You can download any of them for free!
Great ideas for creativity, genius hour, design thinking, writing prompts, maker products, video making, divergent thinking.
An innovative approach to looking at your own professional development or learning. There are some great ideas in here!
Read or listen to this as a podcast.
You cannot survive PBL in total chaos - class management matters!
*structure
*time for deep work
*clear behaviour expectations
*noise shouldn't interfere with learning
*accountability through interdependence
*be proactive!
Some unique ways to get to know your new crew of students at the start of the year!
*surveys
*geeky show and tell
*try a maker project to learn their creative process
*scavenger hunt
*find out what they want to learn with a student leadership team
*tap into sense of wonder
Socratic seminars are a democratic, student-centered, approach to class discussions. They can be used at any grade level with any subject area. In a Socratic Seminar, members meet in a circle and share their insights. Participants do not raise their hands or call on names. Because there’s no discussion leader, each member can comment or ask follow-up questions to one another. This approach can be empowering for participants because they own the conversation. Unlike a typical class discussion, the conversation moves fluidly back and forth rather than having to go through the teacher.
This article outlines several approaches to conducting a Socratic Seminar:
- The Giant Circle Approach
- The “Fish Bowl” Approach
- The Round Table Approach
- The Scattered Approach
- Multiple Seminars
- Online/Offline Seminars
The author also provides a sample of how to run a Socratic Seminar and tips for ensuring that all students can participate.
By signing up with your email address and clicking the yellow subscribe button, you will receive this great design thinking project that your students will love! It is part of a design thinking toolkit and includes a free design thinking project, an eBook, and a suite of assessments. You will also receive a weekly email with free, members-only access to the latest blog posts, videos, podcasts and resources to help you boost creativity and spark innovation in your classroom.
Thom Gibson shares his ideas on how to design student jobs for your classroom community.
This fits into Distribution of Leadership in our REORDER framework and fosters developing 21st century competencies or skills.
"Here's a sketch video about self-assessment and peer assessment. It includes an explanation of specific strategies you might use."
This video connects PBL, assessment, feedback and metacognition and how it can play a role in your classroom and help develop empowered learners!
"Humor, goofiness, joy, fun — these were actually vital to developing a creative classroom culture. When I taught middle school, we had a wordplay wall at the back with ridiculously bad dad jokes (things like “fire drill” and “slow jams” and “graduated cylinder”). We had Easter Eggs hidden throughout the classroom. We had our own version of a Rick Roll. If someone asked you to “share a link,” you had to “Cher a link” instead, sending them to a music video from Cher. "
This excellent resource includes videos, and some reading. It's very engaging - and fun! It's all about bringing joy to your classroom - which happens to spark community, creativity and foster risk taking! Win win win!
Sample writing prompts are included. Sign up for emails from John Spencer to get 100 free prompts emailed right to you. (He's great, you won't regret it!)
"User experience design theory (sometimes abbreviated as XD, UX, UXD or UED) focuses on the user experience of a platform. This might include accessibility, usability, enjoyment, and the overall flow of the experience. UX design focuses on both on how we use digital tools and on how we inhabit digital spaces. It focuses on systems in a way that is deeply human. What does it feel like for people? What does it look like for them? What are their processes? "
This information could also be applied to student book clubs.
A great read full of great ideas!
-PD
-Playlists
-Writing Prompts
-Maker and Design Ideas
-Best Practices
& More!
These projects allow students the opportunity to create, test, experiment, design and collaborate to meet some seriously engaging challenges!
Podcasting is a powerful way for students to share their voice with the world. Along the way, they learn to communicate, engage in critical thinking, and go through the design process as they ultimately publish their work to an authentic audience.
This site offers 20 creative ideas for podcasts you can do with your students.
This podcast and article talks about the power of frequent check ins with students.
Strategies shared include: Social emotional pulse check, video updates, video check-ins, small group check-ins, email check-ups, short text check-ins, surveys, scheduled conferences, phone calls, polls. These strategies could also be used in a face to face classroom.
This short video (4 minutes) discusses student engagement using Schlechty's levels and relates it to your classroom.
This article looks at a short and sweet way to try PBL/Inquiry/Passion Projects/Genius hour,
You can do this for a day or a week.
An amazing collection of video writing prompts!
Prompts for:
Creative thinking
Informational Text
Narrative/Story
Persuasion
& more!
A quick introduction to the metacognition cycle and how it wraps around the learning our students do. (At Sun West - for more information on metacognition reach out to your PeBL Mentor or a Learning Consultant.)