The Journey Begins: A Vision for Something Different 🚀
Imagine stepping into a brand new school where belonging comes first, inquiry drives learning, and every student has the opportunity to engage with meaningful projects. This isn’t just an educational daydream—it’s exactly what Kyle Anderson and his colleagues have created in Granville, Michigan.
As the coordinator and teacher of the third and fourth-grade IMAGE program serving academically talented learners, Kyle shared his inspiring journey on the PBL Simplified for Teachers podcast. His story of launching a new intermediate school offers valuable insights for educators everywhere who are looking to transform their teaching practice.
Planning with Purpose: The 18-Month Runway
One of the most compelling aspects of Granville’s new intermediate school launch was the intentionality behind it. This wasn’t a hasty transition from one model to another. As Kyle explains:
“The principal of our school actually started that work about a year and a half before we opened… It was all done with incredible foresight and purpose.”
This extended planning period allowed the team to:
- Build a cohesive staff culture before moving into the building
- Develop curriculum with PBL and content integration from the ground up
- Create systems that support both academic excellence and student belonging
- Train teachers in PBL methodology and best practices and team synergies
The lesson here? Change process takes time. When implementing PBL or launching something new, investing in thoughtful planning pays enormous dividends.
Creating Belonging: The Foundation for Learning
When asked about his top recommendation for launching a new school, Kyle didn’t hesitate: focus on belonging.
“When you launch a new school, it’s always by default going to bring kids from a familiar environment to one that’s new,” Kyle notes. “So I think that a focus and emphasis on belonging is so vital.”
Granville implemented a house system inspired by the Ron Clark Academy, where every student and staff members belong to themed houses (Kyle sports his red Amistad “House of Friendship” colors during the podcast interview). These intentional structures create immediate connection points and a sense of identity within the larger school community.
The second crucial element? Fun! Kyle emphasizes that making the new school environment exciting helps everyone—students, parents, and staff—through the transition from the familiar to the new.
WIN Time: Making PBL Accessible to All Students
Perhaps the most innovative aspect of Granville’s approach is their “What I Need” (WIN) time structure. This brilliantly designed system allows for:
- Targeted 30-minute intervention blocks
- PBL experiences for students who previously couldn’t access enrichment
- Collaboration between specialist teachers and classroom teachers
- Regular six-week cycles with culminating experiences
Before implementing WIN time, Kyle’s enrichment program could only serve a limited number of academically talented students through a traditional pull-out model. Now, they’re reaching hundreds more students with engaging PBL experiences.
As Kyle shares: “There are so many kids who I saw either as second graders or third graders who were just short of that qualification mark who are now part of these win time groups where we’re doing PBL and PBL-adjacent work…and just like we suspected they would, they’re thriving.”
Some of Kyle’s work sounds complicated, but we can all learn from the intentionality of the work.
The PBL Payoff: Seeing Students Light Up
The power of this approach became evident during a recent forensic science unit culmination. After weeks of learning experiences with community partners from relevant fields, the sixth-grade students participated in a crime scene investigation day:
“We served over 200 kids at a time… By a factor of 10, we multiplied our impact… All the kids in sixth grade—not even excluding some of those kids that receive resource services or have cognitive impairments or are multilingual learners. Every student was included in that… And these investigative teams handled it beautifully. It was one of those shiny moments.”
Overcoming the Challenges: Real Talk About Implementation
Despite his enthusiasm, Kyle openly discusses the challenges of implementing PBL in a time-constrained environment. His biggest struggle? Fitting in proper need-to-know protocols when working with students in 30-minute blocks.
During the podcast, Ryan suggested/coached/wondered:
- Use post-it notes for students to record questions during entry events
- Create a designated “need-to-know wall” near classroom doors
- Use color-coding to categorize different types of questions
- Make question-asking playful and accessible
Kyle plans to implement these ideas, demonstrating the iterative nature of PBL implementation. Even veteran educators continue learning and adapting their practice.
Keeping It Real: Setting Realistic Expectations
When asked what advice he would give to others launching new initiatives, Kyle’s wisdom shines through:
“Hold yourself to a realistic standard… To say with this much new, it’s going to be a learning year again, too. So reign in that expectation of ‘we’re going to do this all and we’re going to do it perfectly.’ We can do it all, and we’ve done a lot, but it won’t be perfect, and we’ll learn from that just like our students are.”
This growth mindset extends to how teachers support each other through challenges:
“You have to find people who you know are going through a struggle and just give them some cheer… I see you, you’re showing up, I care about what you were able to do today.”
The Future Is Bright: Reasons for Optimism
Despite the challenges in education today, Kyle remains optimistic about the future. What gives him hope?
“We’re still willing to make space for things that are uncomfortable for us,” he explains, citing artificial intelligence as an example. “There’s that mindset about all these new things that we’re constantly bombarded with… We’re not teachers and students, but we’re learners. We’re all learning together and from one another.”
Your PBL Journey Starts Now
Kyle’s parting advice for educators starting out on their PBL journey:
“You have to start… You can’t get into that paralysis point of ‘this won’t be perfect.’ Just have to start. If not for yourself, then to give other people some confidence that they can do new and difficult things too.”
What will your first step be? Perhaps it’s creating a need-to-know wall in your classroom, reaching out to a potential community partner, or simply gathering resources to help you design your first PBL.
Remember that every PBL journey begins with a single step. You don’t have to transform your entire practice overnight. Start small, reflect often, and keep moving forward.
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What excites you most about bringing PBL to your classroom? What challenges do you anticipate, and how might you overcome them? Your PBL journey awaits—take that first step today!
This blog post was inspired by Episode 8 of the PBL Simplified for Teachers podcast featuring Kyle Anderson, coordinator and teacher of the third and fourth-grade IMAGE program serving academically talented learners in the Granville Public Schools in Michigan.