Where educators share and find support for big ideas

It’s “inspiring to be with so many like-minded educators trying new things with students,” says one educator at SPARK School at Kyrene de las Manitas in Phoenix, Arizona. 

“At the end of the day, I am beat but after these meetings, I am so inspired!!!,” writes another educator from Brinton Elementary in Mesa, Arizona. 

They’re just two of hundreds of educators who are participating in networked cohorts designed to support schools and teams of educators transitioning to Next Education Workforce teaming models. Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College launched the first elementary education cohort with 30 educators in August and has quickly expanded to include 200 educators across five cohorts this spring. 

“We heard again and again from educators that they wanted to be able to talk to each other,” says Lisa Wyatt, senior program strategist at MLFTC. “This is a dedicated time every month for educators — teachers, instructional designers and school leaders — to explore new concepts outside of the day-to-day demands of school.”

In this video Q&A, Wyatt discusses the power of the networked cohort, challenges teams face, and the results so far.