Learning Through Teaching: Building Critical Consciousness in My Classroom
Looking back on my time teaching English, I know I didn’t include enough books by Black and Brown authors, or books by women. In film class, I predominantly showed white men telling stories about white men because those were the movies I knew and had watched and studied. I was limited by own life experiences… Read More ›
Five Ways to Jump-Start Personalized Learning This Fall
Turning schools into personalized learning environments can take a lot of time, research, reflection and trial and error. While systemic change takes the right tools and conversations, small steps can also lead to large gains in creating personalized learning environments responsive to student needs. This resource from Remake Learning outlines, describes and provides examples for… Read More ›
Resource Round-Up: Honoring Student Voice with Authentic Products
Engagement can be an ongoing struggle in remote and traditional classroom settings, but there are technologies and strategies available that can open the door to many authentic student projects. Blogs, podcasts, digital storytelling, and a variety of non-traditional genres of writing can feel closer to the kind of communication students do out of school. Below… Read More ›
Five Strategies to Support Student-Teacher Relationships for Greater Personalization
We know relationships are the foundation of good teaching and learning. When educators know their students, they are able to personalize their approaches and draw out students’ passions, interests and engagement in their learning. But, in order for meaningful relationship-building to take place, there needs to be time, space and structures for educators and students… Read More ›
Education in the Balance: Tensions Affecting Education’s Future
Education leaders at all levels need to grapple with key issues and tensions as they strive to meet learners’ needs, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to understand how to support and empower school systems in tumultuous times, we explore three topics in the series Education in the Balance: Tensions Affecting Education’s Futures: leadership… Read More ›
Don’t Be Quiet In the Library: Sharing Compelling Data About Student-Centered Learning
“Yeah…but does it work?” I’ll bet every single one of us striving to support and implement student-centered learning has been asked that more times than we can count. Every policymaker, educator, budget-developer, civil rights advocate, funder and parent wants answers. Not being able to answer that question definitively has undoubtably hampered the ability for practices… Read More ›
For Students, Lived Experience = Expertise
As I watched the youth researchers deliver their project presentations during the conclusion of the YARI Project held in December 2020, I beamed with excitement, awe, inspiration and pride. After a formidably challenging year, to say the least, the youth researchers forged ahead and persisted to successfully complete their research projects. The final event did… Read More ›
Highlighting the Importance of Relationships During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Associate Principal Darius Green sat down to reflect and describe what student-centered learning has been like for his school community during COVID-19. For him, building relationships is the cornerstone of a thriving school community. Leaders and educators must be honest in how they address social injustices to give each student what they need to be… Read More ›
Resource Round-Up: Learner Agency
Learner agency is the initiative and ability to act in a way that produces meaningful change in oneself or the environment. It’s also an important part of student-centered education. Below is a list of resources that can help educators promote learner agency so that students feel empowered to solve problems, make changes and construct the way learning happens in their classrooms and schools.… Read More ›
Reflections and Resources for Educators Facilitating Youth-Led Research
After concluding the youth-led research project, YARI, Director of the Youth Development Master’s Program at Rhode Island College, Victoria Restler, sat down to reflect on what educators, mentors and graduate students involved in the project learned from working with youth. What is your biggest takeaway from your involvement and role in the YARI project? I… Read More ›
How to Address Educational Equity: Research-Based Recommendations for Educators
In the last several months, public school stakeholders raised questions about how schools, classrooms and communities have responded and adapted to the changing health and political landscapes. Today, these questions underscore an ever-growing sense of urgency. Indeed, the ongoing demonstrations in opposition to systemic violence against Black people and the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic… Read More ›
Your Struggles are Systemic and Valid: Reflections from a Youth Researcher of Color
Humans have an inherent desire for everything we do to mean something – to be bigger than ourselves. In reflecting on my time with the Youth Action Researchers at the Intersection (YARI) project, I wanted to accurately depict this project in a somewhat professional manner: write down data and draw up organized charts. But in truth, this has been messy,… Read More ›