Team-based practices
Team-based practices are approaches that leverage multiple adults in order to create deeper and personalized learning opportunities for students
Resources
Using collaborative tools to implement data-driven flexible grouping
Explore how educator teams use cloud-based spreadsheets to fluidly and transparently group students by interest and skill.
5 tips for creating an inclusive secondary school learning model
Leverage special educators’ knowledge and skills to increase the effectiveness of educator teams.
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.
Bringing mindfulness into the learning space
Educators at SPARK School at Kyrene de las Manitas give students the opportunity to practice intentional mindfulness each day during Student-Selected Mindfulness Time.
Family interviews
Big Picture Learning educators hear multiple perspectives on students’ interests, assets and challenges at the beginning of the year through a process they call family interviews. This is a key first step in meaningfully deepening and personalizing student learning.
Community culture questionnaire
Educators at Elm Street Academy created a community culture questionnaire out of their desire to ensure students had a voice in decision-making about community building, rules, policies and student leadership.
Student-led conferences
SPARK School at Kyrene de las Manitas has shifted from teacher-owned conferences to a student-led approach. This change supports the educator team’s goal of creating a student-centered learning environment in which learners own their progress and goals. This resource guides educator teams through steps critical to adopting student-led conferences.
Student-selected support
In an effort to shift the ownership of learning from educator to student, SPARK School at Kyrene de las Manitas has implemented a system for students to reflect on their learning and progress, identify the academic support they need and schedule time to meet with the appropriate educator(s). This resource guides educator teams through steps to implementing student-selected support.
10 Tips for planning team-based deeper learning
The educator team at Kyrene de las Manitas Innovation Academy co-plans project-based units that support deeper learning. The 10 tips appearing in this document are drawn from their approach to planning. To get started, consider how your team might implement these tips.