possible options on areas such as how to demonstrate one’s learning,

Many teachers are often creating menus of options for students. Not only do choices and options work to create student buy-in, they simultaneously are having more personalized experiences.  Higher forms of learning are predicated on the learner owning larger aspects of the learning itself.

Personalized learning is an educational approach that aims to customize learning for each student based on their respective interests, strengths, needs, skills, abilities, background and experiences. To go further, it’s also an effort to involve the learner in their own education.

In Project Based Learning, teachers make learning come alive for students. Students work on a project over an extended period of time – from a week up to a semester – that engages them in solving a real-world problem or answering a complex question. They demonstrate their knowledge and skills by developing a public product or presentation for a real audience. As a result, students develop deep content knowledge as well as critical thinking, creativity, and communication skills in the context of doing an authentic, meaningful project. Project Based Learning unleashes a contagious, creative energy among students and teachers.

Are we following their agenda or ours?”

I saw the signs of condescension in the audience and didn’t realize that my students could see them too.

Being a grown-up myself, I had forgotten the importance of preparing my students for interactions in an adult world. I should have told them, “Most adults will think you are cute. You will exceed most adults’ expectations. And this will look like smiling, laughing, clapping, and hugging.”

Teachers Pay Teachers is an online marketplace where teachers buy and sell original educational materials.

Kahoot! makes it easy to create, share and play fun learning games or trivia quizzes in minutes.

Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively — essential skills for life in the 21st century.

ClassDojo connects teachers with students and parents to build amazing classroom communities×Close×Close

Some teachers will adopt technology quickly, and others will need more time.

New digital tools can help you engage students at all levels, activate multiple learning styles, and provide exciting, memorable activities. And let's face it: your students are glued to their devices all the time anyway, so you might as well take advantage of their love of tech and get them learning.

Good teachers have an upbeat mood, a sense of vitality and energy, and see past momentary setbacks to the end goal. Positivity breeds creativity.

“It’s an absolutely amazing time to be a learner.”

intense commitment to persevere through the process of redesigning the school experience for kids.

Beginning a new recycling program, or invigorating an old one, can reduce waste by up to one-third.

There is something magical about watching our youngest students engaging in deep critical thinking and discussion, reflecting on their work’s strengths and areas for improvement, and critiquing, revising, and producing high quality products.

In project based learning, you be comfortable veering off the path that you had initially envisioned from time to time. Your students are taking the lead, and that is a beautiful thing!

This makes the children go out on their own and learn on their own, giving them a better understanding of the topic.

Connecting academic situations to the real world is one of the largest benefits of project based learning.

Supplement outdated science textbooks with our environmentally focused resources. These activities and guides will encourage your students to live a "greener" lifestyle, at home and at school.

Recycling is important to preserve the environment and to leave the planet in a better condition than we found it.

Recycling programs are thriving in places like Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia where rates of recycling are on the rise.

Teaching kids about recycling can be one of the best ways to engage them in learning about conserving the earth's resources.

It’s easy to make recycling in your classroom a daily activity. Try implementing a few of these recycling activities into your regular routine, and before you know it, recycling will be second nature to your students.

So what do we do to help our students be more prepared, creative, and yes, competitive, in the real world?  

Students gain a greater awareness of their community and the needs that exist, engage in experiential learning, solve real world problems, and learn what it means to live in a democratic society by actively participating in the government and community.

They may also feel uncomfortable working in groups and depending upon other students for their grade in the course. Some student groups can be dysfunctional.

The most impactful actions are often the personal actions and choices that students, their classmates and their families make in their daily lives.  In this section, students examine common materials and how they are disposed, and learn how to control sources of debris in the schoolyard or home that could end up in the ocean.

Instead of standards, what if we were to start curriculum development by leading with questions around a subject of focus? The object or idea itself should somehow capture students’ interests and cause them to become curious.

“Honestly, I really enjoyed this project. It was really fun, I learned a lot and got in a lot more reading than I’d normally read in that amount of time. I had fun making the video and the whole project was not very stressful as long as I stayed on top of my work. In the past, we’ve had projects that were very stressful with not much content being learned. This project directly contrasts to those types of projects. We learned a lot and weren’t stressed as opposed to learning very little while being stressed for no reason.

PBL project in action. The “Tiny House Project” features teacher Cheryl Bautista of Katherine Smith Elementary School, San Jose, CA and her third graders. 

Many teachers integrate art in Project Based Learning when developing public products.

Our resident PBL and the Arts expert, Brianne Gidcumb, has shared a wealth of resources and ideas for integrating project-based learning and the arts over the past several years.  

Johnny Devine: My students learn the physics better when they're acting as though they are true physicists.

The team is broken down into four groups, each with developers, text writers, sound experts and 3-D modelers. They fashion scenes that represent the vision Joyce expressed in his writing, per the project’s website.

Students in the English department at Boston College are transforming novels into reality — virtual reality. They are working to transform James Joyce’s “Ulysses” into a virtual reality gaming experience, and what started last April as a proof-of-concept proposal has since grown to a 21-member multidisciplinary project, according to the Boston College website.