Excitement! Anxiety! Hope! These were just a few of the many emotions I felt when I stood in front of a high school classroom for the first time as the teacher. I was the one writing on the chalkboard and overhead projector. I was also the only one expected to design, plan, and teach every […]
project-based learning
Posted inOpinion
How Green Energy Can Transform Schools
It’s Time to Bring Education Infrastructure into the 21st Century Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! We were living in Houston in February 2021 when a string of disastrous winter weather hit. We watched as the entire state slowly shut down over the course of a […]
Posted inDo The Work
Stoicism and Project-Based Learning: How an Ancient Philosophy Changed my Teaching Methods
Brian Francis Smith is an educator, author, podcaster, husband, and father of two middle school-aged daughters. He is in his 19th year of teaching English at Cheltenham High School, a public school outside of Philadelphia. Brian is the author of two novels and has taught creative writing at the Philadelphia Writers’ Conference. He currently teaches […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Bringing Project Based Learning to our Classroom
Entering my twenty-third year of education I know there is more. I have been through basal reading, whole language, memorization of facts, conceptual mathematics, hands-on science and many teacher manuals more of “best practices”. The pendulum swings back and forth while teachers and students try to keep afoot and learn. So this year I have […]
Posted inAdult Learning
One Future of K-12 Education: From the Factory to a Personalized Model
From the Factory to a Personalized Model If you’re old enough, try to think back to the way teaching and learning was designed 40 or 50 years ago. The teacher was the “sage on the stage.” He or she had the subject information in their mind, and it was up to the teacher to make […]
Posted inTeacher Leaders
Project-Based Learning: A User’s Guide
Over the past several decades, trends in education have come and gone or been resurrected with a new name. “Group work” is now called “cooperative learning.” Teacher-centered learning in the form of lecture and discussion in secondary education has taken a back seat to student-centered learning where students have a greater voice in determining how […]
Posted inElectives & Special Areas
Black History Month and PBL: Ideas for Educators
As we enter February, 2018, schools across America will engage in activities celebrating Black History Month in the United States. There is a strong current in secondary education today where the goal is to move classroom activities away from teacher-centered activities toward “project-based learning” or PBL. This trend has specific criteria that ensure rigorous learning […]
Posted inClassroom Management, Featured, Instruction & Curriculum, Opinion
Choices: The Key to Differentiated Instruction
Students have choices. Choice is of the key elements on our new evaluation system, but sometimes I do not have time to offer students a choice. We all are busy, and thinking of new and creative projects is sometimes exhausting and frankly many do not meet the new common core standards. But incorporating choice makes differentiated instruction […]