I haven’t blogged in a month but I have definitely been writing! This week I submitted final edits on my 2nd book, Evolving Education: Shifting to a Learner-Centered Paradigm. I am so excited to share this book with you all. Each chapter highlights a key shift to a learner-centered paradigm that teachers can make right now (well, I guess it can wait until the fall) in their classrooms. It will be available by July 26th and if you are interested in an early preview and being part of the launch team, let me know here. 

Thank you for all the help picking out the cover. Here it is!

Here is what people are saying so far:

Evolving Education is an inspirational and practical guide to shifting to a learner-centered approach. It clearly articulates how to redefine success, how to create powerful learning experiences and how to support them with enabling conditions. Evolving Education would make a great book study for any school faculty or a community group considering engaging new learning pathways. 

Tom Vander Ark, CEO of GettingSmart, author, and international thought leader

Katie Martin absolutely nailed it in Evolving Education: Shifting to a Learner-Centered Paradigm. The book continually challenges us to ask ourselves, “What does it mean to be successful?” and “How can we design classrooms, schools, and systems to improve the lives of the students we serve?” A learner-centered paradigm requires that we examine beliefs and biases and disrupt systems that do not serve each and every learner. This work requires innovation, creativity, flexibility, and heart. Because, as Martin says, “Despite our best efforts, ‘Young people are over scheduled, over tested and their mental health is suffering.” The anecdotes in the text, reflections of the real work that teachers and students are doing around the country, highlight there is a better way (i.e, Salad Wars!). This book spoke to my heart as an educator and a Mom and is the perfect mix of incredible story-telling, inspiration, and concrete strategy. 

Katie Novak, Ed.D., Educational Consultant, Author of 9 books including best-selling UDL Now, Innovate Inside the Box, Equity by Design, and UDL and Blended Learning

“Dr. Katie Martin produced a masterpiece in Evolving Education.  In the same way Dewey, Marzano, and Hattie were able to deliver a comprehensive set of modern pedagogy connected to tangible practices and authentic examples from the field for their time; Katie provides the next chapter, Evolving Education, for our field that will be relevant for decades to come.  If there’s one book to put in the hands of teachers and school leaders to help make the shift to learner centered classrooms and schools it is this one.  Katie is a brilliant storyteller and adds both levity and humor throughout to make for an enjoyable learning and reimagining.  Must read!”

David Miyashiro, Ed.D. Superintendent of Cajon Valley UnionSchool District 

From the Intro:

The year 2020 was a whirlwind. Seemingly overnight, educators had to shift from in-person to remote teaching, leaving well-established resources, tools, and procedures behind. It felt as if the ground was being pulled out from under us. Gone was the schedule that kept us all in place, guiding our curriculum as we moved reliably from class to class, from year to year. Gone was the security in a predictable system that allowed us to feel safe going through the motions. Many of us rarely questioned this process because the structures that kept the system in place looked more or less the same for a hundred years.

But sometimes a shock to the system is exactly what it takes to bring about much-needed change. As the Irish poet Oscar Wilde once wrote, “Without structure, nothing can exist. Without chaos, nothing can evolve.^[1]” [PE1] The chaos of 2020 and the beginning of 2021 forced us to come up with new strategies and models to educate our students. It was not easy, and it will have a lasting impact on every aspect of our lives, but if we are open to it, there are lessons to be gleaned. There is an opportunity to rethink our practices, intentionally leave behind those that don’t best serve all learners and educators, and be more intentional about incorporating what matters most: relationships, connection, purpose, flexibility, agency, and authentic learning. The pandemic created an opening for us to free ourselves of preexisting norms and expectations and enter the realm of possibility.

I want to be clear: This is not a book about the great pandemic and the chaos of the 2020–2021 school year. This is a book about expanding our mental models of what is possible so we can best meet the needs of all learners—anytime, anywhere. In my previous book, Learner-Centered Innovation, I focused on a greater vision for an education system and how professional learning could support key shifts for educators. Consequently, this book offers a deeper dive into how we can harness new technologies, learning sciences, and pedagogy that center learners and learning. We’ll explore practical tools for creating a learner-centered, network-age model of education characterized by connection, flexibility, agency, and contribution. My hope is to share learner-centered practices that both validate and push your thinking, inspire you with ideas and examples, and fuel your purpose and passion to create learning experiences that truly enable all children to reach their full potential.

Let’s Connect to Evolve Education!

We have an opportunity to evolve to best meet the needs of learners today. I can’t wait for your thoughts on this book and more importantly to see what it inspires you to do! If you are interested in helping launch remember to sign up here.