Giving a voice to teacher-leaders, administrators, and students doing amazing things
Design ideas for more meaningful, authentic, and rigorous challenges.
From Allison: Authenticity is powerful when it is thoughtfully combined and connected. This is the story of West Windsor Plainsboro, New Jersey’s focus on measuring what matters according to their mission statement by providing an annual opportunity for 8th grade Read More …
This blog was originally posted on spencerauthor.com. To hear more from John Spencer, you can also listen to his podcast, The Creative Classroom with John Spencer. I’m not a fan of group work. I have vivid memories of doing “team Read More …
The creative collaboration demonstrated by a group of high school students in Madison, Conn. is so powerful … by design. High school teacher Luke Arsenault created an opportunity in his Intro to Video course for students to tackle conveying metaphorical Read More …
The key to teaching for understanding is to foster ongoing inquiry into important “big ideas.” A natural way to actively engage students in such inquiry is to use a few Essential Questions (EQs) to frame a curriculum unit. The explicit Read More …
One of the seven elements of personalized learning we describe in our book Students at the Center: Personalized Learning With Habits of Mind is a Cumulative Demonstration of Learning. As designers, we ask the question–– how do we create opportunities Read More …
Originally posted on RelevantED and reprinted with permission. Reflection is an integral part of Personalized Mastery Learning. In this reflection by Aveson 4th grader, Ava Strauss, we see a deep dive into the student’s understanding of her learning, her challenges Read More …
In one of my first blogs, I discussed the importance of making learning connect and impact the real world. Looking back at it, I didn’t cite a good example of this that I have participated in. So I thought for Read More …
A collaborative effort from Blueprint’s Shannon Herzog, Kali Goings, Keely Vaughan, and Sarah Johnson. REFLECTION ON THE YEAR We knew what we wanted to do wouldn’t be easy. In fact, we knew that doing something this innovative would require the Read More …
My students, in addition to taking their AP US History exam on Friday, May 5, are also right in the midst of conducting their interviews. That means that I am going to be sitting down with my willing guinea pig, Read More …
Allison and I met back in the winter to determine how to start my oral history project, and I expressed to her that I was unsure how to begin instructing my students in the process. Students would need to know Read More …