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In short, we seem to have students who believe that projects are for assessment purposes only.

he gave the project the highest praise a teenager can give anything: he stayed up until 2:00 AM working on it.

if learning isn't accompanied by the psychological stress of an exam, then they're somehow "let off the hook" and can devalue the content.

Teachers expert in inspiring long-term, personally meaningful and interdisciplinary projects or thematic instruction regularly exceed the standards, but that realization is lost on facilitators.

New teachers have little or no experience with classroom centers, independent work, student projects and the sorts of agency that allow children to enjoy the “flow” experiences that build upon their obsessions and lead to understanding. Even when teachers are not lecturing from bell-to-bell, the classroom agenda is top-down and leaves little chance for serendipity or student initiative.

Great teachers know their students in deeper ways than any data can provide. They ask kids about their weekends. They chat about what kids are reading and console them when their hamster dies

students are leading their own reading. They want to practice their speed, accuracy, and comprehension. The iPod makes personal a process that has been painfully public. No struggling reader likes to have his or her weaknesses exposed in a group, in front of the entire class or their reading circle. The iPod enables more intimate, 1:1 reading instruction between a student and a teacher listening to each other's voices in audio files.

Success becomes contagious

"There's less of me talking and more of them doing."

"We already have a guitar. I can learn on my own and with my friends." Me: "It seems like you should get lessons for the basics." Her: "Mom, that's what the Internet is for." It turns out she's already been practicing with the help of YouTube tutorials.

because of the abundance of knowledge and social connections

balancing the competitive pressures of college-readiness, the need for unstructured learning and socializing, and the role of the Internet in all of that

“butterfly brain.” Constantly flitting from subject to subject, we lose focus on the single task.