Holding this moment in my hands… literally. From The Tapas Approach to Project-Based Learning to Beyond the Algorithm: Reimagining STEAM and Project-Based Learning for a Human-Centered AI Future, this journey has been about one thing: creating learning experiences that truly matter. Two books. Years of learning, collaboration, risks, revisions, and growth. But more importantly, countless students, educators, and partners who brought these ideas to life in real classrooms and communities. @SammonSTEAM and I are forever grateful. Beyond the Algorithm is more than a book, it’s a call to rethink how we design learning in a world shaped by AI, while keeping humanity at the center. @WCSDEmpowers @jmattmiller @DitchThatTxtbk @steammachinepd #PBL #STEAM #AIinEducation #HumanCenteredLearning #BeyondTheAlgorithm #EdLeadership #FutureReady

Small Bites. Big Ideas. 🍎 | PBL Meets the NYS Portrait of a Graduate What if we started developing Portrait of a Graduate competencies from the very first moments of a PBL experience? Whether students are exploring a mystery, entering a story, experiencing a challenge, or responding to a real-world need, entry events do more than spark curiosity! They create opportunities for students to think critically, communicate, innovate, and consider perspectives beyond their own. 💡 The NYS Portrait of a Graduate isn’t something we add to PBL. It’s something we intentionally develop throughout the experience—starting with the launch! @SammonSTEAM @WCSDEmpowers #SmallBitesBigIdeas #ProjectBasedLearning #PBL #PortraitOfAGraduate #NYSEducation #STEAM

Portrait of a Graduate in action—in first grade math! ➕🧠 Today I had the opportunity to watch first graders working within a Math Workshop structure, and it was a great reminder that our Portrait of a Graduate competencies can begin developing in even our youngest learners. As students rotated through stations, they were working on different mathematical skills, practicing independently and alongside peers, while their teacher met with a small group for targeted instruction. But they were also doing so much more than math. They were communicating their thinking. They were collaborating with classmates. They were thinking critically and solving problems. They were building independence, perseverance, and ownership of their learning. Meanwhile, the workshop structure allowed the teacher to meet students where they were—providing explicit, responsive instruction in a small-group setting while the rest of the class remained actively engaged in meaningful learning. Portrait of a Graduate isn’t just about who we want students to become when they graduate. It’s about creating opportunities, beginning in first grade, for them to practice becoming those learners every day. @SammonSTEAM @WCSDEmpowers @VassarLibrary #PortraitOfAGraduate #MathWorkshop #StudentAgency #ElementaryMath #SmallGroupInstruction #WCSD

Small Bites. Big Ideas. 🍎 | Same Entry Event Family…A New Mission! ☀️🌙⭐ Our Kindergarteners entered their PBL through a story…and this time, our First Graders did too! But their mission looks very different. We created a digital read-aloud to launch our First Grade PBL and introduce students to their challenge: How can we help patients at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital discover the patterns and wonders of the sky? ☀️🌙⭐ After the story, students took a virtual tour of the hospital, helping them connect their classroom learning to the real children who will become their audience. Then, instead of us telling them everything they would need to learn, our First Graders began generating their own Need-to-Know Questions. Now the learning begins! As students investigate the Sun, Moon, stars, and patterns in the sky, they’ll become the experts. Their final mission will be to transform what they discover into short, fun, engaging “Kid Clips” designed to teach and inspire pediatric patients at MHRH. 🎥✨ What we love about this launch is that Story or Storyline is the entry-event structure, not the project itself. Kindergarten entered through a story to become designers. First Grade entered through a story to become sky scientists and communicators. Same entry-event family. Different content. Different mission. Different authentic product. Same purpose: creating a reason to learn. Story → Driving Question → Need to Know → Investigation → Kid Clips → Authentic Audience Small Bites. Big Ideas. 🍎 @SammonSTEAM @WCSDEmpowers #ProjectBasedLearning #PBL #AuthenticLearning #StudentInquiry #ScienceEducation #STEAM #WCSD #SmallBitesBigIdeas

Small Bites. Big Ideas. 🍎 | Another Way to Launch PBL Our Kindergarten students are officially beginning The Shape Box Mission! 🔺🟦🟢 This time, we launched our PBL through Story/Storyline. We created a digital read-aloud using AI + Book Creator to invite our youngest learners into the mission. From there, students took a virtual tour of the pediatric center at Maria Fareri Children’s Healthcare Services at MHRH, giving them a chance to see and better understand the authentic audience they will be designing for. Then came one of the most important parts of our launch: the questions. After hearing the story, exploring the pediatric center, and learning about their mission, our Kindergarteners generated their own Need-to-Know Questions: What do we need to know and learn in order to accomplish our mission? And their mission is a special one. ❤️ Our Kindergarten designers will use their learning about shapes to blueprint their own Shape Box ideas for pediatric patients. Their designs will then travel to the RCK Manufacturing class, where older students will take those Kindergarten blueprints and construct the Shape Boxes—bringing their ideas to life for patients at the hospital. Kindergarten designers ➡️ RCK manufacturers ➡️ an authentic product for real children. This is what we love about PBL: even our youngest learners can see that what they are learning has a purpose, an audience, and an impact beyond the classroom. 📖 Entry Event → 💡 Curiosity → ❓ Driving Question → 📝 Need to Know → 🛠️ Create Small Bites. Big Ideas. 🍎 @SammonSTEAM @WCSDEmpowers @PlainsPanthers #ProjectBasedLearning #PBL #Kindergarten #AuthenticLearning #STEAM #StudentVoice #DesignThinking #WCSD #SmallBitesBigIdeas

What’s in the bag? 👀⛳ This year, we’re exploring different ways to launch Project-Based Learning by creating curiosity before revealing the mission. At Kinry Road Elementary, our school-wide PBL is officially underway in Grades 3, 5 & 6—with Grade 4 launching soon! Principal Gerson and I arrived at each classroom door carrying a mystery mission bag. Inside? Students discovered one item at a time… ⛳ Potential materials and tools for building 🏌️ Golf balls and putters 🟢 A putting green ❓ And plenty of clues that had students wondering, “What are we going to do with all of this?” We resisted giving them the answer. Instead, students noticed, wondered, made connections, and tried to figure out what all of the pieces might mean. Then came the final item in the bag: the mission letter. The mystery had a purpose. Students learned that they would be taking on authentic engineering roles to design mini-golf holes for their school playground, using their grade-level science learning to guide their designs. That’s the power of an entry event. Rather than starting by telling students what the project is, we can give them something to wonder about first. Mystery → Curiosity → Driving Question → What do we need to know? And now the real work begins! Small Bites. Big Ideas. 🍎 @SammonSTEAM @WCSDEmpowers @ajgerson #ProjectBasedLearning #PBL #STEAM #StudentInquiry #EngineeringDesign #AuthenticLearning #WCSD #SmallBitesBigIdeas

Small Bites. Big Ideas. 🍎 This year, we’re rethinking how we launch Project-Based Learning in WCSD. An entry event doesn’t always have to begin with a traditional storyline. What if we invite students into a mystery? Let them experience a problem? Hear directly from an authentic client? Enter the challenge through a story? We’ve been exploring four families of PBL entry events: 📖 Story or Storyline 🔎 Mystery ⚙️ Experience 📣 Client Different entry points. Same purpose: spark curiosity, create an information gap, and give students a reason to ask questions. Over the next couple of months, we’ll be sharing examples of these different approaches—all authentic entry events being designed and implemented in WCSD classrooms this school year. Our goal is to move students from simply being told about a project to becoming curious about the problem: Entry Event → Notice & Wonder → Driving Question → “What do we need to know to accomplish this?” Stay tuned as we share some Small Bites. Big Ideas. from our classrooms! @SammonSTEAM @WCSDEmpowers #ProjectBasedLearning #PBL #StudentInquiry #AuthenticLearning #STEAM #WCSD #SmallBitesBigIdeas

What a great start to the school year! It’s always a privilege to grow, learn, and collaborate alongside my colleagues. Portrait of a Graduate doesn’t begin when students reach high school, it begins the moment they walk through our elementary school doors. Every experience, every opportunity, and every educator along the way helps build the foundation for the graduates they will one day become. @SammonSTEAM @CristineBlake9 @MarinoKristen

What if your next book club became more than a great read? Bring meaningful professional learning to your district with The Tapas Approach to Project-Based Learning or Beyond the Algorithm. We’ll provide a ready-to-use book club template, reflection prompts, and a complimentary virtual session with the authors to help turn conversation into practice. Build educator capacity. Strengthen connections to the Portrait of a Graduate. Create greater impact for students. STEAM Machine Innovations 📧 [email protected] @SammonSTEAM @steammachinepd #ProfessionalLearning #PBL #PortraitOfAGraduate #AIinEducation #TeacherPD #STEAMEducation

RT @SammonSTEAM: A few weeks ago, I shared an infographic called A 10-Day Recipe for Transformation, inspired by the Tapas Approach to Proj…

In preparation for the Portrait of a Graduate (POG), we have an opportunity to think differently about what learning can and should look like for our students. If we want students to become effective communicators, collaborators, critical thinkers, and problem-solvers, we must intentionally create learning experiences where they can practice those competencies authentically. PBL provides one of those pathways. But meaningful PBL doesn’t happen simply because we encourage it. Leaders have to create the conditions for it to thrive. The good news? We don’t have to do everything at once. 🍴 Small bites. Intentional moves. Big possibilities for students. Here are 8 ways leaders can begin supporting a sustainable PBL culture. @SammonSTEAM @WCSDEmpowers @drbonkwcsd #PBL #PortraitOfAGraduate #EducationalLeadership #AuthenticLearning #DeeperLearning

PBL Spotlight: Community Partners Some of the most powerful PBL experiences happen when learning extends beyond the classroom. Community partners bring authenticity, purpose, and a real audience to student work. They help students see that what they are learning can matter to someone outside of school. Whether students are designing for a hospital, solving an environmental challenge, thinking like entrepreneurs, or creating for a community need, our partners help turn an assignment into an experience. They ask questions. They provide feedback. They share expertise. Most importantly, they show students that their ideas have value. A huge thank you to all of our incredible community partners who give their time, expertise, encouragement, and trust to our students. Your partnership helps make these learning experiences possible and meaningful. PBL reminds us that learning doesn’t have to stay within four classroom walls.@SammonSTEAM @WCSDEmpowers @drbonkwcsd @CentralHudson @SenatorRolison @WMCHealth @TrevorZoo @MandT_Bank @Habitat_org @dutchessrestore #PBL #CommunityPartners #AuthenticLearning #ProjectBasedLearning #StudentAgency #PortraitOfAGraduate

PBL starts before the project does. The first days of school are your opportunity to build the culture that makes powerful PBL possible…student voice, collaboration, curiosity, ownership, and a willingness to take risks. As you plan those first days, consider: Are you preparing students for PBL before you ever launch the first project? Start with the culture. The projects will follow. ❤️ Small Bites. Big Ideas. @SammonSTEAM @WCSDEmpowers #TheTapasApproach #PBL #ProjectBasedLearning #BackToSchool #ClassroomCulture

📚 We’re excited to share that The Tapas Approach to Project-Based Learning, Second Edition and Beyond the Algorithm and are now available on Kindle! 🎉 And just in time for back to school, we’re running a Paperback Flash Sale: 🔥 Paperbacks — $19.99 📅 Limited time through 9/30 Whether you’re looking for fresh ideas for PBL, STEAM, AI, or simply creating more meaningful learning experiences, we hope these books inspire your year ahead. 📖 Kindle or paperback…choose the format that works for you and bring some new ideas into the new school year! @SammonSTEAM @jmattmiller @dailystem @DrJacobsRad #ProjectBasedLearning #PBL #STEAM #AIinEducation #TeacherPD #BackToSchool #Education #Kindle #TeacherBooks #BetterLearning

PBL Spotlight: Effective Communicators Communication is more than presenting to an audience—it’s learning to share ideas, listen to others, ask questions, and work together to solve problems. That’s why we begin developing these skills early. 🎥 In this Kindergarten Project-Based Learning experience, students work in teams to design and build a pinball machine. As they apply their understanding of pushes, pulls, and collisions, they practice explaining their thinking, listening to teammates, and making decisions together. These conversations may seem small, but they’re laying the foundation for confident communicators who can collaborate, problem-solve, and share their ideas with the world. Because in Project-Based Learning, every conversation is an opportunity to learn. @SammonSTEAM @WCSDEmpowers @dailystem @jmattmiller #PBL #EffectiveCommunicator #Kindergarten #ProjectBasedLearning #StudentVoice #PortraitOfAGraduate #STEAM

PBL Spotlight: Student Voice One of the greatest gifts we can give students is the confidence to share their ideas. In Project-Based Learning, student voice goes far beyond having a choice. It’s about giving students meaningful opportunities to explain their thinking, answer questions, and communicate with authentic audiences. 🚀 During our Rocket Entrepreneur Trade Show, students became business owners. They pitched their rocket designs, explained the science and mathematics behind their decisions, defended their budgets, and shared their learning with community members and visitors. The goal wasn’t simply to build a rocket. It was to help students find the confidence to say, “Here’s my idea, and here’s why it works.” Those are the moments that build confident communicators and lifelong learners. @SammonSTEAM @WCSDEmpowers @dailystem @drbonkwcsd @GayheadWCSD #PBL #StudentVoice #ProjectBasedLearning #PortraitOfAGraduate #AuthenticLearning #STEAM

PBL Spotlight : Authentic Roles When I think about Project-Based Learning, I think about identity. One of the most powerful moments in PBL happens when students discover where they thrive. Not every student wants to stand in front of an audience and that’s okay. Meaningful work requires a team with different strengths. In our projects, students choose authentic roles that align with their interests and talents. Some become researchers, engineers, designers, communicators, or project managers. Every role matters because every contribution moves the work forward. 🎥 In this spotlight, you’ll meet one student sharing their role in our Empathy Through Innovation PBL. Students partnered with MidHudson Regional Hospital to prototype fidget boards that were later manufactured for children receiving care by our HS manufacturing class. This project wasn’t just about creating a product, it was about helping students discover, “This is where I contribute. This is how I make a difference.” Those are the moments that build confidence, shape identity, and remind me what Project-Based Learning is all about. @SammonSTEAM @WCSDEmpowers @drbonkwcsd @dailystem #PBL #ProjectBasedLearning #StudentVoice #PortraitOfAGraduate #STEAM #AuthenticLearning

When I think about PBL, I don’t think about projects. I think about the moments in between. The student who finds their voice during a team discussion. The team that struggles, reflects, and discovers a better solution. The authentic audience member who asks a question no worksheet ever could. The pride on a student’s face when they realize their work has purpose beyond the classroom. The final products are incredible, but they’re only the visible outcome of something much bigger. The real story is the collaboration, perseverance, creativity, and sense of purpose students develop along the way. As I reflect on the 2025–2026 school year, I’m reminded that Project-Based Learning isn’t just about what students create. It’s about who they become. Over the next several weeks, I’ll be spotlighting some of the inspiring PBL experiences from across Wappingers Central School District. I hope you’ll join me in celebrating the students, educators, and community partners who continue to show what’s possible when learning has purpose. @SammonSTEAM @WCSDEmpowers @drbonkwcsd @dailystem @levelupsophie @jmattmiller