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  To reimagine and redesign education so that every student has access to authentic real world rigorous connections to content. Simply put, to change and make change in education. This is my “why” in my work in education. As I grew up in small town rural USA watching high quality instruction in a diverse school, … Continue reading 47 Hours in Peru

How long does it take to have kids make a PowerPoint? A Prezi? A Slideshow?...Ten minutes. These activities and tasks lead to a world of divide and conquer or one person doing all the work in the group. This often a point of challenge when entering into the world of Project Based Learning. We don’t … Continue reading Why Collaboration is More than Groupwork

It's happened to us all.  We have all been in groups that have been challenged to do something without a defined process.  The trick is, I bet you or a group member had developed a toolkit to turn your group work into a collaborative relationship.  Flipping the script, many times students do not have the … Continue reading Collaboration vs. Group Work

Being a student at New Technology High School means choosing a path that many don’t understand. As PBL is a fairly new trend to hit education, there are so many people who have no idea what it really is or how it works. Because most people don't understand it, they often ask a lot of … Continue reading Project Based Learning – A Student’s Voice

When we talk about Project Based Learning, we mean the process by which students learn the content by doing a project. Students then share their application of their core content knowledge and skills via an authentic product. By focusing on PBL as the process of learning and the application of knowledge, students become more clear … Continue reading PBL vs Project Based Learning

I've been blessed to know Michael McDowell for some time now. Michael previously taught at New Technology High School, worked for New Tech Network, and is now currently the Superintendent of Ross School District in Marin County and author of Rigorous PBL by Design.  Recently, our Center for Excellence, a professional development program that provides … Continue reading The Surface, Deep, & Transfer of PBL