Every Student is a Wellspring: Designing Student-Centered Learning for Empowerment, Self-Direction, and Autonomy
Dear Breaking the Paradigm Subscribers,
When this post goes live on December first, we will be one month away from the end of 2024. It feels like just yesterday the school year was starting and it was still boiling hot in Washington DC!
The end of 2024 marks the one year anniversary of this Substack. I started writing and speaking on the platform in January 2024 as a part of my New Years Resolution to write more. I was seeking a platform where I could hone my ideas about education and have thoughtful conversations with practitioners and leaders for whom I have such great respect.
I never expected this platform to grow as quickly as it did, with basically no advertising. That is thanks to all of you, my incredibly engaged audience, for reading, commenting, and sharing this work!
I was overjoyed to meet some of you at Montessori conferences this fall and was truly blown away at the response to my work. I am looking forward to meeting more of you as I take my work “on the road” in 2025!
This Substack went from a hobby with a couple dozen followers to a regular publication, with an official podcast Co-Host (looking at you
!)As we come up on our one year anniversary, I am working on some special podcast episodes and blog posts to celebrate this milestone.
With that in mind, I am so excited to share that I have written my first ebook: Every Student is a Wellspring: Designing Student-Centered Learning for Empowerment, Self-Direction, and Autonomy
I wrote this book because many readers I meet, who are outside of the Montessori paradigm, have a hard time envisioning how to create curriculum and pedagogy which is designed around student needs.
Without a clear system in place, it is easy to revert back to traditional methods. What I attempted to do in this book is to provide a framework, based on my experience in Montessori and progressive education, to support any educator, in any school, to co-develop an emerging curriculum with their students.
If that interests you, feel free to check it out here: https://stan.store/afaulstich/p/get-my-ebook-now-8bropgv1
Over the past year, I have been on a mission to be of service to the broader movement to humanize education for all. I look forward to continuing in that mission in 2025.
Tomorrow, I release a stellar podcast with Suzanne Tipton from the Authentic Institute of Montessori on how we as educators can give ourselves grace even in the most difficult moments. Somehow, each podcast conversation I have gets better. I hope it leaves you as inspired as it did me!
In peace and gratitude,
Andrew
Breaking the Paradigm is a division of Developing Education, which is on a mission to transform education globally to foster human development and flourishing for all people.
Check out Andrew’s other work here!
First Intention: Curriculum and pedagogy support for Montessori adolescent practitioners, specifically with math and language across the prepared environment.
www.FirstIntention.org
The Enlightened Educator Project: Supporting educators with mindfulness and resiliency through professional development and downloadable resources.
www.EnlightenedEducatorProject.org