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“Students are working on authentic projects and problems.” He gave an example of a cross curricular physics and environmental science class that studied the physics of power and electricity. “Our students learned those skills and then rewired houses that were destroyed in New Orleans’ 9th Ward.

Each school is given a coach who visits throughout the school year, checks on lesson plans, suggests changes and helps troubleshoot problems. And New Tech focuses on nurturing the leadership capacity of principals so they can continue to innovate with teachers.

decisions by consensus

When kids enter his seventh grade they are so used to the traditional school system, they don’t know how to work collaboratively on projects. “At first their grades go down just because it’s projects. It’s actually kind of harder because you have to be a self-learner.” In traditional schools, kids are constantly being directed, so they don’t have to think for themselves as much

For some of us, the word gradeless means to grade less, that is, limiting the impact of grades within the context of current constraints. Some are just trying to get away from toxic assessment and grading practices, like assessments with no opportunity to redo or retake or zeroes on the mathematically disproportionate 100-point scale.

For others, gradeless means without grades, that is, avoiding the damaging and demotivating effects of grades entirely. These teachers are trying to put the focus squarely on learning, eliminating grades in favor of feedback and growth.

There is little valuable learning in that process."

Typical medical school curricula force students to memorize inordinate amounts of material, only to forget most of it after they take the exam," says Dr. Susan Cox, executive vice dean for academics and chair of medical education at Dell. "

It is a biological mechanism for making learning enjoyable.

Play helps meld emotion into the experience of learning.

If a child is denied the opportunity to play, the body and mind fight back.

Play allows children to let off steam

positive emotions broaden the scope of attention and increase cognitive flexibility.  Why not embrace the tool in the curriculum?  

When school becomes a stressful place for a child, it is no longer a supportive, positive learning environment

teachers at traditional schools can adapt their classrooms to include more choices, more creativity, and more open play

Play has become a luxury – available in private schools that espouse progressive learning principles, but crowded out of public schools by a teach-to-the-test mentality.

Despite increasing research on play and emotion, relatively few studies of play within the school environment exist.

Increasingly, educators are calling for a return (link is external) to the greater integration of play into elementary education.

Fredrickson