Laura Thomas is the educator's educator. A veteran teacher, learner, and thought leader, she serves as Director and Core Faculty of the Experienced Educators Program at Antioch University New England (AUNE). During this conversation, she explains the Critical Skills Classroom, as well as advocates for teachers in the current climate of hostility toward public education. Here are some of our favorite moments from this wonderful chat. Don’t forget to scroll down to the bottom for all the resources mentioned (there were a lot in this episode!).
In The Critical Skills Classroom, Students And Teachers Learn Together.
AUNE's Critical Skills Classroom combines problem-based learning (PBL), social-emotional learning (SEL), and 21st-century skills. Laura prefers to call it an evolving approach for a collaborative learning community rather than a model.
"As times have changed, as the needs of learners have evolved, as different places have different contexts, the approach flexes with that, because it's not a plug-and-play thing. It's a set of ideas, it's a stance, and then every teacher does it a little differently."
She defines Critical Skills as what emerges through four teaching methodologies (collaborative, experiential, problem-based, and standards-driven) and nine characteristics, presented within a set of expectations that includes teachers' willingness to immerse in the give-and-take of learning.
"It requires the teacher to accept that, as educators, we are also co-learners. We are learning in front of the kids. We're learning with the kids, and what we're learning is the kids, and also how to teach in this different way."
Laura stresses that as teachers continually learn from each other, honest feedback about their successes and failures is central to the Critical Skills Classroom program.
Public Education Is Facing Anger, Fear, and Control.
Because Laura's primary areas of study have included social justice and equity, she offers a compassionate, incisive view of the problems teachers are facing amidst COVID disruptions and cultural upheaval. She notes that one persistent problem is an imposter complex.
"There are so many teachers who think they aren't as good as they are. They don't want anybody to know what they're doing, because they don't think they're doing a very good job when in reality, they're doing an amazing job."
She believes that the teacher-directed anger we're seeing today is triggered by fear.
"The brain trends to the negative; when we are presented with anything new, our brains have evolutionarily been designed to view new as a threat, which was really helpful back when something new could eat us, so it was a good thing that it frightened us and we ran away."
Laura also recognizes that when we discover the power imbalance of bullying that all too often lies beneath today's anger and fear, we can reframe the situation as a control issue.
"I'm not going to judge anybody, but my heart goes out to folks who have to keep going back to a job that is eating them alive because they have no other choice. I think we have to do better by our teachers so that we can do better by our students, but I'm not sure how."
Teachers Are Expected To Sacrifice For Their Profession.
Laura notes that a contributing factor to the soaring rate of educator burnout is baked into our cultural view of teachers.
"Education has culturally been the work of unmarried women, and the expectation was supposed to be that your work, teaching, became everything. There's some real internalized misogyny in this idea that, as educators, we're supposed to buy into this ideal of the feminine that sacrifices everything for the care of others, and that's toxic."
Educators who let their work consume them are at risk of depleting themselves into early retirement. Laura cautions them to recognize the enabling language of admins who ask them to "do it for the kids," and sympathizes with how they might be triggered by EdTech sales reps who praise their "heroism" too vigorously. She emphasizes self-advocacy as part of a balanced professional attitude.
"I think knowing who you are, what you believe in, and where your lines are is incredibly important for teachers right now. Don't let yourself get guilted into doing things that don't serve you. You count."
What We Talked About
Use this to jump to parts of the conversation you want to listen to more closely.
[00:55] Introducing Laura Thomas
[06:22] How Laura chose a career in education
[14:16] What is the Critical Skills Classroom?
"What they did was set about creating an approach that embedded the intentional teaching of each of these skills and dispositions in the context of experiential, problem-based lessons – experiences."
[20:07] How do we start teaching Critical Skills?
"It is an immersion. We teach the model by living the model."
[33:34] The process of Critical Skills is an ongoing evolution
"We really respect the ways that teachers modify this to fit their own context, and we just ask that they feed that back in so that it can inform practice in the future, because none of this makes any sense if it doesn't work for teachers."
[36:40] Teaching (and leading) without fear
[47:24] Laura addresses teacher burnout
[51:23] How education is perceived as a "feminine" profession
"There's some real internalized misogyny in this idea that as educators, we're supposed to buy into this ideal of the feminine that sacrifices everything for the care of others, and that's toxic."
[53:43] Elana cautions EdTech companies about triggering language for educators
[55:05] How Laura replenishes her energy
[57:15] How people can get in touch with Laura
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
Critical Skills
Critical Skills Classroom, a comprehensive approach for working teachers; Laura leads this program at Antioch University New England (AUNE)
Critical Skills and Fundamental Dispositions, elements of the Critical Skills Classroom approach
Why Critical Skills eBook, AUNE's summary of the Critical Skills Classroom
Terms
SEL (social-emotional learning), a teaching approach addressing personality development and interpersonal skills; a component of the Critical Skills Classroom
PBL (problem-based learning, aka project-based learning), an experiential teaching approach; a component of the Critical Skills Classroom
How to Use Problem-Based Learning in the Classroom by Robert Delisle, a resource Laura reccomends to learn more about PBL
21st-century skills, a teaching approach recognizing the skill sets required for success in a changing, diverse, networked world; a component of the Critical Skills Classroom
Markers like these, Laura mentions as a useful baseline creative tool for educators with limited tech access
Recommended Media
A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform by The National Commission on Excellence in Education, April 1983; Laura mentions this report as a motivating force for identifying Critical Skills
Yoga with Adriene, a YouTube channel that Laura began following during the pandemic
All Things Laura Thomas
Facilitating Authentic Learning, Grades 6-12: A Framework for Student-Driven Instruction by Laura Thomas
7 Smart, Fast Ways to Do Formative Assessment, just one of Laura's many blog posts for Edutopia
Get in touch with Laura: Twitter | Instagram | Antioch University
Elana Leoni, Host
Elana Leoni has dedicated the majority of her career to improving K-12 education. Prior to founding LCG, she spent eight years leading the marketing and community strategy for the George Lucas Educational Foundation where she grew Edutopia’s social media presence exponentially to reach over 20 million education change-makers every month.
Laura Thomas, Guest
Laura Thomas currently serves as Director and Core Faculty of the Experienced Educators Program at Antioch University New England, which provides MEds and certificates for working teachers. She joined the Education Department faculty as the Assistant Director of what would become the Antioch Center for School Renewal after nearly a decade of teaching high school English, debate, theatre, and speech. Her portfolio includes our PBL/Critical Skills Classroom concentration (a K–12 teaching methodology that combines project-based learning, social and emotional learning, and 21st-century skills in meaningful, authentic contexts) and its related program in Integrated STEAM Education. Laura's primary areas of study center on the development of teachers’ individual assessment and pedagogical approaches, social justice and equity (particularly in rural schools), resistance to change, and student-centered classroom practice. In 2020, she completed a four-year clinical experience as a school librarian in a 60-student K–6 school. She serves as a community facilitator and consulting editor for Edutopia and is an ISTE community leader. Laura has published pieces in Edweek, Kappan, and the Journal of Staff Development, and is the author of Facilitating Authentic Learning (Corwin Press, 2011). She lives in Keene, New Hampshire, with her husband and two children.
About All Things Marketing and Education
What if marketing was judged solely by the level of value it brings to its audience? Welcome to All Things Marketing and Education, a podcast that lives at the intersection of marketing and you guessed it, education. Each week, Elana Leoni, CEO of Leoni Consulting Group, highlights innovative social media marketing, community-building, and content marketing strategies that can significantly increase reach, relationships, and revenue.
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