Teachers start year with a twist at Antioch's Grass Lake School

Going back to school had a "twist" this year for the teachers at Grass Lake School in Antioch.

The teachers were participants in an all-school event that began the year with them a bit in the dark.

Teachers were bused to Twisted Limits, an escape room in McHenry. Small teams were sent off to unlock the secrets that would lead them to "escaping."

No one was left behind, so it seems that the teachers were able to unravel the clues through communication and problem solving.

The past two years have been very challenging in education. Last year, Grass Lake School District 36 adopted an all-school program called Project Based Learning, a teaching method in which students learn by actively engaging in real-world and personally meaningful projects.

The purpose of this event was to demonstrate the strategies and impact of real-life problem solving and the skills that it takes to find a solution, with the teachers taking the place of the students.

It also gave the staff a jump start at incorporating new staff and sharing meaningful experiences to build on PBL for this coming year.

The staff is in the process of developing the first of two PBL projects of the year, and this experience will help teachers see their students through the lens of being a participant. The participants are eager to apply what they experienced to make learning more engaging and to boost learner participation.