In the middle of Newark, New Jersey there is a little school that is a shining example of what the youngest children can achieve when the professionals that surround them believe that they can reach excellence. Boylan Street School is such a place and our featured teacher is Sari Mandelbaum.
How long have your been teaching?
I have been teaching at Boylan Street School for the past eight years. This is the second year that I have been implementing Problem-based learning in my classroom and I have noticed a big change in student participation. Even the parents are getting involved!
How have you implemented the principles of the Learner-Active Technology Infused Classroom?
I have developed student responsibility for learning by having the students use folders to keep
track of their PBL tasks. The first task that I introduced was about landforms (click to see task and rubric). The students work together to solve open-ended problems. They have formed and named their teams and each team member is responsible for keeping the team on task. The first graders use their rubrics to help guide instruction. They feel that the rubrics help them read my mind. A child recently said to me, "With a rubric I know what you want all of the time."
What is the best thing about your Learner-Active classroom?
The children are so interested. They can't wait to dig into whatever we are doing that day. While we were immersed in a PBL about different parts of the world a little girl came to school wearing a Calgary hat everyday. She was learning all about Canada and wanted the whole school to know it. In fact, she had so many questions about the country she has been using e-Pals to correspond with 
a classroom in Canada. You just don't get that from a textbook.
Click here to see a PBL that inspires students to study a variety of countries.
What have been your biggest challenges?
Introducing the PBL task before teaching the skills has been a huge paradigm shift for me. However, I have noticed that the students are really ready for the benchmark lessons when they discover that they have a Felt-Need to learn the concepts rather than having
me teach it before they have grappled with it for a short amount of time. When I introduce the task to the students I have them list the skills that they feel they will need to learn in order to complete the task. It is more work, but it is so much better for the learners, and that is what teaching is all about.