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Park Terrace fourth-grade team shows how 'the project is the learning' in pilot
Summary
Fourth-grade teachers from Park Terrace described a year-long, project-based learning pilot that reorganized student grouping, schedules and interdisciplinary instruction; teachers reported increased student engagement, family turnout at exhibitions and growth in communication and collaboration skills.
Park Terrace fourth-grade teachers told the Spring Lake Park Schools Board that their project-based learning pilot has increased student engagement and strengthened interdisciplinary learning.
The team — Peyton Sebrecht, Aaron Creighton and Carly Oto — said they began by assessing staff strengths, backwards-designing trimesters using learner profiles and moving students through four core, team-taught classes rather than confining instruction to single homerooms. “The project is the learning,” one teacher said, describing performance assessments such as a poetry slam and a school heart fair that served as exhibitions of student work.
The teachers described a summer planning process that included watching exemplars of project-based learning and applying a “color wheel” assessment to identify team strengths and norms. They reported that student-led inquiry, iterative cycles of feedback and public exhibitions produced not only academic products but also growth in career-and-life competencies: communication, critical thinking and collaboration.
Board members pressed for practical details: how long projects run, whether lessons are repeatable and how students are grouped during the day. The team said the first project extended from the start of the year into early December and that the model is designed to be repeatable with adjustments. Students travel among four core classes during the week; each teacher may emphasize different strands of the project (for example, math in one classroom and reading in another) while all teachers work toward the same essential question.
Teachers acknowledged challenges, chiefly a mindset shift for adults and students used to traditional classrooms, but emphasized that stronger teacher trust and shared planning time made implementation feasible. They reported positive family response and higher attendance at exhibitions, which administrators said has improved family understanding of student strengths and needs.
The board applauded the teachers and said the pilot demonstrates how local instructional teams can design and test innovations at the school level before scaling them districtwide. The presentation closed with a reminder that monitoring implementation and continuing to adapt the model are key next steps.
