PULSE OF PBL
  • Home
  • About
  • WORKSHOPS
  • Book Resources
  • Contact Us

About the book

“My students desperately need Social and Emotional Learning competencies, but how do I effectively teach these skills with my already limited time?”
Buy it on Amazon

​In a post-Covid landscape, teachers need tools to integrate Social and Emotional Learning into the daily fabric of their classrooms without losing time for academic content. If you don’t plan to teach SEL skills upfront, you will lose academic time as students struggle throughout the year. Explicitly teaching Transformative SEL competencies is an unparalleled opportunity to create a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive learning environment for ALL learners. PBL generates organic situations to intentionally foster the SEL competencies daily. The Pulse of PBL offers tried and true strategies on how each of the five SEL competencies can be seamlessly taught, practiced, and assessed inside the PBL framework. 


Each chapter of The Pulse of PBL will demonstrate, competency by competency, how SEL can be naturally embedded into PBL. Specific examples, protocols, and stories from both elementary and secondary classrooms around the U.S. illustrate how PBL and SEL are a powerful combination. Transformative SEL changes the way students see themselves as learners, becoming active participants in their communities and the world! 


  • How do I leverage student social and cultural identities to develop their Self-Awareness?
  • How do I build students’ ability to Self-Manage their time, task, and teams?
  • How do I create student experiences that heighten empathy to sharpen their Social Awareness?
  • How do I strengthen students’ capacity for collaboration and communication to forge productive Relationship Skills?
  • How do I present authentic opportunities for Responsible Decision-Making in projects to affect their communities and their lives? 
  • How do I assess the SEL competencies to ensure ALL students apply their skills in meaningful learning?

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Picture











Mike Kaechele

@mikekaechele
michaelkaechele.com
Mike is a teacher who leads Project Based Learning and Social and Emotional Learning workshops around the country helping educators make the shift to student-centered inquiry. He earned national exposure as an avid blogger and has been featured in Edutopia, PBLWorks, Edweek, New Tech Network, WeGrowTeachers, and TeachThought. He is National Faculty Emeritus with PBLWorks (Buck Institute for Education). 
During his 20 year career, he has integrated projects across all four core content areas and electives in both middle and high school settings. While living abroad, Mike gained international experience teaching in China. Mike was a founding teacher at Kent Innovation High School, a nationally recognized PBL school of the New Tech Network. His passion is inspiring educators to design SEL infused PBL curriculum for all content areas and age levels. Mike is convinced that we don’t need to prepare students for “someday,” but that they should take on meaningful work right now! 








​Matinga Ragatz, Ph.D.

@matinga
matinga.com
Picture
Dr. Matinga Ragatz is a multiple-award winning educator, author, keynote speaker, and consultant. As an innovative teacher, she redefined learning and developed a trusted voice striving to revolutionize the way children learn and the way teachers teach. Among many accolades, she served as Michigan Teacher of the Year and in 2017 was inducted in the US National Teacher Hall of Fame. She holds a PhD in Education and Leadership with a specialty in Learning, Instruction, and Innovation and is National Faculty at Buck Institute for Education (dba PBLworks).
​

Matinga's international background and her own challenging learning experiences inspire a unique perspective on the cultivation of students' talents and abilities. In 2017, she opened a PBL food science school in Tanzania focusing on children of extreme poverty and their learning needs. In 2020, she founded a scholarship and advocacy program for school children to support parents financially affected by COVID-19 in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.
​

Matinga inspires school leaders to create real-world engagement within their schools utilizing the innovative strategies that she has developed and successfully implemented over 20 years. She believes that accessible and effective education is the keystone of economic development and imperative in the geopolitical discourse. To this end, she has carried this message to educators in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. She is currently an National Public Radio (NPR - Michigan Radio) education commentator where she speaks periodically about education issues throughout the state of Michigan.
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • About
  • WORKSHOPS
  • Book Resources
  • Contact Us