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Community Support and Next Steps

In the PBL model, community support is a key component. Real-world authenticity is an important element of project-based learning. This can include guest speakers in the classroom, field trips, community members as an authentic audience or participating on judging panels. Creating and leveraging community connections is very important. 

What does community support look like in the classroom?
In our classroom, community support shows in several different ways. Here are but a few examples of the ways the community is being involved in creating authenticity in our project-based learning curriculum: 
  • During our World War II project the students design memorials and present their ideas to a local city planner who gives commentary on their work based on urban design and development principles. 
  • While studying industrialization, our students were invited to present at a City Council meeting poetry they had written about their hometown, inspired by Carl Sandburg's iconic poem "Chicago."
  • In Film & Literature class during a project where the students were creating original short films a local filmmaker came and spoke to the class about his experiences and offered guidance on their work. His film school experience was of particular interest to the students, since several of them have an interest in film school and the film industry as a career. 
  • We also brought in the Napa Valley Film Festival's "Festival in the Schools" program, screening one of the festival documentary film entries with Senior Government & Economics students and participating in a Q&A session with the film's director. 
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A local filmmaker speaking to students about the craft and the industry.
NapaLearns has been instrumental with both community support and the next steps for me personally and for many of the students in my cohort. Through a generous grant program, they are able to support us as we pursue our advanced degrees. Their support goes right back into the community as we share our learnings with our students and colleagues and implement new and innovative ideas that support our students' learning of the important skills necessary to succeed in the 21st century.