by Drew Perkins, Director of TeachThought PD

Inquiry is one of my passions. In fact, I view it as a sort of superpower that enables us to navigate the kinds of diverse set of scenarios and problems that our modern world continually throws our way. That’s why all of our work with schools and teachers is through the lens of inquiry. To take it a step further, that’s why the TeachThought PD project-based learning model starts with and emphasizes what we call, ‘Rich Inquiry‘ as a lever to unlock deeper learning and critical thinking.

Because inquiry is such an important feature in our project-based learning workshops and support, participating teachers engage in multiple inquiry exercises and activities that we believe are impactful tools both in and outside of PBL. We want to model best practice so we invite workshop participants to enter into the learning process at

by Terry Heick

You try to fake it, but it limps right out of your mouth, barely alive: “How was school?”

You might use a slight variation like, “What’d you learn in school today?” but in a single sentence, all that is wrong with ‘school.’

First, the detachment–you literally have no idea what they’re learning or why. (You leave that up to school because that’s what school’s for, right?) Which means you know very little about what your children are coming to understand about the world, only able to speak about it in vague terms of content areas (e.g., math, history).

Then, there’s the implication–they don’t talk about the way that they’ve been moved or impressed upon or changed but in the rarest cases; you have to drag it out of them.

And there’s also the matter of form–you ask them as if a developing learner will be able to

I taught middle school English for over a decade, but like many teachers, I left the profession after last year.

I still feel like a teacher in a lot of ways. I still catch myself saying I’m a teacher when people ask what I do (which, weirdly, still feels accurate). I still think, I need that! when I see cute teacher decor or storage containers on sale even though I don’t have a classroom.

And without even being a teacher, I can still feel—acutely—the collective heaviness of teachers this year.

I hear it in the sighs and tones of my teacher friends, even ones who love their schools. I see it on social media—Reddit threads, new teacher Facebook groups, and tweets from Teacher Twitter. I feel it when I see that even the brightest lights I know in the teacher universe are flickering.

But this heaviness is distinctly different to

Paying for college isn’t easy, but scholarships can help keep students out of debt. Unfortunately, many of them have strict eligibility requirements, and/or the application process is very time-consuming. The whole process can be pretty discouraging. That’s why we’ve put together this list of easy scholarships to apply for. With just a little effort, applicants could have some extra cash for school! 

Tips for Scholarship Applications

Before you dive into our list of easy scholarships to apply for, check out these tips to help you get started. 

Apply for Everything

OK, maybe not everything, but it’s best to apply for scholarships early and often. When the criteria is simple, these scholarship committees will receive many applications. So, get them in as early as possible and move on to the next one. 

Create a New Email Account

When applying for these easy scholarships, applicants are usually opted in to mailing

by Terry Heick

Before the ideas, let me preface this by acknowledging that many of these–if not most–aren’t feasible in most classrooms and schools.

I taught for years and tried to shoehorn ideas like this into my teaching, and it was rewarding but exhausting and ultimately resulted in my becoming a pariah in my own school/district. I didn’t intend on ‘not being a team player,’ but that’s exactly how ideas like these look to–well, to some people. I’ll leave it at that. (See also Teaching Disruptively.)

Since I’m not going to explain how to accomplish these kinds of shifts (that’d be a book), though, I do refer to some of the posts I’ve created over the years that elaborate on some of these ideas. The purpose of this post, then, is to vaguely sketch the possible characteristics of an innovative classroom.

You may disagree strongly with every single one,