Audience: Secondary educators

Self-organized learning environments

Learn to implement self-organized learning environments, an instructional approach in which students explore complex questions in self-organized peer groups.

Video: What is the Next Education Workforce?

How the Next Education Workforce initiative at Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College works with schools and other partners.

Smith Junior High: Spotlight on the schedule

Smith Junior High is located in Mesa, Arizona and serves about 900 students in grades 7-8. Each core educator team serves about 150 students and includes certified teachers with expertise in a specific content area one of whom serves as the lead teacher for the team. In this resource, you’ll view an example schedule at a glance, as well as three sample student schedules.

Smith Junior High: School profile

Smith Junior High is located in Mesa, Arizona, and serves about 900 students in grades 7-8. Each core educator team serves about 150 students and includes certified teachers with expertise in a specific content area, one of whom serves as the lead teacher for the team. In this resource, you’ll find out how they’re implementing a Next Education Workforce model.

Illustration of a Next Education Workforce model on a blue background

Connecting with Community Educators

Community educators can be found simply by asking around your own social networks and community. However, there are also resources made specifically to locate and connect with industry experts who are ready to support your learning environment.

Illustration of a Next Education Workforce model on a blue background

Mock Trial

Activating a lawyer for unit planning support is a great example of a community educator contributing to the distributed expertise of a team. Learn how.

Illustration of a Next Education Workforce model on a blue background

Living Library

The Living Library brought more than 35 community educators — from stay-at-home parents to investment bankers — to connect with high school students struggling to see the importance of learning math.

Lead teacher role description

Lead Teachers are educators who guide the educator team in sharing responsibility for all elements of student support, instructional planning, and delivery; lead the team in maintaining high expectations for student learning; and ensure the team functions at a high level to serve all learners by strength and need. This description of the Lead Teacher role is intended to be customized based on the unique needs of each school district.

Distributed expertise staffing matrix

This protocol helps educators make strategic decisions around how to best leverage the distributed expertise of team members. Additionally, it can help to identify other educators who may need to join the team and in what capacities.

Interest-based student groupings

Interest-based student groupings are groupings driven by student voice and choice. This planning protocol is an opportunity for team members to explore ways to leverage your team of educators to provide student voice and choice within a lesson or across a unit. In it, you’ll identify a lesson or unit appropriate for interest-based student groupings, draft student choices and work together to plan team deployment.

Skills-based student groupings

Skills-based student groupings are groupings based on formative student learning data. This planning protocol is an opportunity for team members to explore how you might leverage your team of educators to differentiate instruction for learners. In it, you’ll identify the objective(s) of your choice, draft a check for understanding and work together to plan team deployment for skills-based student groupings.

Educational legacies: Reflecting on and sharing the personal connections you make between race, class and education

In this activity, you will reflect on the connections you make between race, class and education; share those connections with your team; and listen as team members share. This activity is an opportunity to gain an understanding of each other’s lived experiences and build empathy and trust.

Establishing norms for managing conflict

Through this activity, educator team members reflect on their preferences for managing conflict and work together to agree on norms for healthy conflict as a team.

Establishing communication and working styles norms

This activity offers team members an opportunity to reflect on and share what it takes for them to feel balanced, how they prefer to process information, what they need most from their team members and more. After reflecting and sharing, team members will work together to create norms for communication and working styles.

River of life

This activity invites team members to gain a deeper understanding of one another, including backgrounds and context for teamwork. In it, you will create a map that captures key life experiences and then share your map with your educator team.

Story of self

This activity invites team members to gain a deeper understanding of one another, including backgrounds and context for teamwork. In it, you will respond to questions about your background, education, hobbies and more, and then share responses with your team.

Grey Sketches

How teaming has impacted one lead teacher’s practice

Mountain View School kindergarten lead teacher Danielle Ashenbrener describes how a team-based approach has helped her to get to know her students better and to target student learning to meet individual students’ needs.

Changing the model: Building the Next Education Workforce

hat’s normal in education is broken. Nationally, teacher preparation programs have long seen declining enrollment. Teachers switch careers or retire early. They receive less pay and enjoy less social status than many other professionals. The job is hard in specific ways that inhibit success. That’s not good for educators. It’s not good for learners. And it’s not good for communities. In collaboration with school and community partners, Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College is working to change that. 

Reflecting on social identity: Examining and sharing about group belonging

In this activity, you will create and share with your educator team a visual representing your social identity. Social identity is the story others tell about you and where you fit into society or the groups to which you belong (e.g., your race, ethnicity, gender identity).

Reflecting on personal identity: Examining and sharing what makes you unique

In this activity, you will create and share with your educator team a visual representing your personal identity. Personal identity is the story you tell about yourself that creates your self-concept and makes you unique (e.g., your skills, your hobbies, adjectives that describe you).

Educator team constructivist listening protocol: Reflecting, releasing emotion and constructing new meaning

In this activity, you will engage in an adaptation of the National Equity Project’s constructivist listening protocol. Together, with one or more members of your educator team, you will practice deep listening and construct new meaning about your identity and your lived experiences.