“Tim was so learned that he could name a horse in nine languages. So ignorant, that he bought a cow to ride on.”

- Benjamin Franklin

“Some cause happiness wherever they go, others whenever they go .”

- Oscar Wilde

“The best and deepest moral training is that which one gets by having to enter into proper relations with others...Present educational systems, so far as they destroy or neglect this unity, render it difficult or impossible to get any genuine, regular moral training.”

- John Dewey

Project Based Learning - The Basics

Using design principles outlined in the Handbook for Standards-Based Project Based Learning, a top-selling book published for secondary teachers by the Buck Institute for Education and written by our own Thom Markham, participants learn how to design, implement, and manage community-oriented projects in secondary schools. This workshop has been completed by over two thousand educators and can range from a one-day overview of project based learning to a full three days of project planning and collaboration for teams of teachers. Longer workshops include more information on how the school culture, context, and community can be used to support and enhance project based work in the classroom. Appropriate for up to 20 participants, though we have been known to sneak in more.

We teach our best-in-class Project Based Learning Teacher Professional Development the way we taught our students...by having them learn by doing. At the end of the process, you will have 60% of your next project flushed out and written or typed onto a Project Planning Form. We not only make clear what exemplary projects look like, and how they are planned, but we also show a lot of clear, intermediate steps that teachers can practice in their daily non-PBL classes that will prepare their students and themselves to produce high-quality work when they finally launch their projects.