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High Tech High Graduate School of Education
High Tech High Graduate School of Education

Work That Matters: The Teacher’s Guide to Project-based Learning

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PUBLISHED November 9, 2026

A blue and white badge reads M.Ed. in Educational Leadership Alumni with a square logo containing the letters E, D, and L on the left.
Logo with yellow border. On the left, yellow square with white letters SDTR. On the right, black text reads San Diego Teacher Residency Alumni on a white background.

PUBLISHED November 9, 2026

A student wearing safety goggles conducts a classroom experiment next to a blue overlay that promotes project-based learning in the teacher’s guide.

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In 2011 I was living in London and working at The Innovation Unit, mostly on a project called “Learning Futures” where we were focused on making secondary school more engaging for students.

This was what brought me to High Tech High for the first time: I came with a group of teachers and school leaders to learn from this radical experiment in “doing school” and I was given the task of capturing their approach to project-based learning in a guide for teachers.

Now, fifteen years later, I’ve taught at High Tech High and the High Tech High Graduate School of Education, and you know what? the guide I wrote still holds up! I highly recommend it if you or anyone at your school is doing PBL. And it’s free!

It’s got everything you need to know to get started on exhibition and critique, as well as every step of planning project from getting an idea to making it happen with students.

Click on the image or the link below to download it:

A student and teacher use a dropper and ruler for a science experiment, overlaid with text reading: Work that matters: The teachers guide to project-based learning, a key resource for modern education strategies.

Work that Matters

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