Notice

to

Wonder

It’s not complicated.

The essence of learning is to notice and wonder.

Yet most schools and places of learning are disconnected from this essence.

Even as we imagine and innovate new ways of learning, we tend to…

add too much,

buy shiny things,

over-complicate design,

clutter and distract from what’s simple and true.

It takes commitment and rigorous curiosity to allow the simplicity of notice to wonder learning—

to do less and be willing to engage with all that arises within the less.

How do we nurture notice to wonder learning?

We trust that it’s enough.

We take away what distracts from its simplicity.

We engage with feelings that arise from the less of it.

We practice ways to shift, play, unknow, revise, and try again.

We unlearn and relearn motivation, curiosity, and connection with learning.

I support educators, leaders, school teams, and communities to:

practice notice to wonder learning
design ways to nurture its essence in classrooms, schools, programs, and learning experiences.

We begin with a call to get to know each other and explore possibilities.

Phone or zoom. 30-40 minutes. Free.

Schedule a connection call

Layers of learning I support

Foundational classroom practice

Ways to begin with notice to wonder practice; support slow and deep noticing; allow wonder to emerge organically from noticing; create various ways and layers of engagement; design simple, less-is-more lessons; make simple edits to materials, choices, and classroom set-up; reflect on what you say and don’t say; connect with (and trust in) what you already know and do for students and families.

Advanced practice and integration

Ways to deepen notice to wonder thinking across subject areas and contexts; embed notice to wonder practices into other established curriculum; examine ways students resist or find “less” to be “too hard;” design for engagement with boredom; develop notice to wonder models for student-led inquiry; wonder about and revise current “units” of study; reflect on personal resistances to teaching with a notice to wonder approach.

Curriculum, program, and school design

Ways to design emergently from the simplicity of notice to wonder process; create throughlines, big-picture questions, spacious themes and structures that allow notice to wonder learning to breathe within them; review, reflect, and edit what clutters and distracts from what you’re trying to create; unlearn logics, assumptions, and feelings that keep you tethered to what you want to move beyond; align layers of your design to be congruent, simple, and enough (not more).

Process for educator learning

Ways to engage educators in simple notice to wonder processes that support them to learn from themselves and each other; begin where educators are and with what they know; allow educators to tell their own stories and listen to the stories of others; leverage the power of deep description and descriptive protocols; trust that big shifts in practice happen when educators remember how to trust themselves.

Documentation and storytelling

Ways to notice and wonder about learning as its happening and share this with others; align notice to wonder learning with ways of documentation, measurement, reporting, and evaluation; discover simple, authentic ways to document process for the sake of deepening process; play and experiment with various modes of storytelling; reflect on and unlearn hidden assumptions about documentation that limit vision and design.