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Innovative Education in VT

A blog exploring innovative, personalized, student-centered school change

  • ABOUT US
    • We stand against systemic racism.
    • Our Communications Diversity Policy
    • The Tarrant Institute
    • Our staff
      • John Downes
      • Emily Hoyler
      • Life LeGeros
      • Rachel Mark
    • Our schools
  • Our book
    • How to use this Educator’s Guide
    • Ch 1: Defining Personalized Learning
      • 1.1 The Three Pillars of Personalized Learning
      • 1.2 The Definition of a PLP
      • 1.3 New Student & Teacher Roles
    • Ch 2: PLPs Aren’t Just For The Teacher
      • 2.1 Knowing Students Well
      • 2.2 Avoid the Pitfalls!
    • Ch 3: Laying The Groundwork for PLPs
      • 3.1 What Are Your Pedagogical Priorities?
      • 3.2 Structures to Support Personalized Learning
    • Ch 4: Starting with the Learner Profile
    • Ch 5: Flexing Your Pathways
      • 5.1 Engaging Pedagogies for All
    • Ch. 6: Scaffolding for Equitable, Deeper Learning
    • Ch 7: PLPs & Proficiency-Based Assessment
    • Ch 8: Student-led PLP conferences
    • Ch 9: Sustaining Innovation
    • Chapter References
  • TOOLKITS
    • Action research
    • Adult Culture
    • Advisory
    • Digital citizenship
    • Community & Culture
    • Essential Skills & Dispositions Toolkit
    • Family & Community Involvement
    • Flexible classrooms
    • Genius Hour
    • Identity
    • Makerspaces
    • Negotiated curriculum
    • Personalized Learning Plans (PLPs)
    • Proficiency-Based Education
      • Learning Goals
      • Formative Assessment
      • Summative Assessment
    • Project-Based Learning
    • Reflection
    • Remote Learning
    • Scheduling
    • Service learning
    • Student-led conferences
  • VIDEOS
    • Middle Grades Conference (MGC)
    • PLP videos
    • Proficiency-Based Learning Videos
    • Student-Led Conference Videos
    • Tech Tips
  • PODCAST
    • #vted Reads Episode List
    • #vted Reads Videos
  • ARCHIVES
  • EVENTS & COURSES
  • CONTACT

News

Students on mountain bikes with soccer goal in the background.
Equity Flexible Pathways News Transferable Skills 

Prioritizing daily movement and experiential learning in Newark

January 31, 2023February 3, 2023 Life LeGeros 2 Comments Kingdom East, movement, newark street school, reflection

Dillin, a seventh grade student at Newark Street School (NSS), had this to say about starting school with 30 minutes

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News 

Introducing our new Project Based Learning toolkit

January 27, 2023January 26, 2023 Emily Hoyler 2 Comments

At the Tarrant Institute, we write a lot about Project Based Learning (PBL). We consider it one of the engaging

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News 

Winter Break Reading & Listening: 2022 Edition

December 9, 2022December 8, 2022 Emily Hoyler 1 Comment

It’s that time again! One of our favorite times of the year around here: our annual Winter Reading post. This

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News 

Introducing our new Advisory toolkit

December 2, 2022December 2, 2022 Emily Hoyler 3 Comments

It’s no secret we’re big fans of advisory around here. And we don’t just mean the time on the schedule

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News 

Introducing our NEW Community & Culture Toolkit!

November 11, 2022November 11, 2022 Emily Hoyler 3 Comments

You know the vibe when you walk into a classroom where everyone is engaged and buzzing with learning, and the

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News 

Sixth Graders Revamp Lyndonville

November 4, 2022November 7, 2022 Life LeGeros 1 Comment

It was a perfect match. The sixth grade team at Lyndon Town School were looking for an end of year

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News 

NEW Essential Skills & Dispositions Toolkit

October 25, 2022October 25, 2022 Rachel Mark 2 Comments

Many schools and classrooms across the country identify student skills for success. Ideally, those skills cut across content areas and

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News 

Introducing our NEW Adult Culture toolkit

October 14, 2022October 13, 2022 Emily Hoyler 1 Comment

A positive and collaborative adult culture is essential to a positive and collaborative student culture. As educators, we must attend

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News 

PLPs to Know Students Well: Introducing the Personal Learning Plan Toolkit

September 30, 2022 John Downes 1 Comment

Knowing each student well is essential to a year of flourishing for students and educators. It’s a prerequisite to ensuring

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News 

Updated Student-Led Conferences Toolkit

September 28, 2022 Rachel Mark 2 Comments

Around this time of year, many middle schools begin to prepare for a fall student-led conference. This conference serves as

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News 

Why Advisory matters so much

September 16, 2022September 6, 2022 Nancy Doda 1 Comment

The Why We teach a precious and somewhat precarious age group. Our middle grades students are in the throes of

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student identity
News 

Introducing our updated Identity Toolkit

September 9, 2022September 6, 2022 Life LeGeros 1 Comment

The beginning of a school year is a great time to explore and reflect on identity. For teachers who are

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News 

Happy Summer Reading!

June 23, 2022June 22, 2022 Jeanie Phillips 1 Comment

We at the Tarrant Institute look forward to summer reading every year, but THIS year… this year we all deserve

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News 

What Matters Most Now: Lesson Three – Authenticity

June 14, 2022June 8, 2022 Nancy Doda 3 Comments

The school year is almost over and this one may well be remembered as your toughest yet. If hardship makes

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Ornella Matta Figuero holds up her phone showing the audiobook The Last Cuentista
News 

#vted Reads: The Last Cuentista

June 8, 2022 Jeanie Phillips 1 Comment
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Lovely listeners, welcome back. I’m Jeanie Phillips, and on this episode, I get to talk about “The Last Cuentista”, a

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News 

What Matters Most Now: Lesson Two – Rethink What We Teach

May 19, 2022 Nancy Doda 1 Comment

This is the second in a series of mini blogs with attention to priorities in the not-so post pandemic world.

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News Uncategorized 

What Matters Most Now: Lesson One – Slow Down

May 12, 2022May 11, 2022 Nancy Doda 1 Comment reflection

This is a the first in a series of blogs with attention to education priorities in the not-so post pandemic

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Dr. Winnie Looby and Care Work
#vted Reads News 

#VTED Reads: Care Work with Dr. Winnie Looby

April 28, 2022May 10, 2022 Jeanie Phillips 2 Comments
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Welcome, listeners, to another episode of vted Reads: talking about books by, for, and with Vermont educators. In this episode…

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News 

Rethinking assessment to rebalance education

April 26, 2022 Life LeGeros 3 Comments

Testing helped me be successful in school. And it was horrible for my learning.  I was good at tests. The

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News 

Centering Connection and Wellness: A Lifelong Sports Program at Rutland Middle School

April 1, 2022April 12, 2022 Rachel Mark 10 Comments activity, exercise, fitness, indoors, lifelong sports, outdoors, well-being, wellness

As we move through another calendar year impacted by COVID, I find myself taking stock of what’s important for our

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Brendan, Jess, Christie, and Jeanie with "The Other Talk"
#vted Reads News 

#vted Reads: The Other Talk

March 24, 2022March 23, 2022 Jeanie Phillips 2 Comments
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Jeanie:  In this episode, I sit down with educational phenoms Christie Nold and Jess Lifshitz.  And we’re joined by Brendan

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Bees on hive
News Transferable Skills 

Strategies for Fostering Student Collaboration

March 15, 2022April 1, 2022 Jeanie Phillips 1 Comment

I’ve had to work really hard to learn how to collaborate. Yet, my K-12 teachers always gave me A’s on

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News 

Change is hard, sometimes tweaking our habits can help

February 15, 2022February 15, 2022 Emily Hoyler 6 Comments

Why is change so hard?  Why, when our minds can be so clear on the direction we want to go

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News 

How one district gave teachers the gift of time

February 10, 2022February 10, 2022 Life LeGeros 12 Comments

What if we could give more time to educators, many of whom are overworked and in danger of burnout? The

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U-32 students with copies of Dig
#vted Reads News 

#vted Reads: Dig

January 27, 2022April 1, 2022 Jeanie Phillips 1 Comment ASKing, Author, librarians, MegAllison, U32
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Listeners, I’m going to ask you to bear with me on this one. This is one of my favorite episodes

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News Reflection Self-directed learning 

Centering Relationships & Routines

January 20, 2022January 20, 2022 Emily Hoyler 1 Comment

Many of the routines of the school day have been frayed by the pandemic. From kids unable to engage in work

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#vted Reads News 

#vted Reads: Start Here Start Now

January 14, 2022January 14, 2022 Jeanie Phillips 1 Comment
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Lovely listeners: today is a work day.Now, we all know that talking about anti-bias work is a vital component of

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News 

The Annual TIIE Winter Reading Round Up

December 16, 2021December 16, 2021 Rachel Mark 1 Comment

Dear Readers, We are rolling into that time of year when we hope that you find time to get cozied

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Flexible Classroom Spaces News Self-directed learning 

Student clubs for engagement and wellbeing

December 7, 2021December 7, 2021 Life LeGeros 2 Comments engagement, student clubs, wellbeing

Need more student engagement and wellbeing? Join the club! Educators are always looking for ways to get students more engaged

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Lizzy Lyons with a copy of the book We Contain Multitudes
#vted Reads News 

#vted Reads: We Contain Multitudes

December 2, 2021December 2, 2021 Jeanie Phillips 1 Comment
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Lovely listeners: we’re baaaaaaack! And we missed each and every one of you.  To celebrate our return, in this episode

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Goal-setting Identity News PLPs 

Care and Feeding of the PLP

November 18, 2021November 19, 2021 Jeanie Phillips 1 Comment Two Rivers Supervisory Union

Take a moment to think about a learning experience that was meaningful to your students. How do you know that

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News 

Do you need a radical reset?

November 12, 2021November 13, 2021 Rachel Mark 1 Comment

In late October, the middle school 7th and 8th grade team at Flood Brook School realized that the 2021 school

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coffee mug reads 'what good shall I do this day?'
News 

A Vermont-centric look at personalized learning for social justice

October 28, 2021October 28, 2021 Life LeGeros 0 Comments

The recent issue of the research journal Middle Grades Review was extraordinary for two reasons. First, it focused on the

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News Transferable Skills 

Transferable Skill Deep Dive: Fostering communication

October 21, 2021October 20, 2021 Jeanie Phillips 0 Comments Two Rivers Supervisory Union

What do you see when you look at this picture? (For real, I’m not being sarcastic, what do you see?)

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News 

Building resilience (for all) through personal efficacy

October 18, 2021October 19, 2021 John Downes 0 Comments

Even in the best of times, October can be a tough month for teachers. And it’s hard to call covid

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News 

Lessons from summer camp

September 28, 2021September 27, 2021 Life LeGeros 0 Comments

What we can learn from Kingdom East School District’s summer camp? The 2020-2021 pandemic school year was uniquely challenging and

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News 

Successful student-led conferences

September 21, 2021September 20, 2021 Rachel Mark 0 Comments

A student-led conference that brings together the student, teacher, and parent or guardian is a very powerful thing. It puts

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News 

Student-centered personalized learning starts with identity

September 16, 2021April 12, 2022 Jeanie Phillips 0 Comments advisory, goal-setting, identity

“Be yourself; everyone else is taken.” That. Quote. Drives. Me. Nuts. I mean, duh!  And of course! And who else

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News 

Start the year with building the culture

September 2, 2021September 7, 2021 Rachel Mark 0 Comments

As we begin the year with students in our classrooms, it’s important to start with a focus on building the

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You got this
News 

Happy new (school) year!

August 24, 2021August 24, 2021 Emily Hoyler 0 Comments

The most wonderful time of the year It’s that time of the year again – the beginning of a new

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Summer Reading 2021
News 

Summer Reading 2021

July 6, 2021July 6, 2021 TIIE Staff 0 Comments summer, summer reading

Hooray for summer! Sure, we usually say something along those lines this time of year, but this year? ONCE MORE

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PTO activities
News 

How a PTO connected students with community during COVID

July 4, 2021June 25, 2021 Dana Hudson 0 Comments

Like so many students this past year, the 7th and 8th students at Crossett Brook Middle School in Duxbury, Vermont,

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News 

Art for Action at Rutland Middle School

July 1, 2021June 25, 2021 Rachel Mark 0 Comments

Art for social change? How do you engage students in an exploration of the ways that art impacts social change?

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Margaret Dunne
Identity News 

Exploring Identity with 4th and 5th Graders

June 29, 2021April 12, 2022 Jeanie Phillips 0 Comments advisory, goal-setting, identity, MGC, Middle Grades Institute (MGI), Mount Holly, social identity

Margaret Dunne, a fourth and fifth-grade educator at Mount Holly School in Mount Holly VT, originally presented “Exploring Identity with

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Katie Handy
News 

Launching toward engagement: integrated units at Miller’s Run

June 23, 2021July 1, 2021 Katie Handy 0 Comments

WHOOSH! Imagine rows of students using medieval replicas of catapults and trebuchets to hurl objects across an open field. An

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St. Johnsbury reignite
News 

St. Johnsbury District’s reignite planning process

May 20, 2021 Life LeGeros 0 Comments #COVID19, St. Johnsbury District

St. Johnsbury School District is committed to building on their assets, seeking input from all stakeholders, and planning in phases

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Teacher Appreciation Week
News 

Teachers, we appreciate you.

May 4, 2021May 4, 2021 Audrey Homan 0 Comments emotional resilience, Teacher Appreciation Week

This year, for Teacher Appreciation Week 2021, we decided to do something different. We love and respect and miss and

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screentime in a pandemic
News 

The unexpected joys of screentime in a pandemic

March 5, 2021March 5, 2021 Rachel Mark 0 Comments For Your Family

Virtually every night around 8 pm, I hear two teenage boys shouting. They’re yelling commands and occasionally letting expletives fly.

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the power of one bird in a flock
News 

The Power of One Person

March 1, 2021 Emily Hoyler 0 Comments

  Right now the problems of the world can feel so very big. And we can feel small. We can

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digital peer mentoring
News 

Silver linings of the pandemic

January 26, 2021January 29, 2021 Mairead Harris 0 Comments

Digital peer mentoring at Lamoille South Unified Union School District As the coordinator for my school district’s full-time virtual option

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hado
News 

What does your rice smell like?

January 21, 2021January 21, 2021 Life LeGeros 0 Comments

My mom is into homeopathy and I am part Japanese. So for Christmas she gave me a book by Japanese

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News 

Setting goals with students for the new year

January 19, 2021 Rachel Mark 0 Comments

No matter what that new year looks like. At the start of a new year, we often think about our

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PD in a pandemic
News 

Why PD in a pandemic?

January 17, 2021January 17, 2021 Evy Gray 0 Comments LearningLabVT, Middle Grades Institute

In the midst of a global pandemic teachers are adapting in a multitude of ways. We have had to fundamentally

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resources for responding to January 6th
News 

Resources for responding to January 6th

January 8, 2021January 19, 2021 TIIE Staff 0 Comments

As ever-increasing cracks in the foundation of our democracy reveal weakness and corruption, so too do these revelations allow the

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return routines: "The Return of the Light", by Emily Hoyler. All photo rights reserved.
News 

The Return of the Light

January 7, 2021January 7, 2021 Emily Hoyler 0 Comments

Editorial Note: This post was scheduled for publication prior to the events in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021. As

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one breath at a time
News 

One breath at a time is an acceptable plan

January 6, 2021January 6, 2021 Audrey Homan 0 Comments

This is not a new year’s post. And everything seems to have gone terribly wrong that can But one breath

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winter reading 2020
News 

Winter Break Reading, 2020 edition

December 15, 2020December 15, 2020 TIIE Staff 0 Comments

While most of the time, we’re looking forward to the winter part of our winter reading break, this year it’s

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mindfulness activities for advisory
News 

7 mindfulness activities for advisory

December 2, 2020April 12, 2022 Rachel Mark 1 Comment advisory, goal-setting, identity

Now, more than ever. Many schools have an advisory structure to promote strong relationships and a sense of close community.

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News 

Trust the Science: Using brain-based learning to upgrade our educational OS

November 23, 2020November 24, 2020 Bill Rich 0 Comments

Spoiler alert: When we adjust learning conditions to be more in sync with the known laws of brain-based learning, learning

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you deserve a break
News 

Dear educators: you deserve a break. 

November 20, 2020November 20, 2020 Rachel Mark 0 Comments

As we enter the week of Thanksgiving, please take care of yourselves and find time for rest and solace. You

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thanksgiving t-shirt
News 

One teacher, one t-shirt

October 12, 2020October 12, 2020 Emily Hoyler 0 Comments

Hello friends, The leaves have already peaked up here on the mountain where I live. And the thermometer reads a

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You got this
News 

Advisory for educators?

October 1, 2020October 1, 2020 Scott Thompson 2 Comments

Physical, social, and emotional health are the top priorities in our learning communities. Period. End of story. Educators have been

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keep saying their names
News 

Keep saying their names.

September 29, 2020 TIIE Staff 0 Comments social justice

This has been a tough few weeks. Even in relative terms to 2020, it was “a week.” Our sense of

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A Southern Vermont teacher and student connect social distance style.
News 

Centering care and love

September 11, 2020 Jeanie Phillips 0 Comments

Schools have been preparing for students all summer: developing protocols for handwashing and bathroom use, deploying hand sanitizer stations, hanging

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UVM Tarrant Institute Learning Lab

Recent posts

  • Prioritizing daily movement and experiential learning in Newark
  • Introducing our new Project Based Learning toolkit
  • Winter Break Reading & Listening: 2022 Edition
  • Introducing our new Advisory toolkit
  • Introducing our NEW Community & Culture Toolkit!

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