Is this the future of the classroom?

When Philadelphia high school teacher Laura Jacklin was teaching a unit on suspense, she connected with the author April Henry, to discuss how to incorporate clues into mystery writing. Her students watched a video interview with Henry, and got to learn about what it takes to be a published writer. When teaching a unit on writing about controversy, Jacklin discussed with former Seattle mayor Norman Rice some of the difficult situations he had experienced in office, then turned some of these controversies into topics students could research and write about.

These real-world connections were made possible by Educurious, a nonprofit that provides a blended-learning approach to professional development. Teachers receive face-to-face training on project-based, real-world units they can use in their English and biology classrooms, participate in periodic online training, collaborate with colleagues across the country, and access a national network of experts—like Jacklin and Rice—whom they can reach out to for advice.

Access to experts keeps Educurious teachers connected to the world outside their classrooms, and on top of new developments in their fields. “We deepen our own content knowledge when we have scientists ‘visit’ our online professional development sessions,” says Bernadette Manzo, a biology teacher at New Tech West High School in Cleveland. “I find it very exciting to learn more about current research that is being conducted that is related to the unit that I am teaching to my 10th graders.”

Doug Mathias, a science teacher in Danville, Illinois, says that Educurious is the most engaging professional development he’s encountered in 31 years of teaching, and having the connections to experts has been a big part of it. For a unit on infectious disease, he connected with a gaming expert who had designed Pandemic, a game where players try to save the world from infection. His students participated in a Skype session, asking the designer about infectious disease and how he created the game. “They got to see what a real gamer looks like—just a guy in jeans sitting at a desk,” Mathias says.

For a unit on environmental science, his students participated in a discussion board with a college professor, whom they asked about toxins in the environment and their relation to global warming. “When there are questions I can’t answer or something I am having trouble teaching,” says Mathias, “I know I can go to the experts. It also inspires my students when they have the opportunity to talk to scientists doing cutting-edge research.”

Published in collaboration with Impatient Optimists

Author: Linda Jacobson is a freelance education writer based in Southern California. She writes and consults for a variety of education and journalism organizations.

Image: Students listen to their junior high science teacher at Grant-Deuel School in Revillo, South Dakota. REUTERS/Jim Young