NEASC2024

Too often students experience school as a series of things that happens to them over which they have little or no control. This leads to transactional mindsets and a sense that all school is for is investing in future (markers of) success: college/university acceptance, major, grad school, career, salary. This session challenges educators and leaders to think of school as an investment in who our students are now, as people developing identities, figuring out how they want to see and be seen in the world, forging world views, and determining how they want to act and interact with others. Through a spider chart activity on educational models, a discussion of ways to leverage external motivators (like grades) for intrinsic passion development, and a reflection on what constitutes true 21st century skills and capacities, participants will acquire strategies and tactics for combatting relevance resistance and for making school more human-centered.