The Reinvention Lab at Teach For America

Happy Friday, Reinvention Fam! ? This week, our Executive Director, Sunanna Tara Chand, joined the Stanford Accelerator for Learning EdTech Impact Summit—a space for connecting with community members and innovators across the education tech world. Sunanna had the chance to engage with brilliant minds tackling some of the most pressing challenges in EdTech. Her conversations highlighted one of our core values: reinvention happens in an ecosystem. At the Reinvention Lab, we believe that progress is built in collaboration. ?? Together, we challenge norms, honor histories, and embrace new perspectives to grow. Intergenerational learning and co-creation are essential to shaping the future of education, and events like this remind us why those values matter. Here’s our question for you: ?? What do you see as the biggest challenge and opportunity in EdTech today? Share your insights—we’re eager to learn from you! #EdTechInnovation #ReinventionLab #LearningInCommunity

We are excited to welcome to the Reinvention Lab team FOUR youth hires. These incredible young folks will be working with the Lab for the next several months, and we can’t wait to share their work with y'all! Peggy Yin & Jaanaki V Radhakrishnan will work as researchers and designers on FutureShock programming, collaborating closely with students from previous FutureShock cohorts to understand the impact FutureShock has had on their learning and choices beyond the program. They’ll also support design of a FutureShock for Universities pilot by prototyping and conducting early university on-site testing with the FutureShock team. Leonne Chang & Sydney Tweedley will design and produce the inaugural Reinvention Lab digital zine. As two strong multimodal creatives, they will drive all ideation, planning, content creation, marketing, and dissemination for multiple issues of "re: the zine." The purpose of "re:" is to engage young people in thought-provoking content about the future of learning, and help them see reinvented possibilities in that future. To Peggy, Jaanaki, Leonne, and Sydney: Welcome to the Lab team! And to our Reinvention Fam: watch this space—these four are SHINING already!

?? We’re excited to launch our Learner Voice Series featuring alumni and current participants of Catalyze-supported career-connected learning programs. In this video, Michelle Cheang, director of Catalyze, sat down with Izzy Fitzgerald, a learner with The Reinvention Lab at Teach For America, to learn about how she has developed her career readiness, self-efficacy and self-awareness. Check out the clip and visit our latest blog in the comment section below for more! ?? #skills #careerconnectedlearning #education #careerexploration

Happy Friday, Reinvention fam! We want to give you a look into the full humanity of the folks behind Reinvention Lab work. Today, take 2 minutes to close out your week with Colleen Keating-Crawford. As a working mom who also founded an international non-profit, Colleen wears many hats (including a birthday hat ?? as she celebrates a teammate!) She currently leads the Lab’s emergent research around chronic absenteeism alongside the dream team of Michelle Jia and Goutham Marimuthu, and you’ll hear her speak to some of what they’re learning and doing in that work in the video. Drop a line if you’re curious to learn more about their findings and next steps. Also, who else wants to start playing high-low-buffalo to end their week? ????

At the Reinvention Lab, one of our values is that reinvention requires our ?? full humanity ?? That means, among other things, that we live and celebrate full lives as multi-faceted people. So we want to give you all a look behind the scenes of the work and show you a bit about the dope people making that work happen! Check out a day in the life of our senior designer and FutureShock lead, Samantha Asante, Ed.M. As you’ll see in this video, Sam’s work is a good mix of solo building and collaborative strategy, and she is already gearing up for Summer 2025’s FutureShock programming ?? For all the innovators and builders in our ecosystem—how do YOU balance your work life with all the other hats you wear? Sound off in the comments!

?? Calling young folks in the Oakland area! We are hosting an in-person workshop and we'd love for you to join us. ?? Radical Future Design Workshop: Your Life, Your Way Maybe the way school is working isn’t working for you. This is your chance to design your future on your terms. ?? When? Pick Your Time: - Option 1: 11/13 from 5:00-6:30pm - RSVP @ https://lu.ma/43mqfl40 - Option 2: 11/13 from 7:30-9:00pm - RSVP @ https://lu.ma/0hes4wp1 ??Where? Teach For America-Oakland Office @ 401 Grand Ave, 4th Floor, Oakland, CA 94611 ? Who? 14 to 19-year-olds and adults (in synchronous but separate design spaces) Participants Get: $50 gift card, free dinner, and up to $25 transportation reimbursement No boring lectures. No fake assignments. Just you, other young people, and a space to imagine and tinker towards what YOU want to slay life. Bring your real thoughts. Bring your wild ideas. Bring a friend who's also looking for something different. Zero design experience required.

Technology has always been in the business of shaping and reshaping (and reshaping again!) education. From handwritten papers to digital tools, and early internet days to AI prompting, educators have embraced tech evolutions to bridge the gap for students immersed in a world of new tech. Today, as we consider the learning needs of young people who may live to see the 22nd century, we must hold onto this willingness to embrace technological advances while??prioritizing human-centered, equitable learning experiences for all. Our vision for reinvented learning: not just “new,” but deeply?equitable. You hear us say this all the time, and there's a reason: equity + innovation are at the heart of change. Together, we can move away from one-size-fits-all approaches and embrace learning models that celebrate each student’s unique path. What does a future-ready, equitable learning model look like to you? Drop a comment! Samantha Asante, Ed.M.

What will learning look like 75 years from now? We often ask ourselves and our communities this question, and Mike Yates answers it beautifully here. As technology reshapes how we live and work, education must evolve beyond industrial age models. It’s time to design learning experiences that are human-centered and equipped to tackle the challenges of a changing world. At the Reinvention Lab, we believe innovation must be tied to equity. It’s not about what’s “new,” but about how we can solve the biggest issue in education: inequity. By co-creating and reinventing radical models of learning, we can build a future where every young person thrives. What are your thoughts on innovative and equity-centered learning models? And what do YOU think learning should look like 75 years from now?

Join Mike Yates from The Reinvention Lab to learn about leveraging AI tools effectively in the education space. Participants will leave with concrete tools and strategies, gaining clarity on the impactful support AI can (and can’t, just yet) provide in educational settings. ??: Oct. 29 at 4:00 pm PT / 7:00 pm ET Register here: https://lnkd.in/gjYq8v5X

Join us for our upcoming chat!