Blogs on Project-Based Learning

Cultural responsiveness in the classroom can often be written off as something patched by a quick fix, especially in an English classroom where swapping a traditional (read: Dead White Guy) text with something written by a person from an underrepresented background can take the place of more significant cultural response. Don't get me wrong, I think that putting Zora Neale Hurston, Chang Rae Lee, and Junot Diaz into "the cannon" is an important social step for our discipline, but doing this at the expense of also having substantive structural changes in the classroom is a temptation that one has to be careful of embracing.

You read that correctly: Zombie-Based Learning. When I started learning about it, my inner geek squealed with joy. I've always loved zombies. I've watched all the movies and even read the original Walking Dead Comics before it became a hit series in the classroom.

At Sammamish High School, we're developing and implementing a comprehensive problem-based learning program for all of our students. Working closely with my peers during this process has become one of the highlights of my career as an educator. These last two years I've been granted (literally and figuratively) the space and time to exchange ideas, learn from others and feel the satisfaction of knowing that I grow as a professional with each exchange. I have two very different teacher collaboration experiences to relate.

In 1978, John Hunter introduced a complex, immersive, interactive, collaborative, geopolitical game to his elementary school students. In 2011, he gained a global following when he delivered a TED talk about his 30-year experience of "Teaching with the World Peace Game." The talk was shared far and wide as millions were moved by his example of hands-on teaching. And millions began thinking about how to bring out the best in every child through an aspiration for something greater than even the most powerful on earth have yet to achieve -- peace.