Project-based learning is not just doing projects, it’s students learning through the work of a project. In quality PBL the deeper connections and learning are established through the inquiry process as students make meaning out of an authentic challenge. By starting them at ‘create’ on Bloom’s Taxonomy, teachers can then help students uncover the ‘remember’ and ‘understand’ pieces and grow those things as they analyze, apply, and evaluate. Use these four questions when planning project-based learning.

Children who are not directly involved but hear about school shootings may struggle with feelings of fear, confusion and uncertainty. Here is a primer for parents and teachers put together by NPR with help from the National Association of School Psychologists and Melissa Reeves, a former NASP president and co-author of its PREPaRE School Crisis Prevention and Intervention curriculum that provides suggestions on how to converse with children about such events.

Many parents feel undue pressure for their young children to master academic skills. Before they even start formal schooling, the measuring stick is out, comparing one child to another. And academic benchmarks are being pushed earlier and earlier, based on the mistaken assumption that starting earlier means that kids will do better later. We now teach reading to 5-year-olds even though evidence shows it’s more efficient to teach them to read at age 7, and that any advantage gained by kids who learn to read early washes out later in childhood. Read more here.