Growing Your School Garden

As school gardens gain popularity nationwide, it's a good time to consider how to make the most of these outdoor learning spaces. Lewis Elementary in Portland, Ore., has been expanding its garden gradually for the past several years. The Lewis Outdoor Education Center now includes raised garden beds, greenhouses, an outdoor classroom, composting bins, and more, as this Spiral Notebook post explains.
When I visited recently, natural builder James Thompson was helping kids construct a cob bench. Every student in the school participated in this wonderfully messy activity, and the finished project will no doubt be the launching pad for even more engaged learning in the months ahead.
Successful campus greenspaces require ongoing care. To exchange ideas with like-minded educators, check out the new group at Edutopia devoted to Green Schools. See you there!

Ready for Prime TIme

One of my favorite nonprofits made it to prime time last week. KaBOOM! rallies communities to build playgrounds. "Parks and Recreation," the NBC sitcom starring Amy Poheler of Saturday Night Live fame, wove the nonprofit with the funny name into last week's episode. If you like the idea of rallying your community to build a new playground, check out the wealth of real-life planning resources at KaBOOM!

Thinking Like an Innovator

Imagine a straw that purifies drinking water, preventing the spread of cholera or typhoid. Or a solar-powered satellite uplink mounted on a motorbike that gives rural villagers access to the information highway. Or a prefabricated emergency shelter that biodegrades after use.
These aren't just wild ideas. They're practical, low-cost solutions already in use around the world, and part of an eye-opening exhibit called Design for the Other 90 Percent. The exhibit just came to Portland, part of the grand opening of the new Mercy Corps headquarters here.
The show is fascinating, but I came away from it wanting to know more about the innovators who come up with these inspired ideas. Do they typically collaborate, or work solo? Does inspiration come in a flash, or through extended trial-and-error? What can we learn from their examples and apply to our own problem-solving challenges?
Learning how to innovate may seem like a tall order. In this post for Edutopia, I take a closer look at the topic and invite teachers to share their strategies for encouraging innovation in the classroom. Please join the conversation.

What's on your top-10 list?

The start of a new school year is an ideal time to introduce new tools for teaching and learning. In assembling this back-to-school tipsheet for Edutopia, I highlighted newer tools, like Edmodo for microblogging, along with tried-and-true resources for collaboration, such as ePals. The tipsheet's available as a free download, and I've enjoyed hearing from educators around the world who are using it as a conversation-starter with colleagues.
Now, what would you add to the list?

The Future? Find It Here

In latest issue of Educational Leadership, focusing on 21st-century learning, I argue that teachers need to update their own skills if they're going to help students prepare for the challenges at hand. "Managing Messy Learning" features advice from classroom experts who use real-world projects, along with the appropriate tech tools, on a regular basis. Check out practical strategies from Terry Smith, Antero Garcia, and others who understand why we can't afford to wait to introduce 21st-century approaches to our students. In their classes, the future's already arrived.

Teachers Tackle Their Own Summer Project

I recently had the pleasure of joining an online conversation with several teachers participating in a summer institute of the New York City Writing Project. Paul Allison and Shantanu Saha facilitated the 12-day NYC institute in which teachers were offered that all-too-rare opportunity: to be learners themselves.
By the time I caught up with them for a Skype conversation on Teachers Teaching Teachers, these teachers had spent several intense days learning alongside colleagues, exploring the potential of Web 2.0 tools to enhance writing instruction. Many work in New York's new, small high schools, designed to better engage diverse learners. One teacher, for instance, described his students as "overage and under-credited." Others teach in schools where the focus ranges from American studies to engineering to the construction trades.
What did teachers take away from the institute? One participant said the experience had caused him to rethink what "projects" are all about. Before taking part in the institute, he considered projects to be something that happened only at the end of a unit. Now, as a result of his own learning, he was getting hip to the idea that projects can be--and maybe should be--the centerpiece of instruction. Another had some fresh ideas for bringing graphic novels into literature studies, but worried that his request for a class set of Watchmen would never be approved by the more tradition-bound folks who oversee budget requests. I'm rooting for him--and for his students.
Thanks to Paul Allison for inviting me into this conversation, and a hat tip to all of the National Writing Project participants who dove into similarly challenging learning experiences this summer. What new ideas will you bring into your classroom this fall?

Kindergarten kids from NZ, Germany, Canada and Turkey tell their stories

Click on the chess piece to hear the storytellers.

Mary Ellen Lynch posted this Voicethread of tiny kids from New Zealand, Canada, Germany and Turkey telling stories together.

I had the pleasure of working with Mary Ellen last year when her school in Montreal and a school I coached in Eugene shared their experience raising painted lady butterflies in distinctly different climates.

Enjoy the lively reading of "Little Elephant"!