The BOB Approach Origin Story
BOB is an Approach
I’ve never been content to teach within the system- I’ve always been driven to transform it from within. Early in my career, I saw how rigid schedules and compartmentalized subjects left little room for what matters most in education: connection, creativity, and agency.
Rather than resist the blocks of school- timetables, expectations, curriculum- I began to build outside them. That’s how Building Outside the Blocks (BOBs) was born: a project-based framework where students grow skills, share their stories, and learn deeply over time. BOBs create time-released, student-driven opportunities that allow learners to iterate, connect, and find their voice within and beyond the classroom. They are projects rooted in humanity—where identity and skill-building meet.
But as I watched these projects transform student learning, I recognized something equally important: educators need these spaces too. They need autonomy, meaningful connection, and time to reflect—not just tools to survive, but practices that help them thrive.
That realization led to The Mentoree—a mentorship institute for educators that operates on one simple, powerful belief:
We all have something to teach, and we all have something to learn.
The Mentoree creates ecosystems of relational professional learning through 1:1 mentorship, group learning, self-directed training, and systems-wide consulting. It invites educators to grow on their own terms, with intentional support that centers well-being, identity, and efficacy.
From Building Outside the Blocks projects (BOBs) to The Mentoree, my work is rooted in rehumanizing education- designing responsive systems that invite people to be seen, heard, and valued. I don’t believe in one-size-fits-all anything. I believe in learning that starts with listening, grows through reflection, and flourishes through community.
Skill, Autonomy, Connection, and Community
With blocks of time, subjects, and units, teaching can feel like a profession of compartments. These blocks can organize time, but they can also be confining. So much is possible when you understand the blocks and build beyond them. The WHY of BOB is about building learning experiences that are both differentiated and personalizing.
Using the Building Outside the Blocks approach helps to teach a variety of content and learning skills while contributing to a supportive and collaborative class community. BOB is a way to help individuals and schools promote student voice, build capacity and propel engagement. More than anything, using a BOB Approach helps students see and be themselves at school.
Connection is Key
Building Outside the Blocks projects, referred to as BOBs, focus on student learning goals, including standards-based content and skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, communication, collaboration, and self-management. They help student build a sense of ownership of their work through self direction and agency. BOBs also build connections for individuals to themselves and for the community to each other.
Authentic Task, Problem or Question
BOBs are teacher-provided, student-driven assignments. Like all Project Based Learning (PBL), BOBs are framed by a meaningful task or question to explore. They are catalysts for a personalizing inquiry that helps to meet a bevy of curriculum expectations and build learning skills in meaningful authentic contexts and speaks to students’ lives and interests.
Minimal Class Time
Unlike traditional Project Based Learning scenarios, BOBs mostly take place at home. While some instruction and lead time may be required, BOB projects take little class time. It takes around 5 minutes for each BOB project presentation, yet students spend hours preparing on their own self- directed time. With no more than 3 presenters on a given day, this high yielding strategy is especially useful for teachers trying to do more with less class time.
Sharing and Feedback
Students present to and hear feedback from their class. The classroom is an active learning community of "coaches” who articulate the success criteria through formative feedback in the form of questions, comments, and critiques celebrating accomplishments and encouraging next steps. The teacher guides and is a creative collaborator in the process as well as a facilitator of the presentation experience. Along with a rubric, formative feedback is given in writing to clarify next steps.
Voice, Choice and Personalizing Learning
BOBs are ways for learners to bring a piece of themselves to a school assignment by allowing them to have a say in what they produce as well as when they share it with the class. The teacher determines the overall timeline of the assignment including presentation dates. BOBs are personalizing as opposed to personalized. A framework is provided, but the rest is up to the students.