Catch a Fire

This book will inspire, challenge and engage you—and transform your teaching and learning.

Each chapter in this book is written by a different educator or team about their experiences with project-based learning, both in and out of the classroom. They reflect not only on the how of project-based learning, but more importantly, on the what and the why. They offer insight into how connecting with learners, honouring their experiences, and promoting deep and rich questioning can be the path to powerful projects and learning. Their writing and thinking is saturated with empathy, expertise, a desire to improve their practice, and an acknowledgment of the need to collaborate.

Matt Henderson is an award-winning educator who believes that education is meant to create agents for social change. Fascinated by the relationship between experience, ecological literacy, and systems thinking, he enjoys engaging learners in meaningful, deep, and authentic projects. Matt was the founding principal of the innovative Maples Met School, a Big Picture Learning school in Winnipeg’s Seven Oaks School division. He is currently Assistant Superintendent, Curriculum and Programs of that division, as well as a PhD student at the University of Manitoba. @henderson204 www.mrhenderson.ca Theresa Armstrong completed her Bachelor of Education degree in the spring of 2018 from Red River College and the University of Winnipeg. Her teaching focus is business, technology, and mathematics. Before entering education, Theresa earned her accounting designation and has worked for over fifteen years in private and nonprofit organizations. Theresa turned to education, after two years of teaching postsecondary business courses, to learn the essential pedagogy necessary to be an effective teacher. Theresa’s passion for teaching comes from a desire for all her students to succeed in 21st-century competencies. Dr. Eva Brown is a passionate teacher educator at Red River College in Winnipeg and the University of Calgary. She has over thirty years of teaching experience in various disciplines at the junior and senior high school level, and in higher education. Her focus is seeking leading and learning opportunities for her students and herself that will have an impact on education. Eva demonstrates her strong belief that educators must model their learning to their students. Her research interests include designing learning for technology-rich collaborative learning environments and the development of research skills in new teachers so that they can become teachers as researchers. Will Burton is currently a Grade 10 Advisor at Maples Met School. He was born into a farming family in the United Kingdom before moving to rural Manitoba in the early 2000s. Will has been teaching in Winnipeg since 2013 at the elementary and high-school level. He is currently working on his thesis for a Master’s in Education for Sustainable Development and Well-being from the University of Manitoba. Jonathan Dueck teared up a little when watching the movie Home with his family. He knows at least three jokes that he shares relentlessly with his students. Once, when he was five, he tried to bungee jump out of the maple tree in his front yard. He has been taking small risks ever since, learning from each mistake along the way. Bonnie Ferguson-Baird is a wife, and mother of three. Her background in social work, education, and intentional parenting has led her down a path (surprisingly) toward homeschooling. With the eldest in university, one near graduation, and a creative 12-year-old bringing up the rear, her reflections about what, how, and when we learn, and how we address group work and project-based learning, come from a unique perspective. Keith Fulford has a pet. During nonteaching hours he likes the jokes. Keith has a history of using author bio advice websites. He takes joy in the work and creativity of working as an educator. Tom Lake and Bonnie Powers are passionate experiential educators with experience in traditional (primary through higher) education, and outdoor, corporate, and environmental education programming. This husband and wife team travels to study and engage with different forms of education around the world. Their interests include learning, being outside, and thinking outside the box. Dave Law has taught in alternative education settings for 13 years, first as a teacher at Eagles’ Circle School – an off-campus program for at-risk middle years students – and then for 11 years at Churchill High School in the Grades 7–8 Flexible Learning program. He currently teaches Grade 11 at the Seven Oaks Met School. Dave has presented on inquiry-based learning in Denver and Chicago for the Coalition of Essential Schools and was the keynote speaker – along with four of his students – at the 2017 Spring Forum of the Manitoba Education Research Network (MERN). His master’s thesis on inquiry-based learning and mathematics was published as a part of MERN’s second monograph series. Glenys MacLeod is a wife, and mother to two children. She is currently the vice-principal at École South Pointe School, a dual track kindergarten to grade 8 school in Winnipeg. She is also a graduate student at the University of Manitoba. Glenys is passionate about empowering students to be passionately curious, fearless in exploration, and relentless learners for life. Jacob Mans is a practicing architect and educator. His research is focused on understanding the relationship between landscape and building performance. Jacob holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in studio art from Luther College, a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Cincinnati, and a Master of Design Studies degree from Harvard University. He is a cofounder of the Decentralized Design Lab and an assistant professor of Architecture at the University of Minnesota. Tom Lake and Bonnie Powers are passionate experiential educators with experience in traditional (primary through higher) education, and outdoor, corporate, and environmental education programming. This husband and wife team travels to study and engage with different forms of education around the world. Their interests include learning, being outside, and thinking outside the box. Laura Sims, PhD, is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education, Université de Saint-Boniface, Winnipeg. She teaches courses related to cultural diversity in education as well as integrating Indigenous perspectives into education. In her research, she specializes in education for sustainability and community-based assessment processes. Laura taught high school for 10 years in Winnipeg and in the Dominican Republic. For three years, she managed a Canadian International Development Agency environmental project in Central America. Sid Williamson has been teaching for 24 years with the Winnipeg School Division. Her classroom experiences range from multi-age grades 1 to 6 to working as an inquiry support teacher. She loves spending time with her three adult daughters and her friends. She loves working out and, most of all, loves to learn new things! Dr. Alex Wilson, Opaskwayak Cree Nation, is one of many organizers with the Idle No More movement, integrating progressive movement work with grassroots interventions that prevent the destruction of land and water. She is particularly focused on educating about and protecting the Saskatchewan River Delta and supporting community-based food sovereignty efforts. She is a full professor and the Academic Director at the Aboriginal Education Research Centre at the University of Saskatchewan.