Insights
OUR BLOG
Our latest thinking, lessons learned, and stories from the field on teaching, learning, and leadership in the education sector.
#JustOneThing: How to craft a compelling question
A quick preview of #justonething: reDesign’s open source Design Guide for Creating Compelling Questions.
Demonstrate Skills and Understanding by Creating Authentic Products
By Jon M Altbergs and Laurie Gagnon At reDesign, we encourage the adoption of a Learning Cycle that guides the...
Build New Knowledge, Skills, and Perspectives through Investigation
Build New Knowledge, Skills, and Perspectives through Investigation By Jon M Altbergs and Laurie Gagnon At reDesign,...
Join us at the Aurora Institute Symposium 2020 | October 27, 2020 at 1:30-2:30 PM ET
Meeting Students Where They Are: Competency-Based Pedagogy that Works for Remote and In-Person Learning. We’ve teamed...
Creating Engagement and Connectedness through Making Meaning
by Jon M Altbergs & Laurie Gagnon At reDesign, we encourage the adoption of a Learning Cycle that guides the...
reDesign’s Youth Advisory Council
by Vicky Kim reDesign is setting up a 10-member Youth Advisory Council this year for high school students across the...
Completing the Learning Loop: The Power of Synthesis and Reflection Prompts
by Jon Altbergs and Laurie Gagnon At reDesign, we encourage the adoption of a Learning Cycle that guides the learner...
Small Disruption #1: Disrupt the text
While the goal is for all learners to have access to text and materials that represent, affirm, and sustain their...
School Redesign through 100 Disruptions
Our world and communities have been hugely disrupted by COVID-19 and the illness, death, fear, isolation, and racism...
5 Ways to Connect with Learners IRL (in real life) and remotely this fall
As we all begin to imagine what the fall will look like, one of the big questions in many of our minds is how to build...
#JustOneThing: Documentary Film-making: Amplifying Student Voices and Passions
"Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into...
BLACK LIVES MATTER.
The reDesign team stands with Black communities, Black Lives Matter, and each of the many organizations and...
What is there to say when the world is out of control? A Student Guide to Writing a Personal Statement
As part of reDesign's #justonething effort to support (and not overwhelm!) educators during the COVID-19 pandemic,...
Why Are the First Several Years of Teaching So Difficult? How Schools Can Stop Failing Novice Teachers
“Fraternity hazing” is how one article in the Atlantic characterized the experiences of first year teachers....
Teacher Growing Pains
Student accuses teacher of lying. Student is right. Nothing is done. Sounds like an event of a distant past? Nope....
Driving Instruction with Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: CRP and the Competency-based Learning Cycle
In an October blog post, Everything I’ve Ever Needed to Know About Teaching, I Learned From Black Women: A...
Which Summative Assessment Formats are Critical to Competency-based or Mastery-based Learning?
What types of summative assessments should be a part of our Competency-based or Mastery-based assessment model? Do...
Design It Like It’s Hot: Creating a High-Quality Inquiry Frame for a Unit of Study
Though strong in theory, Essential Questions often wander off into drab and uninspiring standards-land when writing...
Creatively Communicating Metacognition and Meaning Making: The Art of Visual Journaling for Learning
Back in July, Jon Altbergs wrote a post: 6 Ways to Use Drawing to Make Meaning. In it, he wrote about some simple...
A Friendly Introduction to the Competency-based Learning Cycle
Can you imagine walking into a library, in search of a particular book, to find the library has no classification...
Organizing for a Learning-Centered Culture
Does your school, network or district recognize that Learning is Learning is Learning? When I first began working with...
Everything I Needed to Know About Teaching, I Learned from Black Women: Recommended Reading List
Early Influencers So, the title of this blog is not completely true. Still, the majority of this piece details why it...
Mastery Week 2018: Two Best Practices for Crafting Mastery Assessments
No matter what kind of system you teach in – assessment – knowing what your students know and are able to do – is...
6 Ways to Use Drawing to Make Meaning
Reflections on pedagogy that works for marginalized students. More than 15 years ago, Mike Schmoker’s “The ‘Crayola...
I’m Not Sure How to Talk About Social Justice in My Classroom: How to Provide Opportunities for Students to Do the Talking!
As race-related events, gender politics, and mass shootings permeate the news cycle over the last few months, you may...
Multiple Pathways to Success: NYC’s Transfer School Institute
By Laurie Gagnon, Educational Designer at reDesign, in collaboration with reDesign team members Dixie Bacallao, Tracy...
Meet Angela, Our Equity-Driven, Empowering, and Transformative Educational Designer
Angela Stepancic has joined our team at reDesign after what has already been an impressive, revolutionary, and...
What a Middle School Pen Pal Program Taught Me About Difficult Conversations
Our guest contributor, Catherine Epstein, highlights the power of a community that supports initiative, flexibility,...
Mastery Communications Week
We are delighted to participate in Mastery Communications Week along with our friends at Great Schools Partnership,...
The Story of Chugach: An Interview with Superintendent Dr. Bob Crumley
Meet Dr. Crumley. Over twenty years ago, he was at the cutting edge of a transformational change effort in Chugach,...