At one Ohio school, teachers take a backseat, letting students drive hands-on classroom lessons.
They are faulted by a recent wave of education advocates as emphasizing education theory over hands-on classroom training, and as graduating teachers with weak academic skills.
Mr. Taylor, who teaches architecture around the country and internationally, also teaches in nearby elementary schools, using his building as a hands-on classroom.
Root training in real lessons: In a small straw poll I conducted in the last few weeks, the vast majority of teachers said that the most helpful sessions they've had were linked to hands-on classroom practice, peer-led observations in their own school or getting out into other establishments.
The curriculum provided background information on the diseases and their vectors and included five inquiry-based hands-on classroom activities.
Teachers were provided with a step-by-step classroom implementation guide, kits that contained hands-on classroom activities for students, as well as online and face-to-face professional development designed to prepare them to use the computer-based and off-line learning activities in their classrooms.
"My summer spent at Science Park was a great experience for me and translated into direct hands-on classroom activities for my middle school students," says Elissa Quintero Adams, a seventh-grade science teacher at Cedar Creek Middle School in Bastrop.
This way, staff can see first-hand what sort of impact their work is having on classrooms around the province.
About 200 counselors were on hand, one in every classroom, and police and district security guards surrounded the campus, largely to make students feel safe and to keep them from reporters.
Montessori classrooms are much more hands-on than traditional classrooms.
A formal program provides classroom instruction and hands-on training.
