Professional development doesn't stop, even over the holidays! 

Teacher Sarah Graham, working on her PhD in Educational Practices and Leadership, specialization in Teacher Education, presents the book Students at the Center. She has aspirations of manifesting the framework presented in this book into her classroom practices in a way that ensures students are receiving an education that is individualized, differentiated, and personalized. Sarah wants her students to pursue their passions and ambitions that enrich, authenticate, and deepen their understanding of curriculum standards.

Sarah's aim is for students to gain skills beyond discipline-specific goals and to develop dispositional competencies, such as listening with understanding and empathy, persistence, taking responsible risks, flexibility, etc. She believes that if we want our students to be successful in a quickly evolving workforce and rapidly changing modern world, our education needs to reflect that in a holistic manner. 

Sarah found so much value in Students at the Center, she decided to introduce it to the LAS Educational Research team, as the concepts also well-align with our LAS edge Program philosophy,

 

Students need practice with:

• voice - being in charge of their own learning;
• co-creation - choosing their own curriculum;
• social construction - working with each other; and
• self-discovery - learning how to reflect on learning. 

Another book our educators will be looking at more closely, Grasp, was the subject of an Ed Surge podcast. In the podcast the MIT professor makes a compelling case that schools continue to treat teachers like pens and students like sheets of paper. The problem? We know now that this just isn't the way the brain wants to learn. See A Scientific Approach to Education Reform in the MIT News.