Your weekly source of learner-centered inspiration
November 30, 2023
Dear Educator,
Last week I had the honor of working with education leaders in Pennsylvania at the PASCD conference and I led a workshop, It’s Not More, It’s Different. I always enjoy the conversations and realizations when we reflect to understand the context in which we live, what is working, and what is challenging.
If we just keep adding more and “doing” school harder, without time to process what fits together, what can be taken out, what is repetitive, snd what is missing, teachers will burn out and fail to have the impact that we want to have on our students.
This week I want to share how our partner, Escondido Union School District, is leveraging student voice to drive their design teams and identify their next steps toward bringing their Framework for the Future to life.
With Gratitude,
We want to hear from you! Share your Learner-Centered Bright Spot with us here.
BRIGHT SPOT OF THE WEEK
Designing with learners
To align school learning experiences and conditions to their new profile of a learner, Escondido Union school innovation teams engaged in empathy interviews with students. In a design session led by my colleague Katie Weisberg, teams brought notes from their empathy interviews with learners and engaged in empathy mapping to make inferences about their students’ thoughts, feelings, and needs.
If you zoom in to the picture you might see the Bright Spots highlighted that students felt proud to share their work and wanted to be recognized and as a result they realized that opportunities exist to have more one on one conversations and provide more feedback and recognition. Innovations don’t have to be new programs, flashy technology, or extravagant events. More often than not innovation in education is about more connection and guidance.
What I know is that when we begin with what we want for learners and design from there, we can create new and better learner-centered models. You don’t have to transform the system to make an impact, you can start with your class, assignments, schedule, or beliefs. Start small and make tweaks and assess the impact. As you learn and make mistakes, you will grow and keep evolving to meet the needs of your learners.
How are you designing WITH learners? Reply to this newsletter to share or tag me @katiemartinedu and #LCBrightSpots on social.
RESOURCE ROUNDUP
Design paves the way from the present to achieving our aspirations for learners. These resources offer perspectives, tools, and guides to support the process, and as always, they all involve the learners too.
1. Centering Learners By Design. What does learner-centered have to do with design? A lot, actually. See how design is foundational to our work at Learner-Centered Collaborative in What It Means to Center Learners By Design.
2. Learner-Centered Tool. In design identifying what you DON’T do can be as important as identifying what you DO and our Continue-Start-Stop Protocol tool can help guide this important process.
3. Helping students navigate tech. In a world where their lives are heavily “shared and compared,” author Devorah Heitner offers insights on how to support teens in finding balance in their tech-heavy lives.
LET'S SHARE OUR BRIGHT SPOTS!
How are you designing with learners?
Share your #LCBrightSpots on social media!
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Learner-Centered Collaborative, 1611 S Melrose Dr., STE A #334, Vista, CA 92081
