Last Fall, the Department of Technology partnered with the Middle Grades Lead team to plan Initiate Wonder- a PBL Exhibition held at the top of the Salesforce tower in December. 12 teachers across 7 middle schools in SFUSD participated in a Professional Learning Community (PLC) to engage in a collaborative process of reflection and professional growth as they embarked on implementing project-based learning in their classrooms. These teachers exhibited their projects at the PBL exhibition.

Leadership teams from Middle Schools across SFUSD attended the event to draw inspiration from the projects and consider how reflection, learning and iterating is embedded when teachers try out new practices such as project-based learning as part of the Middle Grades Initiate Wonder Initiative. Project-Based Learning is one of SFUSD's strategies to get to Deeper Learning & the Graduate Profile.

After attending the event Dr. Michael Bloemsma said, "Having visited many of the classrooms of teachers who presented their work at the PBL Exhibition, it was great to see student work I witnessed in classrooms come to fruition in such meaningful and authentic ways. When I asked teachers "What was your favorite part of the PBL unit?" almost all of them said how engaged their students were in the project and also the caliber of the work their students were able to produce."

Technology integration was a key component of the projects, with projects ranging from students making podcasts and documentaries to building a model of San Francisco and engineering hot and cold packs.

Soundtrap for Education accounts have been activated for SFUSD students. Students and educators have access to these accounts for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year as part of a pilot program. Schools who wish to continue using Soundtrap beyond the 2019-20 school year will have the option to purchase licenses.

Soundtrap is an easy-to-use, cloud-based, collaborative, audio editing studio students can use to record their own podcasts and make music.

We’d also love to hear how you are using Soundtrap and/or podcasting in the classroom!

Please forward any questions and comments to Stu Jernigan (jernigand@sfusd.edu).

Trying to figure out how students can leverage technology to amplify learning and close the digital divide in service of SFUSD’s Graduate Profile?

SFUSD's Digital Learning Scope & Sequence is your new, go-to resource, with a grade-level breakdown of best practices, recommended tools, and project ideas tied to SFUSD curriculum. Please share with educators at your site!