Essential Teaching and Learning

                                                                                                                                            (C) 2020 Scott B. Freiberger  By Scott B. Freiberger Fasten your curriculum mapping seatbelts and prepare for provocative, personalized pupil projects!   Project-based learning (PBL) is an inquiry-based pedagogy in which scholars enhance skills in a cross-section of spaces, such as critical thinking, collaboration, reasoning, and resilience, in an effort to resolve real-world regressions.   The PBL approach offers sch...

Photo credit: (c) 2019 Scott Freiberger By Scott B. Freiberger In the recent Disney tour de force “Mary Poppins Returns,” the venerable Meryl Streep captivates audiences with the melodic “Turning Turtle,” a quirky canticle in which she conveys a series of unbalanced events, “…all because the world is turning turtle!”   Intentionally penned to be outré and tongue-in-cheek, this dynamic ditty may indeed be apt at depicting our current topsy-turvy reality for both turtles and humans alike.       Disconnected from daily school life and separated by screens, it’s imperative for students to feel a sense of connectedness, and social-emotional learning (SEL) has become particularly pressing.  Research indicates that infusing SEL into curricula may help students acquire the social, academic, and life skills necessary for attaining emotional well-being and achieving classroom success.   Additional research highlights SEL programs helping men...

                              Photo credit: (c) 2009 Scott Freiberger . JiuFen, Taiwan . By Scott B. Freiberger   When offered a position as an adjunct professor at a respected New York City college, I immediately requested to infuse service-learning into the curriculum.  When the department chair responded that she was pleased by my request, I began to ponder: Why are we not doing more in the U.S. to infuse service-learning into curricula across schools?   According to the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University ofWashington , “ Service - learning  refers to  learning that... often benefit[s] others and the community, while also advancing the goals of a given curriculum.”   Projects that are carefully-planned may include student choice and collective voice regarding provident action plans and pru...