Editorial Calendar

GettingSmart.com regularly features content about what is possible in education and lifelong learning. We aim to empower educators and leaders in envisioning and implementing innovative change in their classrooms, on campuses and in companies. Part of this coverage is highlighting the important and inspiring work accomplished by our friends, partners and board members.

We welcome guest posts! For more information on submitting a guest blog, see our Guest Submission and Guidelines page. Our voice is conversational, and our content is positive, practical and forward-leaning. Our goal is to publish thought leadership pieces that are ‘evergreen’ or continually relevant in nature. (Note that we do not accept posts that use sales language.) If you already know what you’re going to write about, please submit your piece to Editor using the Getting Smart blog template. 

As we learned in 2020, things are unpredictable. Going forward, we want to remain nimble when it comes to the content we’re focused on sharing, so we don’t have monthly topics but instead are highlighting a few of the topics that we love to think, write and read about at Getting Smart: 

New Pathways: The #NewPathways campaign is a road map for American schools, where every learner, regardless of zip code, is on a pathway to productive citizenship, high wage employment and economic mobility, and a purpose-driven life. It will also explore and guide leaders on the big advances of this decade — how access is expanded and personalized, how learning can be guided and supported, and how new capabilities are captured and communicated. When well implemented, these advances will unlock opportunities for all and narrow the equity gap. 

Difference Making: This topic is near and dear to our hearts. We believe that powerful learning experiences can and will change the future — through our exploration of difference making we highlight schools, organizations, students and mindsets that make purpose-based learning and contribution the core of education. 

This could be a profile of an edleader or student who is a difference maker, a piece about why purpose-based learning needs to be adopted in all schools or a way in which curriculum teaches to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We love hearing about the SDGs and would happily consider reflections on those as well. 

Telling Their Story (Mastery/Transcription): We believe that standardized transcripts and assessment don’t do learners justice — both in accurately meeting them where they are at and in telling their story. We are dedicated to uncovering the future of transcription to empower learners to share their stories with the world in authentic and powerful ways. 

A piece on this topic could document an innovative new transcript model, it could be an op-ed from someone in admissions regarding what they look for and how a transcript can better tell that story, or it could be about providing transparency to learners. 

Invention Opportunity: At its best, 2020 was a trying year, and many of the challenges are not yet resolved. Through the many obstacles we were thrown, inequities and inadequacies of the education system were spotlit and now may the best time to eradicate them once and for all through new agreements, new practices and new tools.  

Beginning in 2020, we launched a series that documented the 17 “invention opportunities” in learning and we’d love for more contribution on our selections, including coverage of any omissions and new perspectives.

Please submit your piece to [email protected] using the Getting Smart blog template.

Conference Coverage

We can’t be everywhere at once. That’s why we rely on guest bloggers to cover various conferences throughout the year. We are always looking for bloggers who are excited to share practical lessons learned, color commentary, and high-level takeaways from education conferences that focus on a specific theme or topic. Too often, the energy collaborations from events fade as soon as attendees leave the conference space. That’s why we work with guest bloggers who are dedicated to capturing important conversations, presentations and collaborations to share in guest blogs. 

Below are upcoming conferences where we’re seeking blogger coverage. Simply email [email protected] if you are interested in submitting conference coverage.

For a list of some of the conferences we love to check out, visit this recent blog post.