Giving Compass' Take:

• Thrive is a community of education innovators working toward making classrooms successful in both project-based learning and social-emotional learning. They also are continually iterating the process of how to teach these learning styles and have concluded that discernment, agency, and empathy are all essential learning components for students. 

• What is difficult about teaching things like empathy in the classroom? How does social-emotional learning help with instruction? 

• Read about the different ways to teach empathy in the classroom. 

Thrive is a community of creative innovators. We’ve spent four years pushing the boundaries of public education and iterating on what’s working until it’s phenomenal (read here about our work on PBL & SEL). What we noticed is that each of our teachers and leaders were becoming experts in particular practices.

We were just bubbling up with pockets of expertise across our campuses. What did those practices have in common? In a variety of ways, we were asking our students to become wiser in their choices, more active in their community, and kinder to themselves and others. Discernment. Agency. Empathy. And it was working. We needed to name it. So we did.

  • Discernment: We recognize that in a culture of false news, catfishing and immediate gratification that a typical pedagogy of “know, understand and do” is insufficient. We need to equip our students to sort through an outpouring of information, teach them to tell truth from fiction, and help them build the strength of character to make sound decisions.
  • Agency: Thrive believes that all people should be known, seen and valued. Agency is the skill students need to know, see and value themselves. It is the ability to speak up. It is the belief that one’s self is deserving of care and attention.
  • Empathy: Thrive believes that all people should be able to place themselves in someone else’s shoes. Empathy is the skill students need to master to be able to understand perspectives other than their own.
  • Small Group Instruction: Thrive utilizes small group instruction throughout the day in a variety of forms. Leveraging technology and cooperative learning strategies effectively allows some students to work independently or with others as the teacher pulls small groups for direct instruction.

Read the full article about Thrive practices for students by Sherre Vernon, Shelli Kurth and Joe Acker at Getting Smart