I’m often asked, “When is the best time to start a cohort of teachers designing Learner-Active, Technology-Infused Classrooms with you?” My answer is always, “There is no best time; different times have their advantages.” An eight-day summer workshop is critical (coupled with a leadership session). In thirty years of working to transform classrooms and educators’ […]
Student-Driven Differentiation
There is a big paradigm shift looming in education: the need to shift focus from teaching to learning, from teacher as information deliverer to teacher as facilitator of learning. That means on any given day, the teacher’s primary focus should be not on a lesson plan or textbook page, but on a student, and another, […]
If You Give a Kid a Real-World Problem
Have you read the book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie? It’s an awesome book for all ages! If you give a mouse a cookie, the mouse will want milk; then the mouse will want a straw, then a napkin, and so on and so on. The story depicts the power of chain reactions […]
LATIC: A Four-Year Transformational Process
Happy 30th LATIC anniversary to me! I’ve been working with teachers and administrators to design Learner-Active, Technology-Infused Classrooms promoting student engagement, empowerment, and efficacy for 30 years now. While my thinking on various structures and strategies and our approach to professional development has evolved over the years, something that has remained constant has been the […]
SEL in the Student-Driven Classroom
The Learner-Active, Technology-Infused Classroom (LATIC) is a social learning environment that builds student responsibility for learning. It is a veritable playground for promoting social and emotional learning (SEL). What does a typical moment look like in such a student-driven learning environment? Students: Are excited to tackle developing a solution to a real-world problem as part […]