Connection, Exploration, and Reflection at our Embedded Learning Experience
“Bring yourself back to your middle school you.”
This was the opening invitation to a room of educators gathered at our Embedded Learning Experience, a two-day dive into our embedded, integrated, learner-centered, micro-middle school.
The collective answer to this invitation to travel back in time to middle school? Giggles, sighs, and headshakes at the recollection of fumbling awkwardly between classrooms to the sounds of bells, and moving trepidatiously to the prescribed rhythms of the middle school experience that many of us know so well.
Guests at our most recent Embedded Learning Experience, which took place in Denver February 29 - March 1, represented a variety of roles from a variety of organizations across the states. An Art Teacher; a Third Grade Teacher; a Project-Based Learning Coach; a Dean of Students; and a Principal from Albuquerque, New Mexico. An Educator and Principal from Montrose, Colorado. A Director of a Community Learning Lab and a Program Manager from Newton, Massachusetts. An Educational Consultant and CEO from Denver, Colorado. A Social Studies Teacher from Chicago, Illinois. Teachers and Administrators from Kentwood, Michigan.
Despite the range of experience, locations, and backgrounds represented, a near instant connection was forged at the invitation to reflect back on middle school.
With shivers at the memories of middle school experiences of the past, and an invitation to find inspiration for the future, began two days of connection over an exploration into what is possible in youth education.
Learners Lead the Way
Embark learners were at the forefront of the Embedded Learning Experience, leading our visiting educators in sessions that provided perspectives and insights on what it’s like to attend a learner-centered middle school for middle schoolers.
In a micro-embedded learning experience, Embark eighth graders led our visiting educators through a crash course on real work they are currently doing: creating ready-to-publish social media content for Pinwheel Coffee, which doubles as a real-world classroom that grounds learners’ academics in authentic business needs.
Participants were given an overview of Pinwheel’s brand identity, including visual and written messaging. Working in small groups, our guests were given 15 minutes to create their own Pinwheel social media posts using the guidelines provided by our eighth grade learners. Participants then presented their posts to our learners for both celebratory and critical feedback, neither of which they were shy about sharing!
Connecting with one another and with our learners, our guests were given a real taste of what learning at Embark looks and feels like. And, they created some pretty incredible content along the way.
Agency on Display
In addition to participating in an authentic learning experience, participants connected with learners through a series of panels where learners spoke candidly about their experiences at Embark.
“At the beginning of sixth grade, I didn’t know what I was capable of. Now with three months left, it’s been a lot easier to get things done and make my own decisions,” shared Sylvia, a sixth grader who spoke to how her agency has grown over her first year at Embark.
Learner agency, which is one of our core competencies, was a common theme on the learner panels, with eighth grader Kai sharing “My agency has gotten a lot better from sixth grade to eighth grade.”
Visiting educators experienced learner agency at Embark not only through a series of panels, but by watching and interacting with learners during unstructured time to “float” through our spaces.
“It’s nice to see kids making their own decisions - every child in this space is making their own decisions,” shared Rachel, a Program Manager at WPS Institute in Newton, Massachusetts. “These learners are in control of what they are learning and when.”
Mindset of Radical Trust: Challenging the Perception of Middle Schoolers
“Egocentric.”
“Bad attitudes.”
“Miserable no matter what.”
“Social media obsessed.”
These were some of the responses when we asked participants to respond to the inquiry, “What is the public perception of middle schoolers?”
What ensued was a conversation not about whether or not these perceptions are or aren’t true, but rather, why might they be true. Does it have to be that way? And if it does have to be that way, why trust middle schoolers?
Radical trust is a mindset that grounds and guides everything we do at Embark. We define radical trust, in its simplest terms, as trust without fear or condition.
We invited our visiting educators to steep themselves in our spaces and observe what radical trust feels like. Their observations along the way affirmed something that we know to be true in our context: that radically trusting learners empowers them to courageously inquire, engage, and discover a sense of self, allowing them to surface their inherent brilliance with confidence.
“Learners continued working while I was with them. It was so equalizing: what they were working on was more important than centering themselves,” shared Keely, a Principal at Outer Range in Montrose, Colorado.
“I am struck by learners’ sense ownership and self,” observed Rachel from WPS Institute.
It was a beautiful phenomena not only to hear our visiting educators share their observations of radical trust in action, but also to see that same radical trust felt by our learners felt by the educators themselves, as shared by one participant reflecting on the experience.
“Being trusted as adults and educators to make just right choices is life giving,” shared Amanda, a Teacher and Administrator at Thrive Learning Center in Kentwood, Michigan.
Reflections on Connections
There were so many powerful sentiments shared throughout our two days together, from our guests sharing feeling validated on their instincts as educators, recharged with authentic ideas, and ignited with forward momentum about what could be possible in education.
Jennifer, an Educational Consultant and CEO of Principled Learning Strategies in Denver, Colorado shared, “I’m walking away with a little more sunshine.”
“Sunshine” and “middle school” are seldom two words paired together intentionally. But, it doesn’t have to be that way. School can be beautiful. School can make learners feel like they are standing in the sunshine of possibility rather than shadows of uncertainty.
We don’t have the answers for how to shift the tidal wave of education; what we do know is that it’s impossible to do alone. What is possible is to connect: to invite people in to be in dialogue about how to make things better. If, together, we can begin to shift the tidal wave one day, and one step at a time, we can make it better. We can make it different.
This Embedded Learning Experience is not about outcomes or objectives. It’s about the connections that are fostered on our shared journeys that push us to make things better in the ways that are within our control. To have come together; to have gathered with that group of individuals over those two days is what matters. Because it’s the connections forged and the inspirations unearthed together that propel us forward.
Tangible Takeaways
If you missed connecting at this most recent Embedded Learning Experience, we’ve got good news: registration for our next offering of this experience, taking place October 3-4 in Denver, is OPEN! We invite you to join us for our next experience, and to engage with some of the practices and mindsets shared by our team during this last experience that you can bring home to your unique context right now:
Choose one of our competencies that piques your interest, or that you wish you had more familiarity with as a middle schooler, and bring it back to your community.
Observe a temperature check. Ask your learners to rate how they are feeling on a scale of one - five with “one” indicating “I need immediate support” and “five” indicating “Best day ever!” with an invitation to share as much or as little about their chosen number as they would like. Fostering close relationships with our learners, and with one another, is integral to our mindset of radical trust. It’s important to know how learners and peers are feeling as they move through the day. And for learners especially, it’s assuring to know that someone who actually cares about how they are feeling is asking the question and listening to the answer. Learn more in this learner-created video.
Prioritize engagement. Take quick pulse checks of engagement with your learners throughout each day. Being in tune with engagement is almost always learner-centered!
If you are intrigued by what we shared here, be sure to join us in October to learn more and to connect with an incredible community of educators taking one step at a time towards shifting the tidal wave.