We are the superheroes that design engaging learning for our students. We are the superheroes that nurture, solve problems, and work with humans we call students to shape their lives.

Bowie forged his own path to greatness using his personal voice and singing voice. Bowie used his voice and choice at the age of 16 when he released "Space Oddity" on July 11, 1969 which became a UK top 5 hit.


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Annie Lennox attended Royal Academy of Music in London during the 1970s. During that time she was bored with school and chose her own path using her unique voice and style.

Let's face it, we want more for our students and ourselves. We want our students to be motivated to learn, to come to school, to work hard, to give effort, to exemplify perseverance, and more. We want more for each student.

What we really want are students who are engaged and thirsty to learn. To achieve this, we need to offer our students voice and choice in their learning.

What if we, teachers, changed the way we looked at learning? In order to provide students with learning voice and choice, we have to look at school through their eyes.

What if we offer students personalized paths to learning while still learning standards at each grade level? What if their path was the right path and we helped them along toward their own goals?

What if we spent more time talking with students as humans and spent less time grading, assessing, and looking at them as data points? Getting to know students as people helps teachers provide them with voice and choice in our classrooms.

What if educators spent time sitting side by side with students learning the sum of knowledge with them rather than standing in front of them telling them what to learn? Creating a classroom with voice & choice means working alongside students and digging into the learning with them.

Whose voice should we be listening to and care most about? STUDENTS! If we do not understand THE BIGGEST STAKEHOLDER and how they want to learn, we won't be able to reach them. Giving them learning voice & choice gives them ownership of their learning.

We want students to freedom & autonomy to own their learning coming in our classrooms engaged, ready, and thirsty to learn because they have voice & choice in how they go about their work. We students to be autonomous learners. We want to give students freedom and independence to learn.

We need our students to be masters of their own learning. Telling them what to do, how to do it, when to it, and where detracts from them owning what they learn.

We want students to know the purpose of learning. To do this we have to make it relevant to their lives. That means working hard to weave learning together in a way that makes sense and gives them a purpose or reason to learn it. The age old idea of "it's on the test" is not a valid reason for students to have to learn anything. Rather, giving them a clear purpose for learning something and how it will impact their lives is important.

In other words, voice & choice lead to Dan Pink's idea that students will engage deeply in learning when there is autonomy mastery, and purpose. Giving students a voice opens the door for them.

It's time for a learning revolution! Give students voice & choice in their learning while still having them deeply learn standards. Offer them a variety of choices of when to complete work, where to complete it, and how.

Ditch that workbook, worksheet, and homework. Give every student the opportunity to be an autonomous, masterful, and purposeful learner producing work that demonstrates deep learning giving them voice and choice.

Boundless are the limits of student learning when we respect as people who can learn with purpose, mastery, and autonomy. Be like Yoda and push the limits of what students can do.