Inquiry-based learning questions are the heart of a classroom that thrives on curiosity, critical thinking, and student engagement. What does that look like in action? Let's take a look!

Are worksheets good or bad? That is the question.

For those of you that follow my blog closely you have probably formulated a guess as to my answer to this question. I'm going to start by saying that I don't think worksheets are "bad". I believe that they have a place in this world, but in very very very very very small doses. There are ample alternatives to worksheets, and I hope you'll consider them.

Do you ever feel that no matter what you do or how hard you try, you just can't seem to reach all of your students? Project-based learning is a great way to not only reach your students, but engage them in personalized, meaningful work. How, you might ask? Let's take a look.

I have had many people reach out over the past few months asking about experiential learning in k-12 classrooms. What is experiential learning? What is an example of experiential learning? Where can I get experiential learning activities? How do you use experiential learning in the classroom?

I have even had educators reach out that are in the process of starting experiential schools. That is really exciting, and from what I'm gathering, also a little scary and chaotic for these educators.

What is experiential learning importance? What are the benefits of experiential learning? Why bother spending the time to learn a new teaching style?

I am often asked how to get colleagues on board with experiential learning. This is an important question. I taught at an experiential school for 10 years. It was tough when there was a staff member or two that didn't agree with or understand the experiential philosophy. 

Experiential learning is a profound and life-changing teaching strategy with a laundry list of benefits attached, but working with those that are resistant to the craft can be draining, leaving you with little choice but to keep on teaching in a way that you don't feel is effective for your students or fulfilling to you. 

So how can you work with those that are resistant to experiential learning? ​What can you do? What can you say?

I have been a high school experiential educator for over a decade, and my dominant approach has been self-directed project-based learning. Students design and execute their projects from start to finish with my guidance. But it's not perfect. That is the reality. 

High school senior projects are a powerful and life-changing way to send your high schoolers off into the world of college, careers, and adulthood. But what do you do? How do you start? What is a powerful high school senior project example?

This post highlights examples of some life-changing high school senior projects done by my own students. I hope they can at least offer some ideas and inspiration for senior projects with your own students.

Teaching high school senior seminars and observing outcomes has been one of the highlights of my career as an educator. The benefits of high school senior seminars are out of this world.

I have witnessed and been a part of implementing a variety of senior seminars, which essentially consists of the facilitation of a year-long (or semester-long) senior project. There has been a lot of trial and error, and I have developed a comprehensive senior experience that incorporates the best parts of each of those senior project varieties.

I pride myself in creating classroom community in my experiential learning high school that is strong, positive, and trusting. 

I don't claim to be fantastic at everything related to experiential learning, but I place priority on creating community in the classroom from day 1 of the learning year because it plays such an important roll in the experience as a whole. ​