Lyndon Institute has worked hard in recent years to embrace a more modern approach to education through “deeper learning.” Sometimes called “productive learning,” the approach focuses on a more complex understanding of topics, hands-on experience, and a practical application that goes beyond the passive absorption of knowledge. For over a decade, J Term has been at the forefront of this effort, offering a wide range of courses that present opportunities for project-based learning outside the normal scope of academics. 

But the goal all along has been to capture the dynamism of what happens in J Term and carry at least some of that into the mainstream of the school’s academic structure, partly through an emphasis on the school’s Transferable Skills and Portrait of a Graduate initiatives and more broadly through faculty and departmental meetings and workshops. 

In support of this goal, LI recently sent three of its faculty members and its Dean of Academics to the Deeper Learning Conference for three days of workshops and training at High Tech High, a San Diego charter school launched in 2000. Famous for its avant garde approach to project based learning, High Tech High has been a locus of educational advancement for years now, drawing teachers and administrators from all over the world, and in particular to its annual Deeper Learning conference.

For English Department chair Magen Bias, this year marked her second trip to the conference, ten years after her first. 

“I had an incredible trip the first time, so it was fun to come back and experience it again,” she said. “One of the things I love about the conference is that it treats teachers as students. Through our workshops and interactions, we’re encouraged to learn what we can and figure out how to make it applicable in the context of our own school community. They have a motto—Bring what you can, take what you came for.”

Bias attended a range of workshops, including one called Human Schools.

“It focused on addressing kids as human beings—considering their needs, their joys, the things they care about—and how we can capitalize on that in helping them learn and in building a strong community. We examined a range of criteria and studied different models.”

Another workshop called Neighborhood Walks focused on the concept of using the adjacent community as a place for working and learning. “A thriving community has sprung up around the interconnected campuses that make up High Tech High with all kinds of businesses and community centers, so it was interesting. Our school is a little further away from town, but the village is still within walking distance from campus, so I can see some opportunities there.”

A lot of Bias’s time centered on application. “Throughout the conference, I focus on what this would look like in a rural school,” she said. “In general, I try to choose workshops that offer ideas that I can use not just in my classroom but apply to the whole school.”

Among Bias’s other highlights was educator and expeditionary learning pioneer Ron Berger’s keynote address and the chance to just spend a few days immersed in High Tech High’s campus.

“Everywhere you go, you see displays of student work. It feels like the whole school is a maker space. Their curriculum emphasizes having students design their work for an authentic audience that goes beyond the classroom, providing them with opportunities to showcase their work publicly.”

Most of all, Bias embraced the conference’s collegial atmosphere. “I really enjoyed just being around other educators who are aspiring for the same things we are and hearing about how they’re also doing a lot of the same things we’re doing. It gives you a good sense of perspective and appreciation for the progress we’re making at LI.”

For English teacher Richard McCarthy, the journey to the Deeper Learning Conference and High Tech High was a first.

“I had some fantastic workshops. In The Kids Are the Curriculum we addressed the importance of getting students invested in the learning process and how to better accomplish that by following their passions. In my other workshop, Leaving to Learn, we examined the value of encouraging students to pursue independent studies and mentorship with the idea of expanding the education base—if you get kids out into the world, you raise the number of people they’ll be able to learn from.”

Like Bias, McCarthy found Berger’s keynote address a peak experience of the conference. “He spoke in very moving terms about the idea of beauty—of seeing beauty in work, of creating beauty through work, of holistic beauty in education and how to get students to use it in forming and presenting their best selves,” McCarthy said. “He told some incredible stories of impactful teaching and examples from around the country that really made us understand how powerful it could be.”

And like Bias, McCarthy enjoyed the company of other educators, particularly his own colleagues. “I came away with a profound appreciation for the LI people I was there with and how dear they are to me as friends.”

Spanish teacher Chris Manges was also a first-time conference attendee. “I lucked out with some great workshops,” he said. “The first was called Belonging and focused on the idea of creating what they called ‘ecosystems of mattering’ in order to produce better outcomes in education and help students flourish. It’s so important for students to feel like they are actually connected to the community. In what ways do they believe they are noticed by their teachers and peers or do they feel like they fall through the cracks and are invisible?”

His other workshop, Creating Rituals at School, also focused on school life. “We talked a lot about the value of both team culture and how a school can foster it through structure and routine. Coming from a school with a lot of longstanding traditions and cycles of routine, it was really interesting to think about how rituals and recurring structures are created and how they both pass into and out of meaning over time.”

For Manges, these particular workshops were especially meaningful. Having just earned a fellowship from the esteemed Rowland Foundation, Manges will be devoting next school year to programming at LI focused around strengthening school culture, specifically through the practice of kindness and developing deeper empathy in students. “The experience at the conference really spoke as much to the work I’m hoping to accomplish through my Rowland fellowship as it did to my work in the classroom. It was great timing.”

Manges echoed McCarthy’s feelings toward the time spent with his companions. “It was fun to be with my LI colleagues, to travel together and share our lives and experiences with each other.” 

And like Bias, a highlight for Manges was time spent getting to know fellow educators. “Every night, we’d gather for dinner after all the workshops and trainings. You get to meet so many smart people who care about education. I got to engage with folks from all parts of the country but also with teachers from as far away as Australia and New Zealand. In all, I found the whole experience both inspiring and rejuvenating."

After this year’s trip to San Diego, Terha Steen, LI’s Dean of Academics, is now a three-time veteran of the Deeper Learning Conference. In Steen’s case, however, she wasn’t attending as just another educator or administrator but—like her last trip—as an instructor. For the second time, Steen co-led a workshop with former LI teacher Sandra Mings-Lamar.

In Social Emotional Leadership Tools for Students, Steen and Mings-Lamar guided participants through activities that modeled the kind of strategies they could bring back to use with their own students. “We used a lot of hands-on, practical approaches to show teachers how they can develop their students’ leadership skills, their self-awareness, accountability, and other interpersonal skills. The goal is to get students to step up in their learning, in the projects we ask them to engage in. If we want to promote community engagement, for example, we need students to be socially and emotionally aware and to be the kind of leaders that bring other students along.”

Steen is grateful not only for the opportunity to share her own knowledge and experience with others but for the school to regularly send teams to the conference. 

“It’s empowering for our teachers to recognize they’re part of a community of educators from around the world, and to see that it’s not just LI—that our work, which is grounded in research, places us in a wider community. That’s probably the most important thing about this conference—the experience affirms a lot of what we’re doing at home and gives us concrete ways to grow and realize what the next steps should be.”