Good video from Acumen Course https://vimeo.com/127949094
Tools & Resources
10 Practical Ways to Transform the Trational Classroom
Loved this post for its’ simplicity from A.J. Juliani https://www.ajjuliani.com/blog/transform-traditional-classroom
- LET YOUR STUDENTS DESIGN THE LEARNING
- RUN A STUDENT-LED EDCAMP
- COLLABORATE GLOBALLY
- MAKER PROJECTS AND DESIGN THINKING CHALLENGES
- GENIUS HOUR AND 20% TIME
- CLASS CHALLENGE (DO IT TOGETHER!)
- COMMUNITY PROJECT
- TEACH THE WORLD WHAT YOU KNOW (CREATE YOUTUBE TUTORIALS)
- LET YOUR STUDENTS DEBATE
- WRITE A BOOK/RELEASE A PODCAST TOGETHER
2 fewer conversations about “how” and two more about “Why”
Project Joy
Joy has been on our minds and on the agenda, as we all work toward the end of a third school year disrupted by a global pandemic. How do educators sustain themselves under the seemingly endless crush of challenges heaped upon them? What School Could Be would like to help. Thanks to a generous grant, Project Joy launched in January in the WSCB Community, offering yoga, mindfulness sessions, games, film screenings, and a space to share and celebrate your joys along the way, big and small.
Throughout the spring, Project Joy will offer:
- Mindfulness training and practice sessions
- Weekly yoga classes
- A monthly virtual screening of the film Mission Joy, the story of friendship between Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama, followed by a facilitated conversation on including joy in our daily lives
- Weekly puzzles and challenges via our friends at BreakoutEDU, including training in game design
- A photo challenge with prizes awarded monthly
The program is free and available to all WSCB Community members. If you’re already in the Community, you can join here; if you’ve not yet joined the WSCB Community, here is the link to sign up.
If you have any questions, please be in touch. And please do share this offering with colleagues who might benefit – there’s plenty of joy to go around!
https://whatschoolcouldbe.org/a-season-of-joy/?mc_cid=45a9044ca0&mc_eid=2d8b4348ad
Youth-led Participatory action research
YPAR (Youth-led Participatory Action Research) is an innovative approach to positive youth and community development based in social justice principles in which young people are trained to conduct systematic research to improve their lives, their communities, and the institutions intended to serve them.
http://yparhub.berkeley.edu/
Love the Photovoice Toolkit and the Photo Guidelines

Instructables from Edgerton Center
Instructables from MIT’s Edgerton Center. Use these as examples to students for making their own instructables.
Make from MIT
Idea Gallery has a lot of inspirational Maker projects. You can filter by tools or objects.
Project Ideas from BITlab year in review
Below from https://medium.com/the-art-of-the-school-makerspace/bitlab-year-in-review-91d45bd1cee9
Poster Bombing — One of the projects from my Making for Social Good class involved encouraging students to design posters about social justice and creating a strong visual presence on campus. Over 20 posters were designed using Canva and posted outside the BITlab in the lobby of the STEM building.

Vinyl Screen Printing — Students in drawing class made drawings about social issues in sharpie that were then digitized and cut out of vinyl. These stencils were applied to silk screens and then printed in a poster series.

Laser Cutting
Good blog post with ideas for using laser cutter in school.
Flat-packed Chair Design Challenge, Build-a-Box Challenge, Architectural Windows, Map, Classroom Resources and Manipulatives, and more.