The educational pattern of lecture, listen, and forget is deeply ingrained in schools. In this user-friendly resource, author Ted McCain offers a compelling alternative that flips lessons on their heads: the problems-first instructional method. Using this method, you will fully engage students by first introducing a problem and then empowering learners to solve it using creativity, innovation, collaboration, and other essential skills.Use this resource to help students achi...

"McCain′s insights as an educator go way beyond the classroom. He truly grasps the need for schools to prepare young people for life in an increasingly dynamic world. This book continues Ted′s tradition as a writer who speaks with great insight and clarity."David Thornburg, DirectorThornburg Center for Professional Development"In our current NCLB-test driven-environment, this book provides a guide for teachers who want their students to be life-long learn...

"This might well be THE contemporary manual for effective education reform. In a world where the future is now, schools are falling behind. It is a lag we can no longer afford."—Sean M. Nosek, PrincipalWestview Secondary School, Maple Ridge, BC, Canada"This is the most important book about high schools since Breaking Ranks for school facilities planners."—David E. Anstrand, Principal, Education Environment Planning ConsultantsB...

With foreword by Jason OhlerDespite technological advancements, most secondary schools still function on ideas that are more than 100 years old. Learning Without Classrooms outlines new guidelines for how schools must operate to remain relevant and effective as we move further into the 21st century. Making a persuasive argument for moving beyond the long-established idea of operating schools with traditional classroom instruction to a personalized learning environ...

An innovative look at reshaping the educational experiences of 21st-century learners!Inspiring thoughtful discussion that leads to change, this provocative resource for teachers and administrators examines how the new digital landscape is transforming learners and learning. It makes the case for rethinking teaching processes in the face of these emerging developments within an environment of standards, accountability, and high stakes testing, and for provi...

"What year are you preparing your students for? 1973? 1995? Can you honestly say that your school's curriculum and the program you use are preparing your students for 2015 or 2020? Are you even preparing them for today?"With those provocative questions, author and educator Heidi Hayes Jacobs launches a powerful case for overhauling, updating, and injecting life into the K-12 curriculum. Sharing her expertise as a world-renowned curriculum designer and calling upon the collective wi...

Go beyond traditional paper-and-pencil tests!The Common Core State Standards clearly define the skills students need for success in college and the 21st century workplace. The question is, how can you measure student mastery of skills like creativity, problem solving, and use of technology? Laura Greenstein demonstrates how teachers can teach and assess 21st century skills using authentic learning experiences and rigorous, varied assessment strategies. Bas...

This anthology introduces the Framework for 21st Century Learning from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills as a way to re-envision learning and prepare students for a rapidly evolving global and technological world. Highly respected education leaders and innovators focus on why these skills are necessary, which are most important, and how to best help schools include them in curriculum and instruction.

Teaching in Blended Leaning Environments provides a coherent framework in which to explore the transformative concept of blended learning. Blended learning can be defined as the organic integration of thoughtfully selected and complementary face-to-face and online approaches and technologies. A direct result of the transformative innovation of virtual communication and online learning communities, blended learning environments have created new ways for teachers and students to eng...

Today's students need to be fully prepared for successful learning and living in the information age. This book provides a practical, flexible framework for designing Guided Inquiry that helps achieve that goal.Guided Inquiry prepares today's learners for an uncertain future by providing the education that enables them to make meaning of myriad sources of information in a rapidly evolving world. The companion book, Guided Inquiry: Learning in the 21st Century, explains wha...

This guide helps teachers integrate online with face-to-face instruction to personalize learning, increase engagement, and prepare students for high-stakes exams without sacrificing class time.

As we gain access to more and more knowledge and information online, the future will belong to those who are powerful, literate, curious learners. That means emphasis in classrooms must move toward helping students develop the skills, literacies, and dispositions to be powerful, self-organized learners. Teachers who are themselves master learners in new, modern contexts are crucial to making that happen.