In the spring of 2018, we revamped the way that we ran our Library Media Studies course; we embraced formative assessments, began using 4C's digital portfolios for summative assessments and a final exam, and turned our PBL into an actual student-run Literacy Week complete with research, collaboration, creation, and student ownership. We could not have been happier with the changes we made. Our students are acknowledging their learning in an internship-style environment that has freed us up to co-teach with more teachers, helped us become better teacher leaders in tune with the latest educational practices and technologies, and created an elective that is truly valuable for soft skills, literacy, and research. We currently run two different PBLs, one for the spring that focuses on literacy and one that focuses on computer science.

Our students were involved from start to finish in this semester -long PBL which became a week long event called "I Like Big Books." We began with teacher-gathered research, moved into learning how to find their own research, collaborative brainstorming and planning, and then actually enacting their ideas to promote literacy at KHSCD. We were able to differentiate instruction to play to the strengths of our LMS students, so that each student had some part, some ownership in this program. Although it was difficult to let go of the control and to plan far enough in advance for the messiness of student leaders, this has forever changed the way we will run our PBLs for our classes.

This semester-long PBL resulted in our Library Media Studies students running Computer Science Week activities. They started with research and collaborative brainstorming before developing computer science-related activities. After collaborative planning sessions with the WCPSS Digital Learning Coordinators, students decided to facilitate their activities in classrooms at our high school. We also took a field trip to run these activities with fourth-graders at Wendell Elementary School and eighth-graders at East Wake Middle School. LMS students created and ran a Sphero playground in the Learning Commons, and they also helped put together and attend a Geek$lam at the end of the week, which was a high-energy career fair with professionals in computer science and technology fields. While the process was messy, students had a chance to step into leadership roles and really took ownership of their project.