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High Tech High Graduate School of Education
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A group of young people stand around a table, focused on a sewing project. Scissors and sewing materials are spread out as they work together, learning new techniques during this creative lesson with fabric and thread.

A Project is a Type of Unit, Not a Lesson

There are two different questions I often hear from visitors to High Tech High that are both based on the same misconception about project-based learning.  The first is, “How much time should we be spending on PBL per week?” And the second is, “Is it still OK to give lectures?” The answer to both of these questions lies in the understanding that a project isn’t a specific kind of lesson, but rather a specific kind of unit.
Alec Patton

Latest

A young boy with curly hair concentrates as he uses green scissors to cut paper while sitting at a table in a productive classroom. Other students are visible in the background.
Outer Space, Library, Restaurant: Three Noise Levels for a Calm and Productive Classroom
The strategy that changed my classroom forever.
Alec Patton
A group of people sit around a table with laptops, notebooks, and water bottles, engaged in a Dilemma Consultancy discussion. Two people in the middle are talking and gesturing, while others work or listen in the background.
The Dilemma Consultancy Protocol
Goal: to help a teacher come up with creative solutions to a thorny dilemma
Unboxed Staff
Three women smiling at the camera, standing side by side. All are wearing earrings and represent Cloverdale Unified’s commitment to improving outcomes for students with disabilities.
Improving Outcomes for Students with Disabilities at Cloverdale Unified
Alec Patton talks to Beverley Jenkins and Kate Hogan of the System Improvement Leads Networked Improvement Community and Nicole Leveille of Cloverdale Unified School District about how Cloverdale dramatically increased the percentage of students with IEPs in the general education population, and cut chronic absenteeism among students with disabilities in half.
Alec Patton, Kate Hogan, Beverley Jenkins, Nicole Leveille
A young boy with curly hair concentrates as he uses green scissors to cut paper while sitting at a table in a productive classroom. Other students are visible in the background.
Outer Space, Library, Restaurant: Three Noise Levels for a Calm and Productive Classroom
The strategy that changed my classroom forever.
Alec Patton
A group of people sit around a table with laptops, notebooks, and water bottles, engaged in a Dilemma Consultancy discussion. Two people in the middle are talking and gesturing, while others work or listen in the background.
The Dilemma Consultancy Protocol
Goal: to help a teacher come up with creative solutions to a thorny dilemma
Unboxed Staff
A group of young people stand around a table, focused on a sewing project. Scissors and sewing materials are spread out as they work together, learning new techniques during this creative lesson with fabric and thread.
A Project is a Type of Unit, Not a Lesson
There are two different questions I often hear from visitors to High Tech High that are both based on the same misconception about project-based learning.  The first is, “How much time should we be spending on PBL per week?” And the second is, “Is it still OK to give lectures?” The answer to both of these questions lies in the understanding that a project isn’t a specific kind of lesson, but rather a specific kind of unit.
Alec Patton
A group of young students stand in a colorful, lively classroom, raising their arms and moving together as they follow easy steps in a dance or exercise routine led by a teacher near a projected screen.
Set Classroom Norms with Your Students in Five Easy Steps
When I started teaching, I kept hearing things like, “You’ll want to make sure you set classroom norms in the first week.”
Alec Patton

Improvement

See all improvement content

Three women smiling at the camera, standing side by side. All are wearing earrings and represent Cloverdale Unified’s commitment to improving outcomes for students with disabilities.
Improving Outcomes for Students with Disabilities at Cloverdale Unified
Alec Patton talks to Beverley Jenkins and Kate Hogan of the System Improvement Leads Networked Improvement Community and Nicole Leveille of Cloverdale Unified School District about how Cloverdale dramatically increased the percentage of students with IEPs in the general education population, and cut chronic absenteeism among students with disabilities in half.
Alec Patton, Kate Hogan, Beverley Jenkins, Nicole Leveille
A woman with long brown hair smiles at the camera. She has light skin, blue eyes, and is wearing subtle makeup. The softly blurred background in neutral tones evokes a calm space to transform schools beyond bureaucracy. A white frame borders the image.
Beyond Bureaucracy and Managerialism: How Learning Hives Transform Schools
Alec Patton talks to Liz Chu, Executive Director of the Center for Public Research and Leadership (CPRL) at Columbia University, about the new book she co-authored, The Learning Hive: Leading Collective Innovation to Transform Education Systems.
Liz Chu, Alec Patton

Deeper Learning & PBL

See all deeper learning & PBL content

A group of people sit around a table with laptops, notebooks, and water bottles, engaged in a Dilemma Consultancy discussion. Two people in the middle are talking and gesturing, while others work or listen in the background.
The Dilemma Consultancy Protocol
Goal: to help a teacher come up with creative solutions to a thorny dilemma
Unboxed Staff
A group of young people stand around a table, focused on a sewing project. Scissors and sewing materials are spread out as they work together, learning new techniques during this creative lesson with fabric and thread.
A Project is a Type of Unit, Not a Lesson
There are two different questions I often hear from visitors to High Tech High that are both based on the same misconception about project-based learning.  The first is, “How much time should we be spending on PBL per week?” And the second is, “Is it still OK to give lectures?” The answer to both of these questions lies in the understanding that a project isn’t a specific kind of lesson, but rather a specific kind of unit.
Alec Patton

From the Latest Issue

A collage featuring students and adults playing foosball, crafting, painting, and enjoying activities like the Cardboard Arcade. The images are arranged on a white card against a blue background, capturing the lively spirit of Expo del Sol.
Expo del Sol: Cardboard Arcade
Students dove into the design process, iteration cycles, and construction techniques to build a functional and durable arcade game.
Amber George, Amy Doan
Two young children sit at a table, drawing together with markers as art supplies scatter around—illustrating how DEEP San Diego fosters creativity and helps solve literacy challenges from an early age.
The Literacy Crisis is Solvable, and DEEP San Diego is Obsessed With It
The connection between a lack of reading proficiency and low-income background is well-established. And while the barriers are real, this is a solvable problem—not simple, but solvable.
Allison Ohle
A young person in a yellow and silver costume walks past seated adults, some holding clipboards, in a classroom decorated with colorful murals and space-themed art—against all expectations, it’s clear they truly love school.
How I Began, Against All my Expectations, to Love School
Over the past decade I’ve attended 11 schools across the United States and Japan. I was born in San Diego, then my family moved to Yokohama, Japan when I was seven years old.
Imasu Thung
A boy in glasses and a beanie presses a button on a wall timer in the classroom while a girl in a red and white sweater walks by holding a tablet. A whiteboard with schedules and clocks is visible behind them.
The Clocks that Changed my Classroom
It started with a simple idea: to bring a 60-minute visual countdown clock into my class. What began as a classroom management tool turned into something bigger—a small shift that made the room more predictable, accessible, and humane for every learner.
Massa Assaad
A journal cover titled “unboxed,” Issue 29, features three smiling women standing together, one holding a pink umbrella, in front of a colorful graffiti wall. The Fall 2025 issue spotlights adult learning in schools.

Issue 29: Fall 2025

This issue is all about listening to students, learning from data, and recognizing that what students tell you is data! It kicks off with an article by a recent high school graduate reflecting on the highs and lows of his education, and features articles about running improvement networks, how to conduct effective empathy interviews, and strategies for sharing data with educators. It's also got an awesome strategies for assessment, peer critique, time management, essential questions, and teaching reading in early grades! And it ends with a magical project in Denmark, and a math teacher's reflections on his journey away from, and back to, PBL.
explore this issue

Math

See all math content

Frog Hopping Jubilee
Students collected data from a live frog jumping and developed a statistical question based on the analysis
Katie Donovan, Dylan Cronin
A card with four images: people hiking in fog, abstract line art, hand-drawn artwork with sun and animals, and two people paddling a cardboard boat on water—each capturing moments from epic journeys. The card stands on an orange surface.
Epic Journeys
Through guided adventures, students captured the joy, struggles and self growth through writing, collecting data, and learning about forces.
Juli Ruff, Taya Chase, Amilio Aviles

Literacy

See all literacy content

How to Package a Process, with Bedtime in a Box
Sofía Tannenhaus talks to Jarrod Bolte, CEO of both Improving Education and Bedtime in a Box, a nonprofit that provides families with boxes containing everything you need for a positive bedtime routine. Each Box contains four age-appropriate books; bath wash, a towel, and bath toys; a toothbrush and toothpaste; pajamas; a stuffed animal; an alarm clock; a Teach My Learning Kit; and a kid-friendly routine log. Bedtime in a Box has delivered more than 50,000 Boxes so far, with 80% going to families experiencing poverty.
Jarrod Bolte, Sofía Tannenhaus
How Schools Are Using Identity Questions to Improve Literacy
ELA teachers asked students to connect their personal and cultural identity to the academic content at key junctures in their lessons.
Jacobe Bell, Reshma Ramkellawan

STEM

See all stem content

Solar for All Schools [guest episode from the Climify podcast]
This episode comes from the Climify podcast, which is hosted by Eric Benson, and produced by the Climate Designers Network. Benson interviews Tish Tablan, senior program director at Generation 180, about how going solar can benefit schools' budgets and provide opportunities for PBL, as well as helping us all thrive as we face an unprecedented climate crisis.
Eric Benson, Tish Tablan
HTe Imagineering: A Cultural Journey
Fifth graders designed themed park lands based on cultural characteristics to inform their engineering and design choices.
Bailey Kleis, Jenny Merrill, Jeff Govoni

Arts

See all arts content

A collage featuring students and adults playing foosball, crafting, painting, and enjoying activities like the Cardboard Arcade. The images are arranged on a white card against a blue background, capturing the lively spirit of Expo del Sol.
Expo del Sol: Cardboard Arcade
Students dove into the design process, iteration cycles, and construction techniques to build a functional and durable arcade game.
Amber George, Amy Doan
Art Saves The Whale!
This multi-grade art project had students create sea creatures out of recycled materials.
Tracy French, Mitch Siefert, Joseph Acker

Leadership

See all leadership content

Several people sit at tables in a classroom, working together on laptops. Three adults in the foreground share lessons learned, surrounded by notebooks and coffee cups, while more groups collaborate on school improvement projects in the background.
Lessons We Learned from Leading School Improvement Networks
What happens when you bring together two dozen schools—from rural K-12s to large urban high schools—with the shared goal of reducing chronic absenteeism?
Allyson Fritz, Casondra Gerlich, Malorie Kahl
Liberating Learning One District At a Time
In this episode, Dr. Michelle Sadrena Pledger, CORE Districts' Chief of Improvement David Montes de Oca, and Dr. Stacey Caillier explore how educators are transforming systems using ideas from Liberate: Pocket-Sized Paradigms for Liberatory Learning. Listen in for stories, strategies, and a vision for what’s possible when we dare to liberate learning — one district at a time.
Dr. Michelle Sadrena Pledger, David Montes de Oca, Stacey Caillier

Elementary School

See all elementary school content

Forces At Play!
Third graders at High Tech Elementary designed and built cardboard arcade games based on simple machines like levers, pulleys, and inclined planes
Samantha Lee, Jessica Amante, Jordan Fields, Sinyoung Choi
HTe Imagineering: A Cultural Journey
Fifth graders designed themed park lands based on cultural characteristics to inform their engineering and design choices.
Bailey Kleis, Jenny Merrill, Jeff Govoni

Middle School

See all middle school content

Why PBLWorks’ Bryon Demerson Went from Test Prep to PBL in Math
Alec Patton talks to PBLWorks Lead National Faculty in Math Bryon Demerson about why led him to shift from being a highly successful "traditional" math teacher to embracing project-based learning.
Bryon Demerson, Alec Patton
A postcard showcases a night sky with constellations forming a snake, silhouetted trees below, and the enchanting words Había Una Vez... in the upper left corner, inviting you to a world where stories come alive under starlit skies.
Habia Una Vez
Students engaged in an interdisciplinary project exploring indigenous cultures, delving into the impacts of colonization and creating constellations inspired by storytelling traditions
Vanessa Medellin, Matt Chapman, Tracy French

High School

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How We Put On A High School Music Festival
We came up with the idea of planning and putting on a music festival. We looked at each other, paused, then simultaneously said, “Naaahhh.”
Oscar Carrion
A collage titled Light on Literacy features three images within a white frame: the top reveals a shadow puppet show, the middle captures a lively group gathered around a board game, and the bottom displays someone adjusting a magnifying glass. Vintage drawings gracefully adorn the frame edges.
Light on Literacy
Kinder buddies were the audience for the design and creation of literacy lanterns by 9th grade students at HTHCV
Ted Cuevas
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