I just can’t wait anymore! There is such a sense of urgency when it comes to innovating public education. As an educator, I am charged with guiding students to their fullest potential. I am not a sage or an expert or even a guru. I am a teacher. And for me, that means stepping aside and letting the students shine; letting them discover their passions and play out their curiosities. It takes courage to admit...
Oftentimes, I hear teachers complain about how difficult it is to get through their prescribed curriculum. With only about 180 school days in the year, it is estimated that students spend on average between 20 and 25 hours every school year taking standardized tests (Strauss, 2015). That is about 2.5% of the school year sitting and taking a test. You also need to consider the amount of time teachers spend preparing students for standardized tests...
In order to guide the development of equitable STEM education as well as foster STEM foundational thinking for all students, educators must create experiences for students that allow learners the time and opportunity to see themselves as STEM students of color who collaborate, apply critical thinking and problem-solving skills to address challenging issues. These learning experiences need to be high quality, tailored to meet individual learner needs, focused on student learning, research-based, job-embedded, and aligned...
Dear Students: What do you know about the world you are going to enter when you finish school? What challenges and problems will we face? What jobs will be out there? What skills and learning will graduates need? We don’t actually know all the answers to those questions, but one thing we do know: businesses and industry are already experiencing shortages in STEM workers – the workers who know how to tackle the tough problems...
What is a DBQ? A Document-Based Question is an essay question, which requires students to use historical documents (both primary and secondary sources) to develop a thesis, requiring them to synthesize these sources. Sound difficult? It is. But I believe that all students can and need to develop high-level critical thinking skills. Students should learn history through investigating primary and secondary source documents from a variety of perspectives. The DBQ Project The DBQ Project provides units that...
