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oneSMFC
Superintendent Diego Ochoa bringing together teachers, students, administrators, community members. decision makers, to discuss the San Mateo-Foster City School District.
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Learning by Doing: Project-Based Learning at Lead Elementary, Soon to be Cottage Grove Elementary
In this episode of the One SMFC podcast, Superintendent Ochoa invites four students to share how they explore Project-Based Learning at Lead Elementary—soon to become Cottage Grove Elementary—and how this approach puts students at the center of their learning.
Project-Based Learning engages students in real-world projects that encourage curiosity, collaboration, and problem-solving. Students ask meaningful questions, work together, and apply what they’re learning in ways that feel relevant and purposeful.
As Lead Elementary transitions to Cottage Grove Elementary, this episode highlights how Project-Based Learning is already empowering students to think critically, create confidently, and see themselves as active learners in their school community.
Interested in learning more? Check out our recent On the Road to Year 3 Annual Report!
Sometimes we would do um partners, sometimes not. The second unit we did partners because it was very difficult to do it by myself. At first I didn't really want a partner, but then as I started going, I see I saw that it was harder to do without a partner.
SPEAKER_01:Number one thing I learned from PBL was working with my group. I learned a lot about the practices of the sustainability practices of the loony. I learned a lot about the tracks, so it was fun, but I also learned the PBL is actually about helping others. It's about working with other people, listening to ideas of them, not just choice ideas.
SPEAKER_03:So kids learn new stuff, and we even learn new stuff, and people should know about our poor little project.
SPEAKER_00:The PBL helps us learn how to work together.
SPEAKER_05:Alright, well, ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for joining me again. It's actually been a really, really long time since I recorded a podcast. I think probably the biggest reason we took such a long hiatus was we needed to feel inspired. We needed to have a really, really important topic. And today's topic definitely matches that criteria. And we're here to talk to four students from Lead, soon-to-be Cottage Grove Elementary School, all about what it means to do project-based learning. So I'm gonna let everybody introduce themselves right now. Tell us your name and tell us what grade you're in, starting with you.
SPEAKER_03:Hi, I'm Anthony. I'm from fifth grade. Hi, I'm Angel and I'm from fifth grade. Hi, I'm Luna, and I'm fifth grade.
SPEAKER_05:Okay, so earlier this week I visited uh Leeds, Soon to Be Cottage Grove Elementary, and uh there was a big old spectacle inside the new multi-purpose room. When I walked in, I saw probably about 50 posters, and I saw kids with computers, I saw people listening to podcasts on their headsets, and I saw a lot of excited students, all four of you were there. And I want to start with I'll start with you, Anthony. When I walked in, I saw a big event. Help people who weren't there that day understand what students at Leeds Soon to be Cottage Grove were doing in the MPR that day. What was that?
SPEAKER_01:Well, we did um our podcast from the Loney. Like we studied everybody study studied a different tribe. So our teacher made us make a big trifle to represent what the loany were, what they ate, how their houses were. So it was complicated at first because we didn't know nothing about them. Like um, we didn't know how they were, we didn't know their food they ate, we didn't know where they lived. But after a long time of study, we learned a lot about the loony. The they lived in adobe houses. They live right now in the they used to live in the San Francisco Bay Area, but the parents like didn't know nothing about the loony or about any tribe. So it was complicated for them to understand. Like I told my mom, oh we're doing about the loony, but she then she told me what's the loany. And you're like, oh I explained that was a native tribe that lived uh like a long time ago before like us were born. So the it was different back then. That's how I told her. I told the little kids like oh, like mm, I told them, oh, we're learning about the loony in their history.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, and I saw the school brought different classrooms and to learn from you all. Did that make you feel excited? Did you feel a little bit nervous? Because you all were presenting to the students and you had cue cards in front of you. Was that difficult for you?
SPEAKER_03:Um, maybe a little bit. It was like I was like nervous, but we got used to it and or like we already knew what to do. When the little kids came, me and Anthony were a little bit nervous, but but then Anthony was like, I'm not afraid of anything. And then it and he started talking to the kids, like showing them what the lonely trip was. I was a little bit nervous and I didn't say nothing until he gave me encourage and I started talking with him again.
SPEAKER_05:Did you feel like it was the kind of thing where if you can explain it to one person, it's kind of like you can explain it to a hundred people? Did it make you feel that way?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:I saw Luna, I went over and actually saw your trifold. Tell us about what that day felt like being with everybody in your class and having all the students in your school come in. And really, you guys were like the teachers that day. Did that is that what it felt like for you?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and I've always wanted to be a teacher when I grew up, so it was And you should be, because we're always hiring in San Mateo Fluster City. Well, it felt like we were the bosses, like for once. We w we got in control and we were allowed to just talk about the Aloney, the Navajo, or the Iroquois or the Chocta.
SPEAKER_05:There were a couple kids who did research on the Azteca Cesar. Um, there was just a lot of research that went into that. Was it difficult to do the research?
SPEAKER_02:It was so difficult. It was very hard to do. Um because we had to make an essay, then we had to type it, and then we also had to make a trifold and a podcast. So it was all very difficult.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. Were those things that you had done in the past?
SPEAKER_02:No. I've never done a podcast until I came to fifth grade. I've barely done essays a lot, but I've done paragraphs more.
SPEAKER_05:Part of what your teachers are trying to accomplish with project-based learning is really wanting to allow you to do things you've never done, to go beyond what you've done in the past. Natalia, you've been at LEED now um multiple years. Take me back to the beginning for you when project-based learning came out and your teachers were explaining what you were going to be doing. What did that sound like and what did that feel like at the time?
SPEAKER_00:Well, it sounded really confusing. I don't know. She sounded like a different language like that.
SPEAKER_05:Why was it so confusing?
SPEAKER_00:There are some words that I didn't understand, but there's other times where like there's explanations that it makes no sense to me.
SPEAKER_05:If I were to walk into your classrooms when PBL is starting, I'll stick with you, Natalia. When I walk in, tell me who your teacher is, first of all. Miss G, awesome teacher. So tell me. In Miss G's class, if I walk in when it's project-based learning time, what am I gonna see students doing in the classroom?
SPEAKER_00:Projects, but I'm not listening.
SPEAKER_05:I'm not listening. Are you keeping tabs on everybody? How about you, Anthony? Are you also in Miss G's class?
SPEAKER_01:I'm Miss Haley's class.
SPEAKER_05:Miss Haley's class. Tell me about Miss Haley's class during project-based learning time. What am I gonna see?
SPEAKER_01:Well, some not focused, some talking while the teacher's talking, but some are really like really focused, some understand better than others. Like maybe some have like words, big words that I can understand, but some other kids already under understand the word.
SPEAKER_05:And why does that stand out to you so much? Like the way kids are communicating. How do you how do you know that during project-based learning time?
SPEAKER_03:So everybody can understand what's going on.
SPEAKER_05:Well, let me ask it this way: when project-based learning time starts, are you sitting by yourself or are you working with a partner? Are you working with more than one partner? Let's start with you, Luna.
SPEAKER_02:Sometimes we would do um partners, sometimes not. This unit, number the second unit, we did partners because it was very difficult to do by myself. At first I didn't really want a partner, but then as I started going, I see I saw that it was harder to do without a partner. So and then I think the next unit we're having it's three per like three people per um per group. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, and last year, you all were in fourth grade last year, is that right? Did you do any of these project-based learning units in fourth grade?
SPEAKER_01:No.
SPEAKER_05:Tell me what school was like in fourth grade last year. How'd you spend your time?
SPEAKER_01:Well, we did a lot of assignments, like lots of math tests, lots of reading tests, like NWEA test. Um, our teacher would make us like write a whole essay or a paragraph about what we like, about our favorite movie, our favorite animal, whatever. But it was complicated because she only made us do work and like we didn't have fun. It was kinda boring for us because it was only like um we were gonna read almost until the end of the school, like end of uh of the classroom. So it was kinda boring because we didn't do nothing, we were just reading or doing a math or something, but it was kinda boring. And then we got to fifth grade and we started doing projects, so it got more fun, but fourth grade was kind of boring.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, Natalia, you're you're shaking your head a lot. Tell me what you think.
SPEAKER_00:I agree with him. I was in the same class. It was really boring. A lot of assignments, not a lot of fun projects in there.
SPEAKER_05:Really quiet. Class was quiet. A lot of this is what I want you to do. You have 20 minutes or 30 minutes to do it. Yeah. And then turn it into me at the end of it. Is that how is that what it looked like?
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, and you're doing that less now. So now that you're doing that for less time, what are you doing in class?
SPEAKER_02:What we're doing is like for this unit, we've mostly worked on PBL more than a lot of stuff, and it was actually really fun. We're also doing like the basis stuff like math, readings sometimes, going to library, art.
SPEAKER_05:What for you is the absolute best thing about PBL? And I'll start with you, Una, and we'll just go around the circle.
SPEAKER_02:The best thing about PBL, when you work together with your partner to have fun in PBL. My f that's my favorite thing because you get to work together to make fun projects and do fun stuff.
SPEAKER_03:Working in a group? Oh, adding a lot of details. If imagine we're doing the trifold again, we could add a lot of details. Like me and Anthony did, we added a lot of color. I saw other trifods like Luna's and Natalia's. They had very much color.
SPEAKER_04:How about you, Anthony?
SPEAKER_01:I like more of the field trips we have of the of PBL. Because I like them because we miss school. We don't do the boring stuff we do, so but we still learn the stuff we're gonna do. Like last time we went to to learn how to do a podcast, so that's how we knew how to do it now. So it got easier by going to that field trip to help us learn, but now we can like do a podcast like our our last unit. Hey, he's not wrong.
SPEAKER_04:How about you, Natalie?
SPEAKER_00:My favorite is good projects and field trips too, because they're really fun, probably better than fourth grade.
SPEAKER_05:Does the work that you do in PBL seem hard to do? Is it is it challenging work or is it easy work?
SPEAKER_03:Sometimes.
SPEAKER_01:The first and sometimes, yes. The first week is challenging, but after a week and week of study, it it gets easier. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:We got used to it.
SPEAKER_05:Could you imagine what it must feel like for a teacher when the teacher starts to give students a lot of freedom? Because in your class, not everybody did an assignment on the Ohlone, right?
SPEAKER_02:Like I did a Iroquois. That was my tribe. My tribe was about the Iroquois and where they live in the Northeast, which is now known as New York.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Even um Dakota. I don't know what else. I think it was South Dakota. I forgot.
SPEAKER_02:I thought it was Lakota.
SPEAKER_05:The Lakota tribe, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I think it was just like that.
SPEAKER_01:I thought it was South. Alone were the San Francisco Bay Area.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That's what it used to look to tell you.
SPEAKER_05:So so what do you think it feels like to your teacher when one student's learning about the Iroquois, others are learning about the Ohlone, others are learning about the Lakota. What do you see your teachers doing?
SPEAKER_03:Uh we see that, or she, or a teacher, sees that we're working on a project and if it's tough for us, she can say, Oh, mm, I'm gonna work with Miss Haley, like Miss J and Miss Haley. Let they talk about it and they say, Oh, let's make a little bit easier the project. Or if they um or if they if it's e like easy, they're the Miss Haley and she can say, Oh, let's do a little bit harder, a little bit challenging, so they can they can get used to it. And now when they're in when they're in college, university and everything, like anything like that, they don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_05:Anthony, what do you think? What do you see teachers doing when really everyone in the class is kind of doing something different at the same time?
SPEAKER_01:Well, our teacher, Miss Haley, looks stressful, but sometimes she gets um a little bit frustrated because some people do are doing the loany or doing the Urkai. Other people are doing different tribes. So not everybody is doing the same tribe, so it gets difficult and not it's not easy helping one student with something like the looney and another student with the Lakota or another another tribe. So she looks very stressful.
SPEAKER_04:Natalia, what do you think?
SPEAKER_00:She just makes us search search it up, that's how he does. Sometimes she um gets the other lessons ready.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, and the less this project that you all did, it wasn't just about learning about the lonely, because you had to record a podcast and you had to create a visual and you had to learn how to present what you basically all the research you did. So when did that happen?
SPEAKER_02:Well, we did is we finished it by working hard and staying focused. Because when you're not working hard, you you can't get stuff done as much. It was very stressful to me because there was a lot of noise and it's very annoying when there's a lot of noise in the classroom.
SPEAKER_04:So you like a quiet classroom. Yes.
SPEAKER_03:In our classroom, sometimes inside the classroom it's very loud. There's some kids who go outside out of the classroom and they work out there and they think it's more quiet. Like like more like more like Natalia too. She she works with her friends and the at the uh at the back of the classroom and they finish the work, it's like very quiet and there's nothing going wrong. It's like there's nothing going on.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. Anthony, the poster, the podcast, the presentation, when did you do all that work?
SPEAKER_01:Well, we learned our podcast, as I said, from the future that we had that they showed us how to make the few like make the podcast and how we should write it. They actually kinda helped us a lot. Well, we learned how to do the trifle from the last unit we did. We had a big one. It was I think bigger than this one that showed our identity. So that's how we learned how to do our like our trifold. It was easy, but also it's complicated.
SPEAKER_00:I agree.
SPEAKER_05:Natalia, when did you do all this work?
SPEAKER_00:Well, we did all this work during the unit. Like Anthony said, we did a trifle um the last unit, but it's much more smaller. We probably learned how to organize so it'll be easier for us to learn.
SPEAKER_05:Now that you've done two units, you did the unit that was on your identity, you did the unit that was on the tribe. Which do you like better? Was it more fun researching something new that you didn't know anything about at all? Or was it really fun to create a unit based on your identity and who you are?
SPEAKER_00:I think I really like the identity because I really know how to express myself.
SPEAKER_01:I agree. I like m I like more the identity with one because with the loony, I didn't know nothing about them. So I like more about the identity because I can express myself, like my culture and our people and our languages.
SPEAKER_03:I like it when we learn new stuff or research up stuff that we never we never learned about, we never heard about. And I agree, same as Anthony and Natalia. Uh I like both of them because on the front on the trial on the identity, I get to express myself just as Natalia, but I talk about myself, I talk what happens in my life, and on the other one, I like that. Um we know we we learn new stuff.
SPEAKER_05:Let me ask a question about the poster project and about the podcast, because what I walked around, everything looked different. One poster looked different than the next one, looked different than the next one. But you're also not working by yourselves. You were working with another person. Was it easy for you, Luna, to work with that other person and to make all those decisions? Or was that something you needed to get better at?
SPEAKER_02:I think I need to get better at that because back in my old school, I used to get bullied a lot. So when I moved to this school because because I s I wanted to I wanted it to stop. So I came here and it was way nicer. I just gotta get used to um working it out with others.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, and then how about you, Anthony? Was it easy for you to work with other people? Was that more difficult?
SPEAKER_01:It was hard working with Angel as a group. Like I disagree with him sometimes, sometimes he didn't even want it to help me because he got mad like of the ideas I got and the different ideas he got. Like he wanted to print everything out of the printer, but I but I did it, so he wanted to be like more fun, but I didn't. I wanted us like to just draw it out. But he wanted everything like printed out. So we both mm like work together so sometimes we printed something out about the looney, but sometimes we worked uh like drawing it.
SPEAKER_03:We um something like Anthony, but we shared ideas. At first Anthony's right, I was like, we should do this, and he said we should do that. But then we we saw that we that didn't get us to nothing. Cannot get nothing finished, was just saying that. So we both agreed that each one should express themselves or say like there was three parts, like one here in the middle, and the other one. He did the writing, I did the drawings, and I thanked him very much because basically um he did almost all the writing and he he's a good writer, he he likes learning new stuff and um I like I liked working with him and if we get another project I'll like working with him again.
SPEAKER_04:How about you, Natalia?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I had the same problem that me and my partner always disagreed with different things, like she wanted to draw it and I wanted to print it. But and we also were pretty opposite. I was good at writing and she always slacked off when it comes to writing. But we worked it out because I decided that we could draw it and she decided that I was gonna write.
SPEAKER_05:The presentation that you did, you know, you had these cards that were in front of you. But you had to stand there and read it to other people. Did you think that it was fun to stand there and be kinda like the spotlight on you and you talking to other people about what you knew? I'll start with you, Natalia.
SPEAKER_00:To me, no, because I s had like stage fright, but I kinda got over it. But I still get scared when peop all eyes are on me, so not really. I agree.
SPEAKER_04:Same for you, Angel. How about you, Luna?
SPEAKER_02:Um, it's very hard to do that because um, but for this one, I had no trouble with it. It's only when I sing I get nervous. But when I speak, I'm like fine.
SPEAKER_01:For me, it was challenging because almost every student was eyes on me. Like what if Angel was helping another person learning about it? But the rest of the kids were like their eyes were focused on me. Like I got nervous that they were looking just at me, like watching me like seriously. So it got I got scared at first, like nervous, but after that, um I got over it so it got easier and easier.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Something I am afraid of or like I don't like doing. Same as when I I don't I'm not comfortable comfortable of singing in front of everybody or talking.
SPEAKER_05:So you don't want to do karaoke with me?
unknown:No.
SPEAKER_03:I'll do it with you again because it's only one person, but if there's more than one. Or maybe like right now, I like it because we're working it and they're talking in a group, but more than this, I I don't I don't really I'm very shy.
SPEAKER_05:Anthony, what's the number one thing you've learned from PBL?
SPEAKER_01:Number one thing I learned from PBL was working with our group. I learned a a lot about the practices of the sustainability practices of the looney. I learned a lot about the tribe, so it was fun. But I also learned that PBL that PBL is actually about helping others. It's about working with other people, listening to ideas of them, not just yours ideas. So like that's for me, that was all.
SPEAKER_04:What's the number one thing you've learned from PBL?
SPEAKER_02:The number one thing that I've learned from PBL is that whatever comes to you really ho challenging and hard, you can always do it if you believe.
SPEAKER_05:We need to keep doing PBL because it gives students the opportunity to take charge in their learning. So what I want you to do is point the camera at Angel. He's gonna tell you why we need to keep doing PBL. Angel, go ahead.
SPEAKER_03:Kids learn new stuff and and we even learn new stuff and people should know about our pr little project, a little project that Mr. Ochoa created and he figured out what the district and I think a lot, Mr. Ochoa, for coming up with the idea of PBL.
SPEAKER_05:I got your teachers came up with everything and and you guys are doing it all. Luna, look in the camera. Tell Mr. Perez why do we need to keep doing project-based learning?
SPEAKER_02:Project-based learning is the one thing in the whole in probably the whole time you're at school to have fun and to just maybe express yourself or maybe just like look learn more things that you haven't learned.
SPEAKER_05:Natalia, you're up right into the camera, look straight into it. Tell them why should we keep doing project-based learning.
SPEAKER_00:We should keep learning doing project-based learning because we learn how to do teamwork and group projects. I like what Mr. Ochoa said before we did the podcast. Some middle schoolers didn't know how to work in a group. So the PBL helps us learn how to work together.
SPEAKER_05:Last one, Anthony, right into the camera. Tell this man why we should we keep doing project-based learning.
SPEAKER_01:We should do more PBL because it grows friendship between us. It can grow friendship. Um, we do fun projects with people. We don't we we're not bored like fourth grade. It's more funner and exciting than like what we used to do in fourth grade, so I think we should keep doing PBL.
SPEAKER_05:Alright, everybody, give yourselves a round of applause.