As teachers of exceptional learners facilitate learning in a Project Based Learning culture, there is continuous opportunity for reflection around instruction. Not a coaching session goes by without me hearing the following: “How much are they really getting?” “Are they grasping the content and concepts?” Is inquiry truly a path they can follow?” “Am I breaking it down enough?” We also ask questions about our students who express themselves differently. We look into their eyes and we listen as they tap out responses, wondering how we might give Voice and Choice where there is none.

As those questions fill our reflective space, my role as a coach is to invite these teachers to cull some data, and to place themselves in a proverbial balcony where they might look down on the classroom during a PBL experience. When asked to do this recently, Kristen, a speech therapist working with high school students with disabilities, recalled a time they were baking cookies to feed the homeless as part of their current project, “Feeding the Hungry.”