Three years ago, I stood in a high-tech lab at a technical university and stared at the giant flat screen monitor. The professor asked me, “Can you tell me which of these samples was generated via Artificial Intelligence?” At the top, a student had asked…
When we think of choice-based reading, we often imagine silent reading with novels. However, we can take a student-centered, choice-based approach to non-fiction as well. In this article, we explore nine different areas of student empowerment within informational text reading. Listen to the Podcast If…
This is the first article I’m doing in a summer series on Empowering Readers. If you want to take a deeper dive into the topic, I also have the Empowered Readers self-paced course that I co-created with literacy expert Bonnie Hamer. It officially launches today….
The future is unpredictable. We know that. So, when we try to design learning experiences that “prepare students for the future,” we have to recognize that we don’t always know what they’ll need. In this article, I explore the counterintuitive reality that the best way…
When I was in middle school, one of my teachers called the entire class up to the front of the room. He held up a shiny golden disc in wild excitement. “This will change education forever,” he said, eyes gleaming. “Someday, you’ll be able to…
We’ve all been there before. You’re working with a few other people and everything just seems to click. It might be on a ballfield or court. Or it might be in a jam session or a rehearsal for live theater. If you’re lucky, it might…
Student ownership sounds like a great idea but what about the standards? How do we teach all of the standards while also empowering students with voice and choice? How do we accomplish this when we have a curriculum map? Rethinking the Curriculum Map It…
Six years ago, I led my first PBL workshop for a group of high school teachers. It was the summer after my tenth year in the classroom and I felt fairly confident that I could facilitate a whole day of professional development. I knew, for…
This article is part of a longer series on design thinking, a flexible framework for empathy-driven creative work. The Power of Prototyping A few days ago, I got the opportunity to do a keynote in Boyertown, Pennsylvania. One of my highlights was the student display area,…
It’s easy to pit creativity and consumption against each other. However, critical consuming is vital for creative work. When you engage in critical consuming, you become more inspired and ultimately, you will create better content. Listen to the Podcast If you enjoy this blog but…
