Celebrating 10 Years of Book Study at Learners Edge!

"There is power in unity and there is power in numbers." 

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Collaboration is not new, but in our profession, engaging with one another is truly a gift, and a wonderful opportunity for discussion and action.  

The Book Study from Learners Edge is one of five personalized professional development opportunities available, and the only option to complete as a group. The syllabus is a framework for teachers to guide their own learning using a text of their choice, which has made this course perfect for 3,368 groups in the 10 years of its existence.  

Help us fill our walls!

Calling all Artists and Visually Gifted folks: we need your help!

Learners Edge has always been a fun place to work, and never before has that been more represented than in our new space (we moved at the end of October 2018).

We have lots of natural light with colorful accents, complete with a ping pong table, Nerf guns, and currently, a Jenga set. We have couches and several other options of places to meet, work, collaborate, and laugh. We have snacks!- oh, the snacks!- that tide us over when we need a little food break. We have a white board that hosts trivia, fun facts about the staff, and nonsensical polls (Fun fact! We are overwhelmingly a chunky peanut butter group).

Get your class ready for February 1st!

What if there were a panacea for all that was broken in the world?

There’s one solution that could better our lives, advance our civilization, inspire innovation, and build bridges within our society. World Read-Aloud Day is a gigantic step in that direction.

We can overcome our divisions in a world that is more connected than ever by reading about one another, cultures, and philosophies unlike our own. The information is there. We just need to consume it! There are many layers to this, but truthfully, it can all start with reading.

Allow us to convince you!

2019 Edition

I don’t pretend to be an expert, but I know that New Year’s is NOT the middle of the school year.  In fact, it’s a little weird, because as the new year begins, even though you make resolutions, it’s not always the time you think about what you can do differently in your classrooms.  However, I offer a few words that might help you as you make it through the long winter, and beyond…

This holiday season, we decided to get you something a little extra.

Everybody Needs Somebody.

“Jolly came home bleeding and she doesn’t have folks.

‘Nobody doesn’t have folks,’ I said.

‘I’m Nobody, then,’ she said, ’‘Cause I don’t.’ Her whole face was scraped like it had a grater taken to it, like it was cheese.”

-Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff

In Make Lemonade, 14-year-old LaVaughn takes a job as a babysitter for 17-year-old Jolly, who has lived in foster care her whole life, and has two children from fathers who are not in the picture. As the story goes on, it’s clear that Jolly doesn’t really know how to do life – manage money, raise healthy children, even hold a job – because she has never really had what she calls “folks”: people who took a vested interest in showing her how to do things. LaVaughn helps Jolly to navigate through some of her issues and shows her resources to help her get on her feet, and to find resources for her to learn more about how to access a good life for her children and herself.

Fun prompts to get your class engaged!

Creating writing prompts is easy. Creating FUN writing prompts to boost student engagement... now that's a tricky one! Dawn from our Learners Edge Curriculum and Instruction team is here to give you some fresh ideas on how to get your students to write. 

Are you experiencing difficulties with students turning assignments in late? Do you want to help them succeed by allowing late assignments, but feel overwhelmed when they all submit them at the end of a grading period? Well then we have the perfect video blog for you! Check out Dawn's helpful tips on keeping you AND your students on track with late homework.

Do you feel as though your students' minds are all over the place sometimes? Or that your teacher-mind is scattered? Like you all, collectively, just need a little break to get back on track? If you said yes to any of these questions, check out our video blog for some ideas on how to keep your students, and yourself, motivated and engaged throughout the day!

I started thinking more in depth about how different people learn when I was caught screwing around at a faculty meeting. I was sitting with a few of my friends, and we were writing notes back and forth, and trying to make each other laugh (apparently, the topic du jour wasn’t that engaging).  It was that “church laugh,” you know the one, where you cannot make a noise, and it’s hopeless.  My friend Sheila wrote something particularly and extremely hilarious.  I couldn’t contain my laughter and made a sort of spitting noise.