Subscribe to YouTube Channel Mike Kaechele offered some great pushback on my last post. Mike is a highly respected project-based learning teacher who often leads PBL trainings in his spare time. So, when he pushes back, I’m quick to listen. I wish I could play…
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I'm not a fan of group work. I have vivid memories of doing "team projects" where I completed various tasks while other members disappeared. As a classroom teacher, I preferred to plan alone, dreaming up projects and planning out units in isolation. I am comfortable in…
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When I taught middle school, I wanted my students to be curious. I wanted to see them tap into their own natural wonder and ask tons of questions. I wanted them to ask, "Why?" and "Why not?" I wanted them to question answers as…
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I still remember the day. I was in my first year of teaching and I sat there holding my printed lesson plan. This was supposed to be my greatest lesson of the school year. I had planned it for hours, revising various aspects of it…
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When I go home, I'm no longer a dad. I transform into a sidekick to the world's coolest superhero. I become a nurse to a stuffed animal surgeon. I get to help an architect and a builder in forts made from couch cushions. I become…
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When I was a kid, my brother and I built a "roller coaster" in the backyard with a wagon, some scraps of wood, and tons of pipes. Was it safe? Probably not. Did it ever work properly? Not really. But it didn't matter. We were…
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Toward the end of the year, I remember feeling absolutely exhausted as a teacher. Once the testing is over and the pressure is gone, there's this sense of relief. However, this was nothing compared to what my eighth graders experienced. You could see it in…
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Subscribe to YouTube Channel When you the word “creative,” you might think of a painter or a playwright or an author or a photographer or a filmmaker or a chef. In other words, you might think of people who make things. I think it’s…
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“We need kids to be creators, not consumers.” I’ve heard this statement so many times at conference and in Twitter chats and in blog posts. I get it. We want students to be creative. But is consumption actually a bad thing? See, every person I…
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The term "design thinking" is often attached to maker spaces and STEM labs. However, design thinking is bigger than STEM. It begins with the premise of tapping into student curiosity and allowing them to create, test and re-create until they eventually ship what they…
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