Webinar Recording: Learner-Centered Bright Spots: Making Learning Public and Closing the Year Strong

In this webinar, three members of the Learner-Centered Collaborative team—Katie Martin, Kate Weisberg, and Danny Scuderi—highlight practical strategies for closing the school year by celebrating learning and cultivating learner-centered mindsets.

Drawing from their work in classrooms and systems nationwide, they offer tangible examples of how schools and educators can use reflection, celebration, and community-building to reinforce learner-centered practices and end the year on a high note.

Questions explored include:

  • What role do mindset shifts play in supporting learner-centered environments, and how can educators model these shifts?
  • How can educators embed micro-celebrations and reflection into the daily rhythms of school life for both students and staff?
  • What structures support meaningful student-led conferences, portfolios, and presentations of learning?
  • How can learning walks, staff exhibitions, and public reflection foster a collaborative, whole-learner culture among educators?
  • Why is celebrating learning essential for sustaining momentum and reinforcing the values of learner-centered education?

Examples shared include affirmation stations, kudos cards, brag tags, classroom learning walks, student-led conferences, and public exhibitions of learning. Educators are encouraged to start small—finding even 30 seconds to celebrate a colleague or student—and to trust in the capacities of learners to reflect on and share their growth.

Resources Shared During the Webinar:

More From Learner-Centered Collaborative:

It’s Your Journey

Explore More Topics

Blog
Building Brighter Futures Together: Insights from the SoCal LiNK Regional Partnership
A fresh model of collaboration is emerging in Southern California; one that unites K–12 education, higher education institutions, and local communities with a shared focus on supporting the whole learner.  SoCal LiNK, Southern California Learning in Networked Knowledge, is a research-practice partnership between the Department of Education Studies at UC San Diego, Learner-Centered Collaborative…
Blog
What is the Purpose of School? A Call for Whole-Learner Outcomes.
What is the purpose of school? For the past four decades, the prevailing national answer—shaped largely by the 1983 report “A Nation at Risk” and documented by historian Patricia Graham—has been singular: Achievement. This focus helped usher in an era of standardization, compliance, and testing. It was designed to respond to global economic anxieties…
Tools
A Learner-Centered Ecosystem
It’s time for a shift from the school-centered education system—where efficiency, standardization, compliance, ranking, sorting, and task completion are top priorities—to a learner-centered paradigm, where we focus on supporting each learner to know who they are, thrive in community, and actively engaged in the world as their best selves. “A Learner-Centered Ecosystem” dives deep…