Lucie delaBruere has spent 30 years in Vermont school teaching and learning with students from kindergarten to grad school.
For 20 years her classrooms at Concord HS, Cabot School, and North Country HS and Career Center were filled with project-based learning that was hands-on minds-on and integrated within both local and global community. Her students were co-creators of curriculum, bringing in their personal interest and passions. Their portfolios documented their proficiencies in college and career readiness skills ranging from leadership and communication to more technical skills with award-winning projects like “Life on the Border” – capturing oral histories of the 300 first generation French Canadian families.
Lucie became known around the state for her passion and success in engaging female students into high tech learning opportunities designing TechSavvy Girls programming that increased the number of girls in career and technical education in the Northeast Kingdom.
For the next 10 years, Lucie role in education transitioned to one of teacher leader, supporting the integration of technology in several K-12 schools in Northwest Vermont, with a strong focus on using digital tools to create and innovate. Influenced by raising 3 creative musical sons and global partners visit to Taiwan schools, where Taiwan had moved creative learning disciplines from after school to mid-day, and placed test-prep to after school, Lucie started to take on a role that she calls being an ambassador for creativity and innovation IN our schools!
Winning a small innovation grant to pilot ways to bring more creativity and innovation into our schools, she began to design professional development that allowed teachers to EXPERIENCE the power of creating and making to learn. As the maker-ed movement started to emerge, it was a natural fit for her educational philosophy and pedagogical beliefs, leading to deeper inquiry into creating and making as a vehicle for powerful learning.
You can find out more about Lucie’s work over at her blog.