I used to think all I needed to create something that mattered was passion and I was wrong. It turns out passion/interest might start the engine and get the creative…
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When my students were doing the 20% Project (Genius Hour) in my class we had an “Epic Fail Board” (inspired by a number of people) where they would pin up…
Listen to the podcast here or check it out on iTunes or the Google Play store. I was recently listening to a speaker (George Couros) talk about Ryan Gosling in his presentation. I…
You know what continues to upset me in education? It’s not how we label kids (although that is pretty high up there on my big list). But, it is how kids…
I first met Angela Duckworth when our Student Innovation Lab kids toured her Character Lab facility down at the University of Pennsylvania campus. We weren’t sure she was going to…
I had the chance to interview New York Times bestselling author James Clear, for my new podcast, Scratch Your Itch. James is the author of Atomic Habits and has built…
When I started on this writing journey seven years ago, there were a couple of things I knew for sure. I wanted to share experiences through writing. Something different was…
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…
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…
As I sit here writing this my brother is on a respirator in a hospital room. He hasn’t been able to breathe completely on his own or wake up fully…
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…
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,…
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,…
“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…
Usually, when I write a blog post it is because I want to dig deeper into a topic and explore its merit. The post then becomes my way of explaining…
In 1915 Albert Einstein sent a letter to his son, Albert. Einstein was living with his second wife, and had not seen either of his two sons for quite some time….
