buy Now.

Speaker 1:

For a long time I didn't do that, right. I just oh, thank you so much. You know I'm so humbled by your comments and I would answer the question and then leave. But I created a habit that I tag on this question. You may have heard it from me, right, if you've, if you've reached out, you've heard this. At the end it says would you please go leave a review on Amazon and I leave the link there. So it takes two minutes and you can always edit your response and people are so gracious in doing that and I'm so thankful.

Speaker 1:

But if you're not asking people, then they don't necessarily know how they can help. And most people do want to help you, they're just not sure. So I want you to get in the habit of asking for a testimonial or saying here it is Ready. Wow, thank you for that comment. Do you mind if I share that comment with other parents or with other teachers, or at a faculty meeting or in my newsletter, wherever you want to put it? People are honored that you like their comment and that it may help others. So they most often say yes. And if somebody says no, then great, right now you know that you shouldn't share that one.

Speaker 1:

But you're asking so often now that you're getting more and more of these bright spots into you. Know wherever you want to hold those things? If you want to put it into a paper journal and then put it into Google drive, but somewhere you should be able to go to Google drive, put in testimonials from parents and this whole big sheet comes up and you can pull out anything you need for any faculty meeting or, again, any impromptu conversation you might be having. Here's what you don't want to do. You don't want to be the best kept secret in town. Yes, we want everybody in your community to love you, but we want everybody to know that you're doing amazing things. So do great work and then collect the testimonials that show others how effective your work is.

Speaker 1:

Student teachers and parents take pride in a school that's making great gains in hearing and reading stories of success, so they want to help you tell the story. So you need to reach out and start recording those things. Once your story is told, then others can start to tell your positive story. This is when things get really fun. Because someone's going to tell your story. You should have a say in it. What if somebody else that's not connected to your school is now telling the student story that you've told them. This happens all the time. When you have a community partner breakfast, which we've talked about on the podcast those community partners, they want to have a student story in their back pocket to go hey, you know what's happening at our local school, and then they tell this great story. Things start to domino and they start to magnify and it's really, really exciting.

Speaker 1:

So just think right now for a second if you had recorded every positive comment that you've ever heard from a parent or a student number one how encouraging would that be for you, right, if you could remember those. Now, if I ask you to remember a negative interaction with a student or a parent, you those. Now, if I ask you to remember a negative interaction with a student or a parent, you could immediately come up with some and a whole separate set of emotions wells up. But I want you to go the opposite. I want you to fight it. Remember we're talking about asset-based school development. You need to start building the testimonials, the stories that are encouraging.

Speaker 1:

And then, when you go to a faculty meeting, like how great is it to be able to share these ideas. Like, here's what I heard from parents at the last teacher parent teacher conference. Or here's what I heard from a community partner I ran into at the grocery store. Cause, even in the grocery store, you're going to get super geeky. You're gonna say, wow, what a great comment. Do you mind if I record that? And you can get out and you're going to record it because you're going to see the power of recording all these bright spots. All right, so now you have three resources for collecting bright spots. You can go to pblculturecom, you can create a voice team, whether it's students or teachers, and you're going to get super geeky about recording these impromptu comments that you come across to all the time. So let me give you a call to action.

Speaker 1:

Your call to action for this week is to do just that. Start collecting bright spots. Start small, don't overthink it, don't overcomplicate it, just start. You can start collecting them with structures like the resources from pblculturecom. Again, there's a voice team, there's exit tickets, bright spot jars. Or you can go through the impromptu route and just get your antenna up and start writing things down. Write it on your hand. I don't care, but you need to start. You're going to start listening for these positive comments from the people around you and as you start to say, hey, thank you for this comment, you're going to start getting more of these comments because what you focus on grows. These comments are all around you. You just need to start recording them. Don't overthink it at first. Just get started. You will love the encouragement and the energy that these bright spots give you and it will help you go lead inspired.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the PBL Simplified Podcast. I appreciate you and honor that you tune in each week. Would you please take two minutes to leave a rating and a review? When you leave a review, it lets the next person know that this is a podcast worth listening to. When they go into their player and search project-based learning, and PBL Simplified popped up, when they see those reviews, they know that high quality, visionary leaders are listening, so they tune in too and they can find their way into the PBL journey. Thank you so much for leaving a review. Thank you so much for listening. I appreciate you.

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Podcast Listener Review Request