Creating Life-Long Learners: Using Project-Based Management to Teach 21st Century Skills - Paperback

by Todd M. Stanley (Author)

Wanted for the global workforce: thinkers (and those who can teach them)

Where K-12 instruction once centered on content and memorization, today's educators want, most of all, to teach their students to think critically and perceptively. What better way than with project-based learning (PBL)? Author Todd Stanley provides a teacher-friendly, step-by-step approach to implementing PBL, focusing on the 21st century "three R's" readiness, responsibility, and relevance.

Educators will be prepared to put this practical methodology to work right away, as they learn how to

• Use project and classroom management skills to create a positive, productive learning environment
• Develop curriculum around ten different project types
• Link projects with today's standards
• Teach students how to effectively collaborate and bring out the best in each other

Readers will find an abundance of ideas and clear guidance, along with new strategies for instilling the skills students need for tomorrow's workforce.

"If you are looking for a way to produce higher level thinkers, you really need to read this book. It is a recipe for successful life long learners."
Tamara Daugherty, Teacher
Lakeville Elementary School

"Student lead project based learning fuses today's classroom with the demands of the fast paced future. Students need to be able to interact and problem solve not just with each other, but also within the community and with technology. This book is a guide for helping educators make that jump with their instruction."
Debra K. Las, Teacher
Rochest Public Schools

Author Biography

Todd Stanley, a National Board Certified Teacher, has been in the classroom for 15 years. He spent the early years of his career compacting gifted curriculum in a junior high program called Horizons. He went on to work as a facilitator at the Christopher Program, a project-based, interdisciplinary program for juniors and seniors from around central Ohio. He then created the Ivy Program, a gifted pull-out program for third and fourth graders. He also traveled around Ohio presenting on the Literacy Curriculum Alignment Program, training school staff members how to write short-cycle assessments, align their curriculum, and enrich students′ learning experiences.

For the past 5 years, he has been teaching project-based learning to fifth and sixth grade gifted students and will open a new program next year involving fifth to eighth graders that includes vertical articulation, inquiry-based learning, and of course, project-based learning. He has taught at summer camps for gifted students, spending several years at the Summer Institute for the Gifted before moving on to his current position with the Ohio Wesleyan University Junior League. He received his master′s degree from The Ohio State University. He is currently a gifted intervention specialist with Reynoldsburg City Schools and lives in Pickerington, Ohio with his wife, Nicki and two daughters, Anna and Abby.