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Written by Katie Martin

Grab your copy on amazon.com or amazon.ca

It’s time to create a new normal.

It’s time to leave behind practices that don’t best serve all learners and educators, and to prioritize what matters most: relationships, connection, purpose, flexibility, agency, and authentic learning. Education must evolve. Looking to learners will help us see what’s working, what’s challenging, and, ultimately, what’s possible. To ensure that all of those learners thrive, we’ll need to use insight from our own experiences, research from the field, and new tools and approaches to adapt our practices.

In Evolving Education, Dr. Katie Martin advocates for a much-needed shift to a learner-centered teaching model. Learner-centered education creates purposeful, personalized, authentic, and competency-based experiences that help students develop skills that empower them to learn, grow, and solve problems that matter to them and others. Following on Martin’s previous book, Learner-Centered Innovation, Evolving Education offers a deeper dive into how educators can harness new technologies, learning sciences, and pedagogy that center learners and learning. After all, Martin argues, if we truly want to develop knowledge, habits, and skills in students, we have to know them, love them, and help them see the full beauty of who they are and what they can become.

Endorsements

“Evolving Education clearly articulates how to redefine success, create powerful learning experiences, and support them with enabling conditions. This would make a great book study for any school faculty or community group.” 

—Tom Vander Ark, CEO of Getting Smart

“Katie Martin absolutely nailed it in Evolving Education. A learner-centered paradigm requires that we examine beliefs and biases and disrupt systems that do not serve each and every learner. This work requires innovation, creativity, flexibility, and heart. This book is the perfect mix of incredible storytelling, inspiration, and concrete strategy.”

—Katie Novak, EdD, author of UDL and Blended Learning 

“Dewey, Marzano, and Hattie delivered a modern pedagogy connected to tangible practices and authentic examples from the field; Katie Martin provides the next chapter. Evolving Education will be relevant for decades to come.”

—David Miyashiro, EdD, superintendent of Cajon Valley Union School District

Below is a post by IMPress author, Brad Gustafson. He wrote the incredibly powerful book Reclaiming our Calling!

Sometimes we overlook the things people need us to see most. 

Recently, my daughter participated in a community musical for Frozen. Dad’s don’t always make the most objective judges, but I’m telling you she and her fellow cast members put on five incredible shows. And after the final show, we headed to a local ice-cream establishment to celebrate with family and friends.  

One of my daughter’s friends from the cast, who happens to be visually impaired, joined our family for the celebration. (The fact she is visually impaired will be more relevant in a moment.) I want to share a couple of my favorite memories from our ice-cream celebration first. 

While we were eating together, we took turns telling jokes and laughing profusely. (At one point I was accused of telling cheesy “Dad jokes” but I unequivocally deny this because I was sharing some of my best stuff.) And I’m not sure how this next part started, but a few of us eventually found ourselves taking turns singing theme songs from our favorite cartoons and television shows while others guessed the show. It was So. Much. Fun.

But here’s where this gets interesting.

There was one point when my daughter’s friend started belting a song and I literally got chills. Her voice was unbelievable. And for some strange reason I hadn’t noticed it until that point…which is really ridiculous considering she had one of the main character’s roles in the musical.

As much as I tried to tell myself otherwise, I don’t think I saw past her walking stick until we spent that unscripted time together. Again, sometimes we overlook the things people need us to see (or hear) most.  

I wonder how many students come to class feeling like their identity is more closely tied to what they can’t do than to what they have already accomplished. I’m guessing you may have felt this tension before too; sometimes it seems like the system itself is partially set-up to identify and fix students’ weaknesses more than anything else. 

I discussed this idea in Reclaiming Our Calling and wove the importance of relationships and connectedness into the very DNA of the book. One of the questions I elaborate on in the book is, “What would school look like if we held the whole learner in the same regard as high-stakes tests?” 

This is something worth thinking about in light of my missing how unbelievably talented my daughter’s friend was. While achievement matters, we can’t allow ourselves to overlook the many different strengths students possess.

I’ve never met an educator who didn’t want to be accountable for helping students learn. Not once. But I have spoken with countless educators who feel as though it’s becoming more and more challenging to truly see all students. 

Fortunately, a series of small (and intentional) steps can help you create a classroom and school where people feel seen. And chances are you’re doing a lot to ensure this happens already.

Oftentimes, our mindset and inner narrative influence the degree to which students feel seen. So how might we take control of this inner narrative and point it towards students’ strengths and passions?! 

Here are three questions to help you see the things students need us to see most:

Below is a post by IMPress author and UDL expert Katie Novak, who wrote Innovate Inside the Box with George Couros.

Today I had the opportunity to work with an amazing administrative team in the Del Norte School District on the northern coast in California. We were discussing the best entry points to teach high school staff about the importance of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and providing all students with opportunities to become expert learners.

We had an a-ha moment (think – fireworks in the brain!) and decided that a great place to start is the profile of a graduate. Sometimes called a portrait of a graduate or a vision of a graduate, “a graduate profile is a document that a school or district uses to specify the cognitive, personal, and interpersonal competencies that students should have when they graduate” (Kay, 2017). Graduate profiles are becoming a critical tool in many schools and districts.

As one example of how mainstream these profiles have become, all high schools in New England are required to have “a written document describing its core values, beliefs about learning, and vision of the graduate” in order to receive accreditation from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEAS&C). Schools around the world can access toolkits developed to support them in the process of developing their graduate profile.

The creation of a profile of a graduate begins with stakeholders brainstorming critical skills that graduates need to be successful in the world. Today, as the admin team and I perused through sample graduate profiles, we were struck with two things. First, we need all graduates to be expert learners and second, they need to have an innovator’s mindset (and then I was like, “Me and my bestie George Couros wrote a book about this!!!!!) Expert learners in UDL are motivated, purposeful, resourceful, knowledgeable, strategic, and goal-directed. And innovator’s embody the eight (8) characteristics below.

If you’re looking for an entry point to introduce Universal Design for Learning (UDL), endorsed in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), read Innovate Inside the Box to learn more about expert learning and the Innovator’s Mindset. Then, work with stakeholders to create your graduate profile and use the two frameworks to help you achieve it!

Pick up a copy of Innovate Inside the Box here. 

Below is a post by Impress author Katie Martin. Her book, Learner-centered Innovation,  is now available in audiobook format as well as paperback on Amazon. 

I went through most of school thinking (and being graded based on this assumption) that the author’s message was a definitive A, B, C or D and could often be summarized in a sentence that was right or wrong.   I was taught the authors or the textbook publishers had all the answers and my role was to figure it out and prove it to my teachers. I never saw the purpose or felt like my ideas were valued or nurtured. Because of this I never chose to read or write for any other purpose than school assignments and just did what I had to get by in school.

It wasn’t until I experienced something different in college that I thought, what if I can teach kids differently. What if I can help students understand that their voice matters and empower them to learn –not because they needed to know information for a test but because it would allow them access to the world, ideas, and opportunities?  What if I can inspire my students to read, discover their passions and share their ideas with the world?

What if meaningful change starts with you?

Powerful learning will not happen by continuing to create new expectations for others or adding on to what already exists– it’s will require individuals who are willing to forsake existing procedures and policies that don’t work and start taking steps to create the change that we need in schools.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.

Margaret Mead

The new year is a good time for reflection and an opportunity to put new ideas and goals into practice. To inspire some new thinking and action, I asked educators to share their “What ifs” for education. Check out the responses in this thread- there are many great ideas!

What I loved about the responses was that most people focused on what they could do or what they wanted to see for students rather than blaming others. Look, I know we have challenges in education but if we only place blame on others, we will never make the changes that our schools require.  If we want innovative institutions that are going to develop the skills students need to be successful now and in the ever-changing future, we all need to evolve our traditional systems and structures. This doesn’t mean a new program or a new model, it means creating more nimble systems from our district office to classrooms to empower all learners.

What I loved about the responses was that most people focused on what they could do or what they wanted to see for students rather than blaming others. Look, I know we have challenges in education but if we only place blame on others, we will never make the changes that our schools require.  If we want innovative institutions that are going to develop the skills students need to be successful now and in the ever-changing future, we all need to rethink our traditional systems and structures. This doesn’t mean a new program or a new model, it means creating more nimble systems from our district offices to classrooms to look to learners to create learning experiences that meet their needs.

I would encourage you to think about you what ifs for 2020 and beyond and work with others in your community to make it happen!

What I loved about the responses was that most people focused on what they could do or what they wanted to see for students rather than blaming others. Look, I know we have challenges in education but if we only place blame on others, we will never make the changes that our schools require.  If we want innovative institutions that are going to develop the skills students need to be successful now and in the ever-changing future, we all need to rethink our traditional systems and structures. This doesn’t mean a new program or a new model, it means creating more nimble systems from our district office to classrooms to meet the needs of all learners.

I encourage you to think about your what-ifs for 2020 and beyond and more importantly connect with others in your local community and start taking action to make it happen!

Below is a post by IMPress author George Couros about an Instagram Book Study for his book with Innovate Inside the Box written with Katie Novak.  To join the book study, click here!

I am excited to announce that Katie Novak and I will be starting an Instagram book study on January 22, 2020, on my co-authored book, “Innovate Inside the Box: Empowering Learners Through UDL and the Innovator’s Mindset.” There are three main goals of this book study:

1. To dig deeper into the ideas of the book and learn/model UDL learning strategies.
2. To encourage different multimedia creation to actively reflect and create meaningful learning opportunities.
3. To use spaces like Instagram to build networks with other educators who are interested in the top of innovation in education.

The book study will begin on January 22, 2020, and finish on February 12, 2020.  The hope is that participants would post 2-3 creations of their learning (photo, audio, video) from the book per week and/or comment on questions posed from the @gcouros account for the book study.  Katie and I will also be hosting a couple of Instagram live sessions discussing the book and interacting with participant questions.

Having a copy of “Innovate Inside the Box” is beneficial for the process but not necessary as the questions are pretty open-ended.  Other than the book, the process is free, and if you already own a copy, you are good to go!  If you are interested in previewing the book, you can get a preview of Chapter 1 by signing up for my email subscription list here.

Each day of the book study (or as you see fit), participants will be asked to share a reflection in some form on what they have read. It can be a video that they talk or share something, a visual they create, or whatever you can think of that can be represented through Instagram like a “Booksnap” (information on that from Tara Martin here).

There are many ways you can share your learning through Instagram, so please do not limit it to my suggestions.

I encourage participants to share in the following manner:

1. Share your post to the hashtag #InnovateInsidetheBox and the applicable chapter reading.  For each chapter, the second hashtag will be the following:

   Intro – #IITBIntro + #InnovateInsideTheBox
   Chapter 1 – #IITBCH1 + #InnovateInsideTheBox
   Chapter 2 – #IITBCH2 + #InnovateInsideTheBox
   Chapter 3 – #IITBCH3 + #InnovateInsideTheBox
   (Continued for all 14 chapters)

2. Each post should have #InnovateInsideTheBox AND the appropriate chapter hashtag. You can share any other hashtags that you see fit for the process as well.
3. Tag me (@gcouros) and Katie (@katienovakudl) on your Instagram post.  I will do my best to see as many as possible and comment. You are more than welcome to follow me on Instagram as well, but my account is open, so you do not necessarily have to do so.
4. Write as much as little or as much as you want in the subject line on your reflection.
5. Feel free to use the story feature to share your learning as well.  I will be sharing many of the creations to my own Instagram story from participants.

(*Please note that if your account is private only people that follow you will be able to see what you share.)

This process is something that I am still learning, but I learned so much from the group last time, and it was hugely beneficial. My ultimate hope is that this endeavor opens new and better doors for learning in the classroom that participants create for themselves.  Bear with me as I am growing through the process as well.

The dates for the reading are the following:

Date	Chapter
January 22, 2020	Introduction and Chapter 1
January 24, 2020	Chapter 2
January 27, 2020	Chapter 3
January 29, 2020	Chapter 4
January 31, 2019	Chapter 5, 6
February 3, 2020	Chapter 7, 8
February 5, 2020	Chapter 9,10
February 7, 2020	Chapter 11, 12
February 10, 2020	Chapter 13, 14
February 12, 2019	Final Reflections

 

As well, please sign up here so I can try to follow all of the accounts that are taking part.  This is the only place you will need to “register”:

Sign up here!

Thank you for your interest in this process.  I am looking forward to connecting with educators through the Instagram platform to push my own learning and connect with others.

Below is a post by Sunil Singh, co-author of Math Recess. The post was originally featured on Medium.com. Math Recess talks about bringing the joy and fun back to mathematics, where it belongs! In the below article, Singh reiterates the idea that awe and wonder should be something every student experiences in mathematics education.

The only past that math education seems to have is one that needs to be left behind…

Math education, in its noble attempt to be progressive and au courant , has discarded the past in terms of anything that was relevant in the 20th century. In terms of pedagogy, that definitely has been welcomed, encouraging deeper and more nuanced ideas of how kids learn mathematics. As such, the general tenor of math conferences and workshops is to mine the present to build the future.

The problem is that while pedagogy has definitely improved, the quality of mathematical content has taken a rather steep dive over the last half century.

Proof?

I have textbooks from the early 50’s all the way to almost the present. You can see the decline of attention to mathematics in the way the forewords were written. Forewords, especially starting around the mid 60’s, had a far more romantic and wider scope for learning mathematics. As well, the language used in these foreword pages spoke to a sophistication of mathematics that was assumed by the writers for the students they wrote for. Regrettably, through time, the vision of the purpose of mathematics as a human endeavor has been shaded more or less into obscurity, replaced by technical efficiency for STEM careers and practical endeavors.

Our teaching of mathematics might have improved, but why we teach it has been washed of any impractical notions that could stain the productivity narrative that has overtaken math education. We are left with a bleached curriculum, with any evidence of human awe and wonder left in margins — if even that.

There is very little collective attention to the history of mathematics, which then renders the currency of everything in our rear view mirror as dated. Being swept away in this general nose-up to the past is mathematical wisdom that grew up in this Golden Age of Mathematical content.

In my CMC-South Presentation, I realized that most of my presentation was rear view mirror stuff — content, historical mentions, elderly educators, and old problems.

The person that anchored my presentation was Peter Taylor, a professor at Queens university in Kingston, Ontario.

Over ten years ago, Peter Taylor was given the highest award for mathematics teaching in Canada. He was awarded primarily for seeing the subject of mathematics through an aesthetic lens. This was further fleshed out in a deep interview that involved drawing parallels between literature/poetry and mathematics.

In English, books are chosen first, and then curriculum is designed around these works of art. In mathematics, curriculum is written and then books are written after. And, as you read the rest of the excerpt, much of the alienation comes from this sterile construction of mathematics.

Peter Taylor wrote a great article about this a few years back.

We are currently NOT teaching mathematics in the spirit of its long evolution of awe and wonder. And, part of the reason for that is that people like Peter Taylor — giants in the field of mathematics/math education — don’t have the needed platform to amplify their towering wisdom.

The mathematics should speak for itself. The need for contextualizing and labeling to elevate its worth and attention is like giving students inorganic mathematics. Putting context in for context’s sake only shortchanges the mathematics.

We all have encountered enough ridiculous situations in where trigonometry has to come to some practical rescue. Have you ever wondered what the angle of elevation is when you look up at the top of flag? I haven’t. But, hey, let’s bring in a couple of kids, tell a story — without mentioning how they know the distance to the flagpole — and ask that burning question of angle of elevation.

Get rid of the story and stop putting mathematics as a supporting actor. And, stop asking it do things it cannot do — it cannot cut a pan of brownies equally into 8 pieces. Ever.

We are drifting away from our past. And, generally, as mentioned above, is a good thing. But, we have thrown the baby out with the bath water, and lost some beautiful and needed reflection from those that taught us.

Taught us to always put mathematics first.