Using project-based learning to develop relationships and establish relevance. Project-Based Learning (PBL) has changed my life, but the changes I have seen in young people is the reason I am spreading the love. Skyler was the student that you knew was able to succeed academically and pass tests, but chose not to. We would get
Teaching
A framework for co-developing projects with teachers and students. Ask a middle school teacher to explain why student-centered projects are a logical choice for young adolescents and you are bound to hear about the numerous ways in which these projects provide students with opportunities to actively participate and voice ideas and in so doing, increase
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Practical strategies to organize your mind, your life, and your workspace. The three-legged stool embodies stability and simplicity. In the busy world of middle-level education, our time is finite yet the demands on it seem unlimited. Technology places countless resources at our fingertips, sometimes in overwhelmingly large numbers. Three simple tools can give you the
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Encouraging student thinking and writing with opportunities for movement. Almost all students will experience writer’s block at one time or another. Helping them work through this common experience with the use of physical activity may add success to the writing process for all students. There are several reasons why students encounter writer’s block, and it
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Effective ways to enhance reading and writing experiences. Recently, I was teaching a language arts class in Logan, West Virginia. The objective of the lesson was to analyze the impact of tradition on human behavior using narrative text. Sounds really dull, doesn’t it? It could have been, had I not used engaging strategies to facilitate
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Move the desks out of the way, pull up a piece of rug, and invent something using the engineering process and leftover parts. Just like anything else, the Internet provides a plethora of ideas to define and design “makerspaces.” Other names include fablabs, hackerspaces, and design labs. In our school, our students devise problems when
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