Our Story
CraftED has some extraordinary DNA, which our administrators and educators tell us they can feel when we work with them:
CraftED founder Dr. Jennifer Pieratt began her career as a classroom teacher. Her insight into the challenges modern teachers face, combined with her years of expertise as a School Development Coach, have led her to be a leading international voice in PBL implementation. Highly familiar with the challenges her fellow teachers faced in successfully adopting best practices of PBL, she set out to offer a different approach to PBL – one that was clear, easy to adopt, and sustainable. You can learn about her approach to PBL in her award-nominated books or her published publications and interviews. Leveraging her own classroom experiences and her experience as a PhD in Education, Jenny developed CraftED Curriculum as a professional service and product suite that would meet every teachers’ needs. Today, CraftED offers nimble, progressive, and action-oriented guidance to make bringing PBL to the classroom an inspiring and CONVENIENT mission for teachers of any grade level, all over the world. To read about her success as a business owner click here.
34
States where we’ve worked
6
Countries touched by CraftED’s approach
14
Grade levels we support
Our Mission
“There is no program that can accomplish what CraftED has done in assisting us in creating curriculum that inspires and drives curiosity.”
-Michael Ecker, Principal
We believe that learning should be uniquely tailored to both students and educators. We pride ourselves on providing teachers with personalized PBL support that will result in longer-term impact. By offering tailored, ongoing PBL support in, through products, in-person and online workshops, we assure that educators and schools have easy access to powerful PBL resources that are affordable, practical, accessible, and time-efficient.
The CraftED promise
With every CraftED resource and service, you are enriching your students’ classroom experience while furthering your own professional development as an educator.
“Jenny’s work with our team over two years has provided a consistent touchstone and built an atmosphere of trust to support our development of quality PBL experiences for our students. When I have teachers coming to me regularly asking for collaboration time with Jenny to help push their work further, I know that we are onto something good.”
“Bringing her depth of knowledge and amazing ability to share her expertise, CraftED listens with care and facilitates powerful, productive collaboration. With Jenny’s leadership, we’ve efficiently moved leaps and bounds because of her dedication to empathy, connected communities and thoughtful ideation.”
Our Team
In keeping with our mission to tailor our support to the unique needs of each community and school with which we work, CraftED’s network of experts includes several talented education professionals with specific areas of expertise. Our Experts are able to personally guide teachers deeper in their work with topics such as math, science and foundational skills in the elementary grades.
“Meet Jenny” -President, Founder
Dr. Jenny Pieratt is an international expert on Project Based Learning and the founder of CraftED Curriculum. Previously Jenny was a veteran classroom teacher at the world-renowned High Tech High; she is also a former School Development Coach for New Tech Network and National Faculty at Buck Institute for Education. Jenny is the Founder of CraftED and continues to oversee all operations of the business in her capacity as President, while remaining active in fieldwork via onsite and virtual PBL coaching and consulting to administrators and teachers across the US and abroad. Jenny has studied teaching and learning theory extensively; she holds a PhD in Educational Philosophy, with an emphasis in PBL, from the Claremont Colleges. She is an accomplished author and sought-after speaker on the topic of PBL; to read her research and publications, please click here.”
Meet the Experts
Ryan Gallagher, NGSS expert
California adopted NGSS in part thanks to the great work of our own Ryan Gallagher. He was a proud member of the Distinguished Educators Panel at the Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center, and the California Science Expert Panel that made revisions and recommendations for California adoption of NGSS Ryan is incredibly creative in ideating project ideas and has a knack for marrying real world connections, rigor and student engagement through PBL and PrBL. Ryan has been supporting adult learners in their PBL journey for the past ten years-in fact he currently supports teachers and pre-service teachers as a researcher and STEM instructional lead in San Diego. Ryan is at the forefront of progressive education through his “continuous improvement projects” within K-12 schools, his role co-facilitating a networked improvement community focused on college, career, and civic readiness, and Director of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Early Implementation Initiative. Ryan proudly self identifies as a father, husband, science nerd and White Sox fan.
Jeremy Manger, Elementary Expert
Jeremy Manger has been an educator for over fourteen years and has taught in New York, Oregon, California and Ethiopia. A short visit to Jeremy’s classroom at High Tech Elementary North County and you will feel the buzz he creates, exciting students and teachers alike with his approach to create with intentional teaching and learning. From student-run restorative practices to foundational literacy and math skills within a Project-based setting, his impact is remarkable.
Jeremy has a great deal of experience supporting new teachers through the Induction process, and designing and facilitating adult learning experiences. Jeremy has represented High Tech High in PBL trainings across the country and works closely with school leadership to strategize on Professional Development at the High Tech High schools-particularly as it relates to best practices in elementary education. And his approach goes far beyond core lessons; Jeremy is committed to addressing social equity through the projects he designs, supporting student voice and choice and teaching foundational literacy and numeracy skills. When Jeremy isn’t brainstorming and planning projects that build his third grade students into change-agents, you will find him at the beach or the ball fields with his family.
Leah Henry, Secondary PBL and Instructional Leadership Expert
Leah Henry is a veteran PBL facilitator and instructional coach. She has taught in rural, suburban and urban schools and both charter, parochial, and public schools in grades 7-12. The bulk of her classroom PBL experience comes from working in an Expeditionary Learning school and a New Tech Network school.
Leah has worked with educators from all grade levels and content areas as a School Development Coach for the New Tech Network for six years before returning to the high school she graduated from as a teacher. Leah’s favorite part of project planning is the project ideation phase. In her free time Leah likes to dream about what school can be and work towards making it happen! Leah and her husband have three young boys who keep them young and reside in Indiana.