Mexican Food Schools...

I remember being in high school and frustrated with school and thinking "I can do this better than it's being done to me!"

I think that thought alone is the main reason I became a teacher.  But it is also the reason I worked on what I called "the Making Algebra Meaningful Project" (surprisingly not an oxymoron!).  And it was why I started looking at teaching and learning with technology, became a technology integrator, and later a partner in the first statewide learning with laptop initiative.  And it was why I did my graduate research on motivating underachievers.

Now, keep in mind that when I started teaching, I didn't really know how to teach any way other than "how it was done to me," but it was my motivation to explore how to reach more learners.

More recently, I've had the opportunity to work with a great group that focuses on creating schools designed to motivate students. We've helped the School District of Philadelphia write and support a Magnet School grant, and we've created a successful nontraditional school that combines online curriculum with project-based learning and graduates students at a high rate. And now, we're working on this statewide virtual project-based program for at-risk and dropout youth in Maine.

We're big believers in multiple pathways to graduation and that we will only be successful raising graduation rates and decreasing dropout rates when districts offer students several different approaches to learning, so they can choose the one that works for them.

We like to say, no one really cares if you like Chinese food and I like Mexican food and we go to different restaurants.  But we tend to only have Chinese food schools and say there is something wrong with me for being a Mexican food learner.

We're trying to make those Mexican food schools.

This blog is named in honor of that mission, and will give me an opportunity to explore what we're learning about trying to do a virtual project-based program well, and issues around meeting the needs of diverse learners and around performance-based education.