Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education

06/03/2021

Audio only Resources Slides from "Fostering Brave Spaces" Annotated Transcript Hello, my name is Grace Gilmour. I'm a seventh and eighth grade social studies teacher. And today I'm going to be talking about: "How do we foster brave spaces for discussions about race and other forms of oppression in our classrooms?" In the fall of 2020, I designed and implemented a unit that was meant to create a framework that we can come back to throughout the year....

Vermont educator Grace Gilmour shares how she has created a space for courageous and necessary conversations about race in the classroom.

05/28/2021

Voices Heard: Learning from our students! They can teach us so much. We just need to make sure we invite them to share their thoughts. Here's how the Learning Lab did it!

Voices Heard: Learning from our students. They can teach us so much. We just need to make sure we invite them to share their thoughts.

05/19/2021

Ever wondered how sustainability goes beyond reduce, reuse, recycle? Educators from Shelburne Farms & the University of Vermont Tarrant Institute will unpack how education for sustainability encompasses multiple areas around place-based education, environmental studies, and natural resource monitori...

05/04/2021

Teachers, we can never thank you enough for all the extra that you've done. So we reached back, to those educators who inspired our younger selves ...and these vintage school photos.

There's no possible way we could ever thank all the educators for putting up with this year. So we chose a few from our pasts, for Teacher Appreciation Week

03/18/2021

Lessons Learned from Vermont's Virtual Academies

What has remote learning looked like during the pandemic at some of Vermont's virtual academies? Three teachers tell us what they've learned.

03/17/2021

It's taken us a hot minute to get this out in part because these type of messages have to come too often but: we condemn violence against BIPOC people, and we are grieving for AAPI educators, students and families today, around Vermont and well beyond.

03/16/2021

We are all in favor of hand-written thank you cards from teachers to students, from students to teachers, administrators to teachers, from school board members to teachers, from our organization to teachers...

Writing a compelling & heartfelt thank you card is one of the two most valuable skills students can graduate with.

Looking for positive things to say about every student helps teachers develop an asset-based approach to teaching—and helps students lean into their strengths.

02/22/2021

Join us! We're offering a new 5-week course on scaffolding self-direction for learners. The content works for teachers in any environment, including in-person instruction. It starts next week -- I'm teaching it (hi, this is Rachel) along with Emily Hoyler -- and it's going to be amazing!
http://go.uvm.edu/tiiecourses/

01/20/2021

Teach your students about this beautiful poem!

In this NewsHour lesson, students will examine the message and goals of poet Amanda Gorman as she prepares to speak at the presidential inauguration.

01/19/2021

It's never too late to set goals, and it's always appropriate to revisit, revise and reflect on them. Rachel Mark takes us through three strategies. Gooooooooooooooal!

Three tried and true strategies for setting goals with students for the new year -- whatever that year happens to look like.

01/11/2021

We've pulled together some resources for talking about the insurrection with students. And rest assured, we do need to talk about this with students. We'll keep updating the resources as we find and review more of them to recommend.

Please drop resources you find helpful in the comments, or requests for resources you need as well.

Looking for resources for responding to January 6th? Here's a list of different types and categories. Please submit your own!

01/07/2021

Yesterday and today were A Lot, even by recent standards. We're so proud to see so many educators leaning in for both students *and* colleagues. Y'all are amazing.

Let's all hope (quietly & gently) for a better tomorrow, and many more.

In the meantime, this might be helpful:

Students are eager to have a lot of difficult conversations: with you, with each other, and with their communities. Here's how.