How Best to be a Teacher?

Steven interviewing 4 PLC teens for a podcast episode

When teachers become unhappy with teaching in a conventional school, they often begin looking around at what options are out there.

BigFish Inspiration

Diane and Madi on stage at TEDx Portsmouth

On the stage at TEDxPortsmouth, Diane and Madi offer stories about the founding and first two years of BigFish Learning Community.

In This Together: Thoughts on Blake Boles’ AERO Keynote

Blake Boles delivering the 2019 AERO keynote address

Blake Boles gave an important keynote address at this year’s AERO conference. The main point that resonated with me was the idea to look at the SDE community from the perspective of families stuck in traditional schools and not be caught up in squabbling between SDE models.

Learning is Natural, School is Optional

Five happy North Star Teens, from cover of Learning is Natural, School is Optional

That’s the North Star slogan, adopted for Liberated Learners centers, and now the title of Ken Danford’s new book: Learning is Natural, School is Optional: The North Star approach to offering teens a head start on life.

The Self-Driven Child: Making it possible

Teen drawing on a hand-made pattern

The goal of Liberated Learners centers is to support teens to leave traditional school and to start living the lives that they want for themselves now. The approach begins with having kids take more direct control over their lives.

A Cycle of Unlocking Opportunities

Two loaves of bread, donut-shaped, decorated in purple, yellow and green icing and sprinkles

Seth Godin writes at times about education as a system, that it’s more about “stealing dreams” than offering opportunities to learn and master new skills.

A Clip from New Self-Taught Documentary

Self-Taught is a film about adults who homeschooled reflecting on how this approach has impacted their lives, careers, and general attitudes.

Teacher Liberation

Crop of the cover of the book, The Teacher Liberation Handbook, showing birds exploding from a row of desk chairs

Check out my recent TEDx talk, Teacher Liberation. The primary focus was reaching educators who love working with young people, but are frustrated by the traditional education systems.