student voice
Developing Stronger Teacher-Student Connections
By: Tara Brown. Connecting with kids takes on many forms but all can have a huge impact on a child’s feeling of emotional safety, level of engagement and, ultimately, academic achievement.
3 Keys to Educating the Whole Child
By: Kristi Robinson. A principal’s approach to social-emotional learning starts with going on a walk with her students.
Relationships As Engagement: Understanding the Whole Child
In schools across the country, it is quite common to hear teachers, instructional coaches, and administrators talking about student engagement. But as Amanda Winkelsas explains, the path to student engagement is not always as direct as a teacher, coach, or administrator would hope.
Helping Students Develop Discernment, Agency, and Empathy
By: Sherre Vernon, Shelli Kurth and Joe Acker. The Thrive Guarantee is our way of promising to the students we serve that we will help them develop discernment, agency, and empathy. Here, we explore what that promise means, and how we go about fulfilling it.
How Personalized Learning Fosters Trial, Error and a Healthy Dose of Risk
By: Brandy Holton. Infusing some of these principles into your work and creating your own innovative projects and lesson plans can empower students rather than lecturing them which can leave you with an inspiring a-ha moment!
Learner-Driven Communities
A look at learner-driven communities, a new category of personalized learning that teaches and creates environments that encourage, “extreme agency”.
How Can Children Aspire to Careers They Don’t Know Exist?
By: Ed Hidalgo. By connecting exciting career options to learning, class work becomes more valuable, reinforcing the idea that school is a path to something that can be fun and rewarding. This district doesn't think career exploration is a "big kid only" topic.
What Counts as Student Agency?
Students who are motivated to learn are more likely to focus on understanding, are more likely to learn deeply, are more likely to go above and beyond in an assignment, and are more likely to investigate when they have a question.
Empowering Students and Teachers for the 21st Century
By: Alan November. How do you motivate students to do their very best? One of the best ways I have found is through giving them voice and choice in what they learn, and how they learn it.
Student Public Radio: Community, Communication, and Other “Cs”
Beyond the obvious 21st century skills students develop in taking ownership of their own radio broadcast, they also forge connections to curriculum and content. Here, we explore the reasons (and some ways) to enable students to create and operate a radio station.