Graded 21st Century

That relationship meant that, rather than working in relative isolation, our faculty worked together to create and implement standards-based projects. Rather than acting as directive teachers, our faculty members were more like coaches in a student-led inquiry environment. Rather than relying on books and worksheets, our faculty led students through a less certain learning path. Rather than perceiving critical thinking as a "result" (of directive teaching), we saw it as essentially an immersion mode in which exploration informs and develops students' thinking processes.

Finally, we identified student evaluation instruments to use throughout the project, including the culminating product.

Throughout any given project, we must be able to informally touch base at any time. Backup resources should be available (when computers fail, for example). We need to plan together in a very detailed, day-to-day way. We have to be able to easily communicate "on the fly." How we introduce the project to students is much more important than we thought (and we thought it was very important). As a teaching group, we must maintain a flexible, problem-solving attitude to productively work through the inevitable implementation challenges.

n addition, we are still grappling with how to best prepare our students to be successful in a project-based learning environment when they have difficulty working together cooperatively.