I like the teacher support of the project rubric which can give kids confidence that while the project choice is student-centered, the teacher has helped them know where they need to go.

Great point-- classroom management has become trickier with voice, choice, and with the embedded temptations of technology. I get nervous that kids will end up spending time "playing" with it, as opposed to "learning" with it. A fine line I'm sure. A real hurdle in "letting go" of traditional teacher-centered role.

As an ELA teacher, I like this option being available for kids. "Participation" within literature can mean different things for readers. I think some kids learn most when they are able to piggyback on others students' understandings. They can stretch a peer's meaning into something that is their own, even if they missed "the message" in the text. In a traditional classroom, discussion doesn't even always lend to every student having the opportunity to comment. Technology gives them a voice here, where otherwise their thoughts would not have had a chance to blossom.

It is humbling and yet exciting to shift from the "sage at the stage" role to the "guide at the side". I feel that students will also feel a greater sense of support from teachers, whose job is to help them utilize tools to stretch their learning beyond what they alone can offer the student.

I love that this is included as valuable-- sites that student groups can visit for peer collaboration. Important to remember that so many students are social learners and may acquire their deepest learning by collaborating with other students as opposed to individual exploration.

Yes, very much a paradox. How is it possible to let students have choice in how they learn content and yet they all need to fill in the same bubble when testing time comes around. That's a LOT of balls to juggle at once. This is frustrating for teachers like ourselves who want to give choice and thus keep kids engaged, but who also know that scores will be what validates our success as content teachers.

Ha very true-- IF test scores are what matters, we could strap each kid to a computer to get them there. But I don't know any teachers that became teachers for the numbers. ;) Do better scores make better people? Do they make happier people? A great argument for "personal" learning vs. personalized learning. But again, it has to be a balance. We can't ask them to make of map of places they've never been. Thus we have the CORE. A tricky marriage of ideas!