Distance learning idea: Two crowdsource history sites need your students’ help

Add a touch of PBL to distance learning Students thrive when what they do is REAL. And by real, I mean that their work actually has a purpose not just within the walls of the school building, but beyond those walls in the real world. When students know that real people are going to consumeContinue reading “Distance learning idea: Two crowdsource history sites need your students’ help”

Better the second time around: Whippersnappers

We’re jumping into year two of this 7th-grade PBL project We’re doing it again! My seventh-graders will again this upcoming school year be writing the content for a newsletter for kids called Whippersnappers. It’s an activity my students produce in partnership with the White River Valley Historical Society, a regional organization based in Forsyth, Mo.Continue reading “Better the second time around: Whippersnappers”

Dear Teachers: Share your work with the world.

Let others know what you’re doing in your classroom. A colleague of mine, Dr. Keri Franklin, founding director of the Ozarks Writing Project, a site of the National Writing Project, and also director of assessment at Missouri State University, recommended that I send some issues of my seventh-graders’ Whippersnappers newsletter,  to the director of the SmithsonianContinue reading “Dear Teachers: Share your work with the world.”

Reflecting on My PBL Experiment

Time to reflect on the first year of my 7th-grade PBL project Year one is down! During the 2017-18 academic school year, my seventh-grade language arts classes started a project in partnership with the White River Valley Historical Society, a local organization in Forsyth, Mo., that preserves, promotes, and protects the cultural heritage of southernContinue reading “Reflecting on My PBL Experiment”

Seventh-graders publish first issue of Whippersnappers newsletter

It’s a Project-Based Learning partnership with White River Valley Historical Society The October-November 2017 issue of WRVHS Whippersnappers was published a few weeks ago! My seventh-grade students wrote all the content for the issue using online archived articles from the  White River Valley History Society Quarterly magazine as their research. They designed the content around HalloweenContinue reading “Seventh-graders publish first issue of Whippersnappers newsletter”

I’m Imagining the Possibilities of Project-Based Learning

    Yesterday I met for about an hour with Leslie Wyman, the managing director of the White River Valley Historical Society based in Forsyth, Missouri. I had contacted her last week by email to inquire whether there were any projects for which my students could provide basic research and/or writing. I really didn’t knowContinue reading “I’m Imagining the Possibilities of Project-Based Learning”