A few weeks ago, I shared an infographic called A 10-Day Recipe for Transformation, inspired by the Tapas Approach to Project-Based Learning. Today, I’m sharing it again, along with a new companion resource: Find the PBL Opportunity in Your Standards. I’ve been thinking a lot about the Portrait of a Graduate as New York begins rolling out its statewide framework. I keep coming back to one idea: Portrait of a Graduate competencies shouldn’t live on a poster. They should live in the work students are doing every day. The challenge is moving from identifying competencies to intentionally creating opportunities for students to practice, develop, demonstrate, and reflect on them through authentic learning experiences. That’s where Project-Based Learning can help. PBL isn’t the only way to develop these competencies, but it provides a natural context for students to communicate, collaborate, think critically, create, reflect, and apply their learning to meaningful problems and purposes. And bringing elements of PBL into instruction doesn’t require redesigning an entire unit or launching a weeks-long project. Over the next several posts, I’ll unpack The 10-Day Recipe for Transformation, sharing small, manageable ways to incorporate elements of PBL into existing instruction while creating opportunities for students to develop Portrait of a Graduate competencies. And perhaps the best place to begin is actually before Day 1. Take a look at the Find the PBL Opportunity in Your Standards infographic. Start with what you already teach. Look for standards that invite students to investigate, analyze, design, create, communicate, solve problems, or use evidence, and consider whether the learning can connect to a meaningful problem, purpose, or audience. Not every standard needs to become a project, nor is every standard equally suited for PBL. Some provide important foundational knowledge. The goal isn’t to force PBL into every standard. It’s to find the opportunities already within your curriculum. One more important distinction: Participation doesn’t automatically equal competency development. Working in groups doesn’t necessarily develop collaboration. Presenting doesn’t automatically develop effective communication. Making something doesn’t necessarily develop creativity. These opportunities need to be intentional, with practice, feedback, and reflection that help students strengthen the competencies they are developing. Once you find the right curricular opportunity, you’re ready to take the first small bite. In my next post, we’ll begin with Day 1: Launch the Challenge, exploring ways to turn that opportunity into a meaningful challenge that sparks curiosity, creates purpose, and begins bringing Portrait of a Graduate competencies to life. Standards tell us what students need to learn.
Portrait of a Graduate describes who we want them to become.
PBL creates opportunities for students to do both. Small bites. Big impact. @TKtalksSTEAM @WCSDEmpowers @drbonkwcsd @DitchThatTxtbk

One of the most powerful truths about Project-Based Learning is that the community partner celebration and public product is far more than a showcase. It has the potential to be a moment of transformation. When done well, the public product is an authentic performance assessment. It’s the moment students discover that what they’ve learned has value beyond the classroom, and sometimes, they discover something even more important about themselves. At an end of year celebration at Mid-Hudson Regional Hospital, students from across our district shared projects they had created for children receiving care. As the event was winding down, a group of high school students stood off to the side talking. A third-grade teacher nearby overheard one student quietly say: “I didn’t think we were that important.” That sentence stopped her in her tracks. The student had just realized that every family, healthcare professional, educator, and community partner in the room had come to celebrate their work because it mattered. Their ideas mattered. Their effort mattered. They mattered. Not long afterward, the teacher had told me what she overheard with tears in her eyes. It was clear the moment had stayed with her. I know it can be difficult to find teacher coverage, coordinate schedules, and organize authentic community experiences. They take time. They take planning. They take commitment. But moments like this are worth every bit of the effort as students realize they are capable of making a difference in the world. @TKtalksSTEAM @drbonkwcsd @WCSDEmpowers

Most schools ask students, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Project-Based Learning asks a different question: “What problem are you ready to help solve today?” What happens when students are trusted with real challenges? They stop acting like students completing assignments and begin acting like scientists, engineers, historians, designers, entrepreneurs, and community leaders. The classroom shifts from a place of compliance to a place of contribution. In a world where information is instantly available, the true value of education is no longer what students can memorize, it’s what they can create, improve, and contribute. Project-Based Learning gives students opportunities to tackle meaningful problems, collaborate with others, learn from failure, and produce work that matters beyond a gradebook. The most powerful public product of PBL isn’t the presentation, website, prototype, or exhibition. It’s the transformation of a young person who begins to believe: “I can make things better.” And that belief may be the most important outcome education can produce. @TKtalksSTEAM @DitchThatTxtbk @WCSDEmpowers @drbonkwcsd @dailystem

The original purpose of the @wcsdempowers STEAM Project-Based Learning webpage was to use our district as a community partner and showcase the incredible work happening throughout WCSD. It has since grown into a repository of project-based learning experiences that highlight the creativity, innovation, and impact of our students and educators. Check out 2025/2026 we just added it. sites.google.com/wcsdny.org/… We have always believed in foundational skills because who wouldn’t want our kids to have the basic survival kit for life? But that is not our final destination. From small-scale projects completed over a couple of days, to experiences that lasted months, to full interdisciplinary projects that spanned an entire school year, we are fundamentally shifting how students interact with their knowledge. Instead of simply learning content, students use their knowledge to create something meaningful for someone else. We cannot thank our district and our community partners enough for believing in this work. Your support has helped create authentic learning experiences that empower students to apply their learning in meaningful ways and make a difference beyond the classroom. @TKtalksSTEAM @WCSDEmpowers @CentralHudson @SenatorRolison @MandT_Bank @Habitat_org @drbonkwcsd @dailystem @DitchThatTxtbk

One of the biggest misconceptions about Project-Based Learning is that it’s all flash, takes months to complete, replaces explicit instruction, or ignores foundational skills. It couldn’t be further from the truth. This year, I worked with a few of my colleagues in who were excited about PBL but also overwhelmed by where to begin. Instead of asking them to redesign an entire unit, we started small. Together, we designed short, focused projects that allowed students to apply what they had learned, and the impact was awesome and the teachers are on board for more PBL next year. Great PBL begins with great teaching. Students still need explicit direct instruction, strong foundational skills, guided practice, and formative assessment. Those aren’t replaced, they’re the foundation. The difference is that PBL doesn’t stop there. Once students have the knowledge, they use it. They investigate authentic problems, create meaningful solutions, receive feedback, revise their work, and share their learning with an authentic audience. This 10-Day Recipe for Transformation grew out of the work I did with my colleagues this year. Inspired by the philosophy behind the second edition of The Tapas Approach to Project-Based Learning (Small Bites. Big Ideas.) It is designed to help teachers take that first step with confidence and discover that meaningful PBL doesn’t have to start with a giant project. If you’re looking for project ideas to pair with this framework, explore our Innovation Hub. lnkd.in/g2Z6Wy_d You’ll find classroom-ready projects organized by grade level, subject area, and standards. Foundational skills are essential. My belief is they’re the starting point, not the final destination. Small Bites. Big Ideas. @TKtalksSTEAM @WCSDEmpowers @drbonkwcsd

Civic engagement in full effect at @OakGroveES40 today. Grade 6 students had the opportunity to share their voices, ideas, and learning with community leaders who can help shape the future, including @drbonkwcsd , our Superintendent, @SenatorRolison and others. This PBL celebration showcased a truly interdisciplinary learning experience. By redesigning our science and social studies curriculum around authentic, real-world challenges, and intentionally aligning mathematics and ELA skills to that work, students applied reading, writing, communication, research, data analysis, measurement, and problem-solving in meaningful contexts. Rather than learning subjects in isolation, students experienced how disciplines work together to help us better understand and improve the world around us. From field observations and biodiversity research through @inaturalist ⁠, to designing their own cuneiform tablets with @tinkercad ⁠, students leveraged tools ranging from crayons to AI to investigate, create, and communicate their thinking. Throughout the project, students explored how geography, early civilizations, ecosystems, human impact, and civic action are interconnected, all in an effort to better understand and help preserve our precious Hudson River for future generations. Their work demonstrates what is possible when learning is connected to purpose, audience, and action. @TKtalksSTEAM @WCSDEmpowers @steammachinepd

As we approach the final days of the school year, I am incredibly proud to work alongside colleagues who continue to create meaningful learning experiences right up to the very end. In just four days, our third-grade students completed a project-based learning experience focused on inheritance and variation of traits. Although a real garden would have been ideal time was our enemy. Students analyzed 13 butterfly traits, created parent butterflies, and then developed offspring butterflies that inherited a unique combination of traits from both parents. They also identified habitats and host flowers before using AI to transform their original work into beautiful virtual butterfly gardens that demonstrated their understanding of heredity, variation, adaptation, and ecosystems. What makes this project especially meaningful is that the learning extends beyond the classroom. Our district serves as a valuable community partner by providing an authentic audience through our STEAM Project-Based Learning webpage, where these virtual butterfly gardens will be shared with families and the entire Wappingers community to experience and celebrate student learning. The project may have lasted only a few days, but the impact, and the audience, will last much longer. @TKtalksSTEAM @WCSDEmpowers @drbonkwcsd

5 years of partnership with @CentralHudson, and it keeps getting better! Today 160 students from 6th grade at Evans Elementary, 4th grade @FishkillFrogs & Brinkerhoff Elementary built virtual breakout rooms to present their PBL work. CH’s VP said: “It’s been a wonderful community partnership.” Our Superintendent noted students came in with index cards, nervous at first, then relaxed and owned the room. One student admitted nerves presenting to adults, but loved the chance to show what he created. Their work is now housed on Central Hudson’s Kids Corner for all to see! 🙌 This is the power of Innovative School Boards, Superintendents, and Community Partners committed to making a difference in students’ lives in the age of AI through PBL. @TKtalksSTEAM @WCSDEmpowers @drbonkwcsd #PBL #CentralHudson #StudentSuccess #FutureReady #AIinEducation

There’s more to this including what teachers who navigate it well actually do differently linkedin.com/posts/john-samm…

Productive struggle isn’t a technique. It’s a relationship between a teacher who holds the difficulty and a student who learns they can tolerate more than they thought. @TKtalksSTEAM @DitchThatTxtbk

Today I became an editor. A sixth grader is the reason why. Full story → linkedin.com/posts/john-samm… @TKtalksSTEAM @WCSDEmpowers @drbonkwcsd

Longer version with some other practical ways through it here linkedin.com/posts/john-samm…

Coverage pressure doesn’t win because teachers are lazy or resistant. It wins because choosing depth over coverage is a professional risk most teachers can’t afford. The system isn’t irrational. It’s optimizing for the wrong thing. That’s a harder truth than most PBL advocates want to sit with. Start with one unit, not a whole course. Find the standards that cluster naturally around a real problem worth solving. You’re not abandoning coverage,  you’re being strategic about where depth earns its keep. @TKtalksSTEAM @steammachinepd