PBL Should Not be Done in A Vacuum
http://tinyurl.com/d78n7jw One of the most important skills students learn in PBL is collaboration. It only follows that PBL teachers work best when they collaborate with their fellow teachers; with their friends; with their family; with social media friends; or with their students. Each phase of the project planning works best with a partner. For example, […]
Problem Statements and Driving Questions, Oh My…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/momboleum/ This week I was able to overhear and then take part in (for a few moments) a discussion on Problem Statements and Driving Questions and what they look like at various levels of educational maturation. I love my job and I love having smart PBL people like Chrysta, Claudia, and Ashley to […]
Getting My Head Around Design Thinking
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cowgummy/ As someone who has been teaching “at the tip of the spear” for the last four years, in a PBL school that is considered innovative by conservative education standards, I know that telling people that I feel that I am still teaching in the past will make people shake their heads. In 1992, I […]
What if Education Were Like Golf?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chasemcalpine/ Watching the PGA Championship I started thinking about how we expect every student to be the best at everything. If they aren’t making “straight A’s” then we, as parents and teachers, have let them down. But what about golfers? Do they get straight A’s in every facet of their game? Let’s just look at the […]
Getting Students to do Deeper Analysis
http://www.sil.si.edu/digitalcollections/hst/scientific-identity/intro.htm When I attended the New Tech Network’s Annual Conference (NTAC12) I knew which facilitators I wanted to see. One of the best in our network just happens to have been our school’s NTN Coach for the previous 5 years – Kevin Gant. Kevin is a great guy, a pleasure to work with, and a […]
New Tech Conference Grand Rapids 2012: A Survival Guide
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ghostofgoldwater/ As we get ready to attend the annual New Tech Conference in Grand Rapids (NTAC 2012). Here are some tips to get ready for the conference and some of my favorite things to do in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This is an update to my New Tech Conference Planning Guide […]
That Left Out Feeling
http://www.flickr.com/photos/letsbook/ Ah, summer. That time when teachers pack up their classrooms and move to the pool or the beach. They are out there hiking, fly fishing, and sailing. Isn’t it great only working about 40 weeks of the year! That’s 12 weeks of kicking back and doing nothing. If only that […]
NST12 Wrap UP
http://www.flickr.com/photos/darkmere/ Whenever you can attend a conference or training and feel exhausted ( not from drinking too much but ) from thinking too much then you have gotten your monies worth. An obvious conference for me is Educon where you spend the day discussing educational topics. The problem is that these conversations can […]
How Do You Create a School (Part 2 of 2)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/terekhova/ (Part 2 of 2) As I said in the first part, what we want the new school to be doesn’t exist and the teachers, administrators, and I have the chance to mold the school in whatever fashion we desire. And, I am a teacher who has been trained by the New Tech […]
How Do You Create a School? (Part 1 of 2)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/adrenalin/ (Part 1 of 2) The first question that hit me when I said I wanted this job was how do we transform an existing school, Decker Middle School in Manor Tx, from what it is to what it will become? I mean the school building is there. There […]