with the Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education
The Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education at the University of Vermont was active from 2010-2022, partnering with middle schools around Vermont. We provided professional development rooted in best middle grades practice, innovative technology funding, and storytelling support to educators.
Our educational materials are comprised of six main categories:
- Nearly one thousand blog posts on innovative pedagogy, incorporating images and videos from Vermont schools, and authored by more than 50 Vermont educators, as well as the Tarrant Institute professional staff.
- A collection of 300 videos made with and for educators, showing innovative educational practices in Vermont schools, with a heavy emphasis on student testimonials and activities.
- The #vted Reads podcast, featuring Vermont educators sharing a book that fundamentally changed the way they approached teaching.
- The 21st Century Classroom, a series of NPR-style audio stories reporting on innovative educational practices in Vermont schools.
- Toolkits for educators, looking at best practices in pedagogy, and incorporating multiple examples from the blog and media archive
- An interactive educators guide to our book, Personalized Learning in the Middle Grades
We helped educators, teams and schools make sense of personalized learning in a way that’s meaningful, and worked with the school’s existing and aspirational culture. Our professional development services ranged from our series of monthly online workshops, to half- and full-day in-services, bespoke leadership consultations, online courses and full, multi-year partnerships.