Carla Meyrink, co-founder and secondary director at The Community for Learning, explains how a biweekly Project Day has revolutionized her school by providing students with the freedom to explore and create, free from the pressure of grades. It has lowered stress levels, encouraged creativity, and provided opportunities for cross-curricular learning.

Aaron Blackwelder hosts middle school math teacher, Jared Hamilton, author of the recent blog post “Mario Maker and Going Gradeless in Math.”

Authentic participation is the gateway to student-led learning and engagement. Through participation, students gain confidence in their abilities, discover new ideas and skills, and eventually take responsibility for their own learning.

Empowering our students isn’t easy and doesn’t happen overnight. It requires the teacher to clarify their beliefs that students are capable of much more than they’ve traditionally been expected to do. It requires “front-loading” expectations and providing students with permission to make mistakes and take risks in the classroom.

Students, simply put, don’t care about school. In their eyes, it’s a place to go, do what they’re told, and memorize as much as they can, then go home and finish their homework before doing something that actually interests them.

Aaron Blackwelder interviews Skylar Primm, a co-lead teacher and advisor at High Marq Environmental Charter School and a fellow of the Greater Madison Writing Project. His teaching practice is grounded in Project-Based Learning that allows education to be used as a tool to connect youth with their community and become environmentally conscious citizens.

For an authentic PBL experience, students must be free to experiment, experience failure, and learn from their mistakes. Otherwise, I’m just teaching them to look to me for answers, which is the opposite of what I want to accomplish.

This episode features an interview with Joy Kirr, author of the book Shift This!

Many teachers are implementing genius hour, defined as time given during the school day where students can learn about their interests and pursue projects they are passionate about. It's an inherently student-centered and messy undertaking to be sure, but many teachers testify to its power to unleash student passion, creativity, and concern for the community.