Suzie Boss, journalist

Suzie Boss

Suzie Boss writes about the power of teaching and learning to improve lives and transform communities. Coauthor of Reinventing Project-Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-World Projects in the Digital Age, she draws inspiration and insight from educators who push the boundaries of the traditional classroom. Previously an editor and writer for the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, she was also the lead writer for Intel's Innovation Odyssey, a daily online feature about effective uses of classroom technology from around the globe. She serves on the board of Springboard Innovation, a nonprofit organization that teaches both youth and adults how to be effective social entrepreneurs and improve their own communities with innovative, sustainable solutions.


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Stronger Together: Make Project Planning a Collaborative Practice

By Suzie Boss

5/7/08

Moving from traditional teaching to project learning takes effort: You have to be willing to rethink everything, from classroom management to homework expectations to assessment strategies. And if you're the only one in the building who is teaching this way, it can get a little lonely.

Pictures Worth More Than 1,000 Words: Online Classroom Displays

By Suzie Boss

4/10/08

If your classroom is like most, you probably use every square inch of available space. I love to step into learning spaces that feel like museums of living history. Ceilings, walls, and tables are covered with artifacts showing evidence of student understanding. Many teachers put up exhibits to reinforce everything from the big ideas of a discipline to classroom-management strategies. But how often do you step back and take a thoughtful look at what's on display?

Constant Communication: Tools for Global Change

By Suzie Boss

4/2/08

Around the world, some 3.5 billion people now carry a mobile phone. Members of societies both rich and poor now think it's normal to be in constant communication. It's the kind of trend that prompts the question "What good could we be doing with all those mobile minutes?"

Open Professional Development: Learning in the World Classroom

By Suzie Boss

3/14/08

Darren Draper, a technology specialist in Utah's Jordan School District, was getting ready to offer a professional-development course last fall about using social software in the classroom. Rather than a traditional sit-and-get workshop, he envisioned a more interactive experience in which teachers would use blogs, wikis, and the other Web 2.0 tools they would be learning about.

Digital Storytelling: Helping Students Find Their Voice

By Suzie Boss

3/4/08

While accepting his 2008 Academy Award for best director, Joel Coen took a minute to reminisce about his earliest days as a filmmaker, and it wasn't hard to picture him back in the late 1960s, lugging around a home-movie camera. Nor was it difficult to imagine his kid brother, Ethan, dressed up in a suit and carrying a briefcase in their early collaborations. As the elder Coen admitted, "Honestly, what we do now doesn't feel that much different from what we were doing then."

Forging New Connections: Building Online Peer-to-Peer Collaborations

By Suzie Boss

2/22/08

Anyone who has spent time in an isolated classroom understands why teacher collaboration makes such good sense. If you don't have time to share ideas or plan projects with colleagues, you miss out on opportunities to grow and learn as a teacher. And your students miss out on something important, too.

Recognizing the benefits of collaborative practice, some schools create regularly scheduled time for teachers to work together in professional learning communities. But many educators tell me that collaboration still happens on the fly -- if it happens at all.