Instructional Approaches that Foster Social-Emotional Development

Imagine you are preparing for an upcoming lesson. You plan to explore a topic with your students and have created a variety of resources for them to unpack. Students will research this topic using digital tools over a period of time. Then to […]

Powerful Learning Through PBL

Project-based learning (PBL) is something that I thought I knew a lot about a few years ago. As a language teacher, for many years I had been assigning my students to complete projects which I thought were authentic PBL. However, after some […]

Games to Engage Elementary Students

As we begin classes and a new year, it is a perfect time to plan for the future. As educators, we are constantly encouraging our students to try new activities to develop skills. We need to model that as adults. According to neuroscientists, any […]

Tools for Promoting Social and Emotional Learning Through PBL and STEM

It has been an interesting start to the school year. We are all working in different learning environments, some of which may be changing each week. Unlike when schools closed in the spring, we now have more experience and ideas that we can have in […]

PBL: Key to Building Student Passions and Growth Mindsets

Project-based learning (PBL) is fairly new to me. A few years ago after attending some conferences and reading a few books, I realized that I had not been doing authentic PBL. Instead, I had been assigning projects, and only promoting student choice […]

The Future of Future-Ready: How the Pandemic Changed Education

"So, just now that we've reopened our buildings, I'm able to sleep at night."

Dr. Michele Eller is the assistant superintendent at Chickasaw City Schools in Chickasaw AL, on the outskirts of Mobile. A district with approximately 1,100 students in […]

Engaging Students with Puzzles

National Puzzle Day is January 29th and this would be a great time to encourage students to do a crossword puzzle, number puzzle, logic puzzle, physical puzzle, or a word search. There is a lot of data indicating that solving puzzles helps develop a […]

Social and Emotional Learning Applications Through PBL

Through project-based learning (PBL) and the use of real-world performance tasks tied to social challenges, students have the opportunity to apply competencies associated with social and emotional learning. In a previous blog post, I shared five […]