Navigating the Journey
How might we make school life more reflective of real life?
Today’s schools are charged with preparing students for an unknown, ever-evolving future and careers yet to be imagined. We have envisioned, tested, and now shine the light on transformative learning experiences that begin by transforming our teaching practice. Using research and best practices, we can help you select the best route and navigate the journey from where you are now to where you want the learning to take you.
Optimize
- Evaluate current instructional methodologies and receive recommendations about next strategic steps
- Evaluate current curriculum outcomes and receive recommendations about next strategic steps
- Evaluate current assessment practices and receive recommendations about next strategic steps
- Accelerate student engagement and deeper learning through faculty workshops
- Shadow teacher or administrator
- Cultivate leadership capability in support of transforming teaching experiences
- Integrate responsive executive coaching for ongoing feedback to optimize teaching experiences
- Cultivate teaching capability through “office hours” for real time questions and wonders by staff
Transform
- Reframe and adopt new teaching methodologies
- Reframe and adopt new curriculum outcomes
- Reframe and adopt new assessment map and practices
- Develop plan to implement and integrate new curriculum, methodologies, outcomes, and/or assessment map and assessment practices through onboarding, digital and print collateral, clarity of language, ongoing training
- Cultivate leadership capability in transforming teaching experiences
- Integrate executive coaching to implement personalized solutions and new methodologies
- Train staff members in transforming teaching experiences through interactive and ongoing coaching
- Cultivate community for high-flyers within to advance and scale up transformative teaching experiences
Disrupt
- Develop new definition of student
- Develop new definition of teacher
- Scale major shifts in teacher to learner centered models, transcripts, school schedule, and technology portfolio
- Cultivate leadership capability in disrupting teaching experiences
- Train staff members in disrupting teaching experiences
What Can You Optimize, Transform, or Disrupt?
design thinking, project-based learning, visible thinking routines, rubrics, learning outcomes, standards, proficiency scales, portrait of a graduate (literacies, skills, attributes, and relationships), professional competencies, scope & sequence, STEAM, Humanities, arts innovation, social-emotional learning, transcripts, instructional rounds, LMS, materials/resources
Consulting Case Studies
How might we empower all learners to be seekers and explorers?
We use neuroscience and educational research to design inquiry-based instructional experiences that foster the curiosity and passions of the learners in order to maximize engagement, agency, and learning transfer. We lead customized professional development workshops on inquiry-based learning strategies to build capacity within teams. We meet schools and individual teams where they are and coach them to redesign the instructional experience of learners using inquiry-based learning methods like visible thinking, project-based learning, and design thinking.
How might we redesign curriculum to meet the needs of all learners?
We offer a range of services to guide schools in curriculum design. We build curriculum using backwards design principles in combination with a competency-based educational approach. We help schools identify learning outcomes and build a progression of learning that is aligned from one grade to the next. We train teachers to plan curriculum and we facilitate team co-creation of unit plans designed for learning transfer of key objectives, skills, and knowledge. We build capacity among teams to plan collaboratively for learning.
The first half of the partnership involved a deep dive into the design thinking methodology, allowing participants to become both users and designers. Team members got a clear understanding of what design thinking is, why it’s such a powerful framework for problem-solving, and what it looks like in the classroom. The second half of the partnership supported the teams to infuse design thinking into the curriculum design including unit plans and design challenges throughout each of the different pathways offered to students.
How might we use assessment as a meaningful and positive tool for growth?
Through the lens of Competency-based education, we can facilitate the creation of assessment maps for a particular course, grade level, or division based on core competencies and learning outcomes. Our expert consultants can guide your team to develop formative and summative performance-task assessments, proficiency scales with objective descriptors of proficiency within target skills, and a plan for utilizing the data to inform the next steps for instruction. We teach teams how to give good feedback in order to progress learners to the next level of proficiency and how to create a classroom environment grounded in reflection and goal-setting.
HOW CAN WE HELP?
Want more information on transforming teaching experiences? Let us know where you are on your journey. Transformation needs a guide. We can help.
