Activate Your Hallways!
[…] Creative As You Activate Your Hallways To be clear, there’s no one right way to activate a hallway, but creating seating options and workstations is always a good way to incentivize usage. At the same time, considering how the walls are used can serve to spark creativity and interaction. Through the use of writable […]
Timetable Absurdity
[…] experience deciding how to learn, where to learn, and when to learn, because schools account for every minute. Schooling is predicated on the perception that busyness is good. Treadmill schedules leave little time for deep learning, quietude, or human connections. What does our allocation of time say about what we value in the teaching and learning […]
How Systems and States Can Encourage Better Project-Based Learning
[…] regulate learning and behavior, and make skills more transferable to new contexts. Activities are easy, projects are hard it can be challenging to develop and support good projects. When I visited a “project-based” northern elementary school in January 2020, the fall project was paper snowflakes. Yes, the kids were engaged and there was […]
Getting to Yes: How to Spur Treatment for Mental Health
[…] you can hear the ambivalence and then, gently, support your child’s own inclination to change. By asking thoughtful questions, you can help your child arrive at a good decision all by themselves. For example, you might ask: “If you did decide to get help, what qualities would you look for in a therapist, given […]
Exploring New Pathways at the NVSIDE Conference
[…] connect and collaborate when not in the same classroom. Educators agreed that we all learned the importance of stretching ourselves, trying new, non-traditional methods, and finding what works for each student to open up new opportunities for them. These insights connect to the six pillars so well. I focused on the six pillars: unbundled […]
It is Time to Redefine Entrepreneurship, Focusing on the Skilled Trades
[…] Many nights as a family, we sit around the television and watch “Shark Tank.” To witness life-changing moments for people who have persevered has always made for good TV. Ingenuity and grit are at the core of the American dream, and the “Shark Tank” concept has been copied and adapted across college and school […]
Imitation Is Inspiration: Copy-Paste Your Way to Success
[…] who at the beginning of his career was told he lacked talent later became the most eminent cardiothoracic surgeon in the world. This was his response: I worked and worked and worked at refining the craft. And then I changed the way I did things over time. I went and watched other people do […]
North Star Goal: Every Learner on a Personalized Pathway
[…] vision of this coalition is to have “every high school student in Massachusetts on a personalized learner pathway and have opportunities to earn college credit, participate in work-based learning, attain industry-recognized credentials, and receive dedicated career counseling. Every public high school will offer multiple structured pathway options that are aligned with valuable postsecondary degrees, […]
Three Keys to Making Game-Based Learning Student-Centered
[…] curriculum. Some fit easily into existing teaching practices and have seen widespread adoption, including platforms like Kahoot! and various gamified curriculum solutions. Others are more immersive and work best in an inquiry-based context. For example, Hey Listen Games positions video games as classroom texts, with companion lessons that get students to analyze the game experience and […]
Human-Centered Learning May Be Missing the Point
Thanks to the rise in human-centered tools: frame works, mindsets, marketing, etc. the term has really caught hold of the education space. While it is movement in the right direction (centering students, stories and compassion), it might be time to re-evaluate whether or not it is taking us where we really want to be. For […]
