James Clear recently shared this and I immediately started to think about our current situation. How many of us have been spending time in Zone 3 this past year? How…
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In the 15 years since diving headfirst into Project-Based Learning (PBL), I’ve connected with amazing educators doing some type of project-based learning and/or inquiry-based learning (whether it be Genius Hour, 20% Time, or any…
My first full year of teaching was as an eighth-grade language arts teacher. It was my dream job at the time. I loved the energy of middle school students, and…
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…
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…
To be honest, I was lost. Elementary teaching was something so new to me when I took a job as a Technology Staff Developer. I taught middle school. I taught…
“Everything begins with an idea.” – Earl Nightengale When I started on my Project-Based Learning journey, I always wondered what other teachers were already doing with PBL in classrooms around the…
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…
“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…
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…
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…
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…
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 fourth post in a series on Project Based Learning. You can check out all of the other posts here. My first full year of teaching was…
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…
People talk about Project-Based Learning all the time. I’ve heard WHY we should do it hundreds of times, but often we miss out on the HOW to do it. In…
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…
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…
“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…
“Is this real, Mr. J?” The question came from the back of the room. Todd rarely spoke up in class, but today he seemed visibly upset. “Yes, it is real….
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….
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…
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….
In the 14th century, the term “genius” was regarded as a guardian spirit. Yet a person with “unworldly” talent was said to have a genius, because his/her gift (of genius) being a supernatural act. No one…
