We’ve all encountered that student. You know the one. The one who coasts by, all through K-12, getting mediocre C’s, the occasional C+ or B? We know they have great potential, we know they are capable of achieving the A’s.  What are we doing wrong?  What do we need to do to help them realize they are really ‘that good’?

Recently at the ELC we took one of our students very first Projects, ‘the Mask Project’, and displayed them on totem poles throughout our building.

…a little background on the ELC and our building ~ our school is not what you would call traditional – we are located in a community centre, we have more windows than we have doors.  Our display of learning is very public, anyone using  the Fort St. John  Community Centre (Pomeroy Sports Centre/PSC) can see our ‘totem poles’  and can see our students working every day from 8:40 to 3pm.  This is a good thing! We are incorporating our community with our teenagers, our seniors and our future ELC students! No more segregation!

Our students are brand new to Project Based Learning, they’ve never been taught like this before, and to some, I think they thought they could merely ‘coast’ through the projects, getting their expected C+.  To them, what’s wrong with that? A  C+ isn’t bad, it’s not ‘failing’.  It doesn’t set off any bells and whistles, but it doesn’t bring down the hammer either.  Right?

….and then came the day when the masks where hung…put on display – for all the world to see.

Can you guess what happened then? 

Well, the marks are already calculated and delivered (yes, that C+ for some), and there were no ‘do overs’ when it came to that.  We all have deadlines in the real world.

The EUREKA moment came when that C+ student asked to ‘please take their mask down and redo it’.  Not for a mark, not for an ‘A’, not for their presentation of learning, but for their PRIDE in what they are showing to the world.

PBL is how we help students realize their potential.  It promotes student ownership and internal motivation.