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Duration
Open
Time Committment
10 -15 Total Hours
Just because you completed some online classes doesn’t mean you’re ready to be certified as a PBL Teacher. Through experience, you develop your style and work out the bugs. The capstone class requires you to actually do the project with students in order to get certification.
While you are implementing the project, you’ll get feedback and tips from your PBLU Facilitator and colleagues as you reflect on your progress from start to finish—Entry Event to Showcasing Student Work. To complete the PBL Teacher Certification process, you will submit samples of student work that demonstrate what they have learned as a result of their project experience.
Gina Olabuenaga, Ed.D
Early in her teaching career, Gina became a writing project fellow with the Los Angeles Writing Project. The experience sparked an interest in the role effective professional development could play in shaping teachers’ practice. Shortly thereafter, she pursued an educational doctorate (Ed.D) in Teacher Education for Multicultural Societies (TEMS) at the University of Southern California. Her research examined the professional development models of successful schools that were integrating 21st century skills education and project-based learning.
Gina most recently taught 5th grade at an Apple Distinguished Pre-K-5 math/ science/ technology magnet in the Los Angeles Unified School District. As a founding teacher of that magnet school, she has implemented a one-to-one, 24-7 laptop program with SMART board technologies. Her work has focused on technology integration in the context of project-based learning to help students communicate effectively, collaborate, and build reflective practice.
Committed to the sharing of best practices, Gina has designed and facilitated various professional developments for her school site, the district at large, and on behalf of the Los Angeles Writing Project. Topics have included writing, 6+1 traits, project-based learning, and technology integration.
Gina received a BA in English with a minor in Psychology and a Master’s in Teaching from the University of California, Irvine. She holds a multiple-subject credential with CLAD certification, and a supplemental waiver in single-subject English.
The online class is still facilitated on Edmodo. However, the class starts the moment you enroll and ends when you implement and reflect about the project. You will be given an Edmodo group code to join other teachers who are implementing the same project as you.
You will have the option to blog about your experience, so feel free to use any program, such as Blogger.com. We hope to highlight teachers in BIE’s blog Experts & NewBIES.
Required Reading is short articles about the topics of each class. Each reading has links to more in-depth information about the topic.
Required Reading is made available to enrolled members of the class one week before class begins.
The Class Discussion is a social Q&A forum where you will be able to submit questions you Need to Know (N2K) and comments to other peoples’ questions. The community will be able to “put a gold star” on questions that are the most important in order to move them up the ranking for the facilitator to post timely answers. The facilitator can also “pick” or highlight outstanding replies to questions, so that everyone benefits from the expertise within the community.
If you are enrolled in this class, then you will have access to the Class Discussion a week before class starts.
You must also sign up and sign in to access Class Discussions.