Program design & change management
H.O.T.Shots
OrganizationSouth Western School District
LocationPennsylvania
TimeframeDelivered
RoleProgram Designer & Teacher
The challenge
Students needed a reason to practice higher-order thinking together — across every subject, as a normal part of school, not as a special add-on reserved for a few.
The approach
As a teacher at South Western School District, Mike developed and helped implement H.O.T.Shots (Higher Order Thinking Skills), a grant-funded, school-wide creative problem-solving program. A team representing every academic discipline built weekly challenges so the competition stayed tied to real instruction.
The result
Roughly 1,500 middle- and high-school students participated, with homerooms competing across grade levels. An annual gym-wide competition and a reward trip for the winning homeroom sustained engagement across the full program.