THE teachers guild
Launching Local Guild chapters and a national Fellowship for teachers focused on using human-centered design to advance teacher-led innovation.
The Teachers Guild's Approach
The Teachers Guild activates teachers as creative leaders who are designing for students’ unique and evolving needs. Creative leadership is the belief in one’s capacity to create change and embrace, act on, and share ideas. As educators are exposed to the design thinking process, a learner-centered approach to developing ideas, they develop the skills and confidence to try new ideas and get better at knowing what works for their students. Through transformative learning experiences, educators develop core design behaviors that are aligned to key tenets of adult learning theory and how students learn best:
- Inquiry Driven: Start with questions not answers
- Learner-Centered: Are empathetic and student centered when problem solving
- Actively Engaged: Embrace, act on, and share ideas
- Collective Efficacy: Use collaboration and evidence to know what works best and why
- Metacognition: Reflect, and never stop learning
- Self-Efficacy: Belief they can create change for students and schools
While The Teachers Guild believes in teacher-led innovation, they know that teachers are able to make a greater impact through collaboration. By launching the Fellowship and Local Guild Chapters at three sites (Vista County, CA; The Bronx, NY; and Gwinnett County, GA), the Guild is inviting school principals and district administrators to join teachers in creating meaningful change. These new programs create opportunities for vertical integration between teachers, school leaders, and district leadership. This increased coherence helps in identifying the most promising solutions for students, being evidenced-based in how teachers understand the impact on students, and sharing teacher-designed solutions across the district.
Integrator Fellowship
Bringing new ideas to life with design training, mentorship, and a supportive cohort of fellow educators.
Local Guild Chapters
Activating a culture of teacher-led creative leadership with local schools or districts in a region.
A teacher participating in the Creative Leadership Institute at Gwinnett County Public Schools shoots a confetti cannon. Confetti cannons are used as a tool for celebrating risk-taking.
Teachers Guild Fellows kicked off the year together, launching a year long design journey together. Fellows were selected to develop a passion project through the design process.
At the Innovation Summit, teachers were able to engage with rapid, interactive prototyping activities to build an idea they’ve been thinking about and get tangible quickly.
Teachers get creative at the Innovation Summit; designing a field experience program to bridge classroom content to learning beyond the four walls of a classroom.
Screenshot from a Virtual Community of Practice Call. Fellows shared sketches of how they were thinking about their idea during the Build phase.
At New York City’s Impact Showcase, the red carpet was rolled out (literally!) to celebrate teacher design teams as they presented their ideas and design journeys at the culminating event.
Gwinnett County Public School teachers proudly display their Certificates of Awesome after presenting ideas at their Impact Showcase.
