“I never allow myself to have an opinion on anything that I don’t know the other side’s argument better than they do.” — Charlie Munger It was early on in my…
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Be more chef. It is a mantra I’ve adopted and taken to heart these past few months as my brother lay in a hospital, seemingly impacting the world more from…
When John and I wrote LAUNCH, one of our main driving beliefs was around the fact that all kids are naturally creative. We started the book with this short manifesto…
Joanne’s mother had died a few years earlier, and now she was a single parent (recently divorced) with no job, living off welfare benefits so she could provide for her…
Today I turn 35 years old. And I couldn’t be more excited than I am right now to share my new book, The PBL Playbook. Over the past few years I’ve…
Teaching is not always easy. And learning can be a struggle for many of our students. As educators, we are called to this back and forth process of teaching and…
I want to tell you a story. During the mid 19th century the city of Chicago was in crisis. The elevation of the growing metropolis was not much higher than…
“What I know for sure is that you feel real joy in direct proportion to how connected you are to living your truth.” Oprah Winfrey As a new teacher, I…
My good friend (and co-author) John Spencer, shared this on Twitter a few days ago: Teaching is an exhausting gig. It’s okay to take a break in the summer. Read…
The LAUNCH Academy: A Design Thinking Institute We still have a few more spots available for this summer’s live two-day design thinking institute in Philadelphia, PA (down on UPenn campus)!…
If you haven’t heard of Genius Hour or 20% time in the classroom, the premise is simple: Give your students 20% of their class time (or an hour each week) to learn…
As a student I couldn’t even guess what my teachers were doing when they weren’t teaching. Mostly because I did not care enough to pay attention. Sure, I knew the impact…
Last year over 60,000 students from 600+ schools, in over 12 countries and four different continents participated in our second annual Global Day of Design. The hashtag went viral as students and…
Three of my favorite Project-Based Learning experiences took shape in completely different ways and circumstances. My students and I created “Project: Global Inform” together, after tweaking the original assignment. My students…
I’m sharing out my process below for writing my new book, The PBL Playbook: A Guide to ACTUALLY Doing Project-Based Learning. I used design thinking as a framework to write the book…
It seems after all this research I’ve done on the current state of education and all the reading I’ve done on the future of learning, that one piece of information keeps…
Coming into student teaching I was really confident about my lesson planning abilities. I was a bit worried about classroom management, designing assessments, and handling the demands of a first-year teacher…but…
I was worried the first time I tried a project-based learning unit with my students. As a young teacher, I had prided myself on running a challenging class and had focused…
You’ve read the blog posts, tweets, and articles. Maybe you’ve even attended some conferences or seen someone speak live. They say, “Project-based learning changed my role as a teacher. I…
The preference for our society, if we really want to be effective, is to teach so that they learn, not merely present curriculum and document deficiencies or meeting standards or…
Both of my sons love playing soccer. I grew up watching football and only played soccer very briefly (at the youth level) before going all in on American football throughout…
How do you move from “pockets of innovation” to a “culture of innovation”? How do we move from “engagement” to “empowerment”? What does innovation mean for education, and how do…
The most successful teaching begins, therefore, with clarity about desired learning outcomes and about the evidence that will show that learning has occurred. Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, The Understanding by…
Note: This is the third post in a series focused on practical ways to do PBL in every subject and grade level. Read the first and second here. It was…
In our last post, we dove into a three-step system to get students to do the talking. Getting them to open up and do the majority of talking (and learning)…
I remember the first time I heard the phrase “student-centered classroom” and I almost chuckled. I had always believed my classroom was about the students, they were the reason we…
I sensed the anticipation as soon as I entered the classroom. Groups of students were huddled together flipping through notes and documentation. A few were going back and forth about…
Ahh, IKEA. If you are anything like me, you probably have a love/hate relationship with IKEA. I love walking through their store, putting our kids in childcare, and seeing all…
Each year after holiday break I told my students their writing would change forever. It was simple statement, but most of them did not take it seriously. What ensued was…
Three different schools, in three different states, in a matter of two weeks. I got the same question. “How can I use Flipgrid in my class?” “Have you tried this…
A year ago at this time I had the idea for a different type of learning experience after listening to Seth Godin talk about his AltMBA program. Seth said that…
Let’s be honest. Being a teacher and school leader can be overwhelming. There is so much to do (not enough time), so much to learn (where do we even start),…
“We are a school on an audacious mission. And our ‘why’ drives the teaching and learning here at Mount Vernon Presbyterian School (MVPS),” said Bo Adams in a recent interview…
I remember doing podcast projects with my students almost 10 years ago. They seemed to be all the rage at the time, and I jumped on board as a teacher…
I had dreams. I had goals. I think we all do. But the same thing kept happening to me. Big idea, after big idea…new goal, after new goal. I didn’t…
“Science, by its own definition, doesn’t give us meaning. It just provides us with facts . . . Our lives gain meaning only when we tell our story.”—David Steindl-Rast A…
“Our job, sometimes, is simply to be the spark, help build confidence, and then get out of the way. If innovation in any school is solely dependent upon one person,…
Ahh, summer is coming to an end. For some of us, school has already started, for others, we still have a few weeks left before the doors flood open with…
I remember thinking about doing Genius Hour (or as I called it a 20% time project) in my class for the first time. It was a bit scary. It was…
It was towards the middle of my first year teaching (8th grade) when it hit me: My class was spinning out of control, and it was all my fault. I…
A few years ago, during the school year, my students and I had a similar problem: There wasn’t an opportunity for me to find out what they really enjoyed doing,…
“Yea, but what does it look like?” This is the question I hear and see most frequently online and at conferences when someone mentions the phrase empower students. As someone who…
Having a blog can be like standing in a packed street corner with a megaphone. You can be as loud as you want to be…but usually everyone is too busy…
Daniel Coyle, the author of The Talent Code, recently looked at a study on feedback from teachers. This study showed that one simple phrase could boost student effort by 40%. I was shocked…
I get to visit a lot of schools around the country, and I’ll admit that when I see signs like the one below, I often cringe. It’s not the sign’s fault,…
In his book, The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg describes keystone habits as,“small changes or habits that people introduce into their routines that unintentionally carry over into other aspects of…
I often get asked about the steps for running a Genius Hour Project or a 20% Time project in your class. I tend to give the same answer every time:…
Sir Ken Robinson, author of The Element, has famously said: “Whether or not you discover your talents and passions is partly a matter of opportunity. If you’ve never been sailing,…
Many teachers have done the spaghetti and marshmallow challenge in the classroom and called it a STEM project. It’s a great activity, but is it really a STEM activity? Sure there’s…
Eat your heart out, Rembrandt. pic.twitter.com/hN42zJ3NPJ — Harriett Gilbert (@HarriettSG) December 7, 2014 This photo went viral a few years ago, as people from around the world shared how it…
This is a guest-post written by a middle school teacher in my district, Annemarie Catalano. This year has been a big push to create a “maker culture” within our district….
My daughter is in 2nd grade. She loves learning (seriously, she comes home every day excited about Flat Stanley, moving to multiplication, a piece of art she made, or something…
I was talking with a teacher in my school district yesterday who said, “I just don’t know if we should try this again in class. It seems like lots of…
There is a scene in the film, “Most Likely to Succeed”, that struck me to the core. You see, for years I wanted to be the challenging teacher. I wanted…
Building a New Model Together Let’s stop fighting change. Instead, let’s build on the best practices we’ve developed over centuries as learners, and embrace next practices that reflect our world….
Let’s be honest. Being a teacher and school leader can be overwhelming. There is so much to do (not enough time), so much to learn (where do we even start),…
Blended learning. Personalized learning. Individualized learning. Mass customized learning. Differentiated learning. Online learning. It seems we are obsessed with adding adjectives in front of the noun, learning. While I have…
Last year over 40,000 students and 450 schools from 5 continents participated in the very first Global Day of Design. The hashtag went viral as students and teachers shared and…
How do you move from “pockets of innovation” to a “culture of innovation”? How do we start to innovate inside of the box? What does innovation mean for education, and…
In their book, Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization, Dave Logan, John King, and Halee Fischer-Wright, call groups of people (from 20-150) tribes. Their basic argument…
It’s 2017. Communication is changing fast (my 7-yr old daughter and I just exchanged Snaps while I am in Chicago and she is outside of Philadelphia in different time zones,…
On January 1st I posted a call to action on my blog about (you guessed it) blogging. It was as much a call-to-action for me as it was for anyone…
I’m someone who constantly uses new technology and tries out new tools to see what will work for me, and for my teachers. Yet, there are often times that I…
I distinctly remembering learning how to type. It was hard. I had been a hunt and peck perfectionist up until age 14 when my school provided a computer course focused…
A few years ago a colleague of mine shared a slide deck with me that completely transformed my perspective on leadership and building culture. I was new to a leadership…
Two weeks ago I launched the “30 days of blogging” challenge on this blog (you can read about it here). Almost 200 education bloggers signed up to share their blog,…
Hacking Project Based Learning: 10 Easy Steps to PBL and Inquiry in the Classroom Last year I had a teacher in my district come up and ask me if I…
When we look at what research says about becoming better at something, two pieces of evidence stand out. First, we must have clarity on what our goals are, and where…
The crowd roared. Everyone stood up and clapped with deep enthusiasm. I saw a couple in front of us crying. I looked at my wife and smiled wide. “Amazing,” she…
Blogging can be a lot of things. It can be reflecting, it can be sharing, it can be planning, it can be a how-to, it can be a call to…
1. Learning starts with attention. It’s almost impossible to learn if you aren’t paying attention. And whatever you are giving attention has the ability to turn into learning. 2. Attention…
A fresh start. Isn’t that what so many want in education? Whether you are a student, parent, teacher, administrator, or community member, we all have our opinions on what school…
Ahh, the day after Thanksgiving, and I’m seriously regretting that last piece of pie last night. But, I’ve got something today that’s been on my mind for a while. I…
As I work with students and teachers there is one common thread that the “stand-out” classrooms share: They take risks. Not only do these students and teachers take learning risks,…
A week ago at this time my family and I were packing our bags to head home from Disney World. As the kids played in the pool, my wife and I…
Raise your hand if you have spent over 14,000 hours in school during your lifetime. If you grew up in the Unites States, or a country with similar education philosophy,…
When I was in sixth grade we were tasked with one of my favorite school projects of all time. We were allowed to choose a book to read and then,…
I could hear my oldest daughter come rushing down the stairs last week as I arrived home from work. My two youngest pulled and gripped on me as I picked…
This is the most fun I’ve ever had reading a “professional” education book. I’m serious. Maybe you are just thinking about getting started with a makerspace at your school. Maybe…
Before I begin, let me make a very clear statement: I don’t believe that technology in our classrooms is a silver bullet. Adding technology cannot alone increase engagement, empower our…
You know what makes the internet awesome? You get to explore it. You get to use it for your own learning, making, communicating, collaborating, researching, and thinking purposes. When I…
My grandmom is wise. And at 91 years old, she’s still as curious as ever. Yesterday we were having a discussion about the work we are doing in my school…
This is the second in a 7-part series on the Future of Learning. You can read the first post here, and join the discussion on our Facebook page: The Future…
Have you heard of “The Innovator’s Mindset” MOOC, happening over a six week period? This awesome opportunity will begin on September 17, 2016 and finish at the end of October…
In the year 1820, a person could expect to live less than 35 years, 94% of the global population lived in extreme poverty, and less that 20% of the population…
You may have missed it along the way, but your class has a story. You might have been caught up in the everyday grind, or overwhelmed, or possibly just enjoying…
I’ve been writing a lot about Snapchat recently, as I’ve seen it take over my phone as one of the top apps I use to connect with my family and…
Have you ever met an adult who doesn’t really love what they do, but just goes through the motions in their job and everyday life? Have you spoken with men…
“Let me ask you a question,” she said. “Ok,” I offered back, not too sure where this was headed. “This whole Genius Hour and 20% project thing…isn’t that how we…
A few years ago a group of educators started talking about one of the biggest issues we continued to see in school after school, classroom after classroom: The classroom still…
I didn’t think I would have to write this post. But apparently someone needs to write it. This past week a highly acclaimed organization (NPR) put out a story where a…
It’s the morning of Edcamp Leadership, and all around the world educational leaders will be learning from each other, sharing ideas, and talking about how to better their schools, classrooms,…
For some of my friends, it seems so simple. They can go to work, hang out with their family, spend time with their friends on the weekends, have a vacation…
Lately, I’ve been obsessing over the future of learning. That has included a lot of research and time spent analyzing trends in technology, especially those that will impact the education…
Note: The 40-hour teacher workweek club has been massively successful in the past few months. Angela Watson (the creator) is holding one last webinar before the club closes on July…
I failed a lot this year (you can read about them all here in my failure report), but also had some amazing successes with teachers and students at our school….
My first game ever as a head football coach had us losing 13-6 with one quarter to play in the game. My team was young, but extremely talented. I realized…
Our new book, LAUNCH: Using Design Thinking to Boost Creativity and Bring Out the Maker in Every Student, has been out for almost a month now and the response has…
Why are you using technology? Or more importantly, how are you using technology to better the learning in your classroom and/or school? If you are like me, then you’ve had…
