Teachers of
Mount Olive Middle School
Budd Lake, NJ

In the fall of 2001, a group of six teachers joined IDE consultant Molly Williams and District Technology Supervisor Lorraine Weingast to work toward creating classrooms that reflected more student responsibility for learning, technology infusion and problem based tasks. These six teachers had tremendous success throughout the 2001-2002 school year. Their enthusiasm quickly spread throughout the school, and this summer another five teachers joined what the Mt.Olive School District is calling, The Instructional Innovation Team. During this summer's workshop, IIT 2001 and IIT 2002 teachers attended eight days of summer training that modeled the learner-active strategies they will implement in their classrooms. The teams produced a CD-Rom that contained originally designed problem-based learning tasks and supplementary materials to distribute to their colleagues. One of the unique characteristics of this workshop was the incorporation of The Book of Learning and Forgetting by Frank Smith. The teachers explored the educational theories that are embedded in learning and how they are reflected in their classrooms. In addition, they received classroom computers and their own personal laptop. It is with great enthusiasm and anticipation that I look forward to creating a partnership with Mt. Olive's Instructional Innovation Team to create classrooms that will revolutionize how learning and teaching take place.




(District Technology Supervisor) Lorraine Weingast says:

"These last 2 weeks working with the more experienced IIT2001 and the newbies of IIT2002 has been exciting and reenergizing. The diversity of our group - subject areas and grade levels, teaching experience and style, technology skills and comfort zones, personalities, and philosophical systems - enhanced the excited flow of energy, synergy, and creativity. Immersion in PBL enabled us to rethink what classrooms should look like and thoughtfully create new paradigms for instruction and learning. I am looking forward to the school year as we introduce what we have learned and apply the PBL model to classroom learning."

(Math) Margaret Mullens says:

"What an amazing year with IDE! Molly has proven that you CAN teach an old dog new tricks! For years I thought all eyes should be on me - THE TEACHER. Now I love being the facilitator that works with groups and individuals as they are solving authentic problems. As I increase my use of PBL tasks I see student interest growing and confusion decreasing. I may never hear again, 'Why do we have to learn this?' Thank you Molly and IDE!"



(Robotics and Synergistic) Sandra Wozniak says:

"The IDE workshop time was an excellent example of how PBL's work - we were given a project and had to learn (or relearn) the skills needed to complete it. Since the project had value to us (as is planned for our students), learning the skills and finding the resources became easy. There were a lot of 'aha' moments all week long!"


(World Language) Joan Zola says:

"Because of the summer workshop days I now have a true understanding of the 'whole' PBL process. My tech skills have improved even though I have lots to learn. It has been wonderful to have this time to explore, discover AND to collaborate with peers. The workshop was modeled in the same fashion that we will implement in our classes. This made forming an understanding of PBL and its structures comprehensible. It also allowed us to see the impact it has on learning. I am more comfortable with implementation of PBL's in the classroom. In fact, I plan on starting off the first day with a PBL. Merci y gracias!"






(Science) Elaine Giansanti says:

In science I found that Problem Based Learning has endless possibilities. Since I do a lot of inquiry based labs including PBL's seems a natural thing to do. Once learning the process I find myself researching one idea and coming up with many, many more. This past year in my classroom PBL units have been beneficial for ALL student learning levels. Everyone is totally engrossed in it and the amount of excitement in the class is contagious! I am looking forward to beginning a new year!


(Basic Skills) Sue Jones says:

"Problem based learning has opened many new avenues of thinking. I have worked on problem activities before, but am now sleepless at times because NOW I can format everything in a wonderfully, meaningful package. It's SO EXCITING!"