Teachers collaborating to bring the Common Core to life—sounds simple and sensible. But what does it look like in practice? Members of the Center for Teaching Quality’s Collaboratory are already knee-deep in implementation. This brief article summarizes their advice for some starting points for collaborating around the Common Core.

This wiki page describes the DIY Design Challenge Activity used during ISKME's Teacher Academy. Design a DIY Project for students that meets the following design principles:The design must meet a need for their school community. The design must use collaboration between teacher, student, and community. The design must be multidisciplinary. The design must use low cost and/or no cost materials. Group examples are included.

Inspired by the Learning to Love You More Project, the goal for these assignments is to incorporate creativity into your daily routine.For a designated period of time (one week, one month, two months) have students choose a different assignment to do each day and post online, in a wiki or blog (Please include the link to your class wiki or blog at the bottom of the page). They may use a camera or sketch pad to document their work and must give the work a title and description. Students are also encouraged to add new assignment ideas that they create to the list.

The Green Design Challenge is to brainstorm, prototype and present a design idea for a social entrepreneurship project focusing on green design that meets the design principles. Photo examples from ISKME's Teacher Innovation Workshop are included.

Maker Faire participants collaborate in ISKME's Design Lab, using digital stories and salvaged materials to design an innovative school of the future. The Design Lab features Makers Mauro ffortisimo Di Nucci's deconstructed piano and INKA Biospheric Systems' Vertical Garden; as well as Student and Teacher project examples that integrate art, science, sustainability, and green design inspire the creation of shareable open-source learning resources. This wiki page showcases photos and video from the Design Lab, open educational resources for teachers, and a step by step guide through the design process.

ISKME's Design Lab 2011: Make an OER Maker Faire participants collaborate in ISKME's Design Lab to brainstorm, prototype, and present new ideas in teaching and learning. This wiki page showcases photos and video from the Design Lab and a step by step guide through the design process used.

ISKME's OER Commons Teacher Training Initiative offers teachers a collaborative professional development model centered on engagement with Open Educational Resources (OER). The OER Commons Teacher Training Initiative is rooted in the idea that equitable access to high-quality education is a global imperative. Open Educational Resources, or OER, offer opportunities for systemic change in teaching and learning through accessible content, and importantly, through embedding participatory processes and effective technologies to engage with learning for all.

This wiki page documents the Design Process Workshop ISKME facilitated at the Roadtrip Nation offices in Costa Mesa, CA on February 18, 2011. Storytelling, design thinking, improv, brainstorming, and prototyping were used to design for the Design Challenge:How might we create more teacher engagement with the Roadtrip Nation Experience?

This wiki page documents the STEAM Design Challenge Activity ISKME facilitated during the SLANT Summer Institute at San Francisco Unified School District July 19-23, 2010.Participants designed prototypes for an arts integration project for students and posted their ideas on the wiki.

This wiki page documents the Sun Curve Design Challenge, inspired by the "Sun Curve" aquaponic garden sculpture to challenge teachers and students to produce new OER materials and incorporate green design thinking into the classroom.

This wiki page describes ISKME's Teachers as Makers Professional Development Academy.A two day professional development teacher training for the Maker inside each of us. We will explore how Maker-Teacher collaboration can facilitate innovation in the classroom. The Makers’ Projects are points of inspiration for Teachers as they experience DIY inquiry and design. Teachers will have time to brainstorm, create, reflect, and share how their experiences at Maker Faire and with Make Teacher Academy can translate into their teaching using online resources and collaborative tools. This page includes links, activities, photos, video, and group presentations from the Academy.

This wiki page describes the goals and tenents of improv, as well as four different improv activities (Name Gesture Circle, Yellow Ball, Vacations, and Thank You) used in ISKME's Professional Development Teacher Academy: Teachers as Makers June 15-16 2010 at San Mateo County Office of Education.

This improv activity introduces the goals and tenets of improv, as well as instructions for facilitating the Vacations Activity where partners practice the "Yes, And" concept while discussing a vacation they took together.

An overview of the OER Bulk Import process from the Carribean OER Hub training sessions.

Official Convening Videos from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation's 2011 Open Educational Resources Grantees Meeting, OER 2011: The Impact of Open on Teaching and Learning. The meeting was a deep dive into the "O" of the OER movement and will explore issues around shifting OER from the niche to the mainstream in the years ahead. Spanning two and a half days, the convening highlighted accomplishments by OER grantees and provide a unique opportunity for collaboration on how OER can go further to make a significant and positive impact on teachers and learners worldwide.

An overview of the OER Create process from the Carribean OER Hub training sessions.

The goals of the International OER Exchange Pilot project are to: facilitate the development and use of Open Educational Resources (OER) by teachers and students globally, track the development and use of the science learning materials and data collection, especially around climate change study, created in the project through OER Commons, and highlight the process and results through workshops and conference presentations.The broader purpose of the project is to support the international exchange of information and understanding through freely available resources among teachers and students, especially in the area of environmental science and climate change investigation.

This wiki page documents the Projection Investigation Activity done during San Francisco Unified School District's SLANT workshop on January 29, 2011. Projection information, Julia Marshall's 5 Ways to Integrate, and links are provided, as well as the introductory Improv Activity "Advertising Team" which stretches the imagination to design something for the future. The Projection Investigation Activity begins with research around a scientific theme, then brainstorming and prototyping design ideas around that theme, and finally writing a narrative to present the prototype.

This wiki page documents the activities, articles, links, and resources used, as well as the teacher created Open Educational Resources (OER) during the SLANT Institute.On July 19-23, 2010 San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), in collaboration with the California Academy of Sciences, the de Young Museum, 826 Valencia, KQED, ISKME, and the Exploratorium launched the Science, Literacy, Arts iNtegration in the Twenty-first century (SLANT) Summer Institute for Pre-k through 8th Grade Teachers to explore and investigate science and art integration. Participants received resources to use in the classroom and on field trips as they plan lessons with grade level colleagues.

An activity that allows students to explore the words, images, sounds, and movements that represent the season of their birth. Activity incluedes photos taken of arts educators performing during ISKME's OER and Arts Education workshops, Fall 2009.